Let the packing begin

It is T-2 weeks and I have finally started to think about what I need right away at home vs what can come in our sea shipment in two months. My list started with clothes and my commercial grade blender and has now expanded to include linens (obviously) and towels (again, obviously). Then of course there are toys for Declan, and my pillow, duvet, some kitchen supplies and the list just keeps getting longer and longer. Luckily we have 360kg of air shipment available to us so we can get some stuff home a week or so after we get there.

Aside from the packing there is quite a bit to think of. We need to make sure we empty our local bank accounts, ensure the gas in the car is no higher than 1/4 tank. The huge job is making sure our belongings are all in our inventory with replacement prices and year of purchase as well as supervising the wrapping and packing of all our effects. It's daunting but we will get through it.

So as I think about leaving I have also been thinking about the things I will miss as well as the things I will not.

Things I will not miss;

-missing family and friends
-erratic drivers with a lack of laws and traffic signals
-beggars and street vendors hounding me constantly
-avocados that do not taste like avocados
-the lack of choice in produce
-the lack of any meat at any given time not to mention the toughness and gaminess of the meat
-bad restaurants at exorbitant prices
-bugs everywhere
-malaria
-parasites and gastrointestinal problems

Things I will miss;

-Ross
-the mangos
-seeing the ocean every day
-the climate
-having help around the house (especially since I will be on my own and pregnant for a bit)
-Not having to warm up the car

Things I'm looking forward to;

-Seasons
-activities for children under the age of 5
-groceries that make sense to me
-living in my own home with my own furniture
-seeing family and friends regularly
-Ross taking a year off work
-bike paths

So basically I'm looking forward to coming home.There are some things I will miss but not nearly as much as the things I have been missing.

Living overseas has been a fantastic opportunity and has allowed us to do things we never would have had the chance to do but it is time to come home. We are all looking forward to the next chapter of our lives back in Canada with friends and family and lots of new memories.

finally feeling better!!!

So I realize it has been quite some time since I have written. Like months!  lot has happened in the last few months that has kept us very occupied and sleepy :)

First, we are expecting another little one. I am finally through my first trimester and am starting to feel like myself again though my clothes don't fit! I am back at the gym and am able to keep down food and have a bit of an appetite returning. As a result of the upcoming addition to our family we have decided that the best place for us to be is home with family. At least for the foreseeable future. So, we bought a house! 

This picture was taken a few years ago, we found it on google street view. The house has not changed much but the trees and cedars have grown in and there is now interlock going down the left side of the driveway. 

We are very excited to move back! 

Paris for Ross' 30th birthday!

The view from the balcony of our friends' apartment

Catching up with some friends

The rat

Poor little guy!!!

We have an area off the kitchen that has high cement walls and is completely closed in and tiled. Last time I spoke about it was with regards to the cockroaches that came out of the sewage drain in there and were trying to get out of there and into the house to survive the toxic fumes from the exterminator.

This morning I go down to the kitchen for breakfast with Declan and Juliette informs me that there is a rat stuck in the aforementioned space. Poor thing probably was walking along the top of the wall and fell. Probably as a result of a cat trying to catch him.

Now I say little but if anyone remembers our cat Mala well this rat was the same size as her, so a big rat but small cat sized. Poor thing was trying to climb back up the wall or go down the sewage drain which of course in both cases was impossible. I called Ross at work to tell him about it and asked if he could send someone to get the rat and put it back outside without harming it. His answer was "yeah I saw it this morning" and "just get it into a box and put it outside". Um no, I don't pick up random rats. I told him he should probably find out if there was someone in the city who could trap it and free it because I was not going to be doing it myself.

In the meantime Juliette had Declan up to a window watching the poor thing who by now was exhausted.

As Ross looked into it I went to see our guard and asked him if he was ok with trying to get the rat into a box. He immediately grabbed a box from the garage, walked into the back space, picked up the rat by the tail and plopped him gently into the box. He then took the box out though the front of the house and freed the rat across the street. My hero!!!

Sadly I did not get any pictures of the rat but this is not the first time we have had a rat back there and I suspect it will happen again.

Last time we were away for the weekend, left to their our devices the household staff disposed of the rat in a way I was not going to let happen again.  :(

The top of the wall, also the vie from Declan's room

The loooong way down and closed in area. 

GUESS WHAT?! Ross got pictures of the poor guy so here you go. He doesn't look all that big in the pictures but he was absolutely the size of a rabbit, or Mala!

Insecticide

Ok so it's been a bit since I wrote a truly disgusting post...ie the one about the bugs in the flour. Though I have found more in other flour this blog is not about that.

We have been having a bit of a problem with ants recently. Just in the kitchen but they are everywhere and it has gotten out of hand. No matter how clean we keep it they are there. Also we have these "mouches blanches" that are eating up the few plants we have by the pool so I had Ross call the exterminators.

They came in full hazmat gear and after asking what kind of bugs were the problem (ants, "mouches blanches" and mosquitoes) sprayed outside the house. Then, they left. All was fine and I put Declan down for his nap and then went downstairs to start making dinner.

As I walk down the stairs and towards the kitchen I see something scurry past me, then another, then Juliette with a can of RAID. It is then I realized we had a problem. They were everywhere and with only one can of RAID we were defenceless really. As I stepped into the kitchen there were more and more of them. All scurrying farther and farther into the house and if they got to hiding we would never find them and surely they would multiply.

Juliette and I attacked the kitchen with the RAID and a big shoe and the broom and anything else we could find. We found out where they were getting in a plugged the holes with paper towel (The doors on houses in this climate do not seal as there is no need for it to keep the cold out so things get in twice as easily as in Canada) and then when the ones inside were dead and all the holes were plugged we waited. We could see them outside the kitchen door trying to escape their fate but for many of them it was too late.

I guess we had more than ants, we just didn't know it and when the exterminator came he sprayed and then dumped the remains of the insecticide down the little storm drain in the area beyond the kitchen and they came out and were trying to escape. Thank goodness Juliette was there with the RAID when the attack started or there would still be some hiding in the house.

Now, the outdoor area beyond the kitchen is a disgusting tiled mess littered with the remains of hundreds of cockroaches.

The way to Saly

Going to Saly for father's day

I decided that a weekend away would be a perfect father's day gift. Yes we were just in the Mayan Riviera but it has been a lot of travel and we were burnt out. I thought that maybe a weekend away close by might get us all back to ourselves.

So we ventured out to go to Saly. Only 65km away and we had been before so no big deal. I told Ross about it so he could double check directions and I couldn't be blamed for getting us lost or anything like that. So presumable Ross looked it up. Whats that? You know where I'm headed with this? Well read on anyway because it gets so much better than you think!

So of course Ross "knows" where he is going and we hop on the highway the wrong way and you have to understand that highway here does not always look like highway. Sometimes there are patches of nothing but sand and you think you must be lost but then again maybe not because that happens here. In this case we ended up in a small suburb (again, not what you are thinking. Think sand,  lots of it). One one side of us is ocean and on the other brick structures and sand everywhere. If it weren't for tire treads on the "road" we would not have known it was a road. Finally I get the GPS in my phone going and tell Ross we should turn around because we are going in exactly the opposite direction we want to be going in. So Ross turns the car around...only...we are stuck.

You see I may have underplayed just how much sand there was. We were essentially trying to turn around on a sand dune. Our SUV...though fantastic and I love it, NOT 4 wheel drive! So we are stuck, really stuck. Think winter in the Laurentians when the plow just went by stuck. Get the cat litter, the grip carpets a shovel and a snowblower stuck. Only none of the things that would help in the snow can help in the sand. We are stuck and for some reason there is no one around...must be prayer time!

So Ross and I switch seats and he gets out to push. I offered, I swear, but I think it just made him angry. So I get into the driver's seat and Ross goes around the back to push and I put it in gear and give it some gas and nothing. I mean nothing. Ross is yelling at me to giv'er so I do and still nothing and I'm burning the clutch a bit too. Ross is getting really ticked at this point and I'm almost in hysterics (hey if you can't laugh about it what are you going to do? Life is too short).

After a good ten minutes of digging ourselves deeper and deeper and yes, we tried rocking back and forth, pushing from the front and the back and it was useless. So after a good ten minutes a truck full of Senegalese guys stopped and started walking towards us. At this point Ross is embarrassed and that only makes him angrier! The men all get behind the truck except one who asks me to move so he can get in and drive. After the requisite glance at Ross to make sure he's ok with it I move over but stay in the car because though I think everything will be fine I am not leaving Declan in there alone! So we now have three guys plus Ross pushing and some guy driving and still nothing! So the guys go around the car and start taking air out of the tires and then try pushing again and still nothing. Another guy shows up and they are all yelling in Wolof and he starts taking even more air out of the tires and then they try again and it works! We get out of the dune and back onto the "road" but now of course we have next to no air left in the tires. Luckily the last guy that showed up is a mechanic down the road and even closer is his cousin's garage so he drives the car there (like 200m) and puts air back into the tires while Ross tries to compensate the guys for their help. they refuse but one of them asks where we are going and then asks if he can get a ride to the other side of town. OF course we say yes. We pay for the air and then we are on our way. We follow the other vehicle of guys back to the highway though the back roads and through the tiny little suburb we were in. Not somewhere I imagine they see a lot of white people. We finally get back to the highway, drop off our passenger and then head out of town the right way. We make it in good time and don't hit any traffic thereby getting there at precisely the time we had expected to under normal circumstances and had a fantastic weekend! Pictures to follow!

On the plus side of all of this...it was an adventure, I had a good laugh and we found the most incredible beaches I have seen in Dakar and now that we know how to get there we may go next weekend and bring a picnic lunch!