Halloween done African Style

We celebrated our first Halloween in Africa this past weekend. It is amazing just how sweaty one can get in a long velvet witch outfit with hat! At least I had the good sense to buy the girls outfits with short sleeves. And Scott got off even easier with just a prop that needed to be attached to his noggin.

Now granted, I had forgotten to buy spirit gum and fake blood to complete the look, so he ended up adhering the fake screwdriver parts to his head with super glue, so kudos to him for dealing with ripped out hair follicles. Ouchie!

Tomato ketchup provided the look of blood (Dammit woman, I smell like a condiment!), and the final outcome was really quite realistic. He was a big hit scaring quite a few locals along the way.
Scott and I enjoyed a grown-up Halloween party at the Marine House and a little adult time together, and several gin & tonics (ok, that was mainly me - but those are really tasty in this hot climate!).

Rokhaya told us the following morning that right after we had left, two people had come pounding on the door to find out what had happened and was 'monsieur' going to be alright.Considering monsieur got behind the wheel and drove away, I would have thought that to be self evident, but their concern was touching nonetheless.

The girls went trick-or-treating the following day around our neighborhood with lots of other expat and Embassy kids. Candy had been handed out by the CLO to participating houses and a map was given out with a route to follow to make sure all the houses were visited. Sadly there were not that many but the girls didn't seem to notice or mind. The evening still ended with sugar overloaded girls crashed out on the couch while we watched scary Halloween movies and ate popcorn and candy. Good times.

The Emperor's New Clothes

The Marine Ball is a black tie affair that is held every year to celebrate the birthday of the Marine Corps. Naturally Scott and I were excited at the prospect of being able to attend and help celebrate this year. But that then begs the question...what to wear? We bought Scott a tuxedo before we left the States, but I wanted to wear something new and preferably flattering!

So I asked Rokhaya if she knew of a good tailor we could go to and she took Sandra, Stephanie and me to the tailor who made her gorgeous outfit for Korité. He kindly escorted us to the Marché de Tissue to go and shop for fabric and other accoutrement. It was an interesting experience and a pleasant one as we found that the vendors here were not as aggressive as you find in some of the other markets in Dakar.

Ndiaye helped us pick out our fabrics and when we got back to his little shop he carefully took our measurements and assured us that our dresses would be ready in two weeks. Considering he was working from pictures out of a magazine and not from a dress pattern, that is pretty amazing stuff!

We have since gone back to have a look at the finished masterpieces and got to try our finery on. A few minor nips and tucks and small changes and we will have the most unique outfits we could have hoped for. More pictures will of course follow when we go to the Ball next week.

The Mandiack Weavers

I had the opportunity to visit the Mandiack weavers with the Dakar Women's Group this past week. It was a great outing and although the heat and dust were particularly oppressive that day, we all had a good time regardless.

There are wonderful arts and crafts to be found in Africa and some are quite unique to West Africa and even Senegal. One of those is the art of loom weaving. Something done by men only. While women may collect the cotton and work in processing and coloring it, the actual weaving of the cloth is done by the men. I thought that was rather interesting. The detail in the cloth is amazing and the colors are rich. Watching their nimble fingers work the loom is a sight to behold.

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I topped it off with lunch at the Calebasse Restaurant with a friend, which was not only a culinary delight but a visual one too.

The restaurant is mostly art gallery, with a restaurant perched at the very top. I had a very nice beef curry and Leslie had shrimp cooked in honey. The plate of accompanying dishes were wonderful; fresh home made french fries, fried slices of sweet plantain banana, a home made relish and a bowl of fancy rice for my beef curry. The fact that I got some adult conversation in too, was an added bonus.
All in all a very nice day indeed!

Learning to do without...

Well it is finally here! Our HHE (House Hold Effects) and my beloved Toyota Sienna minivan/mommycar.

Our stuff arrived in country 3 weeks ago and while our HHE was cleared very quickly, our car was not. And since they'd been shipped in the same container, they would not let our HHE be delivered before our car.
It is what it is...you can be upset or impatient, but it won't change a thing. So you just accept it and learn to do without. And it was in fact, surprisingly easy to learn to do without. The girls are able to amuse themselves without their bedroom full of toys, and have learned to entertain themselves with other things like 'cooking' with leaves and flowers outside. I find I have rediscovered my passion for reading and swimming, and of course I always have my photography.

As for our clothes, we all wear the same things over and over. It's hot here, we sweat, wash and wear. I honestly am not sure what I will do with all the extra clothes that have now arrived. We don't have enough hanging closet space for it all...perhaps I should leave it boxed up. It's not like I wasn't fine without it for the last 6 weeks.

But then as I start to unpack, it feels like Christmas all over again. The girls squeal as their toys are unpacked and Rokhaya and I are equally excited at all the kitchen stuff that appears and will make our (ok, mostly Rokhaya's) life easier in the kitchen. (She was especially excited at seeing the garlic press and corning-ware.) Scott is in rapture over seeing his bicycles again.

We all sighed a contented sigh at unpacking the big flat screen tv. Yes, certain things are very welcome in making our house feel like a home again. I was particularly happy at seeing my pictures again. Nothing quite says "You're home!", like a bunch of pictures on the wall.

So yes, while we certainly learned how to do without, it is in fact, quite nice to have some of our 'stuff' around us again.

La Pouponnière

It is hardly a secret that I have a big soft spot for everything adoption related. Our two beautiful girls both came to us through domestic adoptions in Idaho. And we have been very blessed in that we have an amazingly open and comfortable relationship with Ayla's birth family and have recently been able to establish a much longed for relationship with Amelie's birth family too.
Needless to say, when I found out that there was an orphanage in Dakar called La Pouponnière, I was very interested to go and have a look. A contact from Scott's work offered to come and pick me up since they go once or twice a month to help out by donating their time.

 

A person can not possibly be prepared at the sight of a room full of babies under a year old. It was a total baby bonanza upon entering the play room they have set aside for that purpose. There were of course the local ladies who work at La Pouponnière and there were several expats there that day who had just dropped by to lend a helping hand.

So we sat around for a while, holding, cuddling and playing with the little ones and then one by one they were nabbed and taken to a different room where they had bottles set up for all of them. Feeding time then commences in a most industrious fashion.

Interestingly enough, only few of the babies and children are actually available for adoption. La Pouponnière is more a place where newborns are taken in so they can receive the proper nutrition they so desperately need that first year. Many times the families are very much still in the picture and the babies are picked up again when they are around 9 months old.

It was an amazing place to visit and one I won't quickly forget.

Markets and Mayhem, Oh My!

 Marche Soumbédioune

Marché Kermel

 One of the most interesting but also most daunting things to do here is visit one of the many local markets in Dakar. It is not for the feint of heart though. You will be approached by lots of people wanting to sell you things, but it is also an eye-opening experience and a way to get a true feeling of what the local economy is like here. And it is quite hard as the Senegalese will tell you. Prices are high, wages are small. Life is not easy in the big city.

Marché Thilène

First Grade - First Day of School

As I am a little behind on my blogging of late (erm..okay a LOT behind), just a little post about Ami's first day of school. She started school at The International School of Dakar (ISD for short), the week after we arrived. So by this writing, she's been in school for two weeks now.

First Grade

The transition seems to have been a relatively easy one. She is on target for what they expect from her and so far the homework she's been bringing home is stuff she already knows. Now her reading however, well, that leaves much to be desired. We haven't figured out yet if she's a little dyslexic or just bored, lazy, tired or a bit of all of the above.

So we will continue to work with her every day on it and hopefully see an improvement before too long. I so hope she will develop the love of reading that I have. I can't imagine missing out on all those wonderful books out there, what a shame that would be.

Club Atlantique

But for now, Ayla and I will walk Ami to school every morning and pick her up again in the afternoon. Some afternoons we go straight on to the pool at the Club Atlantique which is adjacent to ISD. It's also where she gets swim lessons once a week as part of her school curriculum. I remember getting swim lessons at The Ndege Girl School too when I was a kid (now named the Nairobi Academy). And horse riding lessons! I loved growing up in Africa, I hope my girls will love it too!

There's no such thing as a free lunch!

It was a surprise to find out that shopping for food in Dakar was akin to shopping in a high priced grocery store in DC! Sure, you can get (somewhat) better prices from the little street vendors who sell their fruit and veggies in tantalizing stalls along side the road. But how do you go about not getting charged the Toubab prices on everything?

Well for me, it's been a matter of taking Rokhaya out shopping with me, or simply handing her the cash and telling her what we need. Or really, what is more often the case, she tells US what we need and then she goes out and buys it for us. How did I become so dependent on someone, so quickly? It's only been 3 weeks!! And yet there it is, Rokhaya has helped to make our transition so much easier.

Rokhaya came to us via the previous people who lived in this house and worked for the Mission. She has been a very welcome addition to our household. While I fully intended to continue living the way we'd always lived; Scott works, I take care of the kids and the household, and everything that goes along with that...the truth is, we need help here. The house is very large and ALL white. I'm talking white tiles everywhere. Dakar is extremely dusty and within a day our house looks well, soiled. Rokhaya has this whole housekeeping thing down. By the time she's done, it sparkles and smells great. Then she's in the kitchen doing what she loves most, cooking! This lovely lady can cook extremely well and I can tell that we'll need to watch our waistlines closely.

Through her experience in the kitchen, we have been introduced to various wonderful Senegalese dishes. Yassa Poulet, Thiéboudienne and Maafe have already passed our lips in an amazing explosion of flavors. But, also such delicacies as lasagna and bruschetta have graced our table. Yes, watching our waistlines indeed!

Yassa Poulet

Maafe

Nous sommes arrivées a Dakar!

Yes, we have arrived! After a journey I can only describe as a test in endurance, we are finally in our new pied a terre in Dakar.
We were picked up at our hotel in Manassas by our friends and good neighbors Kathy and Brian, in not one but two cars! Or rather a car and a van, because we were quite the traveling circus by that point. Between the 4 of us we had 8 pieces of luggage, 6 carry-ons, 2 cats and 2 dogs. To say we were feeling a little overwhelmed, is an understatement!

The dogs were flying with South African Airways from Dulles to Dakar on a direct flight and the cats were coming with us in cabin, via New York (No direct flight allowed for us). Of course our flight left late from Dulles and we ended up being delayed an additional 4 hours in New York. All the while worried sick about our poor puppies who were flying on a different plane, and hoping fervently that they were doing ok, were being given water and would in fact not be left out on the hot tarmac or worse...

I have never felt such overwhelming relief as when I finally clapped eyes again on those sweet puppy faces 27 hours later. The cats did amazingly well and hardly let out a sound all the time they were stuffed in their soft-sided carriers and stuck under the seats in front of us. I would have expected Rojo to voice himself with howls of frustration, but no. They were prefect little travel companions.

We arrived in Dakar minus 2 suitcases which were delivered a few days later. Bien sûr it was my suitcase of clothes that didn't arrive (they only had 5 hours to get it on the right plane in New York after all, but I digress...), and thus I spent the first few days wearing my travel duds over and over (yes, I did wash them every night). Small annoyances that straightened themselves out in due course.Our lovely social sponsor here, Debbie, awaited us in our new home and gave us the grand tour. She bought us some groceries to get us by the first day or two and she unpacked the stuff the Embassy gave us so we can have a semblance of a normal life until our own stuff arrives. This means some bed linens, towels, some kitchen stuff etc. It's a rather large house and it echoes when you talk loudly. I'm sure that will change once all our crap arrives.

We spent our first full day in Dakar, at one of the local beaches. Debbie was kind enough to invite us along with some of her co-workers and Ami and Ayla were ecstatic at the thought of spending the day cavorting in warm water and sand. And boy it was warm...whooowee..the sand was so hot you had to either run fast or wear flip-flops down to the sea. We got our first sunburns that day (doozies!) and are now very conscientious about lathering up on sunblock.So I leave you with a few pictures of the beach and will continue a 'catch up' post tomorrow. A bientôt!