Ba ci kanam, Dakar

Or, see you later, Dakar! This is one of the few Wolof phrases that I've picked up (spoken just as much if not more than French) just in time to being preparing to head back to New York. Today is my last day in Senegal, and I’m really having a hard time trying to figure out where the last month went! It really did go by quickly and while I’m ready to head back, there is a part of me that will miss this place especially because I was finally starting to feel a bit settled. Part of my feeling more settled had a lot to do with a busy work week and taking care of small things such as laundry, which is actually a bit of a process here (e.g. finding someone who has a washing machine). While I was busy with work during the day, the evenings were spent hanging out with the new friends that I’ve met here. One of my favorite nights this trip was last week, when Beatriz (a fellow Columbia student) and I made our way out to N’gor Island for dinner at a nice little Italian place. Check out our private mode of transport there below!

                                         Heading out to N'gor Island for dinner on a little boat. 

Friday I was able to visit the HLM market, one of the big markets here, which specializes in fabrics. It was such a site to see-various vendors selling everything and anything, all trying to strike a bargain with you. We were focused on the fabrics though, and there were so many beautiful patterns and prints to choose from that it was almost impossible to select only one or two. I ended up settling on a handful and even was able to have a few made into dresses by a local tailor (available just 3 days later)! While the dresses I chose were pretty simple, he makes some incredibly intricate pieces with all kinds of embroidery and bead work that the women here wear and all look absolutely beautiful. 

Fabric purchases from HLM

The rest of the weekend consisted of a low key Saturday at the beach and watching the World Cup games. I was with a group of very big Brazil supporters so it was great for them that they pulled out the win! On Sunday, this same group of random Columbia students all in Dakar made our way to the Ile de Goree (or Goree Island). Goree is a small island located off the southeastern tip of Dakar’s Peninsula, about a 20-minute ferry ride from the port. It is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its use in the 15^th-19^th Century as a trading post. Now, it is a beautiful little island with colorful houses surrounded by lush greenery. Unfortunately, the island has a grim history. One of the stops on the island is the House of Slaves, which was used just as the name suggests, before slaves were transported out of Africa. The island offers a place to reflect on this very sad portion of history, but today also hosts many other things such as various artisans and their shops. We walked around the entire island and saw numerous paintings, tapestries, jewelry, and so much more. A few artists we saw were even hard at work, making art out of sand, crafted into various scenes of Africa. It was hard to figure out what to buy with all the beautiful options! Despite the island’s small size, our visit took the majority of the day and was topped off with a well-deserved ice cream, which I think resembles more of a gelato here than what we’d consider ice cream but either way it was delicious! All in all, it was a great ending to my last weekend here.

First views of Goree from the ferry

Some houses on Goree Island

Beautiful greenery

Artisans market on Goree

The Columbia Crew

More artwork on display

Now that I’m about to head off and thinking about my month here, while there were some glitches along the way (such as my second night when I couldn’t figure out how to get home!) and definitely difficulties with the language barrier, I am really happy that I was able to have the opportunity to travel to Senegal and visit the Sahel. The large majority of people I met here showed me nothing but genuine kindness and made my trip extremely worthwhile and for that I will continue to be grateful.

In terms of the project I came to work on, well, as I’ve found with most research, it is still a work in progress. One of the things we are trying to address is how to make better seasonal predictions of the West African Monsoon, so that people here can have the most accurate information available to them to help with their livelihoods. My preliminary work is finding that it is really hard to more accurately predict the rains more so than we already do, due to a lot that is still unknown about the chaotic nature of the atmosphere. But, I still have lots of time to keep thinking and working on this, so the work won’t end here! Perhaps one of the best portions of the trip has been working alongside Ousmane, my supervisor here. His dedication to applying climate science in a way that can be used in his own country is really inspiring and is definitely along the lines of where I can see myself working in the future. I’ve also enjoyed being able to see and experience the region that I study a great deal. So, until next time, I must thank Senegal for all the ‘teranga’ (hospitality) that has been shown to me and for the unique and great experience that being here has provided. 

A car rapide, one of the symbols of Dakar. Until next time!

A weekend in Dakar

After a busy week of work, it was great to spend my first weekend in Dakar. Since this blog is quickly becoming more of a documentation of my sight seeing and travel rather than climate information, I will comment that as far as the climate is concerned, it has been hot, muggy, and sunny every single day that I have been here. While the rains have started in the southern most portions of Senegal (and the timing is still pretty early for that), they will likely not start here in Dakar until late July. While the climate-scientist-in-training portion of me is a bit disappointed that I will not actually "see" the monsoon while I am here, I'm also a bit grateful that my first trip here will not fall during that time period, which can be challenging even (or especially) in the city. Because Dakar has been expanding so much in recent years, heavy rainfalls tend to flood the city easily as the rainwater runs off of the paved streets. With many of the remaining streets still made of dirt, this washes out numerous other roads and from what I have heard from those living here, can be very frustrating and difficult to manage. It also gets even and hotter and muggier of course! 

With that climate tidbit aside, now I can comment about my first real touristy few days here! Saturday was spent exploring various attractions in downtown Dakar. I met two Columbia colleagues at the university here and we quickly grabbed a cab downtown (there are no shortages of cabs in Dakar, but the key is negotiating a good price to your destination, which is much easier when you’re with French speakers, which luckily I was!). Our tour downtown included checking out Dakar's Independence Square and Presidential Palace. This portion of the city reminded me largely of your standard US city, although, sadly many parts tend to be run down. It was nice to walk around and see a new part of the city though.

Independence Square in Downtown Dakar

A guard outside the Presidential Palace. Supposedly they still have the same uniforms as they wore in WW2!

Me outside the Presidential Palace

The front of the Presidential Palace

We next visited the Musee de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, or the Museum of African Arts. It was a smaller museum but had a variety of African masks, jewelry, and headdresses that are used in various ceremonies throughout West Africa. Some of the headdresses were massive and made me wonder how strong you would have to be to hold them up! Photos weren’t allowed though so I’ll leave it to your imagination to try and picture some of these. After that, lunch was in order so we grabbed a bite to eat at the Institut Francais de Senegal. From what I have been told, the French Institute in Dakar is a place where Europeans especially visit to get their culture fix. The Institute has live music, movie screenings, and other events. It also had a great little restaurant where there was a jazz musician playing so we enjoyed our lunch with some music. Apparently the live music scene and especially jazz are also big in Dakar, so it was cool that this was coincidentally going on. I also had my first salad here (finally!) and it was so, so good to have fresh vegetables. While the Senegalese food I have had so far sometimes contains veggies, the staples are really rice, grains, and fish.

The restaurant and jazz musician at the French Institute

After lunch, we headed to N’gor Island. While the beach at N’gor and the Island have been busy during the week when I’ve visited, it was nothing compared to the weekend. You could barely see an inch of open sand on the beach and had to maneuver your way around tons of teenagers, who I think were probably celebrating the end of the school year. I guess the crowds make sense- more than half of Senegal's approximately 2 million inhabitants live in the city I've been told. We did manage to find some benches overlooking the sea on the Island though and spent some time just relaxing there and taking in the views, after first walking through some art displays in the various alleyways.

Local artists work on N'gor Island

The view of N'gor Village (where I live) from across the sea

Artsy bench

After an entire day spent in the sun, we all went home in the evening and crashed but not before I randomly met another Columbia student in the grocery store, a second funny coincidence in Senegal after my meeting the woman from CT. I decided that Sunday would be a good day to rest so I went to one of the big hotels here and sat on their very nice and uncrowded beach, which was super relaxing. Sunday evening and night was spent with new friends and friends of friends who took us to a local beach spot, called the Plage Mamelle. Unfortunately, it was cloudy by late afternoon but seeing the cliffs drop off and meet the water was still pretty stunning even in the dim light.

My relaxing beach day

A cool bird that joined me!

Some nice trees outside the hotel I visited

The cliffs at Plage Mamelle

Overall, the weekend was really nice, particularly getting out and meeting some new people who I will hopefully see a few more times before I leave and maybe even in NY after we all return (4 of the 8 in the group happened to be current Columbia students with a 5^th an alum). It was interesting to hear about what brought everyone here and really nice to have a mutual connection over which we could all bond. Monday morning I returned to the office, and funny coincidence number three happened: a man got on the same bus as me wearing a Connecticut Huskies tee shirt! That made me smile and then the day continued with the prospect of trying to write up various summaries of what I’ve done here and complete some more research before I head out next week. It looks like my accounts of the workshops will at least be published on different groups’ websites so I am particularly happy about that and will share when I can. Till next time!

-Catherine