05.26.07
Posted in Travel at 3.40 pm by Caitlin
I went to Senegal partly to interview Youssou N’Dour on his home turf. He is probably Senegal’s most famous person (though football fans might disagree) and is certainly responsible for bringing African music to the West and creating ‘world music’ as a category in record stores. Youssou collaborated with Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel in the 1980s and had a hit with 7 Seconds, a duet with Neneh Cherry, in the 1990s. I saw him perform the same song with Dido at Live 8 in London two years ago. He is still making music and he has a new album, out since April, Alsaama Day. He has also recently been in the film Amazing Grace, about the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and was last week awarded as one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He is very involved in humanitarian issues both through organisations such as the UN, the Red Cross and Amnesty International but also through his own foundation.
I was in Senegal with Peter Garmusch, a photographer from Austria, who I have previously worked with in Uganda and Tanzania. We met with Youssou’s publicist, Selly Wane, on Sunday night, after initial contact by email before I left London. It sounded like we would have quite a long time with Youssou, that we could take photos at his home and at a few locations around Dakar, and maybe that we could even go with him out into the countryside. Fantastic! The interview was scheduled for Wednesday with the exact time and location of the meeting to be determined.
We wrapped up all our research for our other project on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We then spent most of Wednesday in the hotel, first preparing for the interview, and then waiting. We spoke to Selly on email and by telephone several times on Tuesday and Wednesday but the answer was the same every time, “no news”. The only thing we did all day that did not involve waiting for Youssou was watching the Champions League Final between Liverpool and AC Milan at a nearby hotel – and we had all our gear with us and my eye on my mobile phone. But the call never came – it seemed we’d been blown off.
We were originally due to leave that night. Luckily I had suggested to the magazine that, since the interview with Youssou was scheduled for our last day in Senegal, we should stay an extra day so we had time up our sleeve if anything went wrong. That paid off on Thursday morning when Selly informed us that she had been able to schedule our interview for 4pm that day – ample time before our 11pm flight – but that it would be at his office rather than his home.
At 4pm we arrived at his recording studio, about half an hour from the centre of town, near the airport. At 5pm Youssou arrived and Peter had about five minutes to take some photos of him, outside in the natural light. Then Youssou left to record an interview for national television. Selly assured us he would be back by 6pm or so and we would do the interview and more photos. There was nothing to do but drink Senegalese tea – very strong green tea with lots of sugar – wait.
At 8pm it was getting dark and there was no sign of Youssou. Peter decided to go back to our hotel and pick up our luggage so we could go straight to the airport from the recording studio when we were done. I waited at the office with the publicist and two other journalists, who were due to record an interview with Youssou about his new album for German radio, and we were taking bets on who would arrive first – Youssou or Peter. I looked through my three pages of questions and started crossing most of them out. Then I came up with my title – ‘7 Seconds with Youssou N’Dour’ – which I will propose to the magazine.
At 9pm Peter arrived back with the bags, thus meaning that the pessimists won the best against the optimists. We quickly set up some lights and the camera tripod inside the studio, since it was now pitch black inside. About 10 minutes later, just when I thought I was going to have to do the interview in London by telephone, 
Youssou arrived, utterly charming and full of apologies for taking such a long time. We sat down and did the interview with Peter clicking away in the background. Fortunately Youssou was quite concise with his answers so we were able to span a wide range of topics.
Then with minutes to spare, Selly drove us to the airport, we wheedled our way into the first class check-in queue (still economy seats though, sadly), cruised through immigration and security, and boarded our flight.
I think it was worth the wait. Youssou N’Dour is a very important cultural figure and I admire both his music and his humanitarian work. It was a privilege to meet him, even if it was a bit rushed. He is very busy – his many projects include his music, his foundation, his record label, his nightclub, he owns a radio station and a newspaper, he has been in film, and so on. He also has a family – two wives and seven children ranging in age from six months old to 25 years. Selly, who also edits a magazine, doesn’t have an easy job since she doesn’t have control over his schedule and can’t always reach him on the phone. I think it was a big relief for her that we were reasonably patient.
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05.22.07
Posted in Media & Internet, Travel at 9.46 am by Caitlin
I am in Dakar, Senegal. There’s a purpose to my visit – but I’ll write more on that when I get back to London. This is my fourth time in Africa, after Uganda, Tanzania and Tunisia last year, but my first time in West Africa. It’s quite different, in particular the women are much more visible and they seem very free and confident.
I am writing this from the bar area of my hotel, looking out at the aqua and indigo of the Atlantic Ocean. I can hear the waves crashing on the beach and see small fishing boats out on the water. There is a rocky island a kilometre or two offshore and then nothing but ocean until you hit the Carribbean, half a world away.
This is Hotel Sokhamon, right on the seafront in Dakar. It’s the second hotel we have stayed in and, while it has a few flaws, it’s really very nice. The furnishings are inspired by Lebanese design, with purples and oranges and reds and stone columns. We had dinner here in the restaurant last night and it was really nice – though breakfast was a little disappointing.
Best of all, it has free wireless internet access both down here in the bar and restaurant and in the bedrooms as well! There is no hassle with plugs and cords or passwords – we can just flip open our Macs and the internet is right there. It’s very fast too so I’m quite impressed. Gotta love technology when it works!
The first hotel, Hotel Ganale, more in the city centre was much more basic but it too had free wireless internet. Not quite as fast and it didn’t work in our rooms since we stayed on the third floor but it was more than adequate and a nice surprise that we even had it.
The world is definitely changing!
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05.13.07
Posted in Travel at 11.54 pm by Caitlin
Sometimes it seems that I’m always off to some exotic place or another but I’m also keen to see more of the UK. Many parts are very beautiful and there is huge variety in such a small island.
We are lucky enough in England to have two long weekends (known locally as bank holiday weekends) in May. The first one was last weekend and my boyfriend and I headed to the Cotswolds for a few days of rest and relaxation. It was great getting away for the weekend without having to deal with the aggro of airports. We hopped on a train from Paddington at 6.22pm and less than two hours later we had checked into our B&B in the Cotswolds and were eating dinner in the local pub.
The Cotswolds is known for its typical English charm and beauty – villages of stone cottages with thatched rooves and country lanes lined with hedgerows. We went particularly to do some hiking; there were lots of walks around our village and we also did a section of the Cotswolds Way (which goes from Chipping Campden in the north to Bath in the south). The walks took us through both forest and farmland. Although the farms are private property they are obliged to honour the ancient rights of way; the public paths are marked with sign-posts and there are usually stiles to help you over or through the fence.
Walking was an ideal way to see the countryside in all its spring glory. The paddocks were emerald green and filled with black-faced sheep and spring lambs and the occasional canola fields was blooming a brilliant yellow. We saw small bunnies feeding on the edges of the grassy areas, and pheasants running through the fields. There were flowers absolutely everywhere, from the yellow of the buttercups and dandelion in the fields, to the swathes of white Queen Anne’s Lace reaching to my waist in the shaded areas.
Best of all were the bluebell woods, in full bloom. The trees towered tall with new green leaves like a lime cathedral and the forest floor was carpeted with purple flowers giving off the most heavenly scent. I tried burying my head in the flowers to devour the perfume, but it was curiously elusive and the smell seemed more intense from further away.
In other places the wild garlic was blooming – with quite a different aroma!
The Cotswolds is a very popular place to visit and some villages and towns apparently become somewhat overwhelmed with tourists – bus loads of octegenarians that leave little room for anyone else. We avoided this problem by staying in Blockley, a small village between Moreton-in-Marsh (where the train station is) and Chipping Campden. It’s a village that people come to, rather than through, and the high street is too narrow for coaches. It’s a really lovely place and apparently very popular as a place to live; having visited, I can see why. Our B&B, Arreton was just gorgeous – a 400 year-old stone house with wisteria growing up the walls. We stayed in the converted stables, which was roomy and nicely furbished. Just across the road was the Great Western Arms, which served fantastic home-cooked food (like steak pie where every piece of meat was tender and lean, or goat’s cheese lasagna) and local beer (Hooky).
We visited a few of the towns in the area. The bus service was running on Saturday, but not Sunday or the bank holiday Monday, so we made the most of the opportunity to go into Stratford upon Avon, the place of Shakespeare’s birth. It’s a very attractive town, although a little crowded with tourists. We visited three historic sites associated with Shakespeare and his family: Shakespeare’s birthplace and childhood home; New Place, the site of his house in later years, and next door Nash’s House where his granddaughter lived; and Hall’s Croft where his daughter and her husband, a physician, lived before moving to New Place after Shakespeare’s death. It was interesting to see how the family came from humble beginnings to become hugely wealthy in Shakespeare’s lifetime and after his death. His daughter and her husband owned four huge houses in both Stratford and London, at a time when most people lived in a house with one room half the size of her parlour.
We were only a few miles from Chipping Campden, so one day we walked in via Broad Campden. We had lunch there and then continued on to do the first (or last) section of the Cotswolds Way, to Broadway Tower, a nineteenth century folly built by Lord Coventry. Then we returned and had cream tea at one of the tea houses in town. I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the cream teas in the Cotswolds (we also sampled one in Moreton-in-Marsh while waiting for the train). The scones were good and the clotted cream was nice, although not as good as in Cornwall, but the jams were of the cheap, factory-produced variety. I understand that they must serve enormous volumes of cream tea but there is so much wonderful locally produced jam and I would be willing to pay extra for nice jam.
On the final day we donned our backpacks and decided to hike into Moreton-in-Marsh to get the train. It was a beautiful walk with lovely views back down towards Blockley and it took us via the Batsford Arboretum, a huge garden on the estate where the Mitford family used to live (it’s where Nancy Mitford, author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate grew up). We got caught in a torrential rainstorm and had to wait it out underneath a huge beech tree, which provided quite good shelter so that we were damp rather than soaked. The gardens also had some statues, including a lovely imported Buddha, bought by Algernon Mitford in the early twentieth century.
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05.01.07
Posted in Books at 2.21 pm by Caitlin
Wide Sargasso Sea is set mostly in the West Indies and the writing feels as lush and vivid as its setting. A young girl marries a man she barely knows. He is attentive at first but then gossip poisons his mind against her, with devastating results.
The time is the mid-nineteenth century and it was extremely interesting reading about the post-slavery society and the relationship between black and white people. Many of the white people have fallen on very hard times so their lives are not always as different as one might imagine.
Particularly interesting for literature fans is the fact that the novel was inspired by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Although it never says so explicitly, Antoinette’s husband is Rochester and this is the story of her unfolding madness.
I haven’t read Jane Eyre in years but it’s tempting to do so as I think Wide Sargasso Sea would be worth re-reading with the Bronte novel fresh in my mind.
38 down, 62 to go.
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