Dakar Part 3

I spend most of the day working so for now, the only photos will be of restaurants. Maybe I'll get a chance to go to Goree Island over the weekend, but we'll see.

I did my first series of patient interviews today! We had a really great translator help us with Wolof (and sometimes French too). People here express a lot of appreciation and thank you for helping their country. I'm trying to think how Taiwanese people would respond if some foreigners came into their country for the purpose of reforming the health system. Somehow, I don't think they'd be as friendly about it. Americans would probably be even worse. Even here though, I think there is a lot of disillusionment, and justifiably so. They've had several organizations come to ask questions, and no change has actually happened. Unfortunately, change happens slowly in democracies. When you have a system that supposedly takes the people's opinion into account, there is bureaucracy and delay. It's frustrating, and even more so when there is no transparency.

Now if I were dictator of the world...there'd be global health care. I'd increase taxes on cigarettes, legalize marijuana, tax that too, and since I'm dictator of the entire world we don't need national armies, so all the funding that goes into that would be available as well. Imagine how many hospitals the budget for the US army alone could build. Free chemotherapy for everyone! 

But I digress. 

We were going to go to a Senegalese restaurant, but it was closed so we went to a Lebanese one instead. I know I've already talked about how good the food is, but I have to say it again. Oh my god. The food is so good here. If French food and soul food had a steamy affair, the love child would be Senegalese food. Actually, I haven't been eating traditional Senegalese food. The vegetables are slow cooked with butter and spices, and the meat is always tender and well seasoned (except for white meat chicken, that's been mediocre some times). I almost had street food today. Our interpreter bought this epic looking sandwich with grilled cubes of beef (from a skewer), onions, and french fries in it, with ketchup all over. I wanted to buy one too, but he advised that I wait until next week, when my stomach is more acclimated. 

After doing the interviews however, it's uncomfortable to realize how much I spend on food. I guess if you get bogged down on things like that it will be really hard to work in the human rights industry. I swing from getting extremely emotional about my work to being completely detached. 10,000 Senegalese Francs, or $20, buys one treatment of dialysis. It also buys lamb on rice, stewed with chunks of more lamb, and this crispy dessert that looks like a nest with a cloud of cream on top, sprinkled with pistachios. The restaurant we went to, Farid, is tricky. Instead of asking you if you want dessert, they bring out this tray of magnificence and ask if you would want anything from it. Of course, there are no prices on the tray and everything makes you want to pick it up with your bare hands and stuff it into your mouth. If I ever open a restaurant, I'm using this tactic too.