"da car"

Today it became evident to me that I need to brush up on my geography. I may know where the 50 states are, and be able to place most of South America and Europe, but I don't know too much about Africa.

One of my students arrived today, for the first time since Christmas break. When I asked him where he'd been, he promptly replied "da car," or at least that's what I thought he said. I struggle to understand this particular student's accent to begin with, but I repeated my question, just to make sure I hear him correctly.

Me: "Where have you been?"

Student: I've been in "da car."

After asking in several different ways, and beginning to get frustrated, I again repeated, "Yes, I understand that you have been in the car,"  I tried to say as clearly as possible, "but where  in the car have you been?"

Student, "I don't know, just in "da car."

At this point, I have to admit, I was getting rather exasperated with him. "Do you mean to tell me, for the past 4 weeks since I've seen you last, that you have been traveling this whole time in your car!!!"

At this point the class erupted in laughter and informed me that Dakar was actually a place in Africa.

 If you are like me, and don't know the first thing about Dakar (I had to look in up on Wikipedia) it happens to be the capitol of Senegal and is the westernmost point in Africa.