Jazz a Dakar

The institute francais is running a series of concerts under the banner 'Jazz a Dakar', and have managed to attract some big names, inlcuding, last night, Baaba Maal. I only found out about the concert a couple of days ago, but this wasn't something I was going to miss. Along with Youssou n'Dour, Baaba Maal is probably the Senegalese musician most well known outside Senegal and I've long enjoyed his music. There were 3 acts, a Sengalese singer Shula Ndiaye, a band called Moh de Diof and then Baaba Maal himself. All were excellent, although for me Baaba Maal stole the show with a fantastic performance. The people I went with had mostly not heard of Baaba Maal, but everyone enjoyed the show (altough some preferred Shula Ndiaye to Baaba Maal), and are now keen to go to some more of the 'Jazz a Dakar' concerts - next week its Orchestra Baobab!
Anyway for those of you who dont know too much about Baaba Maal, here's a quick video from the show last night

Dakar - Goree Race Day!

Lying just 5km off the coast of Dakar, Ile Goree is clearly visible from the city and every year there is a swimming race, starting from a Dakar beach and ending at the port in Goree. Along with a group of friends I've been in training for the last few weeks and on Sunday the day of the big race arrived.


Unfortunately for a couple of days before the race I’d had an upset stomach and was wondering whether I’d be able to do the swim, but come Sunday morning I decided I was well enough to give it a go. So first it was off to Sacha’s house (he’s the one on the right, with the beard) where the whole team had a hearty breakfast to help give us much needed energy.

Then to Monaco beach, near Dakar port, for the start of the race. The beach was crowded with swimmers, supporters and local dignitaries. After registering and much waiting around it was finally time for the off. The plan was for some of us to try and swim together, but there was such a large crowd of swimmers that we pretty quickly found ourselves separated and so it was just a matter of each of us going for it and heading for Goree. Pretty soon the crowd thinned out as the swimmers spread out across the sea and then it was a matter of just trying to keep swimming in a straight line, which is more difficult than it sounds when you’ve got your head down and no reference points, so I had to stop every now and then to make sure I was still heading in the right direction. As time went on the island, which started off in the hazy distance (you can see the isalnd behind us in the picture above) started to come into sharper relief and I realised I wasn’t too far from the finish – so time to put on a final spurt. The end of the race is on the beach by the harbour, and as we came into harbour you could hear the cries of supporters on the harbour side urging us on, and finally there it was, the finishing line. Crossing the line I was handed a tag giving my position in the race (181st, out of around 450 swimmers), and I checked my time, 1hr 50mins – I had thought it would take over 2 hours, so very pleased.


The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the remaining swimmers coming in and then waiting for the medal ceremony. One of our team, Ramona, was the fastest female, so she was presented with an impressive trophy – see pic.

Then back to Dakar by ferry, and Sacha’s apartment to pick up our belongings – and to scoff whatever was left in his fridge (sorry Sacha), and then home. A truly memorable day.

Distribution of food vouchers in Ouagadougou

WFP’s mission is to provide food aid, and traditionally this has meant the direct provision of basic foodstuffs to those in need. However alternative methods of providing assistance are now being developed, including the provision of vouchers which can be exchanged for food at local stores. This is useful where the problem is high food prices rather than a shortage of food. Burkina has been running such a programme since earlier this year and yesterday I went to see the programme in action in Ouagadougou (the programme is also running in Burkina’s second city Bobo-Dioulasso). First we went to a distribution centre, where the beneficiaries come to collect their vouchers from a WFP partner. On arrival we found a busy atmosphere, with people queuing up to receive their vouchers. The process was all very smooth and efficient, but rather labour intensive, with documents being checked and information being entered on forms at various stages, following which the beneficiaries must sign (by thumbprint) that they have received their vouchers. In most cases the beneficiaries then go straight to one of the designated local stores where they can exchange their vouchers for staple food items and soap. Each voucher is worth 1500 cfa (about $3 US). We then visited one of the designated stores which was again very busy, with people queuing, first to hand in heir vouchers, and then to collect and take away the food. It was noticeable how busy this little shop was compared to others in the area – accepting the WFP vouchers is clearly good business for the shopkeepers!



In the evening a WFP colleague, Romuald, took me to a local restaurant. This was set up in the car park of the football stadium (Stade Municipal) – the setting was a bit bizarre, but the food was very good. It took about 45 minutes to prepare the meal, so after ordering we went for a drive around some of he sites of Ouaga. When we got back the meal was all ready, but there were no tables - this was soon sorted and we sat down toour meal of fish (Carp I think) with peppers and a side plate of Yam - delicious. See pic of Romuald about to tuck in.

I’m now back in Dakar after a long day’s traveling via Abidjan. The trip to Burkina was not only interesting but also very enjoyable and I hope I’ll have the chance to visit again sometime.

First impressions of Ouagadougou

On Saturday evening I dropped Raksha off at Dakar airport at midnight, and then a few hours later I was back there to fly out myself to the capital city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. I arrived mid- afternoon in blistering heat and then a short drive later was in the downtown hotel. A quick swim in the pool quickly cooled me off and then set off to have a look around town. First impressions are that Ouagadougou ('Ouaga', pronounced 'Waga') is much quieter than Dakar, it has the feel of a relaxed town rather than a bustling city like Dakar. Burkina is one of the world's poorest countries - its 177th out if 182 countries in the UN Human Development Index. However Ouaga doesn't feel any more run down and poor than many other cities in the developing world and there's a lot less hassle from street vendors and beggars etc. than you get in Dakar. The main roads are busy (and well maintained), but not choked, and once off the main roads its all very quiet and peaceful.

On Monday morning I was picked up by he UN driver to take me to the office - about a two minute drive, so I think I'll be walk it from now on. It's so hot here that they have a long midday break, from 12.45 to 3pm - it makes for a long day overall, but its very nice to be able to really relax at lunch time, rather than having a quick break and straight back to work.

The main purpose of my visit is to find out more about Food Voucher Programmes and I'm hoping to be able to go and see vouchers being distributed in the next couple of days. I'm working with the head of IT here in Burkina on a proposal to use mobile phone or radio technology to support these programmes, so it will be really useful to see how they work at the moment.

Workshop & travelling around with Raksha

Its been a very hectic few weeks. My wife, Raksha, has been visiting and we've had a chance to to do some travelling round Senegal. Our first couple of days were spent in Saly, at then end of the Regional ICT workshop. Saly is a beach resort, much frequented by the French for a bit of winter sunshine. During the workshop we operated a fine system for anyone turning up late for a session - 1000 cfa for each session - at the end of the week we had over 60,000 cfa (Bety was very diligent in collecting he fines!) which we used to buy food and nappies for a local orphanage (see pic left). The workshop itself was a great success. There were representatives from the ICT teams of all 19 countries in the West Africa region (see right), and we packed a lot in, inlcuding workshops on Emergency Preparedness and Response and presentations on WFP ICT strategy from senior management in Rome, as well as my session on Project Management - and some people still found time to explore the bars of Saly at night!


Once the workshop had finished Raksha and I travelled down to Sine Saloum - on the way our taxi broke down in the middle of nowhere and we eneded up spending a couple of hours in a local village while the local 'mechanic' repaired it using his sophisticated welding equipment (see picture).

Sine Saloum is a delta area, with mangrove swamps and lots of birdlife. We stayed in a lovely lodge with huts facing out on to the water, all very peaceful, and very diffrent to Dakar. After Sine we came back to Dakar and Raksha spent some time getting used to the hustle and bustle of Dakar life while I went back to work. Last weekend we spent a couple of days on Ile Goree (see earlier blog) - really nice and relaxing again - and interesting to spend the evening there as mostly people go for a day trip and so it's especially peaceful at night and early morning.

We then travelled to St Louis in the north of Senegal, right on the border with Mauretania. This was the old colonial capital and it still retains many old colonial style buildings, it has a run down feeling, but is gradually being restored to former glories. It's also a busy fishing port, with large fishing boats (pirogues, see picture left) plying too and fro all day long, bringing fish to the very busy, and extremely smelly, fish market on the edge of town.


So it's been a vey busy time and all seems to have gone by in a rush - Raksha goes back to UK tonight and then tomorrow I'm off to Burkina Faso for a few days to look at some of the projects that WFP are running there. Hopefully I will then have some more time to put some more detail and some more pictures, as I now have a working camera - thanks to Raksha!

A new apartment

It’s been a very busy few weeks, both in and out of work. The biggest change for me is that I have moved to another apartment – I’m now sharing a large 3 bed roomed villa in Mermoz, which is a bit further out of town from where I was before, but it’s only an extra 5 minutes on my nippy little scooter. It’s a much bigger place, with a nice garden, large terrace and, best of all, air conditioning (I only had a fan at the last place) – real luxury! The only downside is that it’s under the flight path for Dakar airport – sometimes feel I could reach out and touch the planes as they come in to land.
I’ve now finished my French classes – the next set start in October but I will probably wait until January before starting again as October and November already look very busy. I’m getting even less chance to practice my French now, as my new flat mate is an English speaker from Uganda – speaks even less French then me!
What else – well I’m still swimming quite a lot – I’m hoping I might be able to do the ‘Ile de Goree’ swim in early November. Regular readers will know the Ile de Gore is a small island just off Dakar. Each year there is an organized swim from Dakar to the island – about 5km in some pretty polluted water – should be fun! I’m also playing some tennis, although my game seems to be getting worse rather than better, age and dodgy knees catching up with me.
Ramadan ended last week – so we had a long weekend. It’s traditional to have a friends and family around for a meal to celebrate the end of Ramadan – Alpha invited me to his house, lovely meal and a chance to meet some interesting new people. I also seem to have become an honorary member of the local Swiss club, thanks to a Swiss colleague, Lucas. The main activities of the club appear to be focused on eating and drinking as well as possible – so I’m very happy to have made their acquaintance – very nice people (no, really!).
Next week sees the annual regional IT meeting – where representatives from the WFP IT teams in each of the 19 countries in the West Africa come together for a bit of bonding and sharing of experiences etc. The meeting will last all week and is being held in a resort just south of Dakar, so I get a week in a nice luxury hotel by the beach – but there’ll be plenty of work to do as I’m running a workshop for a couple of the days. After that I’m taking some time off as my wife will be here in Senegal and we’re going to travel around and see a bit more of the country – I’ve been here 3 months and haven’t been out of Dakar yet, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the country is like.
And straight after that I’m planning to travel to Burkina Faso for a few days. The aim of the trip is to find out some more about Food Voucher programmes (see earlier blogs) – a voucher programme is currently underway in Ouagadougou, which is the capital of Burkina (but I’m sure you knew that). I'm talking to the Senegal office about using mobile phone technology to support a Voucher programme that they are introducing at the end of the year, so am interested in finding out as much as I can about the practicalities of these programmes beforehand.

In addition to working on the voucher programme my main focus over the past couple of weeks has been in preparation for the IT regional meeting, plus continuing to push forward with a number of other projects, which has meant there never seem to be enough hours in the day – which is my excuse for having neglected the blog again – I promise to try harder!

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.