The Thiès Market

We had most of the weekend off a few weekends ago. More than half the PCTs went to Dakar to explore the city. I stayed in Thiès to get caught up on emails, blogging, save money, and explore the Thiès market. I wanted to buy a couple more significant gifts for my host family since we would be going back to the village for the last time the next Monday. I wasn’t all that excited to go into the market on Sunday because it was really hot, I didn’t feel super confident with my Wolof, and I didn’t want to have to barter. But to my great surprise, I actually had a really great time in the market. I was able to use my Wolof well and most of the people selling things were really happy to talk with us about simple things like the heat and (very basically) our work here in Senegal. I also really liked bartering – it is definitely a culture thing here and most people really seem to like it. Both the guy I bought my fabric from and the guy I bought the radio for my family from were really excited when I started talking with them in Wolof and even more excited when I started legitimately bartering with them. It is a game for sure – and in these cases, it was a fair tie in the game since I was able to barter down to a reasonable price for each thing.