It's 2015 and we're still breathing

If I had a nickel for every time I sat down to write my blog, well, I wouldn't be rich, but I'd have a few more posts.  The holidays are always such a busy time of year, but it seems that in Dakar, at least, everyone is ready to party.  I wonder if we were all looking for a reason to get together or if we were all feeling particularly festive, but it's been a blur since Halloween.

Indiana Jones and the Sassy Gypsy (still a better story than the Crystal Skull)

So while I didn't send out Christmas cards or gifts, I was able to make cookies with my kids and spend time getting to know lots of new friends.  I'm counting this as our holiday letter :)

In between power outages, broken generators, missing mail, wonky internet (that has me longing for the days of dial up), and the water being turned off for no good reason besides it's Thursday, we've been living life.  Trying new foods, seeing new places, making friends and exploring our little corner of Africa.  After a heated and drawn out battle with the USPS click and ship system (it won), I have had to concede that all Christmas, birthday and general "I love you and want to give you something" gifts will be given in June/July when we visit the states.  So I'll chalk one up to WIA (Well, it's Africa) and move on.

What happens when the city turns off your water, your 500 gallon water tank runs out and the refill churns up all sorts of fun. This is why we drink water out of a distiller.

A big heaping pile of meringue drizzled with sugar.  The French know desserts.

Traffic jam, Dakar style.

I visited Goree Island with a few friends.  Goree Island was used as a shipping point for the slave trade.  The island has traded hands many times over the centuries and there is influence from the French, British and Dutch, as well as Sengalese.  A small population lives on the island and it also boasts a small private girls' school, converted from the French military base.  Our guide took us through the Maison des esclaves (Slave House) and around the island to show us some of the history of slavery and the island.  It was a remarkable experience and reminded me very strongly of how it felt to visit Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.  It was heart wrenching and solemn.  It is a reminder of the absolute cruelty and greed that can exist in the hearts of men (and women).

There are many artisans on the island.  We were able to visit a sand painter and watch him create the most delicate pictures with different colored sands from all over West Africa.  As usual, where there are tourists there are vendors.  They meet you on the ferry going over and, while they can't sell to you, they can certainly introduce themselves and invite you to their shop on the island.  Once you are there, it is a little overwhelming at times,  As you are now their "friend"  you are badgered highly encouraged to come buy from them.  My limited French made it difficult to explain that I wanted to shop after and finally after several "Non, merci!" we were able to go on our tour.  Shopping here is always a balance of wanting to buy unique and beautiful items for a fair price without being ripped off and not wanting to haggle over what is essentially a few dollars.  I often feel ridiculous haggling over a few CFA, but it is the way things are done here.

The door of no return 

All the rings are made up of sand from different countries and the variety of shades occur naturally

Voila!  It's a house :)

We finally visited the Monument de Renaissance, which is Senegal's tribute symbolizing a new future for Africa.  With the man looking forward, the child pointing to the Statue of Liberty (west and freedom) and the woman pointing away from Goree Island, it is a stunning statue designed by the North Koreans and shows Senegal's determination to move forward from their past.  We paid for the full tour and were able to have a private guide take us around and describe the displays and take us to the top of the man's hat, in the freakishly tiny cozy elevator. 

Wrestling is huge here!

Gorgeous views!

David's Mo-vember contribution to prostate cancer.  Looks like furry caterpillar is eating his lip.

We spent Thanksgiving,

 Christmas, 

my birthday and

 New Years in Dakar, but were able to get out of town for a few days with friends just before school started back up.  It was my birthday gift from David.  We went to a beach town and all inclusive resort called Domaine de Nianing and it was perfect.  It was the first time the girls and I have really been able to leave Dakar (David went to Budapest, brat) and it was exactly what we needed to recharge.  It was great to see parts of the country that we hadn't been to yet, as well as sit back and relax with some wonderful new friends.

The beach at Nianing

Our new friend in Bandia came up to visit!

One baobab tree.  I have no idea how old this one is, but they can live up to 1000 years and can hold up to 120,000 Liters of water (30,000 gallons). It's HUGE! 

Rowen, Keegan and the 4 other girls we were vacationing with were asked to help model the clothes from the gift shop.  Rowen is wearing a local dress style.  Sorry the picture is bad, this is what happens when my cracked cell phone is the only camera I brought.

Keegan is modeling a swimsuit cover, which happens to look like a nightgown, silly French fashion.

Keegan photobombing Rowen and David playing a giant game of chess and my finger (Best.Photographer.Ever)

Alex, Skye, Rowen, Cozette, Keegan and Cydnee eating Senegalese Oreos, Borneos!

Speaking of David going to Budapest, one of the most delightful aspects of this new life is the fact that EVERYone travels EVERYwhere.  Friends went to Johannesburg, Spain, the Canary Islands, the states, France for the holidays.  Throughout the year, trainings are held in different places all over the world and David was put into a last minute slot for a class in Budapest, Hungary.  I wasn't able to go this time, but next time I think I'll smuggle myself in his suitcase.

He had a huge adjustment weatherwise.  We are still enjoying temps in the 70s and 80s, while Budapest was a tad chillier.  He had to dig into our cold weather gear and suit up for snow. But the snow brought other blessings: Christmas markets, bacon, hot cinnamon treats, bacon, clean streets, bacon...oh and there might have been bacon!  (I may or may not have had him bring home a package or 10 of bacon)

Some of those hot cinnamon treats sold on the street. Il est gate. (He is spoiled) :)

In other news we've adopted two kittens, Lucky and Charm.  They were rescued by a friend.  She found them, abandoned, on the beach.  Lucky was being carried by a dog and who dropped her in the water when children scared it off.  They fished Lucky out of the water and tried to find her mama and what they found were 3 siblings, about a week old and starving to death.  My friend bottle fed them until they were about 5 or 6 weeks old and then we got to bring 2 of them home :) Lucky likes to cuddle and Charm likes to destroy.  Sounds like two other girls in our home...

Lucky 1st day home

Charm 1st day home

Playing with their boxes Christmas gifts

A little gift from them to us.  Poor lizard never stood a chance.

We have lived in 3 different homes this year.  It has been exhausting and wonderful all at the same time.  We miss you and we love you!  Our home is always open no matter where we are.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2015!
Love,
All of us

Our Christmas picture at the beach, not missing the snow

Time flies when you're having fun

Two months!  TWO MONTHS!  I can't believe how much we've already done and our car hasn't even caught up to us yet.  Aaaah...our car...I never realized how much freedom there is in having a car.  A car is handy for spontaneity, independence or just plain I-forgot-to-get-frosting-at-the-store-and-I-don't-have-time-to haggle-for-a-taxi-so-hopefully-our-awesome-neighbor-will-let-me-borrow-some. (Thanks Susette)  **UPDATE**  Our car did arrive last week and the delicious taste of freedom has been sweet, as expected!

Chameleon caught at Ebbet's Field, a park for the US Embassy.  I imagine him screaming "FREEDOM!" Braveheart-style.

The taxis are always an adventure.  The haggling is fun for me, now that I know roughly how much it should cost to go places.  There's the Toubab price and the price for everyone else.  The Toubab (me)  pays quite a markup, but the haggling is part of the game.  So let's say I want to go to the Embassy.  From our house, it would probably be @ 1000 CFA, give or take, for locals.  So naturally the driver looks at me and says "deux mille sanq cent" (2500).  I smile and laugh a little and say "Mille franc"(1000).  He looks shocked and offended and says deux mille (2000) and I laugh and say" mille sanq cent" (1500) and he says deux mille again, to which I shrug and say "non merci" and start to leave.  He waves me back and we agree that 1500 is just fine, but that I'm a cheap American. (500 CFA is roughly $1, so it's not huge, but the principle of it.  It feels like Christmas if the one that stops has actual working seatbelts, but mostly they are missing and/or broken.  I mention that lack of a seatbelt only because riding in a taxi is taking your life in your hands.  One night we were driven home during a rainstorm with the guy hanging his head out the window, because his windshield wipers were missing.  We've been taken the wrong way and then handed off to another taxi after the first taxi got a better deal.  The second taxi took us through several back alleys and dirt lots and I was pretty sure we were going to end up as an international incident. (We made it)  Supposedly there are traffic laws, but much like the Pirate's code, they seem to be more like guidelines than actual rules.  Although, everyone drives very aggressively, I have not seen any road rage.  No screaming, No fingers. No tailgating.  Just the absolute certainty that that if you want to go somewhere you always have the right of way, no matter what and everyone else believes that too.

Of course there's always the bus, which is only 100-200 CFA to ride but, besides being strongly encouraged not to, there's always the fear of them tipping over or having your wallet go missing.

I have to admit it looks like fun!

The roads are filled with taxis, busses, cows, and horses pulling carts.  If it is a two lane road, expect 4 lanes of traffic.

The markets are some of my favorite places.  Aside from being mobbed by merchants (which is a little irritating)(NOTE TO SELF: Learn French/Wolof for "Leave me alone and let me look!"), the food markets are amazing.  More fresh food than I've ever seen in one place.

Fresh Herbs 

Magic fruit where the limes are yellow, the lemons are green and so are the oranges (and so delicious).

The biggest shrimp I've ever seen!

It doesn't get much fresher than this.  Pretty sure these are sheep.  The tails are long, so I think that means sheep.  Le Mouton anyone?

A cacophony of smells that are infinitely easier to handle in the morning than in the afternoon.  (David still won't go around the meat)

The girls are attending the International School of Dakar and we couldn't be happier.  The school has a very open policy on campus for the parents.  We can come use the library, the gym, the track and the pool during off hours.  

View of the track and field at ISD

The food vendor, Shady Shack, makes fresh bread and tortillas as well as the best hummus I've ever eaten. 

The girls are on the school swimming team and are improving by leaps and bounds. We taught them how to swim, but never stayed still long enough for them to learn the strokes. Having grown up swimming and competing on swim teams, my guilt is somewhat assuaged by their progress. 

Keegan swimming backstroke

Rowen couldn't resist a little wave as she pushed off the wall for the last length :)

The house is coming together.  We are waiting for Maintenance to come hang our pictures and then we can take a few pictures :) I can't wait to get out and sightsee a little bit and plan a couple of trips.  Still loving it, slow internet and all :)

Our first week in Dakar

We've been in Dakar for over a week now and things are finally starting to settle down.  My apologies for not posting sooner, between the jet lag and the lack of a working cell phone, I didn't take many pictures.  In my head, I didn't want to post until I had some pictures and I was stuck in an unending loop of no pictures=no blogging.  In the first few days, I got out of the habit of carrying my cell phone everywhere because I couldn't use it without a new SIM card and that wasn't as high on the priority list as sleeping.  Even after I got the new SIM card, I didn't want to use my prepaid time on the Dakar network and so I had my phone for phone calls and rarely if ever pulled it out for anything else.  Kind of novel and a little freeing.  However, again, I haven't taken as many pictures as I wold like.  I will remedy that this week and flog myself with a fresh pastry as a demonstration of my remorse.

Our arrival in Dakar was uneventful.  We arrived around 11am and the Embassy had sent over a lovely woman that expedited us right through the airport and customs.  Which was a good thing as the 3 hours of sleep I got on the plane made me incapable of forming a coherent sentence in English, much less French and since I seem to have the most French of the group *cough, cough Keegan cough cough  2 years of French cough cough*, it was nice to have someone there to help us.

David's new boss was waiting outside in a large van.  He had seen my pictures of our luggage and had envisioned Imelda Marcos and her shoe collection, no doubt, but the reality is that our bags aren't terribly big, just numerous.

Only 12, sheesh!

They drove us to our new house where our fabulous sponsors were waiting to welcome us with a fridge full of groceries and some CFAs (the local currency).  I can't even begin to describe the relief at knowing we didn't have to try grocery shopping or ordering food or even leaving the house.  Our sponsor and David's boss happen to be neighbors and great friends, so we all went to dinner together at a fantastic restaurant on the beach. 

We came home exhausted and discovered that we also didn't have hot water in the bathrooms.  While the water is never "cold" per se, it certainly wasn't warm.  So brisk showers were taken and we had the beginnings of our list of things to call housing about the next day :)

Our other water issue is that we can't drink out of the faucets.  All the drinking water has to be distilled.  We have a distiller and water bottles in the fridge, but old habits die hard.  Sure enough on our 3rd night here, I lined up 2 glasses of water and 2 cups of herbal tea for us to take our anti-malarial meds.  After the girls and I had each taken our meds and I handed David his cup, Keegan said, "Is this water from the distiller?"  Of course it wasn't, I had filled up all the cups at the faucet.  I had a moment of panic, actually several moments, where I envisioned the rest of our weekend spent in the bathroom or at the as-yet-to-be discovered hospital. There wasn't much we could do at that point.  We would either get sick or we wouldn't.  The girls assured me that it was ok and they knew I hadn't done it on purpose.  So they grabbed some bowls from the cupboard to sleep with and we said the only family prayer I've ever heard with the phrase, "Dear Heavenly Father, Please help us not get the trots." and went to bed.  We were indeed blessed and nobody got sick, but I haven't touched the faucet since.  Lesson learned!

Our house is beautiful and spacious enough for all our things and more.  I would post pictures, but I'm waiting for our Household goods (HHE) to arrive.  The pictures that housing sent to us left something to be desired.  (As much as I'm sure you're dying to see what it looks like, I'm sure you'd rather wait for my pics than to see the picture of the dining room table being moved by a gentleman with his pants coming down.)

The bugs.  Well, fortunately bugs don't bother me much, but that doesn't mean I want to share living space with them.  So far ants have been our major pest, but there have been a couple of tiny roaches and mostly little beetles.  Hardly an infestation, except the ants.  We had been hypervigilant about not leaving food out until we discovered that our ants aren't attracted to human food, they are cannibals of the highest order.  David killed a couple of bugs right before bed and rather than clean up the carcasses, he left them.  The next morning the hallway was swarming with the little barbarians, hauling away bug bits through my closet, to hole in the wall behind our bed. 

Yes that is a snail and yes it could eat her toes in one bite.

We did have a very fun trip to N'Gor (EN-gore) Island with a group from the Embassy.  Quite the adventure on a very full motor boat of about 50 of my new best friends and our life jackets that were mostly just for show and off we went for a short 2 minute ride to the island.  We got a couple of great pictures of Dakar and the ocean from the island, as well as a delicious Italian meal on the beach.  It even has a little walled in area of the ocean that forms a little pool where the kids can play after they eat.

We are having a great time settling in.  More pictures and stories next week!