Go to Hell, Carolina

Settling in to do some writing this morning, I decided to check the ol’ Internet, you know, just to see what’s happening, maybe see how the team fared in last night’s game…and…oh, dear. Well, enough with the sports. Who needs sports, anyway? Who needs basketball? Stupid basketball…. (Note to Mark: Just send me that Kansas hat whenever you have a moment).

Back to matters at hand: Yesterday, on my way to an interview, I had my first true directional meltdown.  Thus far in the course of navigating Dakar I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been given very clear directions to every interview location; there is always a well-known landmark to use as a reference, or, better yet, someone more familiar with the city than I comes along in the taxi. This was not the case yesterday, and as I stared, with mounting desperation, at the words I’d written in my notebook, words that theoretically form an address, the lines of pen started to swim in front of my eyes. I was looking for “l’immeuble rose,” or the pink building, but there were at least four pink buildings on the block where I stood. I had no idea where I was, and, despite double-checking the address before I embarked on the day’s adventure, I had no idea where I was going.

So I called the office where my meeting was to take place. The person on the other end seemed to understand my dilemma well enough, but when he began rattling off directions in French, my brain just shut down. I caught phrases (“turn left at the…” and “it’s close to the store….”) but none of it made any sense. Finally, with a sigh of what might have been impatience, he asked me what I was wearing. For a brief moment, my mind flashed to some unsavory scenario, and then I realized he was going to come find me. And he did.

NB: The “immeuble rose” is not, in fact, pink. It was painted beige a few years ago. This fairly substantive makeover has not kept everyone in Dakar from referring to it knowingly as “the pink building,” a lapse I suspect may be symptomatic of larger logistical problems plaguing the country.

Comments

[shereen]

Dude, the same thing happens to me in Lebanon. People here will give you directions based on the store that was on the corner 5 years ago, even though it's a completely different business with a brand new neon sign, everyone remembers what it was WAY BACK IN THE DAY! Also, anyone here who's walking with a bag gets honked at by the million taxi drivers, as well, I figured they were just honking because I'm HOT...ooops :)

[Mark]

Doesn't Senegal have, like, some basketball players you could send to your old school?

And I thought everyone there was already wearing Kansas hats...