première semaine ici // first week here

I'm in Dakar, Sénégal. Look at a map and pick the western-most point of Africa, that's Dakar. This is a big city, 2 or 3 million people. As with any big city, there's every walk of life here... children beg in the streets and flashy European cars rush by, in front of chic jazz clubs there may be a donkey grazing, in a restaurant a coffee costs 3 or 4 dollars and just outside you can buy a cup on the street for a quarter...

I have an internship with Manobi, a social enterprise comany:

http://www.manobi.net


I'll be working here and in Tambacounda - a rural region where farmers collect Laloo mbepp, a type of gum harvested from Stericula trees. People here eat the gum to aid digestion, but the majority of the crop is exported to the EU and USA for use in the food and pharmaceutical industries.


Ever wonder what the gel coating on our pills is made of?




I'm staying with my boss until i find an apartment ici//here (its difficult to type in english while thinking an speaking in french...) My boss, Daniel Annerose is great, very charismatic, and speaks english - which is a plus when i am totally lost for words en français.