Yesterday I visited an orphange and refugee...place with my public health class.
The orphanage accepts children who have been abandoned or children whos parents are curently too sick to take care of them. Parents who send their children to what I felt was a fuckign nice facility (nicest thing Ive seen in Dakar thus far) pay 10,000 CFAs a month or 5,000 CFAs if they arent as financially equipped.
The refugee... facility (sorry for the lack of a proper title) that we visited takes roughly 25 kids at a time. When we visited, there were 27 kids on the housing list. The kids have arrived at the door asking for what is basically asylum for one reason or another, but for the most part they have run away from their (most likely corrupt) Marabou (Islamic teacher/caretaker).
While we were there, a riot broke out in the streets. We were taking a tour of the place and just so happened to be on the top floor by a window when chaos first started to ensue. At first, I saw a lot of men running in one direction. Then, a truck came to an abrupt stop right before our building and some men jumped out of the back bed (it was a pickup truck) while others fell out. It wasn't a gentle tumble off the pickup truck so much as them falling so fard no their sides that I gasped outloud and almost even screamed.
I dont know if the truck was shipping people to riot or if the men getting out of the truck were trying to run from the riot. All I know is that my attention was quickly diverted to the sound of rocks ebing thrown at the building two or three down from us. In the streets, fights were breaking out and an increasing amount of really, really large rocks (arguably large concrete slabs) were being thrown. People were yelling at each other while others were screaming and running in fear.
A guard came fairly quickly and took a baton and beat a man. Then more guards came and the crowd dispersed some. A lot ran down this ally-way diagonal from the building in which we were standing. A guard stood at that entrance while a continuous stream of rocks were being thrown at him. He eventually vanished nito the direction from which the rocks came from only to be replaced by an emerging white smoke.
All the bystanders beneath our building at ground level started to cough and cover their faces; I assule that that guard sprayed tear gas. Once the cloud thinned out some, all the vendors came back and started setting up shop.
Then, the rioting men came back. This time, they started throwing rocks at the building next to us. It was so close that we backed away from teh window in fear of getting hit by a stray. Then the swat team came in.
All this rioting apparently was over a community soccer game. The losing team was throwing rocks at the side of teh street of the winning team. Apparently the street divided the two rivalring quartiers.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Shana and Allison, too, were caught in the middle of a riot. Theres was a bit more severe from the sounds of it. People were lighting things on fire to protest the constant power outages.
The orphanage accepts children who have been abandoned or children whos parents are curently too sick to take care of them. Parents who send their children to what I felt was a fuckign nice facility (nicest thing Ive seen in Dakar thus far) pay 10,000 CFAs a month or 5,000 CFAs if they arent as financially equipped.
The refugee... facility (sorry for the lack of a proper title) that we visited takes roughly 25 kids at a time. When we visited, there were 27 kids on the housing list. The kids have arrived at the door asking for what is basically asylum for one reason or another, but for the most part they have run away from their (most likely corrupt) Marabou (Islamic teacher/caretaker).
While we were there, a riot broke out in the streets. We were taking a tour of the place and just so happened to be on the top floor by a window when chaos first started to ensue. At first, I saw a lot of men running in one direction. Then, a truck came to an abrupt stop right before our building and some men jumped out of the back bed (it was a pickup truck) while others fell out. It wasn't a gentle tumble off the pickup truck so much as them falling so fard no their sides that I gasped outloud and almost even screamed.
I dont know if the truck was shipping people to riot or if the men getting out of the truck were trying to run from the riot. All I know is that my attention was quickly diverted to the sound of rocks ebing thrown at the building two or three down from us. In the streets, fights were breaking out and an increasing amount of really, really large rocks (arguably large concrete slabs) were being thrown. People were yelling at each other while others were screaming and running in fear.
A guard came fairly quickly and took a baton and beat a man. Then more guards came and the crowd dispersed some. A lot ran down this ally-way diagonal from the building in which we were standing. A guard stood at that entrance while a continuous stream of rocks were being thrown at him. He eventually vanished nito the direction from which the rocks came from only to be replaced by an emerging white smoke.
All the bystanders beneath our building at ground level started to cough and cover their faces; I assule that that guard sprayed tear gas. Once the cloud thinned out some, all the vendors came back and started setting up shop.
Then, the rioting men came back. This time, they started throwing rocks at the building next to us. It was so close that we backed away from teh window in fear of getting hit by a stray. Then the swat team came in.
All this rioting apparently was over a community soccer game. The losing team was throwing rocks at the side of teh street of the winning team. Apparently the street divided the two rivalring quartiers.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Shana and Allison, too, were caught in the middle of a riot. Theres was a bit more severe from the sounds of it. People were lighting things on fire to protest the constant power outages.
I dont have any pictures from this day, so instead, ill put up random other things.
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