After 8 days in country, I finally culture shocked. Oh man, it was rough. The medical part of the trip had concluded; the witnessing never finishes. We boarded our friend, the mini bus, and headed out with packed day bags for an city called Mbour on the coast of Senegal. This is essentially resort town. We arrive first at a boutique for shopping for those who are always eager to shop (I don't fall into that category, but I did buy my sister a postcard). When the store closed for siesta (another very positive trait I wish the U.S. would adopt), we walked across the street and down this long path in a park-like setting in this beach resort for lunch and general chilling.
Europeans every where. The street outside the gate: dark skinned. Inside the resort: pale skinned (and lobster colored). They do employ Senegalese men. But it was very odd. One of the things that bothered me about this was learning that almost all of the people here arrived via airplane in Dakar, was directly loaded unto a charter bus and dropped off inside the gate at the resort. Their notion of what Senegal is entirely lies within the resort property among fellow Frenchman or Germans or whatever (mostly French). How sad. I imagine they are content with such a shallow understanding of what Senegal is about. But I suppose we all do that. The affluent take vacations outside their bubble of knowing, hit the tourist spots, and call it done. The poor have an understand of different cultures based on movies or celebrities or what is heard. (All American women aren't Brittney Spears or Paris Hilton. I know, I know, It's news to me too.)
Anyway, the next step in this culture shock occurred as I sought a place to settle on the beach to read my book and plug into my iPod underneath shade. As expected on many beaches, people lay out in the sun. Apparently, however, the French have a history of being topless. Praise God it wasn't a nude beach, but to go from conservative dress (women in villages don't wear jeans) to topless bikinis is a large leap. I only felt comfortable enough to wear a tank top and shorts.
Once again it was reinforced that I don't do 'nothing' well. And yes, I realize that I was hovering over the rest of the team trying to get them to leave. I was anxious to leave and head back to Theis.
Thus concludes day 8. One more day to go.
1 comment:
Your observations are fascinating! Esp. about inside/outside of the gate. It was like that in Bali, Indonesia, too. And sadly, it's like that in the USA as well.
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