the first day

We arrived early this morning in the Dakar airport.  I can't believe that just yesterday I was home celebrating Christmas and today I am sitting in my new home in Yoff.  Getting through the airport was a little scary.  We were told that when we arrived the people to trust would be  wearing a certain swatch.  The people that had our names on their list had no such pattern anywhere on their body, in fact there was not a single person in the airport wearing anything close to what we needed.  My friend Casey, new friend Jess and I decided that it was probably safe to follow the person that knew our names.  After waiting in line for a while and getting by the grumpy customs man, the three of us got our bags and walked with our trusted friend out of the airport.  As we were walking some guys started following us and speaking in french.  Asking us if we needed help and asking us questions about where we lived and why we were here.  We just kept following the guy hoping that we were going the right way.  We then quickly piled into a shabby looking car that looked like it shouldn't have worked.  five minutes of the scariest car ride of our lives we got out of the car and met a woman names Fatou Lo.  We had safely reached our destination.  She showed us our apartment and let us get settled in.  Although it was 6 in the morning and we didn't sleep on the plane, our curiosity got the best of us and the three of us walked up to the roof to look over Yoff, our new home for the next three weeks.  After sleeping for as much as we could, we had our first senegalese meal.  Sitting together with our new family we ate a very spicy dish of rice and fish.  Me and Casey went back to the roof where we heard kids yelling and waving at us.  We finally realized they were yelling bonjour Toubab, so we said bonjour back and waved back.

We were introduced to a new friend named David who wanted to take us for a tour.  We all hoped into a taxi and got our first experience of the roads in Senegal.  Absolutely no rules exist, just a lot of honking and barely passing between cars.  I learned quickly that it was smart to just look out the window and enjoy the new scenery.  We got out and quickly realized we stuck out.  Everyone seemed to stare at us where ever we went.  David was a quick walker and we had to struggle to keep up.  We saw the middle of the city and the presidents house.  We exchanged money and then walked to the beach.  There is a lot of garbage everywhere and there was even a dead goat in the sand.  All very new, but the beach was beautiful.  We really enjoyed just sitting and relaxing.  Finally it was time to go back home, in which we ate dinner and let the tiredness sweep over us.