Shopping in Dakar

I used to think that clothing store staff in the United States hassled shoppers too much. Obviously, I had never been to Dakar.

Today I decided to go shopping, as I lost a white shirt I brought with me during our first week here. Having brought a very limited quantity of clothes, I missed this shirt a lot especially because not having it meant I couldn’t wear a dress I brought. Since I was downtown for my French class, Ewan suggested we go to Sandaga Market, which is I think the busiest, most touristy market in Dakar. As we began wondering the streets of Sandaga, wearing our backpacks in front and trying to sneak past the numerous men hassling us constantly, I noticed that all of the clothing stands seemed to sell men’s clothing only. We eventually asked someone where we could find women’s clothes. He led us into a shop which sold only men’s clothes, had us sit down and wait while he went to find what I was looking for. Apparently, you can’t exactly browse in Sandaga. The first person you describe what you want to will do what he can to find it while you wait, meaning getting many other sellers involved. As we waited, men brought in white shirt after white shirt. The first was too thick, so the next one was a very thin XL kids t-shirt. They brought shirts glittering with rhinestones, shirts with ridiculous buttons, shirts in every color of the rainbow even though they knew I wanted white only! Eventually when nothing worked and I was convinced I wouldn’t find a white shirt, we were led to another place and went through the same ordeal there, looking at shirt after shirt, led to a third place with many more shirts, and when I was about to give up someone finally showed up with a plain white, fitted women’s shirt. It seems that every western clothing item for women here is size small, so as the shirt was too small, I realized I wouldn’t find anything better.

When I decided I wanted it, the next step was settling on a price. The crowd of men who had helped look for shirts now numbered around 10, and they all took part in this bargaining session. At this point, I had decided to buy 2 shirts, hoping that at least one of them would work, and they originally asked for the equivalent of $48. For 2, cheap, small, plain, boring t-shirts. After much arguing (Ewan did this part), after we pretended to forget the whole thing and leave empty-handed, we settled on about $9 for both shirts.

By this time, I was famished and happy to find the first Lebanese restaurant I’ve been to yet here. I excitedly ate a falafel sandwhich, possibly my first vegetarian meal outside of my house, even though the sandwich consisted of about equal parts greasy french fry and deep-fried falafel. :)