Le mosquée divinité

After leaving the statue Aida was kind enough to join us at the divinity mosque, one of the more popular mosques in Dakar.  We just went in briefly B to look around but the kids got a quick lesson in Islam and their house of worship. 

The taxi waited for us to we couldn't spend much time there.  Once we left we dropped Aida back near Ma Khady's house and she asked the driver to take us to les almadies, where I was told we would find a beach and a restaurant.  

On he way their our new taxi driver almost got in a fight with a truck driver who was blocking the road. The people here are super chill until they start driving then it's like bumper cars! Yikes!!

On our route to les almadies we passed the huge US embassy.  We found a lol restaurant to wag at bug the flies were in attack mode and it was hot, we were sweaty and tired.  The beach didn't even look good.  Here was far more rocks than sand. After waiting forever to get our food we ate and I made an executive for us to go home.  Dude wa upset about not going to the beach, but agreed that the rocks didn't look fun.  

As soon as we got home I fell asleep for HOURS on the couch.  I was whooped. Senegalese sun 1.  Echo 0... But still felt like see was winning in Dakar. 

Africa's rebirth

We woke up at about 9am.  The city was already on the move.  I quickly made everyone shower and drink something. The shower has hot water and it was such a relief to not be beaten with the ice cold drops we so often encounter in our travels.  This apartment is beautiful.  Even though their are three bedrooms we stick together, lol.  Dude and I let Zane have the bed in the room closest to us, since that's where he fell asleep.  He and I decided to sleep on the couch.  With the balcony right there and a fan going it was comfortable am enough to sleep well. 

After getting dressed I called Ma Khady.  Ma Khady is a friend's ex- mother in law who lives here in Dakar.  She lives near the Renaissance statue and invited us over to mean her.  Before leaving out house I recharged my phone card and we also bought apple juice, bread rolls, and other drinks.  We came home and quickly ate, then ran to the street to get a taxi to visit our new friend.

She explained to our driver in Wolof where to go, but he somehow  misunderstood and took us to he wrong side of the statue.  Actually he was a little off all the way around and since he didn't speak French it was even harder to communicate with him.  He drove like a bat out of hell and even hit a guy on a bicycle.  The poor guy was ok but he could have easily been killed. Before  our driver even hit him I thought "this is not somewhere I'd want to be riding a bike!"  Our driver didn't even stop to check on him, but from what I could see in the rare view mirror he didn't fall off the bike and even though we pushed him in front of a bus he narrowly escaped being hit by the bus too!

No surprisingly Ma Khady's home was on a street where almost every house was still being built.  He house was GORGEOUS, like the royal family lived there or something. She explained to me that she work in the embassies here and in the US.  We also met her niece Aida, who was there visiting.  Aida was 23 years old and wanted to join us in seeing the monument.  We all agreed she could help us get around in Wolof too! 

So after chatting for a while and getting a cold drink on a scorching hot day we jumped in Ma Khady's car and she dropped is off at the monument just a couple of blocks away.  The monument was awesome just like I'd imagined.  The sun however was brutal and the staircase was loooooong..... Dude bounced his little body up the stairs while Aida, Zane, and I struggled like we were swimming against the tide.  The struggle was real and the sun was not playing.  When we finally reached the top we sat on a bench in the statues shade and just threw out heads back to catch the breeze.  

The view was amazing and after about 15 minutes we decided to go in the statues museum for a tour.  The tour starts with the history and construction on the statue.  It also talks about what inspired it.  I won't give it all away for you please research the African Renaissance statue in Senegal and let me know what youve learned.  The part of the inspiration was to connect with the African diaspora, so the kids were happy to also see pix of MLK, rosa parks, Malcolm X, and Obama in the museum.  They didn't recognize Marcus Garvey so they will be learning about him more in the near future. 

Other sections included a children's movie theater, arts exhibits, and these tall statues made of dirt.  The kids were afraid at first.  Dude was convinced they had real eyeballs and that was freaking him out.  After a while they warmed up and started to take silly pix.  

Monaco plage

After getting settled in our apartment I checked in with everyone back home.  Francois was kind enough to take me to be corner store to get a SIM card for my old unlocked blackberry phone.  He made sure I had his number locked in and asked me to call him each day I returned home so he could properly explain the apartment's location to the driver.  After all business was taken care of I had to forced myself to take a nap.  The plan was to sleep for an hour but I woke up after an 20 minutes and felt refreshed, ready to go!  The excitement was too much and I just couldn't contain it to shoot for those extra 40 minutes.   

As always I pulled out my to-do list and started asking the kids what we should do first, my recommendation was the Renaissance statue but Dude was insistent on the beach.  No matter what we said he kept yelling "la playa, la playa!!" 

Ok dude let me see if I can find a beach, if not then the statue.  That was fair enough for him... I didn't know who to ask so I decided to kill two birds with one stone #1. Call the property owners mother whom I just met to make sure she knew how to contact me when I wasn't in the apartment AND to ask her what beach she would recommend.  She was happy to have my number and also recommended intake a taxi to plage Monaco.  I vaguely remembered reading something about that beach ontrip advisor and decided it was a go.  She said the taxi should be $2500. (Approximately $5usd).  I put the kids in their swim trucks and flip flops threw towels in an bag and we were off. We bounced down the steps and quickly let Francois know where we were going.  Tacos are plentiful in front of our apartment and within seconds we had a driver.  The drive was about 15-20 minutes.  And we drove though so much traffic, lots of markets and ripple selling things in the street. We then cut down a back road filled with tucks and shipping containers.  Before we knew it we were in front of a hotel like resort.  We entered the property and had to pay $1000 for me and $500 each kid.  The beach had little grass hut awnings and places to lounge in the shade. 

The boys couldn't wait to jump in, I sat in the shade for a while and watched them play with the other swimmers.  There were 3 life guards out there and what appeared to be a camp group or something.  They looked like they were having so much fun I eventually got in too. 

After swimming for HOURS I had to force them out of the water. The sun was dropping and I wanted us to eat before we left.  We all reluctantly changed our clothes and waited ordered at the hotel restaurant.  Zane and I ordered be fish and rice and Dide got the pizza. 

After eating and getting to go boxes.  We went back to the steet to get a taxi.  I called Francois and the taxi driver wanted $4000 Francois told me to wait for another taxi and it should be the same $2500 I paid to get there.  After a loooong 10 minutes another driver came also asking for $4000 but Francois talked him down to $3000, I didn't think it was worth waiting for a lower price, with it quickly getting dark.  It took us about 35-40 minutes to get home in the traffic.  I see why the first guy wanted more... However we had to the chance to see so much of Dakar.  We drove past a nasty nasty shanty town near a rail road track.  The boys looked horrified, I didn't hesitate to remind them of how thankful they should be for such comfortable lives because that is not a birth right.  It seems that even though we passed through so many neighborhoods there was construction everywhere.  Let me explain they are not just throwing up 4 walls for people to live in... The are building architectural beauty on display.  Many of the newly constructed buildings are not paint (or tiled) yet.. Bet when they are done please remember me saying this will be one of the world's most beautiful cities!! 

We made it home before dark and dude fell asleep Immediately.  We spent the rest of the night chilling, the boys still had their on- line Spanish class with ms rosa and they couldn't wait to tell her about their first day in a new land.  So far we are off to a great start, we are all excited for tomorrow. 

HELP!

As soon as we landed I said my favorite prayer.  "HELP!" And voila.... Help was on the way.  As we deplaned our same new friend just so happened to be exiting at the same time.  He swept up dude's bag and helped us to the shuttle van.  The can literally drove us 50 feet then let us off.  Everyone had a good laugh at the ridiculous ride.  I told our new friend that I needed help changing money and getting to our Airbnb.... Who still hasn't sent our address.  We're it not for our host excellent review I would have truly believes that we were tricked into renting a non existing apartment.  Our new friend  helped us through immigration and customs.  I kid you not this man knew everyone. Everyone single person in the airport was his friend.  He finally told me he was a retired delta employee and was constantly traveling back and forth.  It wasn't until we got to baggage claim that unthought to ask his name.  DeeKay.  While he waited for him bags he suggested we wait for him to help us with what id requested. I then connected to the airport wifi and found the messages from our Airbnb host.  Whew!!!! 

As soon as DeeKay returned I showed him our address and he knew exactly where we would go.  As we got outside he continues to greet long time friends and pointed me in the direction of the currency exchange.  From what I could see there was a lot of development in the area and people looked healthy and happy, not rich but definitely not struggling like I've seen in othe countries.  

DeeKay initially was going to put us in a can and send us in our way but after haggling with a taxi driver in Wolof he arranged it so we would all ride together. We dropped him off at his place first the no Ce he got his phone charged up we called our Airbnb check in guy and let him know we were on the way.  The taxi driver called him again once we got in the vicinity and then easily got us to the front door.  Outside was Francois, our checkin guy. And the apartment owners mother Henriette.  We all greeted each other in French and Henriette told us to calm her if we need anything at all.  From there Francois took us to the apartment and spend the next hour showing us around. The apartment was HUGE 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms.  Its more luxurious than our home in Atlanta!! The kids were very very pleased.  

After check in and revising each room, walls, everything on be check list Francois took me to the local corner store to buy a SIM card for my phone.  Now we are chilling and I'm about to force us all to take a nap. 

Oh yea it's hot here.  Very very very HOT. Welcome to Africa!

Check out our apartment! 

Look at me in my African print dress.  Thanks Teressa!

Senegal and the scaredy cat

So I've been planning this trip to Senegal for six months.  Six months ago when I tried to execute this plan it just didn't fall together.  So why am I so petrified now that we are about to board our flight and it seems that everything is AOK?  So basically I'm scared out of my mind.  We almost didn't make the flight from Atlanta to jfk.  But we did make it, almost doesn't count.  I felt this strange feeling of comfort from a couple on both our flights however.  An elder Senegalese couple in traditional clothes, both standing 6 feet tall, and as regal as can be sat near us on both flights.  I barely saw or heard them talk, but I knew as soon as we left Atlanta that they'd be with us until we made it to Dakar.  

As we frantically boarded our flight in NY, each of us marching with our rolling carry ons, a very friendly man was behind us helping Dude because he could stop his bag from twisting and turning down the boarding ramp.  He was tickled by my little guy and we began talking as he offered a helping hand.  He too was leaving on the same flight, as was the very friendly lady behind him.  Although they didn't know each other they reassured me that I will enjoy the flight and their country.  Also ugh the gentleman was from The Gambia, he had a second home in Dakar.  As we boarded the plane we went our separate ways.  

The flight was great the seats were spacious and after dinner we all turned off our TVs (in my case I turns off my kjndle) and slept. 

Last day in Rio

Today was our last day in Rio.  There is no way we were going to leave here without first properly visiting the copacaban beach.  That was our first stop of the day.  The water was freezing and the sand blew in the wind cutting us like shards of glass... Did that stop us though? of course not!!!  The water was definitely too cold to swim, but it was the perfect temperature to wash up on your frets send you jumping and squealing hnt he opposite direction.  And boy did we have fun doing just that!  

With our flight leaving 9pm that night we had enough time to do something but not too much time. But was Brazil's Independence Day and a good day to check out the botanical gardens.  We followed the bus directions there and off we went even though it was officially closed we had plenty of space to lounge and to let the kids run and jump.  We spend some hours there and then headed home taking the scenic route passing the ipanmena beach and other landmarks.

Levy came to meet us at the apartment and 6 and had also arranged a taxi for us at a great price.  He made us promise to return and I reassured him that we would.  

Rio was good too, even with cloudy skies and cold ocean.  I can only imagine how great it will be when we visit under more favorable conditions.  Rio we will be back!