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!
Showing posts with label power cuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power cuts. Show all posts
Friday, 30 April 2010
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
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).
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!
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.
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!
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Reflections during Ramadan
It's the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and also the height of the rainy season here in Senegal. Although this is a predominantly Muslim country, it is not a place where everything comes to a complete halt during the day in Ramadan, however things do seem to slow down a bit, which in some cases means going from slow, to almost stopped. And then of course everything livens up once night falls as people on fast are free to eat and drink again. Where I live currently I can hear the call to prayer, particularly the one just before daybreak, which is the signal for the last meal before starting the day's fasting afresh, and also the one as the sun goes down - the signal to start eating again. It’s a daily reminder that I'm not home in rural England, where the equivalent would be the sound of church bells ringing.
And, as I say, it’s also the rainy season, during which, it rains - a lot. Usually the rain is heavy but short lived, although there have been a couple of days where it has rained for most of the day. The result - lots of flooding. I'm guessing they call it the rainy season because it rains like this every year. However this doesn't seem to have prompted much in the way of taking measures to deal with heavy rain, and as a consequence the TV news and newspapers are full of people in abject circumstances, waist deep in water, surrounded by their few possessions, presumably ruined. In addition it's a been a month of power cuts. A reasonably regular occurrence here they became much more frequent for a couple of weeks, with many people being cut off for days on end. Luckily where I live was not too badly affected by either floods or power cuts, although we did have a share of both. But the situation in other parts of Dakar was bad enough for people to take to the streets, with ominous talk of bringing down the Government. The president meanwhile had decamped to Biarritz for a few weeks, where I'm guessing there were few power cuts or floods.
The situation in other parts of the region has been even worse, with, for instance, severe flooding in Burkina Faso which affected the WFP country office.
Meanwhile at the office we have been preparing for the annual Regional ICT meeting, which will be taking place in early October. I'm going to be running a 2 day workshop as part of this - so will be quite busy over the next few weeks preparing that, as well as for a trip to Burkina Faso at the end of October, fact finding about Food Voucher programmes which is one of the projects I'm currently involved in. Between the two I will be taking a bit of a break as Raksha (my wife) is coming over and we hope to spend some time seeing a bit more of the country - which I'm really looking forward to.
And, as I say, it’s also the rainy season, during which, it rains - a lot. Usually the rain is heavy but short lived, although there have been a couple of days where it has rained for most of the day. The result - lots of flooding. I'm guessing they call it the rainy season because it rains like this every year. However this doesn't seem to have prompted much in the way of taking measures to deal with heavy rain, and as a consequence the TV news and newspapers are full of people in abject circumstances, waist deep in water, surrounded by their few possessions, presumably ruined. In addition it's a been a month of power cuts. A reasonably regular occurrence here they became much more frequent for a couple of weeks, with many people being cut off for days on end. Luckily where I live was not too badly affected by either floods or power cuts, although we did have a share of both. But the situation in other parts of Dakar was bad enough for people to take to the streets, with ominous talk of bringing down the Government. The president meanwhile had decamped to Biarritz for a few weeks, where I'm guessing there were few power cuts or floods.
The situation in other parts of the region has been even worse, with, for instance, severe flooding in Burkina Faso which affected the WFP country office.
Meanwhile at the office we have been preparing for the annual Regional ICT meeting, which will be taking place in early October. I'm going to be running a 2 day workshop as part of this - so will be quite busy over the next few weeks preparing that, as well as for a trip to Burkina Faso at the end of October, fact finding about Food Voucher programmes which is one of the projects I'm currently involved in. Between the two I will be taking a bit of a break as Raksha (my wife) is coming over and we hope to spend some time seeing a bit more of the country - which I'm really looking forward to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
