Day #1 in Dakar

The past two days have been a whirlwind of adventures. We have certainly had NO trouble sleeping at night!! Here's a run down on the first day in Dakar...Mari will pick up on day 2. :)

Day 1: Monday, June 21: We arrived in Dakar at 5:30 am (a little late cuz of a delay at JFK). We slept for a while, but not too much...wanted to get over the jet lag as fast as possible. Our big outing for the morning was taxiing to the grocery store (western style and therefore slightly expensive). Taking taxis is always an adventure because of bargaining over the price. We leave that to the French speakers...at least so far. We rested some more and then it was to the tailor to try on Mari's dress. It was so tight through the waist and thighs that she couldn't even sit. He is working on it and we're hoping it will fit fine by Saturday! We also found out that this wedding involves the families (ESPECIALLY those in the wedding party) DANCING their way in...Mari and Matt have to dance the most, but I've been informed that I will also be dancing. This will be hilarious! (We are practicing with the dance instructor over the next few days).

In the evening, we met Claude's family at a friend of Kate and Claude's home for a Cameroonian meal prepared by Claude's mom and Aunt. Meeting the whole family was a little overwhelming, but fun and everyone was very friendly. Mama Christine (Claude's mom) kept trying to get Mari and I to speak French... especially "ca va bien" which we've got DOWN now as "ca va" is how we greet everyone here! Our dinner was pistache (made from ground pumpkin seeds and meat), cassava, a bush meat dish (interesting...), one Senegalese dish of meat, veggies and a delicious sauce, and lots of Fanta! :) Mari and I were singled out to eat first...which makes it hard to just do what everyone else is doing...so hopefully we didn't blunder too badly. We spent a good portion of the evening sweating PROFUSELY as it was a MILLION degrees and the twin two-year-olds took a liking to us and we did a lot of picking them up, twirling around, piggy-back rides, etc...

It is very hot here, but not as unbearable as I expected. When heading to bed, we had our first experiment with sleeping under mosquito nets. It is interesting :)

I'm realizing that this is very long and I'm describing the SLOWEST day here so far. On Day 2 we toured the city and on Day 3 went to a resort-town and then a game reserve... We'll tell you all about it soon!