DaCar Rapide

I’ve had a hard time writing my last blog post for my past four months in Senegal.  How do you properly describe and wrap up four of the most cultural, craziest, hilarious, confusing, emotional, and overall wonderful months of my life in one blog post.  Well thanks to my friend Clare and her awesome rap at our final dinner I have found my wrap up story and it comes in my favorite form of Dakar transportation, the Car Rapide. 

            If you haven’t heard me describe a Car Rapide here is the quick and dirty (fitting since sometimes Car Rapides are quick and dirty).  This is the main form of transportation I have used the past four months everyday.  It costs between 75 CFA-100 CFA (about 20 cents) to get most places in Dakar on a Car Rapide hence its frequent use by Senegalese and us cheap CIEE students.  As you can see from the picture above Car Rapides are very colorful and personally adorned by the driver both on the inside and out.  Most of the Cars have the word Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God) but besides that each Car Rapide has its own quirks whether it is posters of wrestlers, religious figures and the occasional Jay-Z poster on the inside walls, or hand made Mercedes symbols embroidered into the seats.  Car Rapide drivers put a lot of thought into their personal Car.  Each Car Rapide has seats for about 16 people but needless to say there are normally about 30 people in each car.  A final important feature of Car Rapides is the Apprenti who hangs off the back yelling the neighborhood where the Car Rapide is headed, in my case “Ouakam, Ouakam, Ouakam.”  Apprenti’s like the Cars themselves always have their own quirks but their common feature is wearing clear jelly shoes, for traction purposes I suppose. 

            You are probably wondering at this point how this description of Car Rapides has anything to do with what should be my long drawn out reflection on these past four months, well here ya go…my past four months in Senegal have been a constant Car Rapide ride.  Not literally (although I have spent a lot of time on this form of transport) instead I see Car Rapides as a sort of microcosm to Senegal as a whole, and my experience here.  

First and foremost the sheer vibrant and colorful nature of each Car Rapide directly mirrors not only the colorful vibrant fabrics worn by Senegalese, but also the lively nature of Senegalese people in general.  Senegalese people are some of the loudest, animated, intrusive and energetic people I have ever met which can be seen in each Car Rapide as you climb into the Car and the idea of “personal space” completely disappears.  I remember my first Car Rapide ride I was literally sitting on a woman, but she had kindly (as all Senegalese do) told me to sit.  After four months this constant lack of personal space has become normal to me because in Senegal everyone is your family so who needs that extra legroom, or an actual seat right? 

On the Car Rapide you may find yourself sitting next to a woman with a baby wrapped on her back, a man coming back from the office in a suit, or the ever present middle aged women decked out in fabulous mumus talking to each other across the Car.  Similarly, in Senegal you can find people from all walks of life.  Every type of Senegalese person rides the Car Rapide and I have loved observing all types of Senegalese people crammed into a small Car Rapide everyday. 

The final similarity I can draw between Car Rapides and my time in Senegal is the constant hissing.  This shocked us at first as we were literally hissed at everywhere we went, and it was no different on the Car Rapide.  The Apprenti, in order to grab your attention hisses “sicanap pass” (pass the money) to each Car Rapide rider.  Of course there are days when constantly hearing “psssssssssssssttttt, toubab” have bothered me over the past four months, but I realized that this cultural difference just reflects the Senegalese desire to get to know us.  Sure a hiss can oftentimes just be making fun of a toubab, but most of the time it is an “invitation” to strike up a conversation and make a friend.  Therefore, don’t be surprised if I hiss at you next time I see you, as it has become a constant attention grabber in my life.

            Stepping into a Car Rapide, especially for the first time can be terrifying and overwhelming, just like my first weeks in Senegal.  You never know if you will have a seat, or whom you will meet.  However, my neighborhood is the last stop on the route and so by the end my friends and I are always comfortably sitting, looking out the windows and enjoying the breeze. 

When I first arrived in Senegal it was hard to imagine that I would feel at home in this crowded city of 3 million people, the constant coastline, lots of trash, loud and energetic people, interesting smells, sounds and interactions, and especially riding the Car Rapide everyday.  Nevertheless, now I love the feeling of zipping through Dakar in a Car Rapide, from the moment I jump onto the small, crazy car until I descend onto Ouakam, the neighborhood I have come to love.  As I get ready to leave Senegal after four months I can safely say I am now sitting in my favorite seat of the Car Rapide, comfortably looking out over Dakar and enjoying the breeze.