About four days have past since I arrived in Dakar and I feel like I’ve been here for weeks. Since I essentially arrived on a Friday morning, I was able to enjoy the weekend activities that occured throughout the city. On my first night, I joined my roommate on a night out at a jazz club. Little did I know that he was a musician with over 12,000 views on his YouTube videos, equivalent to hundreds of thousands in USA, and planned to perform that night. The music I heard at the club is best defined as acoustic jazz with a mix of traditional and modern instruments.
On Saturday morning, a staff member at the cultural center invited me to a daytime, outdoor wrestling match. Wrestling’s popularity in Senegal is equivalent to soccer’s in Europe. Having gone to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field just a week before, this sports match was stark culture shock but enjoyable nonetheless. I counted eight teams of dynamic wrestlers, hundreds of boisterous fans rooting for each team, and over ten intense confrontations: among wrestlers, among fans, between teams, between police and fans, and between fans and team staff.
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| Professional Wrestling Match |
Later that night, I attended the biggest music festival of the summer, La fête de la musique. Featuring the most famous Senegalese artists, the event took place in a downtown plaza on a large stage in front of at least 3,000 attendees.
On Sunday, I returned to the airport to thankfully retrieve my luggage and I watched both the Korea and USA World Cup matches at a local bar.
Tomorrow, I begin my work. For now, I love this place.
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| Free Concert at the Plaza
Other pics:
Goats on the sidewalks that I’ve almost walked into several times |
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| Artisans |
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| View from the roof of my home |