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!

Flavors of Senegal

What do people eat in Senegal? Well that is an excellent question! One that was of utmost interest to me too. Because, well, I love to eat! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love foreign foods and am up for anything. So of course I did a little research to find out what the Senegalese people eat and drink on a daily basis.

The cuisine of Senegal is known to be the best cuisine in West Africa. Senegalese cuisine has been influenced by nations like France, Portugal and North Africa.

Because Senegal borders the Atlantic Ocean, fish is an important staple. Chicken, lamb, and beef are also used in Senegalese cooking, but not pork, due to the nation’s largely Muslim population. Peanuts, the primary crop, as well as couscous, white rice, sweet potatoes, lentils, black-eyed peas and various vegetables, are also incorporated into many recipes. Meats and vegetables are typically stewed or marinated in herbs and spices, and then poured over rice or couscous or simply eaten with bread.

Popular fresh juices are made from bissap, ginger, Buy (pronounced bouy) which is the fruit of the baobab tree also known as "monkey bread fruit", mango, or other fruit or wild trees. Desserts are very rich and sweet, combining native ingredients with the extravagance and style characteristic of the French impact on Senegal’s culinary methods. They are often served with fresh fruit and are traditionally followed by coffee or tea.

* Thiéboudienne or Ceebu jën flavorsome marinated fish cooked with tomato paste and a variety of vegetables, the national dish of Senegal.* Yassa, chicken or fish simmered in onion with a garlic, mustard, and lemon sauce.
* Maafe, seasoned fish, chicken, lamb, or beef cooked with vegetables in a tomato and peanut butter sauce.* Bassi-salté, seasoned meat cooked with tomato paste and vegetables over a local couscous called "cere".
* Sombi, sweet milk-rice soup.
* Capitaine à la Saint-Louisienne, perch stuffed with spices.
* Poisson à la braise, grilled fish flavored with lemon, garlic, and black pepper.
* Dibi, simmered, grilled lamb.
* Thiou, a bouillabaisse with vegetables.
* Fondé, rolled millet-balls in sour cream.
* Fondue, melted chocolate or cheese covered fruit.

I think it hardly comes as a surprise that we are very excited about trying all these wonderful dishes and experiencing all the flavors Senegal has to offer.
Bon appétit!

Nous parlons Français ici!

So what do they speak in Senegal? Lucky for me one of the main languages spoken there is French. So I will be dusting off my high school French and brushing up on my grammar. It won't be as easy for Scott but he is very gung-ho and will be learning French with the aid of Rosetta Stone.
From everything I've read you really can not get by with English so if we want to get anything done we will have to be able to communicate in French. It should be interesting for the children too. I'm sure it will seem strange at first but kids are so resilient at a young age, I'm sure they'll pick it up quickly if it means being able to make friends more quickly.
The local language is Wolof. That is far more interesting to me and I will be looking into possibly taking language lessons once we get there, to learn to speak it. But for now we concentrate on French.
Merci et au revoir.