Just call me Pape

The Adventures continue...

For a reason yet unknown to me, the Sénégalese overwhelmingly agree that I bear a striking resemblance to their 81-year-old President M. Abdoulaye WADE.

Maybe it's the shaved head alone, or our EYEDENTICAL complexions, or the leathery, gaunt face stretched over shoulderblade cheekbones that does it. Or it might just be our freakish, skeletal physiques. It is like we are twins separated at birth and the whole Dan thing is just a ruse. He may have a few years on me, but you'd never know.

It all started one day a couple weeks ago. I was walking in the door of the cafeteria to eat lunch when the woman at the front table let out a wild guffaw. She ripped my meal ticket, handed half of it to her neighbor, mumbled "Abdoulaye Wade" between bouts of laughter, and slapped her head with her hand, repeating the president's name in my direction as if to say "Nice, buddy, very classy."

Let's not talk about the 200,000 Sénégalese men of all ages and sizes with bald, shiny, naked heads, probably many of them with the same name. Abdoulaye, or its diminuitive Pape Laye, is an incredibly common Sénégalese name. I would understand, had it been an isolated incident -- but the same comment was repeated twice more that day and several times that weekend.

AND the trend continues, as mysteriously as it began. See for yourself! Make the comparison ... and just call me Pape.