It was so exciting yesterday to meet the rest of my study abroad group! There are 18 of us in all representing states from California all the way across the country to Pennsylvania and Virginia. So this morning at 2:30am central time, our South African airbus landed in Dakar. The flight was enjoyable (plenty of free movies/TV that you could choose and the first hot meal I have eaten on a plane in a long time) but long. No matter how nice the service is, airplane seats just aren’t designed for sleeping (at least the economy ones I’ve sat in).
We landed just before sunrise and took the “special limo service” i.e. the required shuttle bus everyone had to ride about 30 to 40 feet to the customs from the airplane’s door. At customs, I had my first Senegalese French conversation when a customs officer starting talking to me in Wolof. When I mentioned I don’t speak Wolof yet, he quickly translated “Tu t’appelles Fatou n’est-ce pas*? [smile]” ha, ha very funny. I knew that carrying around my 50lb olive drab canvas duffle from the army surplus store (very cost effective and durable!) and wearing the sun hat I couldn’t fit in said bag was just asking for it.
My second conversation was at the hotel, where the program staff brought us for one night as we transition in. I successfully got the wi-fi instructions and password from the receptionist so I was able to tell you all I arrived safely, probably even before you got up this morning! First, we dropped our suitcases off and had petit-déjeuner (breakfast), which surprised me. When I was asked “thé ou café” the lady brought out the tea I requested, *plus* an orange juice, half a baguette, and another sort of unsweetened pastry, wow! After what I could finish of not-so-petit-déjeuner, we took a little tour of the neighborhood, which is not quite where we will be living, but it’s our first taste of Dakar on foot. We saw some people sweeping their front porches, two guys driving a horse-cart, and Pierre, a Senegalese who we found out is retired from working with the US state department. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the city later today.
*So, your name is Fatou (a female Senegalese given name), right?
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