Last week in Dakar

Dakar is an assault of smells. In the morning I exit my hotel and walk towards the hospital. On the way, there is the aroma of onions grilled with meat, fresh bread, and sometimes, if the wind blows a certain way, the water. Unfortunately, there is also the smell of urine, body odors, and dust (yes, dust has a smell). Worst of all, I can never seem to escape the clouds of cigarette smoke. In a country in which the dominant forms of cancer in men are in the prostate, liver, and lungs, it seems that refraining from smoking is such an easy way to eliminate one of those three risks. It's such an expensive habit, makes you age faster, ruins your teeth, and exposes you to a variety of other illnesses! I'm changing hotel rooms tomorrow because I am next door to two repulsive men who spend their entire waking hours smoking. The smoke seeps into my room and despite opening all the windows, I can't get rid of it. One of them shaved his chest, and threw a handful of scraggly man hair into the hall way because for some reason the trash can was not a good enough destination--actually, I'm not even sure if it was from his chest, his chest happened to be bare, but maybe the hair was from elsewhere. How disgusting. I guess since they are French they have access to universal health care, so at least they won't have to pay as much for cancer treatment; maybe it's worth the risk to them.

I like Senegal, and have met many wonderful people here, but I'm not a huge fan of Dakar. Taiwan is a dirty city too, where everyone smokes, but I guess I put up with Taiwan because it's the home of my family. And, Taiwan has amazing food, awesome shopping, and it is very safe. I guess Dakar has great food and shopping too, but here I'm a foreigner, and have to make an effort to avoid ridiculously inflated prices every day. In Taiwan, no one can tell I'm a foreigner (if I keep my mouth shut), so I guess it's a lot easier to blend in. I was showing some of my photos from traveling to one of the girls at the cancer ward, and she said, "New York is beautiful. California is beautiful. Spain is beautiful. Amsterdam is beautiful. Everywhere is beautiful, except for Senegal."

"No, Senegal is beautiful too," I said hurriedly, but it took a while for me to think up of what is beautiful about Senegal. Indeed, parts of Senegal are beautiful--Cassamance, for example. There are also some impressive dunes to the North--and Ile Goree is splendid. Dakar also has some lovely beaches.

I'm really happy with how the work has been going here, but I'm ready to go home--to the USA, land where smoking is banned in all indoor establishments.