Bathroom Break

Friday, June 2, 2006

While this may disturb a few of you who read this and make you question why you read this site, the purpose of this site is to provide as much detail to life in Senegal that I am willing and can give. I kind of wish I could and would tell everything, because it would be a lot more interesting.

For what I’m going to talk about is something that I thought hard about on whether I should write about or not. Some of you may think its disturbing, others may think it is disgusting, and some may think its funny...I think it is worth writing about.

This evening on my way home from the Atlantic/American Club, where I spent the afternoon by the pool, I was walking home from where I get off of the car rapide. It is probably a 400 – 500 yard walk to my house from there. I’m walking and I cut my foot on a piece of metal laying on the ground. I was wearing sandals and it somehow grazed and cut me. I wasn’t too concerned about getting cut, but walking through the human/animal urine infested sand to my house. If you gotta go here, you just go anywhere. So, I was alittle concerned about it when my toe started dripping with blood, but nothing I could do about it till I got home…not a big deal.

So, I continue walking and I see three kids (about 6 years old) playing on the side of the road. This isn’t unusual at all and to set the scene, this road is a major automobile and pedestrian route. One of them said “Ca va?” to me. Apparently I look French. It was towards the end of the day, so I really kinda wanted to be left alone and didn’t want to be pestered. Some of you may try to relate this to a long day of class or at the office, but it is not even comparable. Somehow, I managed a “Ca va bien. Nanga def? Allhumdellia.” Half way through this 15 second conversation with this kid, I notice his amigo pulling down his pants, popping a squat, and taking a crap on the side of the road. I’m just thinking “what the hell is going on here?” I didnt know if I should laugh or throw up, so I did both. We aren’t talking about being out in the bush where there aren’t bathrooms and hundreds of people right there. To somewhat compare it to the States, it would be like somebody going to the bathroom on the sidewalk of Lumpkin (Athens), Columbia (Chapel Hill), or Glen Loch Ct (Sugar Land) during rush hour. I made it home pretty quick after that.

The more I think about it, there is no reason to openly discuss it further than it just being an event in my day. The way of life here is completely different from what I’m used to and I’m still learning just the basics. Because of this, it makes it very difficult in formulating thoughts. For me, at times, I’ve had to step out of the American-minded box to develop atleast some understanding about things. So, I ask you, to generate your own thoughts about the things you read on this site, but keep an open-mind and don’t interpret things just from one angle, whether it be religious, political, western/American, etc, because you won’t understand life here. And, when you think you’ve figured it out, there are probably 10 other potentially right ways to look at it as well. Good luck.