Food & Safety

Some people have emailed me certain questions about life here. I thought you all might find the answers interesting…

There are, for lack of a better word, normal grocery stores here. The nicer ones are French style and considered expensive by the typical Senegalese person (on par with American and UK prices). They look like a grocery store you would find back home – clean, bright, and more importantly, air-conditioned. You can even buy luxuries like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. A small pint is around 10 US dollars!

Then you have the local markets. Bustling, vibrant, often smelly places where you bargain and wind through narrow walkways to acquire goods. The prices are cheaper, and most people have domestic help who shop at the markets in order to get good prices. As a Tubaab (remember this word?) it’s very difficult to get fair prices in the markets.

Senegal is a peaceful African country. I walk to and from school every day on my own, and I feel safe. I admit I’m a bit of a chicken, and thought I would be scared living here, but the people aren't intimidating. Some people stare at me a bit when I’m out and about, but not often. A smile goes a long way…and I pass a lot of them out for free. Sometimes I’ll see someone looking at me in a somewhat serious way, and I’ll smile. More often than not, an answering smile comes back, and I follow up with a greeting. What looked like a furrowed brow was just someone studying someone else. It wasn’t meant to look menacing.

We’ve been told there are a few choice streets to avoid downtown (I live about 10 min. outside of downtown), but it's otherwise fairly safe around. Senegal has a low crime rate as a country. The streets are constantly buzzing... Everyone has a guard for their house or apartment building, so people are always on the street watching out for places and possessions.