My room in the Hotel Provençial is on the second floor over a small--6' by 6' semi outdoor cafe/breakfast place a block off the Place d'Independence. My windows consist of 4 sets of louvered glass on such rusty hardware that they barely move and certainly don't close. So I hear everything. I can hear the guy come in the morning and start to get ready for his day. Then I can hear the customers coming--I would suspect that most of his customers are regulars. He makes coffee and omelettes and probably a few other things.
I enjoy listening to all this. It's like an alarm clock with snooze. It wakes me up into a dreamy semiconscious state where I can appreciate being able to sleep. His customers, when they come are happy and laughing and talking sometimes in French, but mostly, I suspect, in Wolof. People who grow up with multiple languages shift back and forth effortlessly.
The extra nice thing about this morning is that I no longer feel sick. I have that nice feeling you have when you wake up to your first 100% healthy day after a bad cold--when you really and truly appreciate the gift of health.
Last night I went to bed early feeling pretty good--just a decreasing lingering cough and some stiffness along with tiredness. I went out in the early evening. There were 2 things I had to get done. First, in order to get back into the American embassy I need a photocopy of my passport. I didn't have one, so I took my USB drive which has scanned images of my passport and yellow book and printed out a copy. Turns out I chose a color printer so it was 500 CFA. Oh well. It'll get me into the embassy quickly. The other thing I had to was eat. I chose a nice Lebanese place called Layal. I had kefta in tomato sauce with potato. It was very good. They were out of flag so I had some Royal Dutch or Meister or something--it sucked. I do miss the PNW beer options. I especially miss the Alaskan Amber--my beer of choice.
Today I plan to get my passport, scope out the place where the minibuses and sept-places leave for far destinations. Tomorrow I'll go somewhere. Since the Guinea-Bissau visa expires early and I still have Gambia to do on the way down, I'm thinking of skipping Mauritania. But I think I'd like to check out Saint Louis. So maybe I'll go spend a couple days in Saint Louis, then come back to Dakar. I think I can get a room again at this hotel, and then leave the next day for Gambia. I'll have to think a bit. I just don't want to show up in a new city on a Friday or Saturday when it's hardest to find a hotel.
August 5, 2008 9:10 Senegal local time
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