Musée D'Ifan et autres choses

So yesterday we went downtown to the Musée d'IFAN West African art museum. We had an assignment to choose a piece of art and then research/write about it. Of course I was excited, being an art history major/museum enthusiast and all. Plus, I know a lot about west african art from the seminar I took on it last year so I couldn't wait to see how they presented it.

The museum is a weird mix between some hokey looking diaramas and dusty glass cases shoved up against the walls. And it's really small. Like really really really small. It took us less than an hour and a half to get through the whole thing. The collection is pretty extensive, but very poorly presented. They had a special collection that took up the entire second floor, but it felt like the pieces were placed very haphazardly. You couldn't even see some of the work because there was no lighting in some areas!

My friend Caulder and I ended up having a long discussion about museum theory and cultural differences...I almost became more interested in the museum itself rather than the artwork there. He brought up an interesting point, that maybe since Senegal is used to preserving history in an oral fashion, museums aren't really their thing. Unlike americans, they don't feel the need to preserve old material things. I've recognized this in other parts of Senegal, like architecture. People don't like to try and repair slash maintain their houses- they'd rather tear it down and build a new one.

After the museum, we all came back to SIT for lunch and to do some work. We've been mostly going to these restos that serve very american/european fare like pizza, hamburgers and omlettes. I definitely enjoy eating there, especially when I'm getting sick of fish and rice...but now I'm kind of getting sick of their food too. So I convinced some people to come check out this Ethiopian restaurant I had seen while on our way to one of our favorite eateries, La Gondole. The food ended up being really good, if a little pricey. But the atmostphere was really chill, and the place was really nice and colorful. After we finished our lunch, the owner took us upstairs to the roof. It was this really awesome lounging area, with a bar and colorful pillows for sitting and tons of plants. Apparently they have music and dancing there on the weekend, so I think we're going to check it out sometime soon.

Speaking of music and dancing, last night a bunch of people from my group ventured out to a bar/boîte that's called Le Mex. A bunch of people had passed by it when they first visited downtown Dakar and were excited to go because it's supposed to have kareoke. Turns out the only things that are there are old white men and skinny prositutes. We ended up making our own fun and dancing to the club music, but it was a really bizzare scene. Good news was, we foudn two amazing hamburger joints near by. See, hamburgers in Senegal are a bit different than in the US. Here, a hamburger consists of a bun, a patty, cheese, and egg, fries, onions, mayonnaise and ketchup. They're pretty frickin intense, but definitely delicious- even for someone who rarely eats red meat.

So now I'm chilling at SIT, studying for a wolof test on monday and writing a cultural essay for tuesday. We don't have a whole lot of work here, which is sort of weird for me....but I'm a little glad. I'm already being overwhelmed culturally so I'm not sure if I could handle my regular workload. But I guess it's time I start working on that stuff....

ba bennen yoon!