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A vehicle that leaves when it is full
The grammar in this lesson is driven by the situation, which is worth explaining because it genuinely changes how you plan a day. Long-distance shared transport in Senegal — 'sept-places', 'ndiaga ndiaye', minibuses — generally departs when the vehicle is full rather than at a scheduled time. You arrive at the 'gare routière', find the vehicle for your destination, pay, take a seat and wait. The wait is anywhere from ten minutes to two hours depending on the route and the hour, and it is shorter early in the morning. This is why every statement about the journey is conditional on something else completing first — and why French needs 'on partira quand il aura trouvé' where English shrugs and says 'we'll go when he finds'. **Practical notes.** Go early; the first vehicles fill fastest. Pay the stated fare and expect a small extra for luggage on the 'galerie'. The seat beside the driver costs more and is worth it. Agree the price before loading, not after. And build slack into the day: a journey of two hours' driving may take four, and nobody will regard that as a failure. The equivalent of 'inchallah' — 'si Dieu le veut' — attached to a time of arrival is not fatalism but accuracy. **On the roads themselves.** Senegal has invested heavily in surfaced roads and a toll motorway out of Dakar, and the difference between 'goudronné' and 'piste' maps closely onto the difference between a predictable journey and an adventurous one. In the rainy season, July to October, some tracks become impassable and routes change. Asking 'la route est praticable ?' is a real question with a real answer. For a learner, the long wait at the gare routière is one of the better opportunities in the country. You are stationary, among people who are also waiting, in a situation with an obvious shared subject. 'Ça fait longtemps que vous attendez ?' opens a conversation that will last as long as the wait does, and the French you hear will range from fluent to halting — which is itself the lesson of this block.