Pourquoi vous êtes au Sénégal?

I took the French language exam today, and when I finished the written part and went to talk with the school's director to be evaluated orally, this was the question I faced:

Pourquoi vous êtes au Sénégal? Vous êtes française!!

Translation: Why did you come to Sénégal? You're French!

While this is undoubtedly a great compliment and means that I probably won't have to waste my time with a French language course, it also greatly concerns me. The professor of the University is not the first person to insist that I am French- my host brother made the same mistake.

I know that my French isn't perfect. I still have a TON to learn. But when my French accent and fluidity tricks the University professors into thinking I am French and I find that the written part of the exam has several errors in it... well, I worry how much my French language is really going to improve while I am here.

That being said, Sénégal has a lot to offer beyond French.

Yesterday we went to Gorée Island to see the old slave house where slaves were shipped out to Europe and the Americas in the 1800's.

Then, I went on an adventure of my own:
I went to buy shoes.

Shoes. As in, it's so hot here that I could no longer deal without some open-toed flip-flops. So I went to buy them in Sandaga Market, a busy part of downtown.

The second I stepped out of the taxi I was hailed by screams of:
"How are you?? Don't you remember me from last time? How have you been? What are you looking for?"

Looking around I saw a young male smiling and waving at me who I had never seen before in my life.
"Don't you remember me?"
Not only did I not remember him... I'd never been to Sandaga Market before in my life, and I had only met about 20 people in my 4 days in Senegal. Obviously, this was a tourist trap.

I looked away and walked away, but when he persisted I turned and asked him to stop. Still, he persisted even more. When I started looking at shoes he told the shoe salesman I was his friend and to give me a good price. The price I was offered? 6500F CFA.

6500F CFA is about 13 dollars US. For a pair of cheap flip-flops in a country like Sénégal, you would have to be a fool to pay that much. My advisor at the university informed me that a pair of shoes should be between 2000 and 2500F CFA, about 4 to 5 USD. So I bargained.

After walking away 3 times and being told several times that I was already getting quite the "deal," I paid 2500, the upper end of what I was told to expect.

As I walked through the rest of the market ignoring the screams and hisses directed at me (and, of course, the money associated with my toubab or foreign appearance), I started thinking I probably still got ripped off by Senegalese standards.