Riots in the Streets and Seafood in Tanks

This morning I had made plans to go with friends to a market to buy some fabric in order to have some African outfits made. So at around 11am, I headed out to find a taxi in order to meet them there. The first taxi I talked to gave me a high price and told me there were problems at the HLM Market I wanted to go to, he said there were police everywhere. I didn't believe him, but he insisted on it being a bad situation and he said that's why he was charging so much for the taxi ride. I turned him down, and stopped the next taxi, who gave me the regular price. We made our way to the market, and as suspected, nothing was wrong with it when we got there. My friends were stuck in traffic cause they were trying to get out of downtown to come to the market, so I wandered around the market trying to waste some time while waiting for them. I decided to give them a call, so I took a side street out of the market to a more residential area which was (A) quieter, and (B) a less likely area for someone to try to steal my cell phone. So after talking to them I was chilling by the side of a house waiting for them to show up. A Senegalese guy came up and started talking to me, and he turned out to be very nice and didn't ask me if I was married and didn't tell me that he was looking for a good wife. His mother walked by a few minutes later, so I met her as well. I quickly found out that I had met him before the last time I was at the market because a friend of mine almost bought fabric from him, but I didn't mention that to him. Anyway, he kept me company for a few minutes until my friends arrived and told me that if I wanted to buy fabric I should stop by his mother's shop.

Once Sandra and Maria arrived, we started wandering around trying to find good deals on fabrics and wrap-skirts. We had been there about 20 minutes when Sandra's phone rang. It was one of our friends asking where we were and telling us that there were riots downtown and that people had set Sandaga Market (the biggest downtown market) on fire. He said that it was university students protesting the government's action of kicking out all illegal vendors from the streets. So he warned us not to go downtown and said the mass of people was probably going to march back towards the university which is a few suburbs over from my house, but in the opposite direction from where we were. So he said we were more than likely safe where we were. A few minutes later my phone rang. It was the coordinator of my language school telling me that classes had been cancelled and we should probably stay home. We, on the other hand, continued to shop. We knew that if anything were to arise, we had a straight shot home in a direction away from the riots, downtown, and the university. I bought the fabric I needed and the other girls got what they were looking for. Towards the end of that there was a buzz in the marketplace… something was going on but no one was really saying anything. We decided it was probably a good idea to start heading out. Maria's boyfriend called because he was worried about us, he had been downtown and had a lot of trouble getting out of downtown due to all the commotion. As we made our way to the main street, people started rushing around the market; not everyone, but some. Some people were frantically closing up shop, others were peering in the opposite direction that we were walking. I kept looking back, but couldn't see anything aside from a police vehicle, which isn't a big deal and was more of a security measure. As we got closer to the main road, more and more people were rushing around, but again, some people were just sitting there with all their merchandise out still trying to make sales. When we reached the main road, we could see thick smoke in the distance downtown. The street in front of the market is always chaotic, but this time empty taxis wouldn't even stop for us, so we could tell that people were getting nervous. We made our way down the street in the opposite direction of downtown trying to get past all the car rapides to find an area where a taxi would have room to pull over. A guy came up to us with car keys in his hand and said he had a taxi, so we started following him (that sounds sketchy, but it's normal in Dakar; there will be groups of taxi cars parked somewhere with the drivers sitting around them, and they'll send one person out to call people over to them). But before we reached his group of taxis Maria got a taxi to pull over for us, the guy who had been leading us to the other ones told us "it's important to get in the car and leave," and we did so. There was nothing unusual or strange in any of the neighborhoods we drove through on the way home. The kids at my house said they saw things on television about the riots. But there's nothing on now, so I'm waiting to see the 8pm news.

After I stopped home, we headed out to Almadies to have lunch and relax away from the chaos that is downtown today. Afterwards, we went to a small little business on the coast which collects crabs, lobster, fish, and all sorts of sea creatures that people buy to eat. My friends have been there before, so the nice old Senegalese man who runs the place gave us a little tour. He showed us "today's catch" which was still live and in cages in the water. He pulled the things up out of their cages to show us. There wasn't much today but there were some of the strangest crabs that I've ever seen, including one that kept splashing and getting us wet. The man was so nice talking all about his best customers who always come down to chat with him, because the actual shop is closer to the street and not right on the coast where he works. There was a cut-up watermelon on a table in the room and of course he told us to "come and eat" with him and the others, the Senegalese hospitality as always. It looked good of course, but we politely declined. He also collects shells and sells them to the women who make and sell necklaces. I'm going to go back and visit sometime hoping that next time all the cages will be full so there will be a lot to see.