So, traveling in Senegal kinda sucks. In America I am a huge supporter of public transportation. I used to work on a train outside of Cleveland. I was also happy to take a grey hound from Cleveland up to beautiful New Hampshire, even though It took me 27 hours, and a layover in NYC's Port Authority, where I met some very colorful characters (one of whom told me that he stole a bullet proof vest, a shotgun, and a tazer from a police car a few years back). I tend to enjoy the scenery on those long excursions, and I get to experience a different part of America. However in America the planes, trains, and automobiles are all set to schedules. very strict schedules which of course sometimes have delays. Of course when delays happen, you know that it is happening, and you know when to expect the transportation vehicle to arrive. You are also told your own estimated time of arrival for your designated destination. So you know when you will depart and when you will arrive from any given destination. this system is fantastic, although there is some organization issues with it, the system is still wonderful. One more thing to add about the greatness** of Americas public transportation system is that the places that you have to wait for things like trains, and bus's are all inside.
So, Senegal is very different and it kinda sucks. To begin, the roads are bad. they are bad because stupid NGOs and Governmental organization dumped a bunch of money into the country and built roads without any sense of how Senegal is going to do maintenance. So a road that is built up real nice one year, may fall apart after 3 and will never be repaired until another NGO or something comes in and dumps a bunch of money again. the potholes are tremendous. what is interesting though is that many of the dirt roads in the country are much better than the paved roads. I sometimes don't understand the need for so many paved roads when they are many times more dangerous than the dirt roads. Then there is the vehicles themselves. There are two kinds; the 7-place, and the Al-ham. A 7-place (french place so it is pronounced pl-ah-ss) is a broken down station wagon with tacky stickers that range from an american flag giving a thumbs up, and pictures of Barack Obama, to stickers that show the image of Osama Bin Laden with a military jet in the background with the caption "Osama Bin Ladens" (Many times the Obama, and Osama stickers will be right next to each other. Things can get confusing) A 7-place is called a 7-place because that is how many people are supposed to fit inside. Although it was made for 6 people, sometimes as many as 20 people will ride upon/inside one of these vehicles. sometimes the windows work, the AC is just a button to make the car look fancy, and the upholstery is in pieces. many times the car will not start right away, sometimes there is no key, sometimes the key falls out while the car is in motion, sometimes the key is actually a screwdriver that the driver uses with the engine. For luggage, you must bargain with the driver for a good price. The Al-hams are very similar but they range in size from the VW mini bus-like thing 20 person van, to a much larger 40 person van/bus thing. you can put cows on top! there are five people per row no matter what. there is no aisle, instead they put in a seat with hinges so that people can sit right in the middle. These vehicles will stop wherever you want them too, and they will. and they will stop for anyone on the side of the road. What should have been a two hour trip can quickly turn into a five hour trip in one of these. One of the worst parts about this kind of transportation is that you could be squished between two very large people with no AC and limited wind for hours at a time. You never know when a vehicle will be leaving. There are no schedules. The cars leave when they have been filled with people. if there aren't enough people, the car does not leave. you need to know the day of the week and where weekly markets are to help with your decision on when to go to the garage. For instance I know that there is a huge weekly market every wednesday, so for me traveling that direction on wednesdays is really easy for me to do. but on a saturday, it may take hours of waiting in a garage for me to get into a car, because no one has to travel. I work in a village 40km away (25 miles) and it could take me anywhere between 1-5 hours for me to get there. I could be waiting all morning in the garage, or there could be many stops along the way or both. Also if you plan on traveling in Senegal, make sure to use the bathroom before going anywhere. there are no rest stops on the side of the road, and the bathrooms at the garages are nasty.
-Mike
**it should be noted that Americas transportation system kinda sucks because it doesn't have high speed rail. This is a huge flaw in the American transportation system that needs to be addressed.
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