"You're so fat!"

Got to love Senegalese flattery. This is what a colleague who I haven't seen in ages told me yesterday. 'You were thin when you arrived and now you are so fat!'. Er, thanks very much. Clearly I am enjoying the Senegalese national dish far too much - rice cooked in a bath of oil is deceptively fattening...



Anyway thought I would post some photos of where I live. It's Saturday night and am waiting to go out whilst trying to drown out the regular chanting outside with my own music. Last Saturday I didn't go out. Major error. The chanting went on till 4am so I hardly slept. Ear plugs are definitely on my list of things I wish I'd brought with me.





So this is my apartment block. Mine is the first floor balcony



My street! Always full of kids playing, especially on Saturdays. I can never get very far without a host of children shouting 'Toubab' (white person) and shaking my hand.


View from the roof.


At night, once the chanting stops, it;s silent apart from sheep bleating.



Had a good day today wandering around where I live. After months of feeling I had to wait to be invited to people's houses, have now realised that people just expect you to turn up - especially at meal times. Great news for me as it means I conveniently visit friend's houses just in time for food. Went to my downstair's neighbour's today.

The ground floor flat in my block has a little courtyard that my bedroom looks down onto. I hear various pounding, chopping and sizzling noises coming from the courtyard from about 7am, then the smell of cooking wafts up to my flat. Most people have a 'bonne', a young woman who prepares the meals and cleans. I always hear Rosalie, the girl who works downstairs, busy preparing food from about 7am. Today was rice with a sauce with meat, prawns, smoked fish and ochra. Even though i normally hate ochra, it was good. I found it a bit strange that everyone I know seems to have a 'bonne', but given that cooking takes at least 2 hours to prepare one meal, I now understand why.



This is at another neighbour's house. The family are from Cote d'Ivoire and are really kind to me, and their kids are adorable, altho every time they come over they seem to wreck something in the house.


This is my local shop. There are loads of these paintings everywhere in Dakar. They depict Maribouts, the religious leaders.



Making friends with the neighbours...




Mini bakery outside my flat; have never seen it open, although I think that's because I'm never up early enough.