Hablas espanol?

As I mentioned in the post entitled “Home,” Spanish soap operas are the mainstay of Senegalese television. “La Mujer de Lorenzo” (Lorenzo’s Wife) is a primetime mainstay focused mainly on late twenty and early thirtysomethings working out their issues in Spain. Another favorite is “CLAP,” which focuses on a group of students at a performing arts high school and their families: one girl has a very ill mother, another is trying to get used to living with his older brother. Most of them are no more cheesy than American soap operas and are better dubbed in French. But then I saw the Mexican version of “Passions.” Not only do both series air around lunch, they both involve mysterious evil blond witches. I didn’t quite get the supernatural part until the end of the episode when she started levitating towards a man’s window, then changed from a yellow suit with shoulder pads (think Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl”) into a breezy white nightgown and a bad perm. This phenomenon begs the question: Are there no decent French soap operas which wouldn’t require the use of dubbing? However, television is not the only medium in which one sees Spanish. At the local gas station/convenience store/cybercafe/lifeline known as Elton’s, the orange juice comes labeled as “Néctar de Naranja – Sin Azúcar” (Orange Juice – No Sugar). The same information is repeated in small yellow letters at the bottom of the container on various sides in French, English, Italian, Portuguese, and Arabic. American hip-hop has also found a stronghold in Senegal. My cultural guide’s favorite artists were Akon and R. Kelly (Her: “Does he have problems in the US?” Me: “You might say that…”). Elton’s alternates Senegalese elevator music with 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop” and I spent an hour working out in an (un-air conditioned) gym, taking swigs from my massive water bottle while sweating to J. Lo’s “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” and Destiny’s Child “Say My Name!” Finally, I walk right past the Pakistani and Indonesian embassies on my way to and from school each day: the former is a gated compound, but the latter has a beautiful aviary full of Indonesian birds. Dakar is far more cosmopolitan that I could’ve ever imagined and is more so when you consider how many African ethnic groups mingle here (Wolof, Sereer, Pulaar, etc.).