first day in dakar

(written yesterday)

well we made it to Dakar, after all, and now I’m waiting for water to boil into tea and getting ready to do some yoga in the fabulous apartment one of the people in mike’s program is letting us stay in with another friend of hers while she’s gone (went home for the holidays and is coming back in a week).

the two days’ airplane journey was fun as always (the flying time was almost equaled by the amount of time I spent waiting in the airports). I read vonnegut’s entire new book in the borders book store in logan airport (I was in boston for a few days before we took off for Senegal and got to visit with friends from university and mike’s family). it was great, though very different from his novels, and a humorous kick in the butt to think about some of the really important issues the world is facing right now (I guess you earn the right to be a bit concerned and upset and speak your mind once you turn 80).

anyways, I spent most of the flights dozing off and trying to learn more French (which is to say, some French) and watching snippets of movies (including an independent African film with French subtitles, a bizarre film called Palais Royale and even some Jojo-style romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon in it, which alternately guiltily entertained me and made me want to stick a writing utensil through my eye.

when I landed in Dakar I was greeted by the embassy expeditor (yeah, that was cool) who asked me how it was going in French. I could respond- go me!- since that was one of the 5 things I can say in French so far, with the French equivalent of “it goes,” which is to say fine. she then helped me grab my things and make it through customs. the whole process was 99% painless (the one disconcerting thing was that mike had to wait outside the airport when he came to meet me (his flight got in 4 hrs early so he went exploring with some friends he made probably 30 seconds earlier, knowing him, in the meantime. so I wasn’t sure where he was when I was inside, but that was fine since I had the embassy lady to take me to the apartment anyways!

when we got there we realized that our sleeping-bags-on-the-floor idea of crashing with someone was completely wrong. the place is more spacious than we could have imagined (roomy bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, hot water!!! it feels very strange to be living in such luxury- mike says that on his last trip to Senegal he only used hot water once in 4 months and we’ve already had a hot shower since arriving! needless to say, we are more than comfortable right now as we begin to look for a more mike-and-jackie-style apartment and track down some of our contacts this weekend. the sun is shining and the view from the dining room, where I am about to do yoga, includes the sparkling shoreline (ah sun, how I’ve missed thee) with a few rocky piers jutting out and some enormous birds drifting by. the buildings look a lot like other buildings I’ve seen in the developing world- concrete, lots of levels, very rectangular. in any case, I’m off for yoga… more details soon, after we actually DO something!