La Place de l`Indépendance

Today, we went into Dakar to see the central part of the city and to go to the market. The first market we went to was very makeshift and intimidating so we walked a few blocks to La Place de le Indépendance, where the Artisan`s Market was in its last day. This market was more spacious and with more beautiful souvenir/gift-type items, but even then, there were a lot of the overbearing sellers and other Senegalese persons (whose occupations are unclear) who hover over us, and won`t stop talking to us even when we most desperately want to be left alone (something they apparently cannot fathom). This was the hardest part.

We ate lunch on the next-to-top floor of the main tourist hotel, and most of us ate spaghetti (Alhamdoulilahi for American food!). For our eighth American woman (Katie and Artemis stayed home), we came upon an American straggler?, who just had a day`s layover in Dakar after a month visiting her fictive kin in Mali (Bamako). She was really a fascinating, incredibly kind, and joyful, exuberant person, and all of us were delighted she bothered to come up and talk to us and to then spend the day wandering with us.

The market was really overwhelming, as described above, and we didn`t stay too long after lunch. We saw the Chambre du Commerce that faces onto the little park, and from the top of the tourist hotel, we saw a beautiful panoramic overview of Dakar, noting our proximity to the port(s), one of which we left from on the ferry to go to Gorée only a week or so before. It was really nice to experience the heart of Dakar, with its paved streets and skyscrapers (How much I suddenly, for the first time in my recent life as a neo-tribalist "nut," miss cities!). When we got back to Yoff, we checked out the very American Shell station, with all its dazzling conveniences, and eventually worked our way to the beach, where we chattered and enjoyed the cold breeze and sand. Yay.