Dakar

The idea of traveling across the massive continent of Africa was not attractive to me after so much travel recently. But when the time came to go, I lugged my carry-on to the taxi early on a Sunday evening and headed to Dakar. 

Interestingly, Somalia contains mainland Africa's easternmost point and Senegal contains mainland Africa's westernmost point. The distance across is only slightly less than the distance across the Atlantic between mainland US and mainland Europe.

My flight departed late evening and I would arrive (after stopping in Accra, Ghana) in the wee hours of Monday morning. On arrival I discovered that there were two others traveling to these meetings that were on the same flight. We eventually located our driver and soon we were heading out in the 4am darkness in the Senegalese countryside. It’s unfortunate that my arrival was in the dark, which limited what I could see of the country’s coastal area.

Initially, the meetings were supposed to be held on Gorée Island, famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trade. The island’s real role in the slave trade is disputed (it may not have been as significant as was previously thought). Nonetheless, the island is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Either way, the place has a rich history, is beautiful, and would have been an interesting place to have our meetings. The trade-off would have been that attendees would have needed to stay in B&Bs and not have large hotel amenities like pools and so forth. But we would have been in a beautiful and historic location.

In the end, there were some rather violent protests in Dakar so they opted on moving us to a resort about a half hour south of the city.

* * *

Senegal is the westernmost country of mainland Africa. It’s located north of the equator on the transition from the Saharan desert climate of northern Africa and the tropical climate band that runs across central Africa. That’s about what it felt like. It was hot and dry but there was still an abundance of tropical vegetation.

watching me work

Senegal as a country was formed as part of the independence of French West Africa from French colonial rule. As a result, French is the official language. But, like many former French or Belgian colonies, proficiency is limited to only the population who have had a decent education and/or who work in tourist areas. Where we stayed, most people spoke French quite well but between themselves they tended to speak Wolof (spoken by about 80% of the country). However, over 30 languages are spoken in Senegal.

Like Burundi, where we lived prior to Kenya, English is very limited. The country’s resorts tend to be frequented by francophone Europeans (predominantly French) while East Africa seems to host more English and Germans (unlike Burundi, Senegal receives tourists). For those who attended the meetings that didn’t speak French, communicating was a bit frustrating (outside of the meetings themselves where we had simultaneous translation). Though I don’t use as much French as I used to, I still feel comfortable in the language and the week sharpened it up a bit.

* * *

Senegal is officially a secular state though Islam is practiced by 97% of the population. It was introduced from northern Africa in the 11 century and has remained the primary religion in spite of European colonization, particularly of the Portuguese and French. I do find it interesting how little impact the French had on indigenous beliefs compared to their East African counterparts (i.e. the Brits and Germans) who were quite intentional about bringing Christianity to the masses. Apparently it was due to a combination of things. One was the resistance of the Senegalese to colonial influence. They ended up accepting the language as sort of a lingua franca among the elites/educated, but otherwise maintained a history of resisting French influence on society. Another reason that Islam remained the predominant religion was that the focus of colonizers was more on the coastal areas. Missionaries did make some headway in the 19^th century, but it was limited in its long-term impact. Moreover, the French were not as aggressive in their proselytizing as their British and German counterparts on the other side of the continent. Trade, including slave trade until abolition in the 19^th century – making the colonies pay for themselves – was more a focus of their efforts.

By the 1950s, independence movements across Africa were gaining momentum. In 1960, Senegal became fully independent.

* * *

My days were generally full of meetings in our conference room or online meetings hosted back in Somalia. In the gaps, I hammered out emails as effectively as I could. Admittedly, my focus was split between nutrition discussions in Senegal and pressing issues in the Horn of Africa. It’s not ideal. It would have been better to be able to focus solely on the interactions with the group gathered in Dakar, but, unlike most of the others, I just didn’t have that luxury.

not a bad workstation

The other thing I neglected was the resort. Though I was able to get a couple of early morning runs in, I didn’t spend as much time as I would have wanted in the great outdoors. Too bad since it was such a beautiful setting. I only managed to get one swim in, a horrible admission given how wonderful the pools were. Working against me was the fact that they didn’t allow swimming before 9am. An insane rule if you ask me. They closed them at 7pm as well, not leaving much time for those who are at the resort for professional reasons. They may want to rethink that if they plan to further expand their clientele beyond French retirees.

The other notable fail was the lack of internet access in the rooms. I debated getting a SIM card (to have local smart phone access) but I decided that it wasn’t necessary given that I would be at a hotel the whole time and could just tap into the hotel internet. Probably ended up being a mistake given the shoddy Wi-Fi connectivity.

baobab trees

One thing I did particularly enjoy was the buffet. One of the best buffets I’ve experienced in my decades of doing this sort of thing. I’m attributing it to their French legacy. The Senegalese may not have taken to their religion, but they seemed to have embraced their cuisine.

* * *

On Friday, I was scheduled to leave the hotel at 4am (the same time as my regular, punishing trips to Somalia). I did my best to make my way to bed early so as to avoid being entirely sleep-deprived prior to departure. I was just falling asleep at 11pm when I heard a pounding at the door. Always disturbing to have pounding on your door late at night, particularly in a foreign country. As I turned on the light and made my way to the door, I eventually heard my name. I opened the door to find one of the meeting organizers and someone from the hotel. They were informing me that my flight had been massively delayed (by 8 hours) and that my 4am shuttle to the airport wouldn’t be happening. They had to make their rounds to the rooms of those departing since, given that we had no internet and the communication wasn’t sent until 10:30 at night, none of us would have been aware. The only reason we found out was that one of the guys on my fight, obviously more carefree than I, happened to be still at the bar when the message came in.

sunrise run

I had mixed feelings as I returned to bed. Good that I would be able to sleep longer, have breakfast and leave gracefully mid-morning. Bummer that I would not arrive in Nairobi until about 3am. It seems that there was a necessary price to pay either at one end or the other.

* * *

Eventually, I made it home. I crawled into bed at about 4am Saturday morning. There was a school function for the girls starting at 9am that I couldn’t miss. After about 3 ½ hours of sleep, I pulled my toxic self out of bed and, powered by coffee, would make it happen.