Halloween in Dakar

Sylvia says:

Yesterday, we had a haloween party.  And thair was vary loud music and we dancd to the music then we ate some food at the party.  then the pepile went home and we went to ded.  the end.


Skylar says:

yesterday, I had a haloween party.  befor it, thir was trick or ttreating.  I dresed up like Ulissies.  Ulissies is a squirrel.  It was just in sipres mermoze.  To trick or treat, ou half to knock on pepoles doors.  they will give you candy if you sy trick or treat.  Then, you go to a halloween party.  You can dance in the bacement.  pepol wached from the windows.  It was fun.

Our house with the big monster face.  This is where all the trick-or-treaters ended.  The house was pretty packed for a bit there!

November is when the coconuts start to come into season.

At the American embassy field.  People set up tents and kids walk around to get candy.  Fun to see lots of other kids and adults from school

Skylar's squirrel tail.

Our guard, Joseph, enjoyed seeing all the costumes and having some candy!

Skylar on Isle de Madeleine

Skylar says:

Well, this is a pirate ship but I don't mean a real pirate ship.  This is a boat from Spain that came in to steal fish from Senegal, like the fish that are swimming around.  Plus, it was stealing the fish from the wildlife santuary which is on the island, Isl de Madeline.  It was a fishing boat and so the story goes that it crashed into the rocks.  They took away stuff on the boat worth keeping.

Basically, that's what's left of it and that's a pretty good photo of it.  It's rushing with age and as you can see, it's all tipped over.  And that's the best ship wreck I've ever seen, including, well, there was another fishing boat but it just looked like a hunk of steal sitting in the water.  I think you'll like this picture because it has the boat - so like the boat isn't all smashed up so it doesn't look like a big hunk of metal.  It looks like a boat.  So, thank you and I hope you enjoy your day!

Cormerants by Sylia

Sylvia Says:

Today I went to Isle de Madeleine and when I got near we saw a giant rock in the water and there was lots of cormorants on the big rock.  They were black and white and they were flying overhead and on the rock.

Our Walk to School

By Julienne

This year we've moved to a new home and are a little closer to school, enabling us to walk to school more often.  We took these photos on a walk to school over the weekend, so things are a little less bustling than on the weekdays, but here is the flavor of our commute!

Here are Syklar and Sylvia on our front porch ready to go!

Walking down our street

Continuing on our journey to school

This empty lot is for sale for... almost a million dollars!  It's been on the market for a long time...

In front of a place we go for pizza sometimes.  We think this is the pizza delivery car.

We usually buy our fruit from Mamadou.  He speaks English very well (although we do try to practice our French with him, too)- he taught himself from a book!

Here are S & S at Rue de Ouakam.  We cross this street to get to school.  It's a lot busier during the week days!

Paintings for sale on Rue de Ouakam

The local bus.  They are all this colorful!  On weekdays they are packed with people, including people hanging off the back.  Sometimes guys will run and jump for it to get on!

  These guys make furniture with used metal rods and strips of dried reeds woven together.

One of the furniture makers at work.

The local mosque.

This man repairs shoes.  He fixed my ripped-up Keen sandals for something around 40 cents.

This is a friend of a friend, Maguette.  We had gone to the beach with her, then bumped into her on our walk to school.

Street dogs lounging around.

We usually cut through this apartment complex.  It is mostly university professors and their families who live in this complex.  There are often big groups of kids playing in the courtyard.

At the school gate!

Ta da!  The school playground!

Class frog visits our house

by Skylar (with a bit of help from Dad.)

Well, I don't think you knew that I took Kelso home over the vacation.

Kelso is the little black tadpole that is about to turn into a frog.  Our 2nd grade class is learning about the life cycle of a frog so we took him to watch him grow.  My teacher, Ms. Shelly collected him from a little pool of water in the big park in Dakar called Hann Park.

I'm keeping it over the weekend and short vacation because my teacher can not leave it at school.  Kelso is a full grown froglet and is always going out of the water.  Ms. Shelly said we had to change the water when he was staying with us so he would stay clean.  My mom set out water for a couple days so the chlorine evaporates.

To change the water, first you scoop out the duck weed that is floating on top.  Then, you scoop Kelso out with the net and put him in one of the clean waters.  While we were changing his water, he jumped out of the net onto the floor.  And then, we grabbed him quickly and dropped him into the clean water.  We then put the cooling rack back on top of the little tank.

Then, when Kelso was waiting in the little container for us to finish cleaning, he looked up at us and then jumped all the way through the cooling rack and all the way to the floor!

We quickly grabbed him, dropped him back into the water and this time, put a few books on top of the cooling rack.

After cleaning, we put him back with the tank and put it near the window, with books on top of the cooling rack..  We gave him some food and we called Ms. Shelly.

"Hello.  This is Skylar."

"Hello Skylar," said Ms. Shelly.

"Kleso has been jumping out of the net onto the floor at water changing time.  What should we do?  I think we should let him go at Hann Park."

"Well," Ms. Shelly said, "I hope you can hold him back just until vacation ends because I would really like the kids to be able to say good bye to him and have a good bye ceremony."

"I don't know about it," I said.  "You should probably talk to my mom."

The adults talked bout Kelso and then they decided to try to hold off.  My mom rearranged the rocks so there was a very big place to sit.  There was a problem because now without his tail, he could easily jump out of the tank.  We couldn't leave the books on top because he wouldn't have enough air.  So, we thought and decided to put bug netting on top.

We tried to hold the bug netting on with a rubber band but when we tried, the rubber band snapped.  The tank was too big for it to go around.  Then, my mom had the idea to cut the rubber bands and tied them together to make one giant rubber band.  Then, we stuck it around.

Now, Kelso is happy and he is hungry also but I just fed him, so I think he just hasn't found his food.

The End.

An Highway

Ant Highway.

Two weekends ago, we went down south to Samone.  I wrote about it for muscle beach - the previous blog post.  That morning, I took myself for a run and as I was cutting along back dirt roads and looking for the back of the Delta area where I had done a 12km race in January, I was suddenly stopped in my tracks by - a track.

I looked closely and saw hundreds.  Well, probably thousands of ants walking across the ground. I tried tracing the path one way but quickly lost it in the tall grass.  I looked the other way and saw their huge pile of dirt.

I found it interesting but continued my run.

About an hour later, I was back with my family and some friends.  The children were fascinated by the path and all the ants, keeping purposefully to the highway.  We tried different things.  Sticks across the path created a huge traffic jam.  Then,after a few minutes, we lifted the stick and the mass of ants, a high density surge, flowed forward and several meters later, you could watch the wave continue forward and create another traffic jam as it tried to all pack into the small colony entrance at once.

Then, we tried putting down some crackers.  All ants like crackers, we thought.  No, these ants did not like the food.  We though the pile of crackers would stop all the dilligent works for they would only travel as far as the food.  Instead, the food created its own traffic jam of ants not sure how to get around the new material.  A number of ants ended up going off road - blazing their own trail through the rough undergrowth next to the trail.

Finally, we had had our fun and continued our walk.  Then, about another hour later, we circled back on our way to the hotel.  We stopped to look at the trail and see what was happening.

Nothing.  We figured the heat of the day had caused the ants to leave and so, an empty trail lay with no explanation for its existence.

We looked and found the crackers - still a huge pile we had left.  Our ants had no interest but we looked closely and some some very small ants.  These, presumably a different species, were very interested.  

And so, the second shift of ants did what the first shift did not and slowly cleared up our little gift.

Muscle Beaches of Senegal

We discovered there are two muscle beaches in Senegal.  The first one is located in Dakar.  It is a small stretch of beach below the coastal highway where, at any given time, you can find between 20 and 200 people exercising.  A favorite exercise consists of standing in the sand with your legs together.  You then rhythemical lift your back side.  The upward thrust causes your locked feet to shuffle backward.  

Especially energetic exercisers will drag a path 10 meters long and, after several passes, surprisingly deep.

The other muscle beach is located along a small nature reserve in Samone.  Samone is about 1.5 hrs south of Dakar and has a few hotels and private houses stetched along a beach.  To find this other muscle beach, you need to walk off the main road and follow one of the many dirt paths across the peninsula.

On the delta side of the peninsula, you following the edge of the mangroves around until you find an elevated path installed under the guidance of a local french couple.  Follow this nature trail path in the mangroves and around a few turns until you reach muscle beach.

Here, if you come before it gets too hot, you can see between 20 and 200 fiddler crabs waving their single, unusually large claw in the air.  The white color of their claws work to catch the sun and catch your attention.

A favorite activity, besides waving your massive claw in the air, is to dig a hole.  Like all good crabs, these fiddlers move sideways as they move forward, and you can see their claw emerge long before their eye stalks follow out the hole.

And like all good muscles beaches, everyone on the beach knows who the top of the social heirarchy is without there being any fights.  In Samone, we saw the top crab.  He was waving to us from the little rise in the middle of muscle beach.  We went to greet him but he dove for his hole.  When I looked down at the size of my hand, I realized why he had run away.  I was the new top crab.  If so, why aren't the female crabs running to my side?

Dakar Song

Dakar Song

by Julienne

The colors here are brown and yellow and tan and gold

And the perfect blue of the sky,

And the solemn blue of the sea

But green is a rarity here;

It hasn’t rained since November

One piece of green came up over the wall between us and our neighbors-

A tree-

A tree!  Reaching out from their courtyard

And dangling thin, curved branches over our side

Painting a swath of green leaves

Punctuated with flowered jewels of red and pink and white

I loved that wild tree,

That song of green

*****

 They came quickly, the birds

They found that wild tree,

That song of green,

And loved it, too

Soon there were tens

Hundreds

Maybe one thousand birds

Living in that tree,

Nest upon nest

Babies hatched and dropped

And would rest on the ground,

Mamas feeding them,

Until they could fly

They sang through the night,

Those birds,

Sang of their green tree

Our dreams filled with birdsong;

Our thoughts formed in birdsong

*****

Until one day

A worker came and cut back the tree

To almost nothing

I guess the neighbors grew tired

Of their birdsong dreams,

Their birdsong thoughts

That wild tree tamed,

Where did its birds go?

*****

Waiting in line outside the bank

We glimpse a man,

Royal in his blue Bubu,

Negotiating with a peddler

The peddler with a small cage

Packed tight with wild birds

A man trying to live;

Caged birds, trying to live

In the Quran, says the man in line next to us,

It says you must help to free the enslaved

The transaction is complete

And the royal man

Opens the door of the cage

The birds,

In one long breath of life,

Fly from that cage,

Streaming the streets of brown and yellow and tan and gold

The royal man walks away

And the birds search

For their tree of green

Letter to an incoming teacher

I got an email from and incoming teacher and realized that it was a good overall impression of living and working in Senegal.  If you're curious, here it is!
-------------------
Dear New Teacher,

No problem - happy to help with anything.

There are a few cars that are in nice shape being sold.  Basically our mistake was to translate the age of a car into how well it will be doing.  With the heat and dryness here, rubber wears out a lot faster.   In the states, I drive a 1999 Honda Accord and it's in great shape.  When anything goes wrong, the part is the same quality as original and the work is well done.  Here, we drive a 2001 Peugeot and over the years, a lot of strange things have been done - like we just found out someone had changed out the dash board - odometer and all - at some point!  So, here, a 2001 car is in a LOT worse shape then comparable cars in the states.  The school gives you a loan up to $5000 for a car but expect to spend around 8-10,000 for a reasonable car.  We paid $4000, which was about the right price.  Turns out for $4000, you're buying crap.  

So, you should be fine buying a car if it is much newer - 3-4 years old.  Cars get old here fast, and they are more expensive for the same thing.

As for stuff, Marylene (in the business office) should be able to tell you the place you're moving into and how many bedrooms, bathrooms with showers, etc.  If someone was already there, email them and they'll tell you what stuff is on the house.  We took over a new house (it was a mistake and the school is not reusing it) but it had no curtain rods, no shower curtain rod, hand rails, kitchen cabinets, etc.  From what I hear, the places for you guys are much nicer!

That said, the school did make sure the beds were made and there was cooking supplies and such in the kitchen - like you'd expect in an extended stay hotel.  So you can count on some stuff as you either wait for your shipment to get here or start unpacking.

As for your list - any electronic thing that's not computer-like (tv, computer, dvd player - these just need the adaptor plug) will need the big (like 30 lbs) transformer to change the voltage.  They're easy to find here and one big enough for a blender or slow cooker is about $50.00  Lots of people have these big transformers because they also smooth out the voltage spikes that happen frequently as the power goes out.  (You'll have a generator on your place but they don't always work and anyhow, they're annoying to have running all night.)  We opted to buy new appliances and that has generally worked out also.

For other things, like dog food and candles and spices and stuff, you can basically get anything you want here but there are three problems a) finding it and b) finding it of good quality c) finding good quality you can trust at a price you want to pay.  I didn't realize this when I came but basically even the crappy stuff a dollar store sells in the states is relatively good quality compared to stuff here.  There's a whole level of low-quality manufactured goods that we simply never see in the states.  So, you gotta' search.

So, it's reasonable to try to ship everything you're gonna' want for the first month.  Might seem a bit over the top, but we shipped soy milk, cereal (my wife wishes we had sent more then 20 boxes of her favorite cereal), pasta and sauce, spices, all kinds of soaps and shampoo (5 bottles - more of a year's suppl, mouth rinse, tooth paste, etc.  It has been nice because as we slowly have run out of different staples, we now know where we can go get some more but in the beginning, it would have been a real scramble.

That said, we do have 2 kids, so we have less mental space for getting to know the city.

So, hopefully this answered some of your questions.  I would say that when in doubt, ship it.  Everything is basically a bit more expensive here, from like $1/box for cereal to $4/quart for oil changes for the car.  So, since the school is paying for shipping, every box of pasta you send is money in your pocket!

Plus, things taste different - and generally not as good - as the food in the states.  Except Mangos - they are really good here and a cheaper!

Also, on house help.  Are you going to have someone in your house to help cook and clean?  We have kids, so our helper, Madelene, is really a key part of us flourishing over here.  We pay her $400/month (which is very good wages - we're basically the highest paying on the staff) and for this, she shops and cleans and cooks all our dinners and helps with the kids when we need.  Well worth it.  Not sure your thoughts on this but having a local in the house is both very helpful as well as adds greatly to the experience.  She came at the recommendation of a family who was leaving.

Marc

Impressions on the bike ride home

Just finished a Strategic Planning meeting with a diverse group of parents, teachers and students on a special Saturday meeting at school.  I wanted to note a few of my impressions on the bike ride home.

I leave the property of the school and immediately there are people sitting around.  There are often people sitting around in Dakar.  Mostly, they are either guards, friends of guards (if male) or propriaters of small stalls / small overturned boxes trying to sell something.

I bike a short distance down a bumpy paved road and take a right as I hit the main coastal road.  About 1 out of 4 cars are painted yellow and black - the official taxi color.  Almost all of them are in bad repair but move along quite nicely.  Besides those taxis, the rest of the cars are, for the most part, nice shape and newer models.  I ride along this coastal road for about 1 block.

I pass one stall that has a variety of local food - mostly kinds of nuts.  I stopped there several times for her sugared peanuts between my generally crummy health and the time she hand-ladled the peanuts into a whisky bottle without first washing her hands, I've decided the treat is not worth the risk.

A bit further up the road is a new wall.  This wall surrounds a large housing complex that, I have been told, was finished several years ago but still not occupied.  For several weeks, as I walked home with the kids, we watched the men first make the cement bricks (about 1 minutes per brick for 2 guys working) then dig a foundation then lay the wall.  Now, the wall has been plastered and we can't see inside.

I quickly crossed the only major road between school and our house, passed a few more vendors squeezed onto the sidewalk, and was on the main side road.  This secondary road is in bad repair but is generally covered with pavement.  I slowed and watched the continual progress of a building that was, when we got here, only 1 story tall.  It is now 6 stories tall.  Every bit of cement or cement block has been lifted up the building by a guy pulling on a rope.  Lucky for them, they do have a big machine in site for actually mixing the cement.

I turn right at the outside edge of the junk yard and am greeted by that most iconic of African scenes - a woman in brightly colored clothing carrying a large basket on her head.  We see this on a regular basis.  I want to take a photo but can't think of a good way to pull it off.

I decide to cut down a dirt side road.  The middle of the road is solid earth that is a mix of dirt and construction debris.  I used to wonder how ancient cities would be built upon other, even more ancient cities.  Now, I watch the general process of construction debris and understand.  If you don't have a truck to haul garbage away, anything you can get rid of by piling on the road is fair game.  Over the years, the road slowly gets tall and taller and the buildings, I assume, follow suit.

I notice some men painting a new house.  I see one man on a short step ladder.  I see a second man on a tall ladder that is tied well with a series of ropes in the middle of the two extension sections.  He is working on the 2nd floor.  I look higher and see another man working on the 3rd floor on a different extension ladder.  I soon realize that his ladder is suspended from the second floor.  He is very high up and has no safety equipment.

I notice this lack of safety equipment.  I see many expats in their nice cars with extra kids, unbuckeled inside.  We are willing to put our own family into taxis with unknown drivers and no seat belts.  It is interesting that part of the reason as a family we use our safety devices is that we know they are safer.  Part of the reason (and lacking here in Dakar) is that we use them so as to not get in trouble.

I put my attention back to biking and quickly my attention goes to the sand.  We are in the end of the dry season, which means we are in the middle of the windy season.  Sand is constantly shifting on the roads of the neighborhoods just like mini-dunes on the desert.  For construction projects, sand is simply dumped on the street in front of the house and inevitably, not all of the sand is used and some is either left or blows away to collect somewhere else.  I my ride home, I have to dismount about 5 times and walk a few steps because of the deep sand.

I get back on my bike and am greeted by 4 large cows slowly walking down the street.  There is no obvious owner near by nor obvious marking (brand, collar) on the cows, but they for one seem to know what they are doing.

As I near the house, I pass several dogs lying on the street.  One female is obviously the mother of several litters and they all look the worse for the wear.  This said, they never give the slightest notice to me or my bike.  They are well socialized if not well cared for.

I reach my house and our regular guard is not there.  Instead, two local guys, one a high school kid I have seen around and another is the day guard for a house just up the street, are sitting on our little stoop.  One of them, I know, has the key to our parking space, should I want to bother him to open the door.  I call down the street to another guard we are more familiar with and he answers that our guard is out to get some coffee.  This is not unual since Joseph is taking the week shift.  I do not mean the day shift.  Joseph will be sitting or sleeping in front of our house for about 5 days straight.

And that is my ride home.

Skylar's quick comments about Portugal

(Questions posed by his grandfather in an email - answered by Skylar)

What was the biggest difference in how buildings looked? 

 Well, Lisbon has a lot of white buildings and that's the same about Dakar.  But, the sidewalks are all cobblestone - like I mean you can't find a sidewalk in Portugal without cobble stone.

How was the food different?  

So, they had a lot a lot of pastries.  

Did anyone - that you met - speak French?  

Hardly anybody.  They mostly spoke English and Portuguese.

Anything else interesting to tell about Lisbon and Portugal? 

Hmmm, let me see.  Well, there was a giant palace and there were two Moorish castles.  Well, on the trip, um, there was like these little tiny playgrounds that were scattered everywhere that weren't that much fun.  Something exciting was when we went to the palace, there were secret tunnels built into the mountain and you could open up a rusty gate and go into the water pipes and there you are!

(Editor's note: Skylar actually had a great time on the playgrounds.  Lately, he has summarized many experiences, including whole trips and weekends were he laughed a lot, as "not fun.")

Returning from Portugal - Ah, Africa!

We just got from Portugal at like 3am this morning.  Fun trip and nice to be back in a more predictable culture with sidewalks, clean water and less pushy sales people.  We also found it much more relaxing flying in the second time to Africa.  I think all our stereotypes were on full alert the first time we flew int - plus the immigration system had just been overhauled so it was a disaster.  Still, even with customs going smoothly, we found it very African that when we got to the airport.

Everything inside went very smoothly except the company that we were paying $60 to meet us just after passport inspection wasn't there to help with bags and getting out of the airport.  Several of the people inside, when we asked if they were "BCD" travel (the company) they said, "Oui.  Ou est tu habit?"  Well, clearly, they weren't the company but were happy to give us a ride for the money.  So we said no thank you and collected our bags and did the final "gun" check (they x-ray your bags on the way out also) ourselves.

Then, we walk outside and start looking for a taxi.  One guy popped out of the crowd and we starting chatting.  Oh yes, he could drive us.  You have local currency?  Ok, it would only be $50.  (25,000 CFA)  Well, we know a local taxi only costs $12 so we said no.  "Ok, I give you a good price.  Only $30."  So we went back and forth.  "My car is just over there," and he points and I see that he has a van and it looks in reasonable condition.  "Do you have seatbelts?" I ask him.  "Yes!" he says.  "Ok,. we will pay you $16"  "That is not enough, but I could drive you for $20"  Julienne, clearly wanting to get home and into bed, adds, "Let's just pay $18 and be done with it."

The guy agrees and we walk to his car.  Just then, a man walks up.  "Marc and Julienne?"  Well, the BCD travel guy finally found us.  So, now we need to decide if we're going to pay our new friend whose car is right there $18 for a ride home or pay this other guy, who had given us a ride to the airport, $60.  Wanna guess?

The other African thing is that during the whole negotiation, there were like 5 other guys hanging around.  Once we started loading luggage, there were at least 3 people, not the driver, helping putting bags into the car.  Some other guy opened the door for me.  When the BCD guy showed up, there were maybe as many as 8 guys standing around us, interested to see what happens.  In Africa, there are always a lot of people with nothing to do, just hanging around.  Er, I should say guys.  There are almost never women hanging around.

Glimpses of the South and the North by Julienne

Julienne here...

During our luxuriously long holiday break, we traveled first to the Casamance in southern Senegal, and then to Saint Louis in northern Senegal.  It was great to get the chance to explore other parts of the country!

  Here are Sylvia and Skylar in front of the overnight ferry that we took the the Casamance.  We loved our sleeping quarters!  We brought our car on the ferry so that we could easily drive around the Casamance, but unfortunately our car got confiscated by customs as our tax papers for the car were a month expired, unbeknownst to us.  There was a long saga involving, on Marc's part, much negotiating, much waiting and much paying... and still we returned 6 days later from the Casamance without our beloved Peugot.  

  Our beloved Peugot.

It is now January 2nd, and we THINK our car is on the ferry back to Dakar as I write this!  Despite our wide-eyed introduction to Senegalese bureaucracy, we still enjoyed our trip:

  A view of the bustling harbor in Ziguinchor from the balcony of our hotel (the backpacker favorite), Le Perroquet.

  The man in the yellow shirt was loading bag after bag of super-heavy cement mix into the pirogue.

  We think these folks came into the Ziguinchor harbor from one of the smaller villages on the Casamance River.

  We rode in a pirogue to a few small villages on the Casamance River.

  In one village, Skylar and I got a pottery lesson while Marc and Sylvia played bubbles with the potter's twin children.

  We enjoyed wide expanses of beaches in Cap Skiring, about an hour west of Ziguinchor via taxi (most of the taxis are Toyota Corollas from the 1980s, so you can imagine their state).

  Skylar and Sylvia enjoyed drawing in a hammock after a beach-shack lunch of rice and fish.  We were able to have a more nuanced discussion with the proprietors, as they are from the Gambia and speak English.

After returning to Dakar, Skylar and Sylvia's grandparents arrived.  We spent a few days in our capital city and then headed north to the St. Louis area:

  View across from St. Louis to a fishing town.

  Mosque near the fishing town.

  Goats are everywhere, including on this wall.

  Trash is mild to extreme along most, but not all, of the shoreline we have seen in Senegal.

  "What's up white foreigners"  We got a good laugh from this graffiti. 

  More goats.  More trash.

  Group of boys totally consumed with their game.

  Paintings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, a 19th century pacifist religious leader of the resistance to French colonialism, and his disciple Cheikh Ibra Fall, are everywhere.  Typical graffiti reads, "Bamba Merci."

We drove up to Djoudj National Park, where a plethora of birds live year round, and a plethora more stop along their migrations.  For many birds, Djoudj is the first stop after a long migratory haul over the Sahara Desert.

  Cormorants in a tree.

  Pelicans aflight.

  Pelicans in action.

  Did I mention that warthogs are also at home there?

  Oh, and pythons?  Yes, pythons.

Finally, we made one last stop in Lompoul, where there is a topographic anomaly:  a desert.  So you can take a very bumpy jeep ride into the desert, stay in a large tent, run free in the dunes, ride a camel, and gaze at the sky packed with stars so low you can almost rearrange them.  Cool factor of this place:  very high.

  Our home for the night.

  Sylvia and her grandparents:  free in the dunes.

  Loved it.

  Just so sweet.  How can you not be charmed with those super-long eye lashes?

  Until we meet again!