A Quick Update

I'm back in Dakar after an exhausting week of travel. Here's a quick overview:

I flew out from OKC early Friday morning (We actually took off at 7, but I was my typical paranoid-about-traveling-and-getting-there-late self so I left the house at 3:30 am just to be safe). This is me at 3:00 in the morning SUPER excited and in shock to be actually leaving!!!

I had just enough time in Minneapolis to get to the next gate and board the plane to New York. In New York I had 3 or 4 hours to kill. I thought about eating lunch at a fun, new place, but the best place I could find wanted to charge me $11 for cold Pad Thai, so I opted for Chili's. Exotic, I know. Boarded the plane for Senegal and endured the 7 or 8 hour trip with no bathroom breaks (mostly because I was in the window seat and didn't want to do the awkward scooting thing with my behind in everyone's face). They showed Eat Pray Love (not a huge fan), some movie I didn't know, and 4 Christmases. The dinner was chicken with risotto and mixed veggies. I didn't see an option when signing up to get a vegetarian meal, so I just had to avoid the chicken. The rest wasn't too bad, though. I was impressed.

We landed in Dakar at 6 in the morning and after an hour of getting through customs and yet another baggage check, my friends were waiting to pick me up. We drove to the mission home we were staying at and I fought sleep for about 3 hours before I happily decided not to fight the jet lag thing and took a nice nap. 

The next morning we jumped up and into a van to ride with another family from Dakar to Tamba. 6 white adults, 3 white children, 1 African driver and 1 African driver's friend in one relatively comfortable van. We left at about 5 or 6 in the morning, stopped 3 or 4 times along the way, and made it to Tamba by about 1 or 2 in the afternoon. LONG RIDE!!! We spent the rest of the day settling in at the office my friends have in Tamba and getting ready to head out to the village.

The next morning, sometime before sunrise (I think it was around 6:30) we headed out for the village, Oundoundou (pronounced OONdoondoo). I carried two boxes containing two chickens each on the back of my bike. They squawked every time I went over bumps, which happened a lot on that road! Everyone greeted us like rock stars when we got there about 2 hours later, saying "They came! They came!" and running after us on our bikes. What a bike ride it was! I haven't ridden a bike in a long time. Sore muscles! 

We spent four days enjoying village life (more on that in another post) and headed back to Tamba on Friday morning. This ride seemed more bearable and I only asked to stop once for water. I was sick all day Saturday and don't remember much of the day other than being disappointed in not being able to go visit friends and go to the market to pick out fabric to have a dress made by a tailor here. I also remember not wanting to eat anything and wishing I had a western toilet to just sit on.

I woke up the next morning (this morning) feeling weak but much better. We took off from the office this morning at about 4:00 am, didn't stop much and got to Dakar by around noon. The trip felt much shorter, but that's probably because I slept most of the way. Right now we're sitting in a very nice home for visiting missionaries. Aaron is ironing clothes, Andrea and Elijah are playing outside and I am writing all of you.

I realize this is a very basic update with not a lot of my typical humor or insight. That will come one of these days when I'm not so tired and I have a bit of perspective. This has been a great trip and I've loved spending time with my friends. I've heard Arkansas and Oklahoma got hit hard with snow. We've had temps up in the 90's at least. Funny. The next few days should be more tourist-y. We'll head out to Goree Island, a big touristy place. Hopefully I can find some souvenirs for my family there. Wednesday night I head back, via Paris and Atlanta. I should be back in OKC (Lord willing) Thursday at around 5 pm. Then I'll turn around and get up at 5 am Friday morning to teach! Woohoo!!! Can't wait! Honestly, though, I'm so glad I took this trip. It has been amazing. I'll talk to you all later!