Day to Day

It is Sunday morning and it hasn’t gotten too warm yet so I have opened my windows so I can hear the birds singing and the sounds from the street. I can hear some far off singing and drums which might be from the early morning mass at the cathedral down the street. That is where I am headed in a little bit for the mid-morning mass. The view from my dinning room table isn’t very interesting, other apartment buildings one tree and lots of satellite dishes on roofs. No ocean views from my apartment!

Even though it doesn’t have ocean views I really like my apartment, it is already feeling like home. It is a good sized apartment for one person. I will try and give you a little tour. I live on 4th floor of a 6 story building, but there are only 2 apartments per floor. I haven’t met any of my neighbors yet but the ones I have glimpsed in the stairway or elevator are mostly foreigners too. As you enter my apartment there is a fairly large entry way. On the left is a small galley kitchen with a fridge, gas range and stove, a small counter and sink. There is a door from my kitchen that opens onto a small balcony used mostly to store cleaning supplies and to hang my laundry. Next to the kitchen is the living/dining room area. I have also moved the microwave there so that I could have some more counter space in my kitchen. The main colors of the apartment (drapes and couch) are a boring light brown color. I have walked down to the cloth market a few times since my arrival thinking I would buy some fabric to put on the couch or make some makeshift pillow covers but each time I get to the market I am overwhelmed by the hagglers and so just end up walking off without buying anything. I do have a bright green table cloth that was left behind by the former tenant. My own personal touch in the living room is a little wall collage that I made with some colored paper and pictures of family and friends that I brought from home. It brightens up the room and makes me smile every time I see it. If you want to send pictures to add to the collage they are welcome!

I managed to add some color to my bedroom with the red sheets that I brought with me and there was already some red and black wall hangings there. I haven’t decided if I like the wall hangings yet but for now they will do. One really nice feature to my apartment is the super high ceilings; they are over 3 meets high. My bedroom has more storage in it that I have been able to figure out what to do with; yet I don’t think I have found the most efficient locations for the things I do have. There are actually two bathrooms in my apartment, one off the entry way and the other in my bedroom which is the only one I ever use. My shower has enough hot water for one and water pressure too! My bedroom has an equally uninteresting view as my living room but on weekend nights the street below can get a bit lively as there is a night club of sorts nearby.

My street has lots of little food shops, restaurants, and other random shops. I live near the French Cultural Center which has a nice court yard and restaurant; a favorite hang out of ex-patriots and one of the only places I have found where you can go and have a tea or juice and read without getting bothered. The French Cultural Center also has a little movie theater and language classes. I will hopefully be taking a Wolof class there soon. A block in the other direction from my apartment is one of the main roads on the Plateau and three blocks further on that road is the Presidential Palace and a 10 minute walk in the other direction is my office. Living near the Presidential Palace has a few perks, chief among them that my buildings power supply is on the same electrical grid as the President. This means I haven’t had any power outages since my arrival while most neighborhoods in Dakar have blackouts at least 2 or 3 times a week for a whole evening or a whole day. I am also live in a building that has a back-up generator so if the Presidential grid ever goes out I still have power (pretty sure the President has a back-up generator too). This is particularly important right now as the weather is very hot and at times humid so having the electricity to run my little air conditioning unit in my bedroom or the one in the living room means that I can work and sleep comfortably each night.

I haven’t ever lived completely on my own before so having this apartment is certainly a new experience in that regard. Before I arrived I was worried that I would find it lonely to come home to an empty place in the evening but so far I haven’t felt that too much. This isn’t to say that I don’t miss having a great roommate to share with, to cook with, to hang out with, and to borrow milk from when I haven’t gone to the store. I know that my lifesaver so far has been having an internet connection at home that allows me to stay in touch with the world outside of Dakar especially as I continue to settle-in here and meet people here. I know that soon enough I will have a group of friends here and many more of my evenings will be spent doing the sharing and hanging that I like. In the meantime I need to try to go back to the cloth market so that I can finish my decorating! Thanks to SK whose questions promoted this blog entry and whose questions about my work will be answered next week along with my thoughts on the beginning of Ramadan. If you have questions about my life in Dakar please post them as comments or e-mail me directly and I will try and answer them in upcoming posts

Amendment: The afternoon of the day I wrote this post I went for a walk and was able to finally buy some fabric. Thanks to Lane and Mac for being my protectors so I could buy with out being hassled.

Pictures of my apartment can be found on my photo website: http://picasaweb.google.com/clarafy.blog