Dakar and the Beach

A few days ago, we took a trip to the capital city of Dakar. It is about an hour drive by car. Here we are with Downtown Dakar in the background. The roads are actually much better than I expected, most of the roads we use to get to Dakar are paved and those that are not are in pretty good shape considering they are dirt and they just finished their rainy season. Here is a typical paved road.

Dakar is the capital city of Senegal (downtown Dakar above), it has about twice the people as Portland in half the space (give or take). While in Dakar we accidentally bumped into a friend of Herma’s who is nurse with a local mission. We were planning on getting our vaccinations from her to save money but she told us about a local clinic that is safe and cheaper and extremely close. So, we impromptu got half of our vaccinations on the spot. The whole process took about 20 min. Just to give you an idea of how much we saved, had we gotten these same vaccinations in the states they easily would have cost us $400-$800 EACH. We spent the equivalent of $50 US for the BOTH of us, how great!!! We will get the rest of our vaccines next month and it should be a similar cost (and savings).

One of the neighborhoods on the drive back to Malika.

A nice perk of living in Malika is that we are VERY close to the beach. We have gone 3 or 4 times since we got here, it is amazing. The waves are perfect to play in but not so big that they are too scary, though I have heard that they can be. We are usually the only ones playing in the water, there are usually a handful of Senegalese fishing on the shore. So far, we have seen a small sting ray and a descent sized crab.

Another fun activity that we have been able to be a part of is daily volleyball games. The Monkeys LOVE volleyball and play almost everyday. It’s been a great way to have fun and break down some of the communication and cultural barriers, we are also learning to count...in French.

We are adjusting well, though we still have a long way to go.

Much love, more to come,

Scotty and Crystal