Sucker

One of my colleagues was in Dakar about a month ago, and he said the worst thing by far was the number of hawkers/hustlers who would mob him every time he left his hotel. So I was sort of expecting that, but since I'm actually staying on the outskirts of the city I thought maybe it wouldn't be such a problem. So this afternoon I decided I needed to finally leave the hotel grounds (I've been working all day) to walk just down the street to Pointe des Almadies, which is supposedly the westernmost point of the African continent. Sure enough, I wasn't more than a minute off the hotel grounds when I was met by Abdullah. He was of course glad to meet an American, loves Americans, Bill Clinton visited Senegal, let me give you this necklace and bracelet as a "gift", why don't you give me a 10000CFA note instead a 1000CFA note so I can make change for you, I'm Muslim and will pray over it, tomorrow I'm going to kill a goat for my village in honor of my son and the American ambassador will be there, please come try this restaurant, can I take you to my father's market just up the street here? And so on.

It was sort of irritating but I figured, you know what? That's just part of the experience. I mean, I'm walking around wearing a bracelet for the One campaign to end extreme poverty, so I'm feeling a little silly about getting too worked up about someone who obviously has a hustle going, but I have a feeling he's not exactly getting rich off it. And he was an interesting character. So in the end I was a sucker and gave him the 10000CFA note (about $18, but I got some cheap necklaces out of it--honey, I'm bringing you a present!). Needless to say, he didn't offer to pray over it or make change like he originally offered, and he actually asked me for another 1000CFA to buy a coke, but even a sucker like me has limits. So now I've seen the westernmost point in Africa and I've made a new friend. But I don't know how I'm going to deal with it if I go into town tomorrow and the crowds are even more aggressive...