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Dakar -- Dec. 30, 2003-Jan. 1, 2004
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Video by
Luke Klein
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Video
Clip: New Year's Eve in Dakar
(20 sec./1.6 MB)
Audio
Only (20 sec./0.14 MB)
Luke:
This is the view of the street from our apartment on New Year's Eve.
There was a continuous stream of thousands of people from about 8 PM
all through the night. People were constantly setting off fireworks
in the crowd (and sometimes trying to hit people on balconies). Daniel,
Dave, and I went to the Place de l'Indépendance to ring in the
new year. There were hundreds of thousands of people celebrating and
shooting off fireworks. It was one of the most frightening and exhilarating
experiences of my life.
Dave:
Watch the video and understand that this was like four hours before
midnight and three blocks from where the action was. Suffice it to say
there were injuries.
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| Dave:
There's a 'rapide' again. In order to catch one of the rapides from the
central depot at rush hour, you had to run along behind it and jump onto
the back as it moved. Even old ladies did this. |
Photograph by David Scholnick |
Photograph by Luke
Klein
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Luke:
We waited outside this télécentre while Oumar and Ousin negotiated
a good price for us on some carved chairs at a workshop down the street.
The cost of having a home telephone line is quite high, so most Senegalese
still rely on télécentres to place calls. Cell phones are
increasingly popular in Senegal, and, because a cell phone account is charged
only for outgoing calls, it is common for people to have a cell phone for
incoming calls while they make outgoing calls from a télécentre. |
| Luke:
Oumar took us to this workshop far outside the center of Dakar to get us
the best price on our carved chairs. |
Photograph by Luke Klein |
Photograph by David Scholnick |
Luke:
Ousin is sitting in the middle as we try out the chairs that we're considering
buying. These wooden chairs, made only from two boards, are very simple
and surprisingly comfortable. |
Luke:
After he had packed our groceries into a shopping cart at the supermarket,
this clerk wanted to bring the groceries to our car for us. We explained
that we had no car and that our apartment was about ten blocks away. He
insisted on pushing the cart through the busy mid-day streets to our front
door. Of course, we made it worth his while. |
Photograph by Luke Klein |
Photograph by David Scholnick |
Luke:
The mysterious night fruit stand would appear across the street from our
apartment each night well after dark and would remain until about four o'clock
in the morning. It was the only cart on the street that kept these hours,
and it didn't seem to get too many customers. |
| Luke:
Binta (the assistant at our building) brought us to the home of her sister-in-law's
Cape Verdean family. They were kind and generous; they served us 'cana',
a delicious traditional Cape Verdean rum reminiscent of grappa. |
Photograph by Luke
Klein |
Photograph by Luke
Klein |
Luke:
The posh club 'La Dolce Vita' was the third place that Daniel spun on our
trip. The beers were 5000 CFA ($10.00) apiece, which is insanely
expensive for Senegal. We drank elsewhere. |
| Luke:
We had fun hanging out with Binta. Here she's dressed up for a New Year's
Eve party. |
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Photograph by David Scholnick |
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Photograph by David Scholnick |
Photograph by David Scholnick |
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| Luke:
Trash crews came through in the late morning on New Year's Day to clean
up the mess from the night before. |
Photograph
by Aaron Javsicas |
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Higher
quality versions of the photographs on this web site may be available
for publication. Please contact info@kleinmail.com
to request permission. |
