Comments on: Around town with Sidi Ali

By: Navi

Navi — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:14:10 +0000

I like how that guy gave you the ominous “Africa is dangerous” message & you simply wrote it off instead of letting it get to you. lol.

By: slr

slr — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:34:30 +0000

Reading your blog makes me feel a little envious as well as inspired.

Keep the spirit Peter! ;)

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:29:31 +0000

Enjoying the trip and the blogs. Would like to see more video blogs if poss, but not sure how much connection you have. Fascinating all the same! Keep up the good work!

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:02:03 +0000

Thanks Sidi. The houses here in St Louis truly are by the beach. The people in Senegal have a different relationship with the sea.

By: Mohamed Sidi Ali Francois

Mohamed Sidi Ali Francois — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:33:56 +0000

Hey Peter, I liked the article that you wrote about Nouakchott but I need to correct few facts: My house is exactly 655 meters from the ocean and the closest houses to the beach are SOCOGIM, and they are 300 meters. I used the meter of my car yesterday to measure the distances. Bon voyage Sidi Ali

By: JT

JT — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:25:08 +0000

Welcome to the real West Africa, Peter! Expect very similar in Senegal, including the odd pairing of very old traditions with modern technologies.

The cards are sold on the roadside for two reasons:
1) A matter of convenience. You can buy them whenever and wherever you run out.
2) They have no other gainful occupation.

Of course, Orange is thrilled to have pre-sold so many minutes. In Dakar traffic, you’ll see many more like that, and people selling everything and anything cheap along the congested highway traffic. Q-tips, sunglasses, cookies, auto products… almost all Chinese crap. As I’ve mentioned before, the Chinese were welcomed in Africa simply because they were not the Europeans who had colonized.

Enjoy the journey. At least in Senegal you can get a truly cold Coke! :)