Purely by chance, I am in Dakar on a national holiday -- Labor Day is May day or May 1st in this part of the world. I took some pictures of a parade with beautifully dressed people. Lots of music and dancing in the streets.
The meeting was at a nice hotel named Hotel Al Afifa. Nice hotel with an African feel. Interestingly, even though the walk from my hotel would have only been 15 minutes, my cab driver had no clue how to get there and we finally got there after 40 minutes after we had asked just about every other person in Dakar for directions. I think I could have found it faster using my map than he could by asking.
The conference is going well. People actually showed good interest in my work, and a couple of the people know Leon. I also heard interesting work on Ascaris and Schistosomiasis. Remind me to tell you stories about beatches and hygenic bathing. We had dinner at a fantastic Senegalese restaurant for $5. To my delight they use habaneros and habanero sauce generously here. Tasty!
The French keyboard here in Senegal is also driving me nuts. Everything takes three times as long to type.
I`ve got some pics in the photo gallery.
