Sunday in Dekar

What a day! We started with a trip to the African Renaissance Monument- check it out!

The African Renaissance Monument is a 52m tall bronze statue located outside of Dakar. Built overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and pointing toward the statue of Liberty, the statue was designed by the Senegalese architect Pierre Goudiaby after an idea presented by president Wade and built by a company from North Korea. Why North Korea? The tour guide told us that the North Koreans are excellent at building statues because communist states build a lot of them...The formal dedication occurred in 2010. It is the tallest statue in the world- 3m higher than the Statue of Liberty. North Korean workers live in a nearby commmunity-they maintain the statue and while working on it, they enclose their activity so as not to be visible by anyone. In fact, only 6 Senegalese workers were employed during the building of the monument. 

You can't come all the way to Dekar without visiting the fabric market- beautiful!

After returning to the hotel for a quick respit, we then took off to break fast (it's Ramadan, the month long time of fasting for Muslims which is about 95% of Senegal's population) with Emily, her husband and our drivers. Emily is a friend of Amy's and an MSU PhD student. The evening continued with dinner at a local restaurant called "The Nice People". As our dinner was being prepared the neighborhood electricity went out- the generator was also broken- so we were served and ate by candlelight. It was midnight by the time we arrived back at the hotel. What a day.