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.

 .
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.