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Italiano (Italian)
In general, it is easier to make interesting encounters by traveling independently; this is also true when traveling in Africa. So too, unlike group travel, it is easier to relate to the locals. This is good, but it can also be bad. As, without serious consequences, was the blatant cab scam as soon as I arrived in Senegal. Again generalizing, as far as I am concerned, encounters with taxi drivers are almost never satisfactory, especially if I have to negotiate and am not familiar with the language.
Interesting encounters by traveling even if only by observing
Few people in Senegal speak English, some not even French. This meant that I did not interact much with the locals, except with the very kind owner of my apartment in Saint Luis. Separate discussion are those who try to stop you on the street and play nice to do business.
However, I was very attentive and observed many interesting scenes. For example, the barefoot, sweaty, smiling children of the fishing village of Saint Luis remained in my eyes. They were scampering through the streets among garbage and animals and almost all of them stopped to greet me. In Saint Luis for days on end I didn’t pass any other tourists; so, I guess they don’t see many.
Other snapshots are the ones I focused on while crossing villages on the way between Dakar and Saint Luis. In Senegal, the coast is highly populated. With so much fish being harvested by the countless colorful boats, there is no shortage of food.
In the interior, the territory is mostly uninhabited. There are few roads, and along those that connect the major towns, small villages, with even tin dwellings. One finds makeshift stalls or even just a mop on the ground, where women sell drinks and fruit. Inland there is more poverty, but hygiene conditions are similar. Around the villages there are often piles of garbage and lots of plastic. In one village, all the villagers together were cleaning up. This garbage thing really struck me. I don’t know how much of a cultural problem it is, how much of an unwillingness on the part of the state.
Traveling in Africa, recurring aspects
Supermarkets are similar to those in the West. In Saly, where there are many French people, the products and prices are even higher than ours. In Saint Luis in a cheaper one, a lady was at the checkout with her daughter and had to pay for a snack of chocolate, a package of chips and what looked like a small sausage. The cost was just over one euro, but the change she had given the cashier was not enough. Looking at her hopeful daughter, she gave up the sausage.
Before I left, I had read disturbing reports about people stopping you on the street being pushy, and about sex tourism. In Dakar and Saint Luis, no one ever bothered me. In Saly, yes, but no women as can happen in Asia. It is customary in many poor countries, that as you walk, someone approaches you in a friendly way. They ask you where you are from, and if you say you are Italian, someone offers some familiar expression.
Sorry to disappoint pious souls, but this is not about friendliness at all, just business. They are like those who pester you on the phone to sell you a new gas contract with scam. If you humor them, after a few pleasantries, it is a given that they will invite you to a store, restaurant or hotel, supposedly theirs or a relative’s.
Semi-serious tips for dealing with those who pester you on the street
One strategy is to say that you speak neither French nor English. Other times I respond in Romagnolo dialect with the classic um pis la pida se parsot, which means I like piadina with ham; rightly most raise their hands. Since two words of English, French, Spanish and Italian all know them, I told one that I was Greek.
I would like to say that I am from San Marino, maybe my interlocutor does not imagine what is being talked about on Mount Titan. But the risk is that he doesn’t know it exists. A few times I have faked the phone call. I button my pants, pick up the phone, and start talking to myself with the phone leaning against one ear.
On my last day in Senegal, I took a long walk along the beach from Saly to Mbour where there is another famous fish market. A guy hangs on to me, explaining that they sell fish there and I can even take pictures, but go? I try various techniques, but he won’t let up. Despite the two-hour walk, after five minutes I decide to go back. And he, who kept following me for a while, asking me, But how, are you going already?
It is hard to make these people understand that I am in love with solo walks in the woods.
Interesting encounters while traveling in Senegal
A trip to Africa is not easy, It is for brave hearts as a Chinese girl with whom I toured Djoudj Park told me. There are so many organizational and practical aspects that differentiate it from what you can experience not only in the Western world, but also compared to Asia and Latin America, where almost always, for example, public transportation you know is reliable.
Already for many people it is unthinkable for a woman alone to be traveling around Italy. Well in Africa I met as many as three girls who were traveling solo. Two on the above tour, and the Chinese one had gone from Morocco to Namibia, and last year she had gone from Namibia, to South Africa and then north, again for a few months.
Speaking of an expert on solo travel in Africa and beyond, I had taken interesting insights from Diana‘s blog.
Well I actually met her in Senegal, and it was very interesting to be confronted with this established blogger, who in spite of others actually has something to tell like her vicissitudes that ended up in the book On the Roads of Kenya.
Equally interesting and fun, was watching together with her an African Cup of Nations soccer match in which the Senegal national team was playing. We saw her in a highly charged Senegalese bar, along with two other girls who like her were volunteering in a village near Saly.
Even traveling in Africa you notice Italians
There are many couples in Saly with a considerable age difference, with the elderly him and the very young black her, but even more so with rather elderly ladies accompanied by able-bodied natives. The vast majority of Westerners are French.
I also identified two groups of Italians, the first stood out sadly in the little boat with which we went to see pelicans in the Djoudj nature reserve. They had already complained that we had been waiting for people to fill the boat. The people from the organization had asked them to move over to balance the weight and they had rebelled Eh, no, we got there first and we all want to be close together. At one point the boat just wasn’t going so they gave in, a couple of them moved to the back bench. When it came time to tip the pilot, although they were a group of 10, they were very careful not to drop even a few pennies.
Another incident that fits into my case history of unusual situations, at a riverside restaurant in Saint Luis. At the table next to mine, 4 of them had been confabulating for a long time about whether or not to get pizza, which might not have been good.
A young waitress brought me a plate, I didn’t even remember what I had ordered, and hungry I started eating fried potatoes and prawns. After a while the head waiter arrived, apologizing for the mistake. They had brought me the plate of one of the gentlemen next door, who didn’t notice anything, not even that after a while they brought him the plate I had started eating on, so a little more skimpy than it should have been.
Links
Home travel Getting around Africa independently: original public transportation
Previous Stage Can you see animals in Senegal? Yes but not the lions
Latest article in the Senegal video series (with links to others): Here’s what it means to visit Africa, Senegal
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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