Dakar, Senegal 2008

Our long-awaited flight to Senegal finally came! (Senegal is on the western coast of Africa.) We had spent several months preparing and studying for this Let’s Start Talking trip! The flight was uneventful, but the arrival in Dakar, Senegal was interesting. The airport is nothing like we are used to in the States or even in other countries. It was very old and dirty, and there was no evidence of effort to make it attractive or convenient for visitors. The only slightly “modern” part was that there was a conveyor belt for baggage pick-up. There was no baggage search or security area for checking people coming in from other countries.
Once through baggage claim we started looking for someone meeting us. We had been told that either David or George would be holding an LST sign so that we would recognize who they are. No one was there! We stood inside the building for a while and then went outside to look. Taxi drivers were everywhere, and they were all wanting to take us somewhere. It got a little scary when they started arguing with each other about taking us. One man was telling us, “Don’t trust that man. He is not telling the truth.” Finally we decided that it would be best for us to go back into the airport. After over an hour of waiting, we found someone with a cell phone that would help us to call George. As it turns out, he was there at the airport all the time---he just was not allowed to come anywhere close to the door because of security. He was waiting for us to call him!

Because our arrival in Dakar was at 4:30 a.m., it was still dark on our journey from the airport to our apartment. About all we could tell was that there were a few good roads, some bad ones, and some that were dirt with very deep holes that one must navigate. The closer we got to the apartment, the worse the roads got. The apartment building turned out to be nice, especially for African standards. There was no electricity on our arrival, so we went up three flights of stairs by flashlight! We were so tired that we were just happy to see a bed! We knew that we could not sleep long and still be able to get ourselves on the Senegal time, so we decided to just nap for an hour or two. It felt great!
Pictures of the apartment will follow in the next blog……….