Saturday, January 16, 2010

Culture shock


One of the reasons we had a pretty low-key Christmas was that we knew we would be going on a six-day river cruise down the Senegal River starting on January 2nd. With some minor lobbying I was able to recruit five other people to join A, myself, and our guest S who was visiting Senegal for two weeks.

The cruise seemed like an ideal way to entertain a guest with no language skills and not much experience with third world travel. Six nights, all meals included, and excursions scheduled every day--seemed like a perfect break from the hustle and bustle of Dakar and a way to see some cool sites on the Senegal River. And yet we were in for a few surprises.

On January 2nd all of the cruise passengers convened in Saint Louis for a last luncheon on land before being bussed up to the cruise ship in Podor. One of the first things that I noticed was that our group was not in the demographic that typically signs up for the cruise. A and I were holding down the senior end of our group (late 30's), while our five companions were early 30's, late 20's, and early 20's respectively. We brought the average age of the cruise passengers down by about 30-40 years, as they seemed to be almost exclusively French retirees.

Aside from noticing the age gap, it wasn't until we got on the boat that more subtle (and not so subtle) differences became more apparent. At the top of the annoyance list, the smoking! French people smoke like it's good for you, and I'm not exaggerating. First you need your get up and go cigarette around 6:30am, then there are your after meal cigarettes, your late morning and late afternoon cigarettes, and your winding down getting ready for bed cigarettes. I am all for live and let live, but the close quarters meant that we were often, if not always, inhaling second-hand smoke.

Another less annoying cultural difference with greater novelty value was the French bathing habits. There were only a few luxury cabins with interior bathrooms, so most of the 53 passengers had to share the public toilets and shower stalls located around the boat. There were lots of French passengers of a certain age showering in pairs, walking around in towels, and generally showing a lot more skin than one might see in a group of American retirees. Viva la difference!

Given the age, language, and cultural differences between our group of seven and the rest of the passengers we pretty much kept to ourselves. Early in the cruise we claimed a table for seven in the dining room, and it seemed that most other passengers also sat with the same crowd every night. This system seemed to be working just fine until the night when we arrived for dinner and found a group of three sitting at our table. No worries, we picked another table and settled in for dinner.

Unbeknownst to us, the domino effect would send our new table's former occupants to a table where they would be firmly rebuffed, which began what is now known as the "international incident." There was cursing, huffing and puffing, anti-American insults, and even threatening throat-slashing gestures as the displaced party stomped around the dining room. They even went so far as to threaten not to pay their week's bar tab (a hefty amount, I'm sure) if they did not get their original table back.

The cruise staff calmly explained that there were no reserved tables on board, and ironically the offended party of six had to break bread with the original offenders, the party of three that had taken our table in the first place. We weren't quite sure whether to be amused or offended, but at the very least we were falsely accused since we were table refugees ourselves.

Lest you think that anti-American spirit won the day, our fellow passengers made it clear that "fraternite" would persevere. One woman came over to our table immediately and in an apologetic whisper said, "don't worry, we're not all like that." Other folks made jokes with us at the expense of the offensive six. The clearest indication of our fellow passengers' feelings was the pariah-status that the group of six came to occupy. While everyone was coolly polite, no one took any meals with them for the duration of the cruise.

And so the cruise ended without further hostilities. But I think I can speak for the rest of the group when I say we were all relieved to get back to the real Senegal where we understand the cultural values, social habits, and local mores so much better. So much for the civilizing mission.

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