Tuesday was Flag Day and I apologize to everyone that I didn't post sooner. Life was understandably crazy following the ceremony. Only Keegan was able to come with us to the ceremony so there was a mad dash afterward to pick up Rowen and tell her our great news and then rush off to the after party with David's classmates.
And the winner is.......DAKAR, SENEGAL!!
Now before everyone has a collective stroke (Mom). It was actually ranked high on our list. It was #4 on our list of 22, behind Helsinki, Sarajevo and Abu Dhabi. It's a beautiful area on the north western coast of Africa. It's very modern, with tall buildings. We'll have cell phone access, internet and central A/C. It has a big medical facility where Keegan can get her meds and a fantastic international school with small class room sizes. The weather hovers between 60-85 degrees year around and city is surrounded by beaches on 3 sides. While mainly Muslim, the official language is French. Our whole family will get to learn to speak French (I hope) or at least how to gesticulate wildly and speak loudly in English, since that seems to be the best way to get non-English speakers to understand us Americans ;D
Women selling fresh fish (among other things) at one of the local markets.
However, even though Dakar's nickname is "the Paris of West Africa" It also has crippling poverty, areas of town where people dump their trash and waste on the street and some crime (mostly petty).
The biggest challenge we anticipate so far is where and how we will be allowed to worship. The main religion (and by main religion, I mean 95%) is Islam. Christianity is only practiced by 2% of the population. I can't even guess what percentage of that is Mormon. A quick search on LDS.org shows no branches or meetinghouses within the entire country. We will most likely be meeting with any other LDS families in our homes and teaching ourselves on Sunday. Seminary is offered online and we will *probably* come home our first summer so the girls can go to YW camp and EFY. (For our non-member friends read "girls summer camp" and "LDS education week for youth")
We are tentatively scheduled to leave in August, but that is dependent on many things, including when the person David is replacing actually leaves the job. We are excited and anxious and learn more everyday!
Hey there, we're so excited for you! Yey for speaking French, and/or gesticulating wildly and speaking loudly in English, ha! I'm sure even with some French lessons, it will be hard to keep up with how quickly they speak it, at least for awhile :) This is such an exciting adventure for you guys. I'm looking forward to following along. Andrew & I have talked about the State Department before. I think we've always been afraid of him getting a posting that didn't allow us to accompany him. Your experience makes it sound like this is all a lot more family friendly then we thought.
ReplyDeleteThis has all been a huge experiment that we are thoroughly loving. I'm glad you're enjoying the blog and the info. If you and Andy have questions, feel free to call or message us anytime.
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