Nyool ak Weeh - Black and white

Since arriving here, there's been a sense of it being 'us and them'. Which is to say that as a result of Ramadan, when going around during the afternoon to a bakery or a restaurant, no one besides maybe a handful of french ex-pats and us would be there. This was felt even more so when going out at night to a bar, night club, jazz club or buying beer. You felt guilty and exposed while drinking or going out. All of that changed last night.

Places which had been all but left for dead were completely revived past their capacities. Caesar's, a quasi-fast-food restaurant nearby, had hundreds of Senegalese teenagers still dressed in their brightly colored boubous and dresses standing outside. Most seemed drunk, telling by the number of beer cans and whiskey bottles on the ground. At the store where we had been the only ones buying beer from for quite a while, the Senegalese pushed and shoved their way up to the register to buy their whiskey and cokes. It was very bizarre. All this time I'd had an impression of the Senegalese as reserved and those who simply like to let the time pass while drinking tea. Now, as it turns out, that's not quite correct. Drunk men barked in wolof at each other as a group of curious onlookers formed around them. The taxis were lined up around the block, honking and calling out for passengers. A number of people were pushing their cars down the street (supposedly because no one in Senegal ever checks how much fuel they have and everyone decided to drive that night) and both pedestrians and taxis made their way around where a car had hit a motorcycle. Both of the drivers were probably drunk.

What difference a day makes.