Today was a day of firsts: first trip downtown, first visit to the Embassy, first delicious pain chocolat with café au lait at a snooty salon de thé. Downtown is even nuttier than I remember. There are cars, vendors, push carts, sidewalk merchandise stalls, taxis, SUVs, and pedestrians all over the place. The main drag, Ponty, is so congested that you have to weave in and around cars stacked up bumper to bumper to get from one side of the street to the other.
On the plus side the Embassy folks were very nice and seem to be going out of their way to be accommodating. As with any large bureaucracy, my job today was basically to fill out some forms (of course all of the information asked of me today they already have in my Fulbright dossier) so that the administrative assistant can make some appointments so I can fill out some more forms. A slight exaggeration, but it sounds like I will make at least two more trips to the Embassy for a security briefing, getting my security badge, meeting with the medical doctor, getting my cash-checking clearance, and meeting with the community liaison officer (CLO). The CLO might turn out to be a very important person in my life; more on that in a future post.
The highlight of the downtown trip was seeing one of my dearest friends who now has the corner office in the new accounts department of one of the large downtown banks. She and her sister-in-law (also a good friend) refer to A as “Obama” because they think he looks so much like him. Good thing everyone loves Obama here.
The perfect end to the day was watching a broadcast of Senegalese wrestling on TV. Wrestling or “lamb” is a national obsession if there ever was one. The matches are full of spectacle, drumming, dancing, crowd participation, and numerous appeals to mystical and occult forces for protection and perseverance over the opponent. In other words, just about everything an anthropologist is looking for all in a single event complete with commentary by impassioned sports announcers. Next project: pick a favorite wrestler and start following his career.
On the plus side the Embassy folks were very nice and seem to be going out of their way to be accommodating. As with any large bureaucracy, my job today was basically to fill out some forms (of course all of the information asked of me today they already have in my Fulbright dossier) so that the administrative assistant can make some appointments so I can fill out some more forms. A slight exaggeration, but it sounds like I will make at least two more trips to the Embassy for a security briefing, getting my security badge, meeting with the medical doctor, getting my cash-checking clearance, and meeting with the community liaison officer (CLO). The CLO might turn out to be a very important person in my life; more on that in a future post.
The highlight of the downtown trip was seeing one of my dearest friends who now has the corner office in the new accounts department of one of the large downtown banks. She and her sister-in-law (also a good friend) refer to A as “Obama” because they think he looks so much like him. Good thing everyone loves Obama here.
The perfect end to the day was watching a broadcast of Senegalese wrestling on TV. Wrestling or “lamb” is a national obsession if there ever was one. The matches are full of spectacle, drumming, dancing, crowd participation, and numerous appeals to mystical and occult forces for protection and perseverance over the opponent. In other words, just about everything an anthropologist is looking for all in a single event complete with commentary by impassioned sports announcers. Next project: pick a favorite wrestler and start following his career.
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