Life in Yoff is nothing like that of the Dakar people, who are not in awe of supermarkets and can sometimes step on sidewalks. In Yoff you get used to cramped grocery shops where they sell you two milimetres of butter, and the world only has two kinds of cookies. Products come and go to the will of some mysterious distributor, and if you find something you love, you’d better stock up before it is gone.

Finally, Souleymane’s corner boutique is stocking my favourite mosquito coils again, MK. Rebecca introduced me to them last year, but to my dismay, they were soon replaced by flashy Raid coils with no interesting literature on the package. MK appear to be back now, which is great, because I was in strong need of some international recent technology of kill-speed very quick and be-long to green product that must not blown bu strong wind.

From BBC News:

Tuareg rebels in Mali have reportedly staged one of the biggest attacks against government forces since they resumed their insurgency last August.

The rebels ambushed a military convoy, capturing at least 20 soldiers and seizing as many as eight vehicles, reports from Mali say.

My work is being upsetting, so I am trying hard to focus on things I love about Senegal:

The downstairs neighbour’s children learning how to gut fish in the patio.

Our neighbour Biram, who enjoys making car noises and shiny shiny things.

And following people walking on water with buckets on their heads.

To escape the OCI madness, we go on a field mission to Djourbel, 250 km inland, to return some street children home. I wake up at the completely unnecessary hour of 5 am and am greeted at the shelter by bucketloads of super sweetened Nescafe. Yay!

We stop for lunch at a small village surrounded by donkeys, and eat two whole chickens (only an hour later, we eat a gigantic platter of rice and fish at the next village). These children are underwhelmed by my lack of ability to debone a whole chicken with only my right hand. Two is cheating!

From BBC News:

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour says she is stepping down after four years in the post.

Ms Arbour, a Canadian legal expert, told the Human Rights Council she would quit when her term expired in June. She said it was for personal reasons.

Sand and Sheep

More Dakar Bits

How di Bohdi?

West Africa notes

West Africa Wins Always

A journalist in Côte d'Ivoire

The tech who installed our phone and internet last week just showed up unnanounced, unsolicited, and apparently unregistered. He claimed he had “forgotten to close the box”, touched a cable or two, and left before we could realise he had broken the internet. The company says they will look into it, but cannot tell us how or when or give us any contact names. IT’S GREAT.

So here is friendly Mr. Wade saying Achlan Wasachlan Dear Islamic Conference, let’s all pretend this poster is on a perfectly paved sidewalk and Dakar looks lovely!

Seven thirty and still at the office. Our security guard came upstairs in civilian clothes and he looks about seven years old. Only bosses left at the office: my cue to go.