re-assessing Dakar

So, another update seems to be in order!

I am fine following the mugging, grateful that the two men clearly did not want to hurt me, annoyed with myself that I was carrying more money than I was going to need for the evening, annoyed that none of the people driving past made any attempt to intervene (not even to hoot their horns to try to distract the muggers) and annoyed with the total ineffectiveness of the police.  They clearly had no interest whatsoever in investigating the case, despite my making four different visits to the police station (the process of reporting a stolen phone seeming to be quite bureaucratic) they never once asked me for a description of the two men - they were clearly only interested in getting the paperwork wrapped up.

The other reaction I am left with is one of sadness.  This would never have happened during the time of my first contract in Dakar.  In those days I could go out to watch live music that didn't start until midnight, and walk home on my own afterwards at 4am, with no fear whatsoever of anything bad happening to me.  Now I walk along a street at 9pm, and get told by people that I shouldn't have been there, that I shouldn't walk on my own at night, that I should always take taxis everywhere.  But the population of Dakar is apparently double now what it was ten years ago - and the average age of the Senegalese is 19.  That means a lot of young people looking for work, and there isn't very much work.  & so far as I am aware, no state welfare system for the unemployed, only the support of family and community which of course is weaker in Dakar than it would be in the countryside.  There are also plenty of immigrants from all around West Africa, adding to the pressure to find work, as Senegal is a beacon of stability in the region - but that doesn't mean a beacon of employment opportunities.

Not that I'm excusing what happened, rather just trying to make sense of it, trying to process what it means for my relationship with this country.