Always Absurd

Below are some aspects of life in Dakar that I find absurd despite my familiarity with the city. As someone who loves all things absurd, this list was carefully constructed and may be added to in the future.

• Men’s pinstripe suits with short sleeve jackets.

• Women’s drawn-on purple eyebrows.

• Obvious and hideous wigs.

• Beggars, generally old men dressed in kaftans, screaming Quranic surahs into megaphones.

• The phasing out of the use of traffic lights. Evidently traffic cops are more efficient.

• Open sewers that meander into the ocean. Also, the ocean being used as a garbage dumping ground.

• Vendors selling the exact same item standing next to each other. The same goes for store selling similar wares like kitchen goods, plastic mats, thread, or gaudy household items. My particular favorite are the phone credit sellers who sell the same phone cards for the same price (they can’t change the price) and stand in clusters trying to hawk their goods.

• Food prices comparable to LA when the average person makes around $5 a day.

• The 50 or so HIV/AIDS non-governmental organizations based in Dakar, while the HIV/AIDS rates are relatively low; while, rates of malnutrition, malaria, unemployment, illiteracy, and general misery are higher than ever.