Being stuck at the hotel all the time now because of this broken knee thing I’ve had a lot of time to do things like check email, watch movies, watch the ants come out of my keyboard (?), get to know the hotel staff, and do things like write this blog. A few days ago I spoke with the gardener and x-mayor of Kaolack which was interesting. Besides gardener there’s security people, someone who runs a shop here, bar men, chefs (the food is ridiculously good, and really very traditional though), pool cleaner –it’s pretty fancy, not the situation I expected to find myself in being in Senegal and very different than my study abroad experiences. Anyways, the gardener, who had lost both his parents and was on his own (about my age), told me made 30,000 CFA/Month – which is like $60 and he told me needs probably about $4/day to cover his expenses, you do the math and see pretty quickly that doesn’t really work. Additionally, I’ve been told (since I didn’t pay for it) the rooms here are about $50/night – to think that the cost of me staying here for one night is almost what this guy makes in one month is pretty staggering.
But the thing is, they do seem to be somewhat better off here than what I’ve seen in Cameroon (granted that was like 6 years ago now). I didn't have a smart phone to see where I could pick up wireless and I didn’t spend that much time in cities there so the comparisons about how many real toilets there, electricity/water access, etc. are not really fair.
But some other comparisons that might be fairer are the existence of a real national language here in Senegal (Woloff) where Peace Corps volunteers don’t even need to learn French they can go just straight into Woloff. Cameroon does not really have an equivalent like this. In both places though I’ve found it is impossible to get change. People’s reactions range from annoyed to angry when you give them something like 10,000 CFA – which is about $20. One last remark, they serve an incredible amount of bread, specifically of the baguette type here as well (and I remember them doing that as well in Cameroon) – must be a French legacy
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