Travel Memories | Dakar 2013

From Andrew

Kids playing soccer on Dakar’s main tourist beach

“I have not yet had coffee,” the customs agent said in French.

Arriving at Dakar International Airport on a redeye flight from Washington, DC, my friend Will and I were a little confused when we finally processed the agent’s words through our jet lagged brains.

Will and I with downtown Dakar in the background

Will, whose high school French exceeded my twenty words in the language, excitedly responded: “Neither have we!  Do you know where can we get some?”  Unfortunately our enthusiasm faded when we realized the agent wasn’t interested in sharing a cup of coffee with us.  He wanted a bribe.  Ten minutes and a crisp American twenty dollar bill later, we had our entry stamps.

Welcome to Senegal, I guess.

I traveled to Dakar in September 2013 on a fluke—I had graduated from college the previous May and spent the summer figuring out what to do with my life, also known as living in my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house and cooking up weird schemes like traveling to Africa.

So, like everyone that I tell about this trip, you’re probably wondering—why Senegal?

The answer is complicated, but I jokingly tell friends it’s because Akon was born there.  Academically, I’d been interested in sub-Saharan Africa for several years.  I did an African Studies minor in college, and I’d written countless research papers on economic development in the region.  Senegal was something of a success story in that regard, with a growing middle class despite chronic urban unemployment.  Being the western-most point in Africa, Senegal was also easy to access, just a (relatively) short, direct flight from Dulles International.  My friend Will had a high school buddy that lived in Dakar at the time, helping run his father’s taxi business, so we knew we would have a local guide to show us around.

So, maybe, after explaining all that, the answer isn’t so complicated. Instead of “why Senegal,” Will and I asked, “Why not Senegal?” So we booked flights, got yellow fever vaccinations, and packed too much stuff “just in case.” After we cleared customs, Remy—as always, running late—picked us up and stopped for croissants at a delicious French bakery en route to our hotel. Heavy rain cascaded into the dirt roads, churning them into mud as curious kids stared at me through the dirty window of our truck as I waited with our bags because the truck doors’ locks were broken.

Remy, his father (founder of the development project Taxis du Senegal), and I

Unsurprisingly my brief time exploring Dakar was unlike any other trip I’ve taken.  Will and I stayed in one of the best hotels in the city, but we still saw the halting strides the Senegalese government was taking to modernize the city right outside the hotel grounds.  Goats and cattle grazed on the grass next to main streets, and abandoned construction projects punctuated the space between luxury apartment buildings near the glistening $181 million US embassy complex.  The upscale expat neighborhood, where our friend Remy lived, was accessible only by driving over rough dirt roads that were permanently muddy.

We attended several meetings between Remy’s father and a series of government officials.  Unbeknownst to us at the time, our hosts stretched the truth of our visit, portraying Will and I as representatives sent from the American government to help them recover stolen taxi cabs.  I don’t know what deal they made to recover the cabs that day, but the following morning there was an unexpected (and likely extralegal) turnover in the executive branch of Senegal’s government, which undid all the progress we’d made.

Dakar’s expat quarter, roughly 20km from the city center

We crashed an embassy party, explored the main market in the city center, and lounged on a beautiful island off the coast. I experienced the unique misery of having dysentery in a country where bidets are more common than toilet paper.  We met Peace Corps volunteers, Foreign Service Officers, and the chief of Dakar’s police. We got to know what it’s like to travel where tourists are an anomaly, and we learned far more than we would have in a more popular tourist destination.

Visiting Senegal opened my eyes to travel off the beaten path. Don’t get me wrong—I love visiting popular destinations too, and if you’ve seen our video from the Blue Apple Beach House in Cartagena, you’ll know I love chilling on a beach. But there’s something really special about traveling to weird places that no one else visits and seeing sights that are only Instagrammable because they’re unique, not because everyone else has the same photo on their feed. If you’re up for a trip like that, I highly recommend spending some time soaking up the sights, sounds, and smells of Dakar.

Diesel fumes and humidity choking the air in central Dakar