Au bord de la mer (et Magicland)

Casie, I'm going to warn you that this post might make you jealous!

Medina is a neighborhood in Dakar that is....well, hard to describe. I hear that it was once very crime ridden but is better now. It's definitely one of the liveliest, busiest and crowded neighborhoods. I think it's also one of the poorest, although I could be mistaken about that. It kind of had an inner city feel without the fear of getting mugged or confronted by someone stumbling around drunk. I actually kind of like it better there than in my neighborhood because people aren't all hidden in their houses being waited on. They are out in the streets and interacting with each other.

Anyway, I had several friends who lived in Medina while I was studying abroad but only visited there a few times because it was just far enough from where I lived to be inconvenient. However, the people who did there had an amazing experience and made great friends. Casie is one of them (hi Case!!!) and she send me back to Senegal with gifts to give to her friend Laye and her other friends in the neighborhood. Sunday was the night that I finally went to Medina to see Laye and bring him his gifts. On the phone he said something to me like "Je vais preparer quelque chose au bord de la mer" (I'm going to prepare something by the ocean). I didn't think this would actually happen.

When I got to Medina I was taken around to the necessary houses to say hello to a bunch of people I didn't know and may or may not have met when I visited the neighborhood in 2002-2003. They all have a better memory of me than I do of them. I ended up sitting at Helen's old house (hi Helen!) for quite a while while Laye got things together to grill fish on the beach (or more accurately, on rocks and sand near the ocean). He got everything together, sent most of the stuff down to the water with his friends, and then took me to the Soumbadiounne fish market (I have NO idea how to spell that!!), a place where I would NEVER have the guts to go alone.

It was one of the most beautiful markets I have ever been in. Of course there are women in colorful prints everywhere, but there are also many stands selling all kinds of vegetables and rows and rows of different types of fish that can be gutted, scaled and have the fins chopped off before your eyes. Stella's doesn't know that West Africa has it beat on the freshness of its fish!! I was very surprised by the variety of fish that was available because as far as I can tell, there is one a few kind of fish that have ever been served to me. Laye chose some fish that I had never seen before but that he assured me were very good.

We brought the fish back to this rocky sandy just outside the walls of the crazy Magicland place I mentioned in my last post. This is also a place where I would never have come by myself because the people you have to walk by to get there seem a little....strange, though harmless. If only Magicland visitors knew about the garbage and squatters (sp??) just outside its walls. Very stark contrast. We grilled the fish and ate them. It was very lovely and a very nice change from whatever else I would have ended up doing that night. Senegalese hospitality almost makes me uncomfortable at times because Laye kept paying for stuff and I know he doesn't have very much money. And I don't even know Laye all that well but a friend of a friend is automatically a friend here, but probably mostly only if they are American. I also know that it makes them happy to be hospitable so sometimes you just have to sit back and accept what is offered to avoid offending.