1 month in Senegal!

Here is a peek into our last week of our first month in Dakar. This month has flown by. Our last week was the hardest... the first time we were just having a really hard string of days dealing with the frustrations/inconveniences of life here. But we have been encouraged in many ways since then and are still very thankful and content to be here. We are excited to see what God has in store for us in the future.

Our kids received a kitchen to "borrow" indefinitely from a friend who is heading to boarding school.  They are lovin' it!  

Marianna showing Louis and Liv her sweet playground at her school. 

Louis is getting SO big...he was swinging here like a big boy.

Marianna looking lovely on the spinning toy.

Olivia couldn't be shown up by her little bro..so here she is swinging too.

That night we had dinner with this great family at their house.  They will be leaving soon to head back home and we are praying about taking over their apartment (and buying their stuff) next summer.  Their is another family who are doing the same and we are considering their apt. as well.  Praying for wisdom!

All in all we had a good week.  We are learning over and over again that being flexible is absolutely essential here...plans are made to be tossed aside and plan B is the new plan A.  Examples:  torrential rain made getting Marianna to school impossible...just getting out off our road would have meant getting totally soaked.  Another night the weather struck again and a storm with lots of thunder, lightening and downpours made taking our orientation babysitters our for dinner impossible.  The other family and ours made a quick plan change (even ordering in was not possible due to the bad roads) and pooled our resources to make pizzas, salad, and chocolate filled crepes.  Completed our night of fun with a cartoon:).  Lots of other adventures like dead and living animals in my kitchen each morning make life hard to plan for...but never boring:). 

Yassa Poulet & Mangos

This post is mostly about my adventure making "yassa poulet" with some Senegalese ladies who work at SIL as part of our orientation. But...I have two cute mango eaters who made it into the post too:)

Here is Zita, working on cooking the chicken

All the goodies for the sauce...onions, limes, carrots, vinegar, mustard, oil, pepper..etc.

Zita showed us how to grind the garlic, pepper, etc. this way.

I got to help chop dozens of onions...the main ingredient besides rice and chicken.

Chopping, chopping, chopping, and SWEATING.

Cordilia and Cathy helped out too...giving lots of opinions in Wolof and trying to teach us some Wolof too.

Cordelia changed into her pretty dress and helped finish up the sauce with us and quizzed us in Wolof.

Posing by the finished product...SO GOOD!! (with some other friends from SIL too.)

Happy Birthday Daniel and mini-update

Daniel was the first to have a birthday in Senegal!  He was a trooper with my very first homemade pizza and baked good in Africa...neither of which turned out great.  No cake, but I managed a peanut butter chocolate chip bread. 

Today we all went to the beach with our co-workers here and had a good time.  Not without challenges, but the beach and water were a nice getaway and the kids loved playing in the water.  The sand was nice and pretty clean too.  Liv decided the sand was going to kill her so she panicked every time she was out of the water "mommmmmmieeeeee...there is SAND on my FEET!"  was what we heard for most of the afternoon.  But all in all a nice time.  So if you come to visit...we'll take you there:).  You'll never find it without us though...mwa ha ha!  If you snake through some industriel buildings and kind of a garage holding area you will find a nice beach and hotel, not what you'd expect to be there for sure!  It was about $12 for all of us to get in, but worth it for a clean, safe beach.

None of us are sick, and we are thankful for that.  The kids are pretty eaten up by mosquitoes but we haven't been putting spray on (thinking their little bodies already had too much with the malaria meds) but we are going to start.  Lesser of two evils.  We've all had minor stomach aches and intestinal discomforts, so please keep us in mind for that issue. 

Tomorrow we will go to a french speaking international church wit some colleagues of ours.  We are looking forward to visiting the churches in town so we can decide where to go. 

I am getting used to wearing long skirts all the time and Daniel long pants.  And sweating all the time.  We are thankful that we have lots of fans here and a fridge for cold water!  Cold showers have become a blessing rather than a burden too:)

Marianna has started kindergarten and she loves it.  She has a tiny class right now...6 kids!  She is exhausted after each day though...the taxi ride home has her saying "I want to get out of here" a lot.  I think it's a little bit of culture shock for her too to ride in the hot taxis...smell all the new smells and sit in traffic and see the sights of Dakar.  It's a lot to take in for all of us. 

Overall we are doing well and learning more about life here every day.  We will be in "orientation" for the next 2 1/2 months and I feel like we need to be!  Thankful to be here. 

We're in Senegal!

We made it to Dakar on Wednesday...a dramatic difference one day makes! Wednesday morning we were in France and by the evening we were in Senegal, Africa! Here are a few pictures of our playground on center that is right outside our apartment, and a few pictures of inside our apartment.

The sidewalk outside our apartment and the greenery.  A banana and mango tree too!

Our bedroom is two beds pushed together and mosquito nets!  The first night Rachael woke up with hundreds of bites so Daniel spent some time working on holes in the nets and our net tucking in method.  Last night was much better. 

Louis and Olivia's room.

Bathroom (of course).  We are readjusting to having the toilet and the sink in the same room (in France they were separate rooms!)

Our kitchen...its really big!  We have a lizard that lives here too:).  The stove is gas (you light it) but a good size.  The next picture shows some interesting thing about an African kitchen.

to the left of the sink:  bucket with water and bleach to soak fruits and veggies and kill bad bacteria.  Attached to the sink is the water filter.  Don't drink the tap water! 

Our living room is a good size too, there is a nice bookshelf and a coffee table.  The windows look onto the laundry area and some trees.  Notice the bars on the windows for safety.  The center is pretty safe though...there is a guard at the entrance all the time.  We feel very safe here. 

Voila...the mini tour!

Saying Goodbyes

Although we are so excited to get to Dakar, Senegal in 1 1/2 (wow...really!?!) weeks, we have a mixture of emotions with all the goodbyes.  And we don't just mean having to say goodbye to the best "fromage" or delicious french cheese:).  Daniel and I are both on the shy end of things (although I am an extrovert!) so we aren't usually the type to always hang out and talk to a million people, there are a number of people we will miss very much when we leave.  A few of these precious friends are french, or at least live here in France! 

One of those friends is Georgette who brought us this lovely bounty pictured above (including the flowers!).  We were blessed to receive beautiful garden produce from her and to see her one more time before we leave. The hardest goodbyes are ones that may be the last! 

Another friend, one from church has been making an effort to get together with me at a park as often as she possibly can these last few weeks to practice french and let the kids play on the playground.   She is past the age of retiring yet she still works part time cleaning houses.  This week she got up earlier than normal so she could both do her work and spend time with us.  I am humbled to have friends like these in my life. 

Another friend made me some head coverings and a long skirt to wear in Senegal just barely above the cost of materials and has patiently suffered through many phone conversations in french even though her english is still better than my french! 

This is not to mention the many missionary friends we will leave behind (many of whom we thought we would work with when we were headed to Cameroon won't now).  So many great friends to say goodbye to. 

So thankful for the time we've had here.

Menu Plan and 2 1/2 weeks until Senegal!

We are in the throughs (what does that mean and how is it spelled anyway!?) of packing right now but there are dozens of random things that have to get done (yesterday!) right now that we'd never have thought of. Changing our bank accounts, reordering small appliances that are kaput, cameras, running erands to cancel utilities, planning last minute get togethers, doctors appointments, etc. We're thankful to have a lot of packing done so that some of the other things are not overwhelming! But we are definitely ready to actually finally be in Senegal! Youpi!!! Here is my menu plan for the last 2 weeks we'll be here, using up what's in the fridge freezer plus lots of fresh stuff (eggs, cheese, milk, fruits and veg) to supplement.
Tacos X1
Taco Salad X1 or 2
Cobb Salad
Smoked Chicken and Potatoes, salad Soup X1 or 2
Gluten free pasta and sauce, salad (or fresh veg from market)
Pizza X1 or 2
Picnic Dinner X??
Quiche
Hamburgers, homefries, fresh veggies
I need to figure out something to do with some frozen pork chunks, some artichokes (canned) and some garbanzo beans (got any ideas?!)

Aix le Bains (la plage) and Raclette for dinner

We finally visited the nearby beach again and it was so much fun. What a difference a year makes (I can't emphasize that enough for moms with tiny ones!) in the fact that a year ago we had to constantly watch and make sure louis wasn't eating sand or drowning in an inch of water. Now he romps through the water with his sisters and is much more independent and fun. The only downside to our trip was that the girls and I ended up with little bites ALL OVER that itched like crazy. Almost 4 days to get rid of the itchies...no fun. But a day in the water, sun and sand with a picnic was worth it. Here are some pics of our day (and yes Daniel and I were there too...just didn't make it into the pics:):

Splashing is just too fun!

Louis liked to throw himself backward in the water...wore poor grandma out

Our three cuties posing on the little ledge in the water...

A little shark coming to bite daddy's ankles

Our meticulous and detail-oriented daughter making a sand castle. 

The two sillies hamming it up together in the water.

My big boy

Beach beauty!

Little mermaid

Always looking for mischief this one...

Our last night together we made the traditional "raclette" for my mom and aunt Cinda.  It was yummy and a fun way to remember our time together:)  Aunt Cinda bought yummy pastries for dessert.

The spread...mom is already crying here I bet:).  Glad to have good memories but saying goodbye is so hard.