I haven’t posted on Dakar yet, even though I’ve been here five days now. To be honest, it’s been because I haven’t been sure what to say. Pretty much all signs point to a higher level of development than expected for my first taste of the African continent south of the Sahara.
Dakar almost feels like a middle-income country. It might be the scale; the city has a population of only 1M. Major roads linking the areas of the city are well paved, as is the city center. Traffic isn’t great but it’s tolerable. The electricity has only gone out once. We have high speed Internet here at the house. One of the biggest issues seems to be the inefficient trash collection, so people often burn their trash and litter is ubiquitous. It, as with everything else in this city, is covered with a red dust. Even the beach has an unusual red tint. It seems to hang in the sky with the haze and the pollution.
The abundance of men sitting around does give signs of the 58% unemployment rate. Still I have not seen signs that people are just barely getting by. If there are slums around Dakar, I haven’t seen them yet.
There is also definitely some serious money in this city – and not just a sliver of an upper class but a middle class as well. Nice homes are everywhere. Cars are everywhere.
After almost a year since being out of the States, Dakar has been my transition stop before Liberia. 24 hours from now, I'll be in Monrovia.
Dakar almost feels like a middle-income country. It might be the scale; the city has a population of only 1M. Major roads linking the areas of the city are well paved, as is the city center. Traffic isn’t great but it’s tolerable. The electricity has only gone out once. We have high speed Internet here at the house. One of the biggest issues seems to be the inefficient trash collection, so people often burn their trash and litter is ubiquitous. It, as with everything else in this city, is covered with a red dust. Even the beach has an unusual red tint. It seems to hang in the sky with the haze and the pollution.
The abundance of men sitting around does give signs of the 58% unemployment rate. Still I have not seen signs that people are just barely getting by. If there are slums around Dakar, I haven’t seen them yet.
There is also definitely some serious money in this city – and not just a sliver of an upper class but a middle class as well. Nice homes are everywhere. Cars are everywhere.
After almost a year since being out of the States, Dakar has been my transition stop before Liberia. 24 hours from now, I'll be in Monrovia.
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