SENEGAL

The adventure continues !! Off to Dakar for a month to work in a microcredit bank run by all women in Cité Nations Unies, a suburb of Dakar.
I am in the Land of the TERANGA ! which means hospitality in Wolof and thats exactly what it is . Everyone here is friendly and you salut people about 100 times a day because everyone says hi to...everyone! Quite a change from Paris .. .
Elegant women roam the sides of the sandy roads, clothed in colorful fabric that straps a back to their back like duck tape.
5 tips for how to ride a motorbike in Dakar :
1. Hold on for dear life. There are potholes, craters, speed bumps and head-on cars and buses and the occasionally horse drawn carriage.
2. Lean with the bike, especially when you're turning a sharp corner and need to avoid a few dozen people in the way.
3. Keep your eyes and ears open. Eyes open because there is always a someone standing in the middle of the road. Ears open because there is music playing EVERYWHERE - the Senegalese are obsessed with music !! including djembe, reggae, hip hop, rap (what they call "resurrection of african poetry)
4.Worst time to take your hands off the bile is when you're stopped. Because chances are Magueye is going to rev up and slip in between two moving buses
5. Never wear a skirt , trust me I learned this the hard way. It's really hard to get on a scooter with a paille tied tightly around your waist and 10 men watching you climb on to a bike.

El Hadj teaches me around the roots of Islam today; about how its all about sharing what you have and contributing to the community. Islam is an incredibly generous and compassionate religion, what its really about, not any of this extremist shit in other countries.
Magueye teaches me about how we drink mint tea here : the first cup is to hell, because its bitter, the second cup to friendship and the third cup to love.
My African mum Yaye teaches me about how too much money can make people unhappy and complicate. You need a little for "alimentation et logement" but its friendship and family that really count.