All in the feels… In Dakar
So I have kicked off jet-lag; I have revisited some of the most cherished home cooking; I have caught up on my sleep… It seems like I am on vacation coz I have not done much and no one aside from immediate family and my neighbors know that I am in town. It’s not that I am not looking forward to seeing relatives, just not right now! I want to take a moment and enjoy this solitude and privacy.
Good food is a reason enough to drag me out of the house and I am yearning to visit Dakar street food! As unsanitary as some stalls are, as amazingly good is their offering. The cooking techniques are the same yet each stall/push cart/stand has its own way of making marinades!
In these food escapades, it’s touching to see, notice, observe people from all walks of life, and how they go on about their business.
One of the most noticeable aspects of the city is the sheer lack of discipline and carelessness! My fellow people just don’t care…
Most have no respect for public, common infrastructures; merchants invade the sidewalks and feel entitled to it; each driver is more in a hurry than the next, only yet to be stopped in traffic; the shoulder on the road is to be used for emergency purposes I thought, yet drivers freely use it… and on and on and on…
This all has irked me and rubbed me the wrong way since I got here, but then again I have lived a privileged life for the last 18 years, and it seems I am not being empathetic to what might be going on in every passerby’ head!
In this rat race, everyone, if not most, is rushing to provide for their families, the best way they know how: working, conning, street selling, panhandling, on the books and off the books. It is maddening, but objectively, I cannot but respect this sense of survival. Though I cannot understand it, deep down inside.
Doing the right thing is not always rewarded right away; doing the right thing takes time and in this very moment I question my entire belief of why my people are the way they are! Most want “it” and they want it now… I met with friends and people who lived abroad who moved back to Senegal only to fall back into the habits of the locals. I saw people who travel extensively abroad, even though they live here, yet disrespect their very own country and I know for sure they respect the law of the lands they visit.
At the end of this all, I hate that it is like this, but I can’t help but wonder why my people are like this? I am not the first to ask/challenge/question why things are the way they are, and how come there’s no change!
In my humble opinion, there’s still much pain that’s deeply rooted in my people that we have yet to address.
