Climbing stuff

I don’t know what it is that makes us want to climb to high places, maybe it’s the way we seem to want to locate ourselves within a locale, to find out where we fit in the geography of a place. So it came to be that I was drawn to the top of one of Dakar's downtown hotels on a regular day on my way to my new stage (internship) at the AP. Downtown Dakar is definitely a place I avoided last semester simply put I couldn't handle the push of the crowds. I knew there was a lot to be had en ville but I managed to find ways to avoid going usually by finding a vendor closer by or asking someone else to pick me up something. Now with my thrice-weekly trek au mon travail (job) I'm becoming more familiar with its workings, the layout, the wares of vendors, the main forms of public transpo (you can take the number 10 bus from Fann, the white car rapides from Sacre Coeur 3, or the blue bus 7 or Ligne 9 on the white bus from Ouakam). Giving myself a rest, I escaped into the elevator and before I knew it I was 16 floors up with only buildings and sea, if I wanted. I wasn't the first to discover the top of Hotel Independence and I can only say je veux te remercier for the secret. Finding tranquil places in Dakar is no easy task, especially in the thick of downtown, but it's that calming quiet you get, that feeling of being above it all, of just seeing the foggy bustle, but not having to be apart of it--not just yet anyway--a few more moments propped against the sidewall staring at the train tracks to Mali, the ocean, horizon of buildings, the people jiving and haggling down below. And then taking one deep breath and plunging into it again.