Some words about Senegal: total area of 196.712 square kilometers and a population of 17.196.308 inhabitants (estimated census 2021):The capital Dakar has an estimated population of 1.438.725 (2021) and the metro area population of Dakar has an estimated population of 3.326.000 inhabitants.
Some examples of changes in Dakar : in 2016 Tangus is new bakery and fastfood chain has open its doors: 500 jobs have been created: the advertising is fiocused on the cleanliness of the food and the restaurants and on the moderate prices of the products.
Also there are important changes in the education: the I. S. M. (Institut Sénégalais du Management) offers high level economic studies (instead of studying in Europe): his founder Amadou Diaw explains that they are now focused towards Asia (promoting Japanese and Mandarin languages).
Changes also in the medias: new television medias such as Television Future Media (TFM) are innovating and have a great audience (specially the program "Quartier général" a talkshow withg music in live).
In Dakar there is also a recycling activity: Gabriel Diome is an artist who is recycling bottle capsules to make chairs. In the "Casse de l'Ancienne Piste" in the neighborhood of Mermoz, there are hundred of mechanics like Mamadou Fall and his apprentice Marcel Goudiaby who repair cars recycling spare parts of crashed cars.
Senegal is a country where football is very popular : we visit the Diambars Football Academy, a boarding school for boys of 12-18 years: a combination of serious studies (for example the English language) and the development of physical capacities.
There is also an interesting zoom about the peanut (or groundnut): in the moment of the independence Senegal was the main producer in the world but nowadays China and India are the main producers in the world (34 % and 19 % of the global peanut production:The peanut is still important inb the country: cooperatives managed by women manage the shelling and the transformation of peanuts into peanut oil or peanut butter: the oilcake meal is used for the feeding of cattle, the shell are used as coal: lso these women produce soaps from the oil. Besides the peanut butter is used in the famous maafe, beef or chicken cooked in a peanut butter sauce.
We see also a herbalist of the Niassam Hills (Ousseynou Sene) who knows well the medicinal herbs and who takes care of the trees when when he takes away a piece of bark or a branch for his medicines.
A small note about fashion: Hanifa Sogo, a student of management, is very proud to have black curly hair and repeats that African women should care for their natural black curly hairs.
I enjoyed very much the encounters of Raphaël with Eric Bruno, the ultra light helicopter pilot (some very beautiful landscapes of the region of Dakar and the Sine-Saloum), with Moctar Ba, a writer, photographer and also manager (visit of the market and the moment of surfing), with the Dr. Saliou Niang who is in charge of the biological control of the tsetse flies in the Niayes region ( sterile male technique), with Peter Stever , manager of the Lodge in the Niassam Hills, with Koudou Bodian , the woman who is picking up salt from the salt wells, with Djiby Sene , the baker and also son of the herbalist in the Niassam Hills, with Pierre Diouf ("Les Aventuriers du Sine-Saloum") who organizes a little tour for Raphaël in the mangrove (women harvesting oysters in the mangrove that they have reforested), then at Diofior (Isabelle Goudin and her kindergarten and primary school), the supper with the dish "Thieboudienne", the mass and the moments of music and dances in the Mar Lodj island.
I have also appreciated the kindness of the Senegalese men and women.