La Plage de Yoff

U.'s husband's cousin, Ousmane, showed us around Yoff, taking us on a long stroll on the beach, which seems to stretch to infinity in both directions. Ousmane's kids were our playful companions (pictured above, horsing around). The family has lived in Yoff for a couple of generations, and Ousmane seemed to know everyone.

While Yoff is falling prey to a cheaper form of the same construction boom as Dakar, it still feels much like the fishing village it originally was. The sandy roads aren't paved, and in fact many residents still make their living trolling the sea. The long beach that sprawls along the Dakar peninsula's northern coast, comprising Yoff as well as the more upscale areas of Ngor and Almadies to the west (which are more like suburbs of Dakar), is very much a public space, where people gather to stroll, chat, play huge ranging games of soccer, dump household trash (unfortunately) and of course push their pirogues out to sea. Pushing the boats out is a collective activity, necessitating the help of dozens of women and children, not to mention the yellow slicker-clad fishermen themselves.

Goats wander freely, while horse-drawn carts are the preferred mode of transport. At one end of the town is a fish market, run entirely by women (while fishermen are always men and boys), selling an impressive variety of fat, meaty fish, all supposedly caught "de facon artisanale," or with traditional lines and nets. Of course, fishermen in Dakar have long complained that large-scale commercial fishing is ruining the trade - and in fact, "tchoff," a tasty white fish used to make the national dish tieboudienne, is apparently so scarce as to be practically non-existant these days. That said, a three-pound "lotte" (pictured at bottom; not really monkfish as lotte refers to in France, but still a delicious fleshy fish) bought from a market woman on the Yoff beachside will set you back 500 CFA, or $1.