Neighborhood Watch

Now that I am at home full time to study for the LSAT, I have the time to notice my surroundings more carefully than I had before. This has led to several quirky discoveries about my neighborhood.

For example, I always knew that a few odd folks show up at the Friday night prayer chanting gatherings outside my living room/ dinning room window; however, last Friday I was sitting at the dinning room table trying to study when I heard a strange noise that stood out from the chanting. I thought that it was someone trying to start their dying scooter but after it persisted for a minute I went to the window to inspect. Lying face down on one of the prayer mats was a man semi-convulsing who upon further inspection sounded like he was choking. Everyone else was sitting and chanting, not paying any attention to him. In a panic, I ran to get my inhaler, left over from my bout with the whooping cough, and flew out of my apartment. When I got to the entrance on the ground floor I realized that I did not have the key. Rushing back up the stairs I looked out of the window to witness the man stand up and proceed to hurtle himself on top of the other people. Obviously people do not like to be stepped on so some pushing ensued. He seemed to be heading to an old man in the far left corner of the prayer mat, who I assumed was the marabout. The man ended up collapsing onto some praying people not far from the marabout. He crawled to the marabout and put his head near the marabouts’ feet. This is a huge sign of respect and submission. A few people tried to pull the man away but he just stayed there in a trance. I walked back to my apartment and put the inhaler away.

Another quirk is the house two doors down. Most middle-class houses in Dakar are one or two stories with tin roofs and cement walls. There is a courtyard somewhere on the premises that is generally open and is the location where families spend time together, like a living room or a den. Courtyards are center meeting places. My apartment doesn’t have a courtyard, obviously, but it does have a large roof-top terrace. This is mildly creepy, but from the terrace I can see into people’s courtyards. This creepy fact matters for the explanation of the quirk. I know that the house two doors down has a courtyard and that it is not used for its innate purpose, instead the garage is used.

After eight months of living two doors down from these folks, I have observed their penchant for the garage. The doors of the garage are left open even when the old Renault car is parked there, so I have a good idea about the activities in the garage. I first noticed the love of the garage after walking by it and hearing an old man reciting the Quran. From then on, I began to notice a trend that most afternoons and for long stretches on the weekends the old man sits on the left-hand-side of the garage against the middle of the wall and prays. The left-hand-side makes sense because it is the eastern-most point but the choice to be in the middle seemed off. So I began to look for this man every time I walked by the house. Then I noticed that the ironing is done in the garage in the exact place where the man prays. That is odd because ironing is usually done in the courtyard or an open space since most of the irons used in Senegal have hot coals in them that need air. I observed the ironing a few times and then when I became a full-time LSAT studier and was home during the afternoons, I noticed another trend. A group of girls and young women, I am assuming the household help and the young girls of the house, eat their lunch in the same place as the praying and ironing takes place. They spread their mat out near the wall and sit in a circle around the bowl laughing and talking in the dark garage. The last and final use for the garage I noticed not too long ago. I happened to walk by when the family was entertaining guests. I don’t think they were guests very close to the family because they were standing and talking, but the guests were nonetheless in the garage. It was astounding. I pointed out my observations to Otman and he confirmed it. All activities that usually happen in the courtyard have been transferred to the garage and those activities all happen in the exact same space within the garage.

The final quirk is coupled with the bizarre music played on the television and radio stations in Dakar. Much of the music that gets airtime is from a decade ago or this horrendous Christmas song that is played all year round, other popular hits are from Shania Twain, Celine Dion, and Kenny G. Kenny G is played on the television everyday around 10am and 10 pm. Without fail, my neighbors, who have a television in their open courtyard, turn up the volume to serenade the neighborhood with some light jazz. These folks are the only people in the neighborhood who have a generator, even if the rest of us have no electricity Kenny G is there, playing away while I burn my fingers lighting candles. How romantic.