Staff Quarters in Dakar, Senegal aka our house

 As promised long ago here are some pictures of our house. The second and third floor can be seen here and the first floor is to follow...soon, I promise!


Third floor living and play room

 Small guest room on the third floor with en-suite

 Main guest room with en-suite on the second floor

 Rooftop terrace

Declan's playroom with en-suite. Across the hall from the family bedroom on the second floor.

 The family bedroom

 The family bedroom en-suite. (There is a standing shower just out of field on the right)

Birthday Brunch

Ross took me out for birthday brunch to one of the hotels in Dakar that does an all you can eat seafood buffet appetizers with a main course and all you can eat desert. I have NEVER eaten so much seafood in my life. The food was fantastic but the choice was just incredible.

Here are just a few of the things we sampled

Sea urchin

Mussels the size of my hand

Huge shrimp

For the main course Ross had roast beef with veggies and potatoes. The veggies were built up like a lasagna it was very neat. I had mushroom risotto with truffle oil. So they come to the table with the main dishes and before giving me my risotto they bring out a huge wheel of parmesan that has been partially hollowed out. They put my risotto in the parm wheel and start scraping the sides and adding truffle oil. Then once in the plate they added more parm and truffle oil. Needless to say we could not finish it!!!

Desert was good. Nothing to write home about ;) 

The view

Things you should know about my little corner of the world...part one?

1. When you hear about a gas shortage, we feel it. We were in line for 45 minutes trying to get gas for the car after visiting two stations that had none.

2. There are bugs in the pools. They live there and it's normal, see previous post.

3. Things happen at their own pace here. Don't expect to keep a tight schedule as the plumber may come today as he said or he may show up tomorrow or the day after...or never and you have to call again.

4. That smell coming from the bathroom is not someone who just went but the smell of sewage coming up from the shower (just the smell though....so far). Don't call anyone, it's normal when it rains a lot. Like during the rainy season.

4. The ants everywhere...DON'T kill them, they will send more. Just ignore that they are in the laundry bin eating bits of food off your son's clothes and know that when the clothes are clean they don't care. Oh and rinse the sink after mouthwash....they LOVE Listerine!

5. There are no big scary spiders here.

6. Cockroaches do come up from the drains but they are just little guys...unless you forget to put the drain plug back in...then the big guys come but never when the water is running.

7. Fresh fish is awesome!

8. Cover your thighs. See post on my first run here.

9. Bed nets are great...if the mosquitoes are stuck outside it

10. Full time help ROCKS! Especially if you are sick.

La statue de la renaissance de l'esprit Africaine

The pool

So, I have been training 3-4 times a week at the pool. The big gorgeous outdoor olympic sized one in one of my previous posts. The one with the 25m "kids" pool. The one that is just seconds away from my house by foot. The one I can see from our rooftop terrace.  The one with dragonflies and palm trees and wonderful staff. The one with the beetles swimming in it.

Wait, what?!

That's right, beetles of some sort like to swim and have babies in the pool. It scared the bejesus out of me! They are larger than any beetle I have ever seen. They like to stay in the shaded end of the pool and have their thousands of little ones; who also like it in the shaded area of the pool.

Like a moron I asked the lifeguard if it was normal that there were bugs swimming in the pool with us. He assured me that it was, in fact, normal. The bugs are in all the pools this time of year, they are harmless and come the "cold" season they will be gone.

So I summoned up my courage got back in the water and finished my training and I will go back. I must get over my fear of such things, especially when I'm told it's completely harmless.

http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/beetles/dytiscidae/

This is my beetle. He is ugly and big but harmless. So just so you know, there are beetles in the pools in my little part of the world.

The view from one of our favourite haunts...so far!

Selena's swim meet and the pool she trains at...disregard the colour of the diving pool. It is not used!

                                         This was a relay race. The Canadian team came in 5th!

My first run in Dakar...

So I knew better and should have looked more for my other shorts but I couldn't find them so I put on my running skirt and a tank top and decided that that was the best I could do and out the door I went.

I should have looked more for my other shorts...the longer ones that go all the way to my knees...

In this primarily Muslim country showing arms is ok, breastfeeding in public is not a problem, I can show my hair and ankles and calfs but thighs are considered VERY sexual.

I got as far as one or two blocks before I started to notice the dirty looks from women and the hooting, hollering and honking from men. Mortified (because I knew better) I turned back towards home only to discover that I could not remember which way I had turned to get onto this street. The street with the elementary school kids gawking at me, the street with more cars than ours, the street with the small store where the women bringing in her fresh bread to sell for the day had stopped mid step to stare.

You have to understand that there are very few street signs here and that all the houses look the same from the street, they are all behind a cement wall and a gate. There are no numbers on the houses and I could not for the life of me remember if I had gone one block or two before turning left...or was it right...crap!

Eventually I found my way home and have since been hiding here as I don't want to be recognized...I'll be going shopping for new running shorts once I have the guts to leave the safety of my cement wall with the guard at the gate.

Perhaps tormorrow I'll go for a walk, in a moo-moo, with a map.

Lunch on the beach at les Almadies

Dakar, the arrival

Well we made it in one piece! Declan and I had a VERY long flight in but finally we made it "home". We were all very happy to be reunited but with the jet lag and Ross' overtime so he could take a few days when we got here we all spent the day sleeping.

Dakar is, well, different. Pretty much what I had expected. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not in Mexico, though the fact that no one looks Mexican helps ;)  I have to say that I am glad that we ended up in a country where we speak the language (for the most part!).

On our second day I made Ross take us to the beach. I was feeling miserable and tired and wanted to see something that had attracted me to this place. So out for lunch on the beach we went. It really helped my mood and I have to say I think I'm really going to like it here!!!

I will write soon about the house and our housekeeper Juliette but for now this is it!

Take care!

S