We get up and packed and I ask Mamadu if he’s hungry and wants to eat something. “No, airport” he says – clearly he’s concerned about my ticket that I couldn’t get confirmed yesterday. We travel on our way and he says “TACV” (which means the airline office, not at the airport) but I inform him that I had found our ticket. So, we head to the airport to check in. Unlike yesterday, I have no problem checking in at all, I have my boarding pass in hand (paper ticket), but Joe is having problems. He doesn’t have anything on him proving his ticket because it was a paper ticket. He eventually gets by, but we were informed that we should have known to print out our ticket beforehand because the Bissau airport doesn’t have computers, so they can’t look up the electronic ticket via a passport, for example. Yes, this place is really THAT poor! Finally we check in and head to get breakfast. We get gypped for nearly 20 USD but are quickly compensated when we bring it up to management. It was a frustrating morning. Joe had even started to lose his cool from time to time but I tried to remind him that TIA and you have to just go along with it. But, on the way to the airport we had to take a shortcut due to traffic through the villages and we got to see a bunch of naked children playing in the rain and mud. That was quite amusing.
We got safely into Dakar today and made sure to be aware of our surroundings and anyone who could possibly try to con us, again. Countless guys asked to help us “why not, why not, no problem, I work at the airport”. One guy even said “welcome, welcome, welcome” over and over to Joe and then actually asked for a tip before we got into the taxi. Priceless. Once we got settled I was determined to go to the French Cultural Institute for dinner which a co-worker who had studied in Dakar had recommended to me. Everything was great except for the beef that Joe had ordered, it was lined with cartilage and fat. I had also ordered beef (steak) and it was delicious – melt in your mouth delicious, probably one of the best steaks I had ever eaten! On our way to the restaurant, the put-put taxi (which you could see into the engine from the seats, by the way) took us to many of the popular tourist attractions, but really they were quite wonderful. The coastline was very pretty, so we stopped for many pictures. We went to the lighthouse, and to get some pictures of a beautiful mosque. The city looks very modern, and I can see how there can be many wonderful things to do here. It was a world of a difference from Guinea Bissau. Joe and I actually went a little overboard because the food was actually edible! It was very exciting to know you could actually eat something other than spaghetti and possibly still live. Went home and talked to Mom tonight, it was great to hear from her. More tomorrow, from Banjul!
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