Friday, January 21, 2011

Dakar, Senegal

Hello everyone! Welcoming you to another postcard update
It's been a really busy week this past one...busy and tiring...but as weird as it may sound, it was the kind of business I love having and enjoy it. Today I got back to the usual business and everything felt so grey and depressing, just like the weather outside.
But when gloomy days like this come, there is my mailbox to cheer me up and in particular some people's thoughtfulness and kindness....coz today a new country arrived in my mailbox...a written and stamped card from Senegal!! Yippeee!!!!! For a moment, I even forgot about my persisting dental problems....but ill get down to that later maybe.
Well, I have this card thanks to two good fairies....one of them is Jennie, the sender of the card...and Im still trying to get into the trace of the other half of the puzzle, or who actually asked Jennie to send me this card....I should ask Jennie too...but im honestly too impatient to post this card here, so I dont think I could wait for the reply...but the 'offender' will show up sooner or later :)

This Senegal card shows Dakar, the country's capital. I dont know about you, but the very first thing that crosses my mind when mentioning Dakar, is the Paris- Dakar rally. I havent really watched it, but surely it is a widely known event. Jennie says that Dakar is sometimes called the Paris of West Africa....well, I dont know if that comparison is based anyhow on the above-mentioned rally or no, but Jennie says that the representation aint very good.
Well, being this is the very first time i have a card from Dakar here, I guess I should give you at least some basic info about it.
It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula, on the country's Atlantic coast, and due to its position, it is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade and this fact aided its growth into a major regional port.
The Cap-Vert Peninsula is the westernmost point of Africa, which originally was called Cabo Verde or "Cape Green" by Portuguese explorers. However, it shouldnt be confused with the Cape Verde islands, which lay about 560 kilometres further west.
To be honest, at first I did think of Cape Verde, so I got a bit confused, but there you go...mystery solved rather quickly :)

As for the card, the three images represent The lifeblood, the Divinitiy and a mosque respectively. I like the names given to the first two pictures, lifeblood and divinity....

Both stamps on the card were issued in 2002 in a set of 11 stamps, portraying Senegalese elegance....the brown 500 f stamp represents a woman from Linguere (a town in Senegal) while the blue 50 f stamps represents the The Peulh Woman.

And the card was dated as of 31 Dec 2010...so it took just three weeks to get to me...amazing!!

Thanks a million to Jennie for sending me this card (the card is just great, I must tell you!) and thanks to the person to be determined soon....who im pretty sure is reading this blog, otherwise this person wouldnt have known I have no cards from Senegal yet :)

THANK YOU BOTH!!!!!

3 comments:

viridian said...

I hope you can join me for my new meme Sunday Stamps opens again late Saturday night.
You are welcome to join us.

http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/

US Citizenship said...

Thank you for sharing lovely postcards, we want you to come up with more collections and informations. All the best!

Unknown said...

Only one word: WOW!!!

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