The 235th Marine Corps Ball and playing catch up!

The Marine Corps has a long history of cooperation with the Department of State going back to the early days of the Nation. From the raising of the United States flag at Derna, Tripoli and the secret mission of Archibald Gillespie in California, to the 55 days at Peking, Marines have served many times on special missions as couriers, guards for embassies and legations, and to protect American citizens in unsettled areas.
Following World War II, intelligence activities worldwide led to an increased need of around the clock protection of U.S. Diplomatic Missions by reliable American Personnel. This need produced the origins of the modern MSG Program - beginning with the Foreign Service Act of 1946, which stated that the secretary of Navy is authorized, upon the request of the Secretary of State, to assign enlisted Marines to serve as custodians under the supervision of the senior diplomatic officer at an embassy, legation, or consulate. As a result, the first Marine Security Guards departed for Tangier and Bangkok on 28 January 1949.
More than sixty-one years later, Marine Security Guards stand watch at over 140 Diplomatic Posts worldwide, bringing a full sense of value to the phrase: "In Every Clime and Place".

I am so dismally behind on my blog that it is pointless to even try and come up with a good excuse. So because I know there are some people who enjoy reading up on what we've been up to I will now backtrack to November 5th and say a few words about the wonderful Marine Corps Ball Scott and I had the privilege of attending.

We decided to stay the night at the ritzy Meridian Hotel where the Ball was being held, so we went early and enjoyed spending some time together, sans enfants! We took our time making ourselves beautiful and headed out to a fun evening with our friends and the wonderful Marines currently stationed in Dakar. As an added bonus, Scott received recognition for being the oldest Marine at Post this year. :)

We ate, we drank, we danced, and we made lots of 'duck-lip faces'. It was a truly wonderful evening and I promise never, ever, ever, to drink that many gin and tonics again in my life. Thank you.

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