last day in dakar

My last day in Dakar has arrived! The last few months ahve just flown by, and now its already time to leave. As always the last day has been very hectic, with last minute changes, and lots of good-byes to be said.

Last week I was in a regional IT workshop in Saly - very busy as I was running a number of the sessions. It was a great chance to meet again some of the IT officers from around the region and to share experiences and ideas. For me, of course, it was the start of my farewells to the people I've met on this assignment, but I hope to keep in touch with many of them.

Anyway, its now the end of the day, I have to rush off or I am in danger of missing my flight - still feel I haven't done everything and said good-bye to everyone yet - I guess I'll just have to come back sometime!

Preparing to leave

After to-day I only have 1 more full day in the office in Dakar. Next week I'm going to a workshop in Saly on the Petite Cote, and then I'm back in the office on Monday 10th May and fly out to Rome that evening. So I'm now really busy, firstly preparing for the workshop, but also starting to pack up ready for my departure, slightly complicated by the fact that I have to leave my appartment on Monday, so can't go back there when I return from Saly. Luckily some friends, Lucas and Catherine, have offered to let me stay at their place so I don't need to go looking for a hotel, but it means packing everything up now rather than when I get back which would have been easier.

Now starting to think about what the last year has meant and what will be my abiding memories of Dakar. I'lll try and put some more about this on my next posting (as mentioned - I'm really busy at the moment), but for me some of the keywords for Dakar are: sunshine, rain (in season), music, fitness fanatics, elegant dresses (Bubus) with matching headties, grubby taxis, colourful 'car rapides', sunsets, surf and sand, good food, not so good beer, pollution, power cuts, bustling markets, terrible roads ... in a word - Africa!

Final week in Dakar

As promised in my last blog, here are some pics of my colleagues in the Dakar office. Starting from the left we have Bety Sow Demba, the admin assistant, and then Alpha Bah, the head of the IT unit in the Regional Bureau and then Djamila Diop, the national IT Officer.

I'm now in my final week in Dakar. Next week we have a regional IT workshop in Saly, similar to the workshop we had in October. Following that I am back in the office here for 1 day and then I fly out to Rome for a debriefing session before finally flying back to the UK on 16th May. There's quite a lot to do this week in preparation for the workshop, and in addition of course I have to start packing up and getting ready to go home - time just seesm to be flying by, better get on with it!

Office life in WFP, Dakar

Well my time here in Dakar is nearly up - just another few weeks and I'll be heading off to Rome, and then back to the UK (Icelandic volcanoes permitting). So what's it been like working here in Dakar? Well in some ways pretty much like working in the UK - here's a picture of me in my office - could be anywhere I guess - usual untidy desk, computer equipment, message boards and yellow stickies reminding me to do things that need doing. And what's the office itself like - well it's a four storey office block that again could be in any city in the world, although I would say the view from my window on the 3rd floor would pretty quickly place you in Africa.

The office is located right in the centre of town in an area called Plateau, close to the Assemblée Nationale (the parliament), and surrounded by embassies and consulates. In the Regional Bureau I'm working with a small IT team, 4 people including myself, plus the head of IT, Alpha Bah. Will hopefully include a picture of the team in the next blog - not everyone is around at the moment.

But in many other ways the work is very different to what I am used to. For instance working for the UN means that the business 'drivers' are rather different, no longer is profit the focus, but how to make the most of the available money, and also how to increase the pot of money available, ie from donors.

Another difference is the spread out nature of the teams - in some Country Offices there is just one person responsible for the IT of the country - and this can be in very difficult circumstances where countries are recovering from years of war, such as Liberia, where the infrastructure that we all rely on (e.g. mains electricity, mains water, telephone lines and internet connections) is completely missing.

One of the biggest differences, and most enjoyable aspects of working here, has been the mix of people that I work with on a day to day basis. Here in the RB, in addition to 'National' staff (ie from Senegal) we have 'International' staff from Sweden, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, USA, Canada, Thailand, Japan and many other parts of the world. And many of these have recently been working in the world's major trouble spots, like Sudan and Afghanistan. It makes for very interesting lunchtime conversations!

A quick tour of Dakar by scooter

With only a few weeks left in Dakar, I thought I better try and sell my scooter. I advertised it on a local expat website and have managed to find a buyer quite quickly, which meant that last weekend was my last chance to explore the city on two wheels. So on Saturday I took a trip around town, to see some places I'd not been to before, and to revisit some favourite places, taking some pics along the way. So here's a little photo-montage of my day exploring the 'sites' of Dakar; (from the top, view of city from corniche d'est, fishermen's pirogues, beach at anse de bernard, lighthouse, the Grand Mosque, Dakar railway station, roundabout with sculpture, view of city from corniche d'ouest and finally - my house in Mermoz).

The beach at Anse Bernard is where I ended up on my first weekend in Dakar when I knew no-one here - hard to believe that it's only 10 months ago.

The last picture is of my house in Mermoz. Unfortunately it looks like I am going to have to move out a week before I finish here in Dakar, so I'll need to find alternative accomodation for just 1 week, which is a shame. It's been a nice place to live, just about 15 minutes by scooter into the office, with the only real downside being the planes coming in a few feet overhead to land at the main airport.

One other intermittent problem has been power cuts, but then that seems to be the case everywhere in Dakar. We haven't had any for a while, but there was another one on Saturday evening - I went out on our terrace, from where I can see 'the statue' and despite all the houses around us being in darkness, the statue itself was as brightly lit as usual - good to see someone's got their priorities right!

Diving off Goree

The inauguration of African Renaissance (usually just known as 'the Statue') took place on Saturday. Apparently there was something like 22 heads of state there, although I'm not sure which ones - except that I do know that Robert Mugabe was there as some friends, Ismay and Mario, got to meet the 'great' man at a reception just before the opening. My invitation to the grand opening of the statue was evidently ‘lost in the post’ so I had to make alternative arrangements.

So while the assembled heads of state for most of Africa were watching the grand opening of the statue I was diving in the sea off Goree Island. The water is quite cold - the temperature changes quite markedly between winter and summer. When I did the Goree swim, which was at the beginning of November the temperature wasn’t a problem at all, I guess it was probably in the mid 20's. Now the water temperature is around 17 C, so I was wearing full wet suit with hood, and I still felt cold towards the end of the dive. Because the water temperature changes so much there is no coral reefs etc. here, but there’s still plenty to see, lots of fish and particularly rays and jellyfish. The visibility in the water is not great either at the moment – apparently it’s much better when the water warms up, which is normally around now – so I’m hoping it will improve before I leave in May.

Sunday, of course, was Easter, but this year it happened to coincide with Senegal’s Independence Day, so Monday was a public holiday, but I’ve no idea if it was to celebrate Independence Day or Easter – or perhaps it was for both. Whichever, it was nice to have a day off.

African Renaissance?

This week Senegal will be celebrating 50 years of independence from it's colonial masters, the French. Banners etc. are already going up in preparation for National day which is this Saturday. But this weekend also sees the inauguration of 'African Renaissance' - a huge statue built by North Koreans (the acknowledged world leaders in huge monumental statues apparently) on the outskirts of Dakar.

I often pass by the statue as it's between where I live and the areas of Almadies and Ngor to the north, and is also close to the airport. When I first arrived work was already well underway, but heads etc were missing - the statue itself is now finished, but work is continuing day and night to finish off the surrounding area in time for the big opening event at the weekend, which will apparently be attended by 15 heads of state.

The whole project is controversial for a number of reasons - not the least the fact that it cost in the region of $17m (remember this is one of the poorest countries in the world) and that a percentage (35% I heard) of all the proceeds from entrance fees etc. will go directly to president Wade, and to his family after he dies. Why? Because it was his idea!

It's hard to judge the scale of the thing from the picture - it's huge and can be seen from miles away. I'm told there will be a revolving restaurant inthe man's head, which will give stunning (and no doubt stunningly expensive) views of Dakar. It's far from being universally popular, will be interesting to see the reaction once it is open to the fee paying public!

The weather has improved markedly over the last couple of days - if you like it hot and sunny that is! The clouds of dust have disappered and its getting distinctly warmer.

As I've only a few weeks left in Dakar I decided I better try out the scuba diving at the weekend, which was great - but more about this in my next blog!