I'm moving!

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Ok, I'm not moving far. Staying here in Dakar…but we finally found a place to live. Nicole and I actually will have a house (that is way more space than we want or need) but it is right around the corner from the office, so way too hard to refuse! We should be moving in over the next few days, so it will be interesting to see how well I make it without the creature comforts given to us here at the hotel. It will be VERY interesting I’m sure.

I still have the most difficult time trying to articulate life here in Dakar. I don’t think anyone who is not actually here can really understand/appreciate this place. I swear, daily I am surprised by something else. Here are a few of my observances based on daily life here:

Sights - I never cease to be surprised. Let’s see….goats everywhere! Streets, beaches, tied outside of houses…everywhere. LOTS of street vendors. Anything you want, you can buy on the street. In fact, with the horrible traffic here, we can buy everything from the window of our taxi. And when I say everything, I mean it….items range from q-tips, hub caps, work shirts, phone cards, ‘crazy’ glue to just about anything else you can imagine.

Sounds - Ahh…the sounds of Dakar. Daily sounds include LOTS of honking on the crazy streets, the sounds of the Muslim prayers over the loud speakers at the mosque near our office (2-3 times a day), and “my sister”…a common phrase spoken here, that I get both from co-workers as well as random street peddlers (I guess I am not without family here after all! )

Smells - There are a lot of ‘interesting’ smells, but the main one is exhaust. There definitely are no emission restrictions here! It can’t be healthy. The others smells we usually cannot determine, and figure we are better off not asking.

Touch - This is a very friendly, hands on, culture. You usually start and end every day shaking hands with everyone. I have already mentioned how ‘friendly’ the guys are here, but they are like that with everyone, including each other. It is quite common to see men (not women) walking with their arms around each other or hand to hand on the street.

Taste - We have had many great ‘tasting’ experiences. There is a lot of French influence in the food here, so we often eat sandwiches/baguettes, pizza, etc. However, the traditional Senegalese food is quite good. It usually is fish or chicken, accompanied with rice. We have the wonderful experience daily that we can go downstairs and eat with all of our co-workers. A HUGE plate is brought out with the meal for the day (yassa, ceebu jen) and everyone grabs a spoon and just digs in together! I am definitely going to need to learn to make the dishes so I can enjoy when I go home too.

So those are just a few interesting facts for this weeks update. We did have last Thursday off (for Ascension day) so were able to do some touristy things. It started out stuffing 6 people into a compact car to drive 2 hours to ‘pink lake’. The color is due to deposits of minerals at the base of the lake. The lake isn’t all that pink (or at least when we saw it) but it was interesting as they have a community that lives off of mining the salt. They apparently mine millions of tons of salt a year. There were just piles upon piles. After that, we went for some crazy rides on the nearby sand dunes. This past weekend we just enjoyed some quality sun time at a nearby island as well as the pool at the hotel here. I know, not that rough of a life I lead!!!

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Photos

Ile de Ngor
The pretty view on the nearby island of Ngor

Turn around
The other view of the beach from Ngor. Yep...those are goats walking around. The little boat that the guy is sitting on is what they fill with 30+ people to take over to the island. Very interesting!

Pink Lake
Locals mining the lake for salt

Riding the dunes at Pink Lake
The 4 of us with our driver, Djibu.

Nicole and I with our guide
Notice Jerry's hat! I think he had just decided to kiss me on the cheek right before this picture. My look was the 'hurry up and take the picture' smile...while Nicole shows her shock! :)

On the street.
Yes...that is a horse taxi carrying a refrigerator! A normal occurence these days.

Comments

[Carol]

I'm moving! response.
Thanks so much. Your dad sent this site to us and I'm so happy to see and hear what you are doing. What an experience!

[Taylor McLain]

I Can't Believe It
You really are the luckiest person alive! Going on tours and seeing camels and everything I wish I was doing. Well hope everthing is going good....talk to you later ..... <3