Another Beggar Story

Friday, February 23, 2007

If you have read my past posts, you will know about the beggars in Dakar. There are many types: young, old, families, disabled, standing, sitting, etc. Often times, they are territorial, staying in the same spot day after day.

This morning around 7:15 as I had just gotten seated on an Allhum in Patte D’Oie headed to work, I think I witnessed a territorial battle between two disabled beggars. While it didn’t rival a scene from Braveheart, it did get a little hostile.

There was a blind man walking along all the Allhums trying to get money from the passengers. This is not out of the ordinary. Also, there was an older lady, potentially mentally disabled or disturbed, sitting on a mat on the sidewalk begging for money. This too is not out of the ordinary.

I don’t know what triggered the dispute but all of a sudden, the lady started shouting at the guy and wouldn’t let up. The guy started shouting back. A few minutes later, there was a loud bang, and everyone on my Allhum jumped and then crouched, not knowing if the Apocalypse was coming or not. As it turned out, the old lady had thrown a large piece of cinder block and it hit our Allhum. Fortunately, it did not hit anyone.

The Allhum reached capacity at that point and as we were pulling away, everyone on board was starring out the window. The lady was grabbing more chunks of cinder blocks and I do not know where the guy went off too.

What is the world coming to?