First time back in Senegal in about a decade. The last time I was here, I traveled to Goree island and bought a necklace for this girl I was dating and really really liked. This time I decided I would go back to the island and buy a necklace for my daughter so she could have one just like mommy’s. Life is crazy.
The first time I went to Goree island, I was a bit stunned. You wait in the ferry terminal, and all the while locals are chatting you up saying, “oh, I have a shop on the island—you should come by”. You give a noncommittal response and figure that’s the last you’ll see of them. But, like most tours, they are designed to exit through the gift shop, through a cluster of these shops, where all these women who were so polite at the ferry terminal and on the boat become incredibly aggressive in trying to sell you refrigerator magnets. They follow you, harass you, and ask you “why aren’t you buying from me? don’t you like my face?”
This time I was prepared for them. And as people started chatting us up in the ferry terminal i’d say “Let me guess . . . you have a shop you’d like us to visit?”, and I even told one of them preemptively that I wouldn’t be buying from them because I didn’t like her face. She laughed and respected that I understood the game.
As the saying goes “don’t put in what you’re not willing to lose”, I traveled light, with just the Nikon Zf and the 24-70 f/2.8 lens.
