Springtime in Senegal. April 21, 2008

It is hard to believe that it is already April – this means that the end of the school year is not far away and this year, and it means that our departure from Senegal is imminent.

It has been a great four school years for us here, and we are ready to move on. A few days ago I was thinking about the fact that Madeline has spent her entire life in Dakar (if that doesn’t make one a dakaroise, then what does?). Only for relatively short periods in her life has she not been in Senegal. And now she is leaving, so it’s a big deal for all. She’s a bit young to be cognizant of everything, but I do think that she will miss Laye and Penda and all of her little kiddie friends here.

In fact, she already is missing Penda. We were able to help Penda get another job recently, for a French family with lots of kids (Penda is one of two nannies for this family). They live very close to us so Penda still occasionally comes over for play dates with her ‘new’ kids. We’re currently working hard to find Laye a new job starting after we leave with not a lot of success thus far.

Our days with Maddie are spent enjoying all the nice things about Dakar and Senegal. Recently we’ve been to the Meridien Hotel playground and the US Embassy Field playground. These have been two of our favorite places to play in Dakar and we will miss them. Of course we spend a lot of time at the ISD playground as well.

One of Maddie’s newest ‘hotspots’ is a place called Le N’Gor restaurant, near our apartment here in Almadies (about a 10-minute walk). It’s a little mellow place with a nice private beach where one can have a cold Gazelle in the sand, or a brochette with rice. But it’s not the beach that she is fascinated with. There is a large collection of mangy fowl that lives around the establishment, some more cuddly than others. There is a large peacock, several guinea fowl (with many many lightning-fast little chicks), and a few ancient ducks that really should be put out of their misery. Madeline is obsessed with running around all the garbage and old machinery that these animals live in, chasing them to no end. So here you have this place with a gorgeous beach and grounds and Madeline likes to go there to run around the rubbish heaps out back! This is kind of her emerging style.

Today we took Maddie to the doctor, as she has been a bit off lately.  She has impetigo, a bizarre skin rash that is completely gross and highly contagious.  About a week ago we noticed a spot on her arm that looked like a mosquito bite that she had picked at… then it didn’t go away, and little bumps started appearing around it, and… well, you get the picture.  It’s a miracle that mom and dad haven’t gotten this (yet).

In addition to her skin ailments, the girl is suffering from tonsilitis, a mild form of sore throat and head cold.  So we have her on antibiotics.  She’s pretty miserable!  But we should be thankful that she gets sick very rarely.  We know other couples who always seem to have sick kids and it’s so tiring for everyone involved.

For some reason, every time Madeline gets sick, she gets 2 or 3 things at once.

Spring break! April 12, 2008

Ah yes, a fond time of the school year for everyone: spring break. The very phrase conjures up all kinds of pleasant images of carefree days, gentle April showers, greenery, flowers blooming….

We definitely don’t have any of that on the edge of the Sahars (besides the carefree days), but it was an eventful time. To start off, dad went to Sri Lanka the week before spring break and stayed nearly the whole first week of the holiday. Why Sri Lanka, of all places? Because the family is moving there in July for it’s next ‘assignment’ in the overseas teaching ‘circuit’. It was great for all because he was able to find a house, a nanny, and a school for Madeline to attend, among many other things. It was hard being away from mom and Madeline to be sure – a full 12 days apart, the longest absence dad has had from the girl since the time just after her birth.

Much more to come about Sri Lanka and the new gig there. In short, it will be a great move for all of us, especially Madeline. Our house is much more spacious than our apartment here, with a yard and lots of places for Maddie to run around. Also, the school Maddie will be attending is charming and just the right thing for her. Lots of young families there with little kids. And Maddie is already a celebrity in our new Sri Lanka community!

When dad returned to Senegal, the family had some great time together in Dakar, just doing nothing. Then we headed down south. The first three nights we spent in Saly, a very touristy place on the petit cote about an hour or two drive from the city. This is not our favorite spot in Senegal as there are many all-inclusives and a bit of a sleazy feel to the town. Still, there are lots of neat places to stay there and we found one, called the Africa Lodge. Absolutely perfect for us in every respect – on a quiet stretch of beach north of all the main Saly hubbub, very kid-friendly, run by a French couple. The only downer is that we did not find this place earlier in our lives in Senegal – we would have gone back many times. In fact we are talking about going back in May.

Maddie had a great time in Saly. Besides an expansive beach for her to run around on, we had a pool pretty much all to ourselves (only one other family staying there). And she was waited on ‘hand and foot’ by the kind proprietors who took a strong liking to her. We slept in, ate big breakfasts, played in the pool, slept again, ate again, etc… Maddie even made some big strides towards swimming (well, at least getting more comfortable in the water). This is one funny kid. Up until a few months ago, she had no fear whatsoever of water, and would plunge right into the deepest part of the pool if we’d let her. At the beach she would try to walk and walk non-stop far out to sea. But now she’s terrified of ocean waves and skittish of the pool. I’d rather have it this way, and have no explanation for the change.

After three relaxing nights at the Africa Lodge, we headed farther south to a smaller and more remote place called Palmarin. Here lies one of the most luxurious (and out of place) lodges in the entire country. The Royal Lodge is in every sense over the top. From the infinity pool to the flower pedals on your pillow every night, the place drips elegance and excess. We stayed for two nights there, figuring this would be a great thing to do during our last few months in Senegal. Indeed this is a place that we would only stay once in our lives. It is surrounded by the grinding poverty typical of rural Senegal, a fact that you are reminded of when you walk off the lodge’s beach and meet the locals selling trinkets.  Madeline got to ride a local donkey, too.

Maddie also enjoyed Palmarin, though it wasn’t as perfect for her. For example, we had to get room service for dinner each night because it was served too late for Maddie to take part in the real thing (we tried having a sit-down dinner in the dining room once and the girl had a complete meltdown.) And not the most toddler-friendly place in the world. This is the kind of dreamy place a couple goes to make a baby, not a place to take one.

Another highlight of our spring break was a drive inside the Bandia game park.  Though none of the animals there are natural (all have been placed, some native to Senegal, but the whole place is surrounded by a fence), it’s a great place to feel like you are on safari.  We took our own car and saw giraffes (picture above), rhinos, monkeys, buffalo, gazelle, zebras, and many others.  Maddie loved it and it was just the right amount of time in the car before a blowup.

Overall, the girl is doing great. She’s happy and lively and talking more and more… the big new thing is the fact that she can sit for long stretches of time with her toys (dolls, whatever) and talk and talk ‘conversation-like’, keeping herself and her toys quite busy. In other words, she’s becoming a bit more independent in terms of playing by herself, which is a very good thing. Her vocabulary is growing at an amazing rate.  I don’t know the number of words she knows at the moment but every word you say sticks – we have to be very careful of what we say.  Dad bought her some fun things in Sri Lanka, among them a little porty-potty that she is very interested in, but doesn’t quite get the hang of.  She knows what it means to go (ka-ka) and how to sit on it, but utilizing the thing isn’t quite clicking yet.