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!

Hazy days

The last few days have seen a change in the weather here, instead of clear blue skies and rising temperatures we've had a hazy sky, which has in turn cooled things down. The haze is apparently due to the Harmattan wind, which brings with it fine dust/sand particles from the Sahara. It’s not windy at the moment, but I guess the wind a couple of weeks ago did its job and now we're left with the dust blocking out the sun, and nothing to blow it away. Anyway it seems to be slowly clearing up, so hopefully back to sunshine in a day or two.

It's hard to believe that in only a few weeks time my assignment here in West Africa will be finished and I'll be back to the more familiar, if more unpredictable, weather of the UK. I read recently a long range weather forecast that suggested a 'Barbecue summer' for the UK, possibly the warmest on record, but I seem to remember the same being said last year, and it was a terrible summer - so who knows what'll happen.

As we get into the final few weeks of my assignment I will start the process of winding down the work here – I’m hopeful that the projects that now have some momentum behind them will continue, particularly the Voucher Track project, but at the moment its not clear who will be taking over after I leave. It’s also not clear what I’ll be doing once I return to the UK, so that’s something else I need to start working on!

Food crisis in Niger

The main focus for WFP within the West Africa region at the moment is on Niger where a severe food crisis is looming. Niger is very poor (174th out of 179 countries on the UNDP's human development index) and also suffers from political instability - with yet another coup just a few weeks ago meaning the country is again in the hands of the military. In addition there has been a poor harvest in the whole Sahel region which has hit Niger particularly hard with the result that 20,000 children in the country are already being treated for malnutrition, and another 200,000 are at risk of severe malnutrition. So while the main focus for WFP continues to be Haiti, it’s important to remember that there are other countries out there that desperately need help.

Here in Senegal I am still working on moving forward with the Food Voucher project. A programme is launching soon in Pikine just outside Dakar to provide 20,000 households with food vouchers to help them overcome the problems of high food prices. The programme will use SMS messaging from the retailer back to WFP as a means of reducing the potential for fraud and to help ensure efficient targeting of WFP’s resources on those most in need. I’m planning to use the experience from this programme, along with similar programmes being run in other parts of the world such as Burkina Faso, Zambia and Syria, to feed into the design of a solution which can be used globally by WFP. At the moment each new voucher programme is developing a new solution – a good way to learn what works and what doesn’t , but not a very efficient use of limited resources in the long run.

On a slightly different note – a happy St Patrick's day to one and all. Its a truth universally acknowledged that every town in the world has an Irish Bar - however Dakar seems to be the exception that proves the rule - or at least I've yet to find it, but maybe I'll do a bit more 'research' tonight.

Saharan wind and surfing in Dakar

During the winter months the Harmattan, a dry, dusty wind from the Sahara, blows over West Africa. This weekend it was blowing particularly strongly bringing with it very fine sand particles, making for great sunsets, but also depositing lots of dust everywhere and making riding my scooter somewhat 'interesting'. The picture shows a beach along the corniche, used by the local Dakar youth as an outdoor gym, at sunset.

As it was Raksha's last weekend here we were very busy souvenir shopping, catching up with people and saying final good-byes, but also managed to fit in a visit to 'Just 4 U' on Saturday to see Orchestra Baobab. Great again, but as with all the clubs in Dakar it starts and finishes very late, we left the club at 3am and the band were still going strong (unlike us).

Then on Sunday we had lunch with some friends at a restaurant by the beach at Ngor to the north of Dakar. This is an area known for surfing and on Sunday the waves were were particularly high (perhaps because of the wind) so we were treated to a spectacular show by local surfers as we tucked in to delicious local fish. I'm told Dakar is an excellent place to learn surfing, but it all looks a bit energetic, and not a little dangerous to me - I'll stick to tennis I think.

Raksha is now back in the UK, where I hear it is cold and damp, so I'm hoping to make the most of my final couple of months here. The weather at this time of year is perfect (well, except when the Harmattan is blowing perhaps) - warm with bright sunshine, without being too hot and not at all humid, unlike the summer. There has been no rain (hardly a cloud) since October.

Dolphins in the Casamance

Another busy couple of weeks - so once again apologies for lack of blog postings! Naina has now gone back to the UK - I think she had a good time in Dakar - she certainly seemed to like the weather, which has been un-seasonally warm.
Raksha is still here, and we've just returned from a trip to Casamance in the far south of Senegal. We left by ferry last Tuesday evening and arrived at Ziguinchor (often just called 'Zig'), the capital of the Casamance region, early on Wednsday morning. The ferry itself, modern and very comfortable, was built to replace the MV Le Joola which sank on the way to Casamance in 2002 with the loss of nearly 2,000 lives, making it one of the worst non-military maritime disasters in history - worse than the Titanic. The ferry goes down the coast, past The Gambia and then up the Casamance river to Zig. On the way up the river in the morning we were followed by a school of dolphins who seemed to enjoy 'playing' in the wake of the ferry.

Our first couple of nights were spent on a small island, Karabane, at the mouth of the Casamance river. We stayed in a hotel that had once been the colonial governor's residence (see pic, right), but Karabane has become much quieter since those days - no cars , no mains electricity, no hot water, just peace and quiet and friendly people (see pic, left). But a bigger jetty is being built so that the ferry can stop there on its way to and from Zig - which will mean many more tourists in the future - so if you want to enjoy it at its best go now!

We then spent a couple of nights at the main tourist resort in Casamance - Cap Skirring. This is on the Atlantic coast and is busier than Karabane, but still very low key, with miles of virtually deserted beaches - deserted that is except for the sellers of souvenirs, jewelery, carvings and hats!

We splashed out and stayed at a very nice hotel, la Maison Bleue, with stunning ocean views and fantastic food. Then back on the overnight ferry, arriving in Dakar at 7am this morning, quickly back home (where there was a power cut yet again) and then into the office and back to work.