I have yet to get a handle on some of the ironies of Senegal but I think they must contain some clue about the future of this place and just how it will develop. Take for instance the stark contrast between abject poverty in the streets and the number of flat screen tvs, dvd players, and fancy internet cafes throughout town. As I sat here writing in my local cybercafe with its sparkly floors, a group of three talibes dressed in dirty rags approached me with their rusty tomato sauce cans begging for un cadeaux. These boys are all over the place in Senegal. By day they beg for money that they give to the local marabout or Muslim teacher who then schools them in the Koran by night. They run between mercedes benzs and peugots with bare feet and sleep in the afternoon in the shade without so much as a mat to separate them from the dirt. They are as regular here as 90 degree afternoons.

Something else you can feel is the religious devotion of the people. Prayers are conducted five times a day and you often see groups of men facing east, shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk bending down to the ground in submission to Allah. The women are required to stand behind the men when they pray so as not to distract them by bending over and flauting the everpresent African butt or Jaayfonde as it is called here. It is incredibly important for women to have a big ass in Senegalese culture and if you dont, they try to force you to eat more rice and millet to fatten up.

So while religion and chastity are integral to the culture, jaayfonde and sex are everywhere too. The women where beads around their wastes called bin-bins to entice men while teenagers, boys and girls alike, can often be found looking at porn in the cybercafes.

The other day I hopped a ride on a charette or donkey driven cart to the market to buy a cell phone. The driver showed off his fancy Nokia to me, full of pictures of his son and yet again porn videos downloaded onto the phone.

The spirit of family and shared responsibility is huge here. If someone in your family needs help you are obligated to have them stay with you and take care of them. Doing otherwise would be an enormous social no no. And yet it is just this type of Senegalese hospitality or teranga, which at times seems at odds with the growing presence of capitalism. How can someone save money when if they make a regular salary their family and neighbors are always asking for help?