Le marché Sandaga

Last Wednesday I had my first full-on Dakar market experience. We didn’t have class on Wednesday morning so we took a taxi downtown to Sandaga. There was everything imaginable to buy there.

It didn’t take long for people to locate the foreigners. We soon had a group following us but they were nice. Later we found out that most of the group were sort of « tour guides » who would get a commission for bringing in shoppers. They also helped translate and help locate stores in random buildings so it actually worked to our advantage. We mainly spent time at a Wax store (the type of fabric most everything is made out of here). There was pretty much everything you could imagine tucked away.

Once I picked out what I wanted I had to discuss prices. The merchant started at 37 000 CFA but I truly only brought 15 000 CFA so that wasn’t going to work. My other friends were still shopping so I just decided to see what I could get. After a very long discussion, I eventually got everything I wanted for 15 000 CFA (I know I still overpaid), but it was satisfying nonetheless. I will for sure be going back, now I know to leave a lot of time to barter and really only bring as much money as you want to spend !