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!

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.