2026 Youth Olympics & Living & Retiring in Senegal (Dakar)
Someone asked about the pros and cons of living in Africa/Senegal buy he was a young guy. I wanted to give my experience to older people Protected content are thinking about retirement plans.
I've lived here continuously since Protected content , a single woman, American, reared three children (divorced in America and decided to chuck it all and leave). My kids went to regular schools, IB program, now they're in their 30s back in the states, One even went to Harvard so it was a good plan!
All three are trilingual and have good jobs in the US. None want my entrepreneurial life in Senegal and that's fine. Every human has the right to make their own path, not follow a path that someone else made. I'm good with it!
Regarding them being trilingual and me speaking three languages badly... personally, my Wolof and French still sucks like you wouldn't believe BUT I am qualified to answer the pros & cons of living in Senegal!
Cons: no Krispy Kreme donuts or anything close and cakes taste like there's a sugar shortage - stick to fruit tarts, they're healthier anyway!
Don't sweat the language differences - just learn greetings and salutations of course, money and counting to get by until you get better. Most educated Senegalese speak english and I simply deal with people that want to deal with me. I have entire conversations and transactions speaking English and getting replies in French or Wolof. We both understand but just don't speak that well. Understanding is what you need.
You will find you understand more than you think if you just LISTEN CLOSELY because about 70% of English is French. If you google it it says 40% but that's not true. Pick up anything written in French and pick out all the words you recognize from English..
Don't stress - everyone has translators on their phones that are free right? Even I have one but I never use it. I prefer to deal with people that accept me as the retard I am when it comes to languages!) and we work it out!
Everything else? Schools, health care, water quality, I drink out of the tap but it depends on where you live. Almadies has the worst of everything... power and water outages all the time, Ngor, Ouakum too.
Ouest Foire and Yoff are pretty much 24/7/365 problem free. If there's an outage, it's a few minutes at most. During Ramadan the gov't cuts off the water during the day and during the summer for conservation but it's easy to adjust.
If you're from America.... No one will hurt you, kill you, run you over with a car, no gangs, drugs or junkies, hookers & homeless all over the place. The food, if you make an active choice to ONLY eat local meat, chicken and vegetables, are grown here, nonGMO and fresh. I very rarely eat canned goods, corn & pineapples for cooking but that's it. I used to have Lupus and it went away in a matter of months after moving here.
I don't buy imported food, I cook myself (even opened a private American food restaurant! called SenegalStyle Authentic American Food Protected content
If you're thinking about retirement, I'd say look for the nicest apartment at the best price (no more than $ Protected content month) and you can get a HUGE place, Protected content feet, and live out your life in peace and tranquility. We have rent controls so it won't go up. I pay the same I paid 10 years ago.
Also the cost of living is lower if you buy local and live like any normal Senegalese family does. Live in a regular neighborhood around regular people, be nice, speak to everyone, don't be a sucker and don't give your personal stuff away trying to be everyone's friend.
If you have stuff you want to get rid of, sell it. That's what Senegalese do all over facebook - There's no 'free!'
Smile politely and say you don't understand Wolof when you don't want to engage with people and mind your business. The main thing is to just be polite, wave and walk off. Speak to people every day and if you go the same route all the time always say hello as you go by jogging or whatever so if something happens, they will help you.
The bottom line is this: Senegal is a GREAT PLACE to live and a GREAT PLACE TO RETIRE. I would never, ever move back to the US and deal with the crime and junkies again. I'm too old for that stuff now! lol! The living is easy here or I like to say the easy is living here - because it 100% is!
Peace of mind and quality of life is the biggest pro of them all.
My email is Protected content for anyone that wants to do a one on one immigration and relocation consultation. I teach English at a large car rental company that sells their used vehicles if you need a car that already has plates & tax paid. They're very nice vehicles.
They also have mini vans and tour buses as well. (Lansar Auto is the name - drop me a note)
