Dread wax au' Senegalese

So, I ran out of dread wax and my hair is in DIRE need of conditioning, so I asked Modoo what he uses for his dreads and he bought me some karite (aka shea butter). It is raw so had to be "processed" for use and being a toubob I had no clue how to do this...

...enter Djibi. This guy is a mad man, he can do anything, case in point he taught me how to process my karite for my hair.

First you take the hunk of karite, or shea butter, that you got from the market for 500 cfa ($1USD) and melt it. This is really important because it STINKS. It's better if you do this in your outdoor kitchen (because Oregon is full of these, right?).

You want to heat it until all the bubbles disapear, like the little brown spot in the middle of the pan.

Once it's all clear, you pour it into a heat safe container. Note: old pickle jars and the such don't work for this. However and old instant coffee can, such as Nescafe, works great (Fiona, that's for you). Then you let it sit, or put it in the fridge if you are in a hurry and you have soft and creamy shea butter.

some random things

Here's a bunch of random stuff that has been happening lately:

It rained!!!! For all of 2 minutes, we are really looking forward to some real rain. Djibi thought we were a bit crazy to be out in it, not sure how he would last in Oregon?!?!?

We had a group of elementary school kids camp in our front "yard". I say yard because ther is no grass. It was great it looked like a little tent village.

We made some new friends, this is our friend who is from the Ukrane but living out in the bush probably 15 k from us. She is all dressed up as a waye fall, which is the female version of the m'baye fall here in Senegal. Check out the little guys Cons, eh?

They LOVE Obama here, he even has his own hair salon.

And when the day is all over, this is our little oasis up on our roof. With the rains coming we needed a nice place 1) in the shade and 2) protected from the rain. LOVE IT!!!

Another Gente (baby naming/baptism)

One of the Malika Monkey's just had their 2nd baby, which means, another gente. This is the first gente that Scotty has been to because it's the first of his friends (versus Herma's friends) that had the baby. So, we all packed up in Herma's truck and drove into the middle of no where for the party. We had 6 in the cab and at least 6 in the back of the truck, a regular parade of toubobs driving through the Senegal sand.

Once there, we were treated with high honor, we got to hang out in one of the residence rooms (most of the other guests were sitting/laying on mats under trees in the courtyard). Here Crystal is with Nia (friend/cook/housekeeper). This is the first time Crystal has been able to wear her outfit in public, not bad for a toubob.

Here is the new litle guy, we didn't catch his name. He is a he though, we caught that much. Boys are very prestigious in this culture.

He is only 8 days old, and super small, he slept the whole time.

After hanging out with the new baby and his parents, they insisted that we eat. They brought us some amazing Cebbu Yepp (rice and lamb). It was really tasty, but we had all just eaten right before we came, so the boys did what boys do best and were team players.

After eating, we had to get some air. The weather has turned really humid and there is NO breeze to speak of inside the brick homes. Lucky for us, the boys had already staked claim to the perfect tree with a perfect breeze. Here is the motley crew of the Malika Monkeys.

Ending the trip, we just had to get our picture by this amazing Baobab tree. This is a medium sized one and it already miniaturizes us. This is by far our favorite tree in Senegal.

Date Night!

We have been pumped to have Dany and Nadine here for the summer. Case in point, we went on our first double date in a year.

We went to one of our favorite places: Indiana which has amazing Indian food. We all ordered one dish and shared it, this was Crystal's Prawn Ginger.

Us all dressed up for the hot date, love you babe.

Surf Competition

We went to a surf competition last week here at our Malika beach. It was surprizingly nice and low key. It was great to get out and be more like beach bums. There was a great little restaurant on the beach and little umbrellas stuck in the sand.

When we arrived there were little kids surfing, so I didn't get any good action shots, but here is a cool wave, hope that makes up for it.

Dany and the boys just hanging on the beach watching the surfers.

The boys riding home "a-Senegalese" style, because let's face it, it's more fun this way.

Lac Rose "The Pink Lake"

One of the many things we have wanted to do and just finally got around to doing is going swimming in Lac Rose, Senegal's answer to the Dead Sea. It's a pretty cool place, you can see the salt harvesters from the swimming hole, which has full restraunts so you can eat and relax, super nice. It even has a fresh water spring that you can rince the salt off with.

Crystal floating efforlessly in Lac Rose.

We were lucky to go on a day where there were no tourists, just us, so nice. The water felt slimey and was thick like watered down syrup and HOT. I guess with all the salt and minerals it retains the heat? But it was AMAZING how easy it was to float and how hard it was to put your feet down under you.

Scotty putting on the vibe.

The crew getting cold drinks to cool off from the hot day. The one's on the left are Herma's grandkids and their mom, they are staying here for the summer and we are SO happy they are here.

gilem aka "camels"

We had the wonderful experience of riding camels to the beach and back. It was a very touristy thing to do, but so worth it. Here is the crew at the beach with the camel entourage.

Scotty's camel was smiling. but some of the camels were a little grumpy about getting up and going. They had interesting methods of keeping tabs on the camels, most of them had a "leash" going through their nose. They were quick to respond when someone tugged on the leash. You can kind of see the green leash going throug the camel's nose here.

The seats for the camels were super old looking, but surprizingly comfortable. We walked and trotted with the camels.

A little video for those of you who want to live vicariously.

Happy Birthday Escuddy!!

Happy Birthday Baby. (These are handmade cards from Dany's girls, so sweet!)

Sorry guys, I have been trying to post this for 3 days. So, Scotty's birthday was a 2-fold party here in Senegal. First, we had the shop party which consisted of me learning how to make Scotty's favorite Senegalese dish: Cebbu Yepp (rice and meat), see doesn't Scotty look excited for his meal?

Then, at lunch we did a little song, made a lot of noise and drank some Africa Cola and Africa Orange (soda).

Djibi made a cake, you can't see it from the picture, but it had a "Merry Christmas" plastic decoration on it, a deer, candles and a giant paper "S". Cake decorations Senegalese style.

Nice one baby!

Part 2 of the birthday celebration was a dinner with some of Scotty's favorites:

huge shrimps

sushi

and mango (couldn't find any peaches) cobbler.

ah man!!!

So the worst thing for anyone with dreads has happened...I got the lice. Not surprizing considering where we are, eh? But still a bummer.

I have researched this thoroughly and am in the first phase of my Senegalese treatment. Believe it or not, they have lice shampoo here, apparently it's really common.

So I shampoo my head with this stuff, and leave it on for a while, we are sitting at an hour and a half right now, I should probably go wash it off.

That will kill all the live lice, then in 5 days I do it again to kill all the eggs that have hatched, but I have to kill them before they have time to sexually mature and lay more eggs.

No fear though, the baby dreads will NOT, I repeat NOT, be cut off. Silly non-dreaded people on the internet think that's the ONLY way to get rid of lice. So I should be lice free in a week, wish me luck.

THIS might hurt.

After being in Senegal for 9 months, we finally finished our vaccines. We decided instead of spending upwards of $500 USD each for our vaccines by getting them in the States, we would get them here in Senegal instead. Many organizations offer safe/clean vaccines for reasonable rates. This week we finished the last of our 3 shot series for our Hep A & B.

Scotty braved it like a champ. The doctor who gave us our shots graciously allowed us to take pictures. You can't get a real feel for the clinic, but believe me when I say it's not for the faint of heart.

I was trying to smile but the doctor got me right at a bad moment. I actually had a bruise from this one, a tiny one, but still.

The staff at this clinic are very nice, we had the same guy give us all our shots and he always had this little grin when he helped us, I am sure he thought us toubobs were paranoid getting all the vaccines which included: typhoid, yellow fever, menecochal, tetanous, and Hep A & B.

And we saved over $400 USD EACH...cha ching!

Chuck's visit part 2

Chuck was able to stay for a kids club that is held every Wed evening. He shared the story with the kids, they were very active listeners.

Before kids club we play games with the kids, its the best way to get them to listen to the BIble story. Scotty playing basket ball with the unruly boys.

A cutie playing jump rope.

After games all the kids pile in Herma's house, here is the mountain of shoes outside her front door.

Out and about Malika/Dakar: mattresses anyone?

The Three Kelleys: On Chuck's last day in Senegal we went to the famous Goree Island

Fist things first, when you get on the island, get lunch. Chuck loves taking picutres of his food, this one is fish.

Chuck at the outdoor restraunt where we stopped for lunch before exploring the rest of the island.

Crystala'sl lunch: prawns and calimarie.

Scotty's lunch (a man's lunch): steak and fries

Enjoying a wonderful lunch at a restaurant overlooking the dock at Goree.

A musician seredaded us with a kora, a traditional Senegalese harp-like instrument.

Coffee or espresso? This cup was tiny.

Crystal harrassing the local vendors.

Chuck and Scotty walking through part of the island.

One of the holding cells in the slave house.

We were tired and hot so we stopped by this little bar/restaruant for some cokes.

It's simple and quaint inside, one of my favorite parts...it's quiet and there are no vendors.

Scotty chillin' with Chuck.

The view down the hill, you can see vendors selling their art on either side of the walk.

We left Goree on the ferry at sunset, it was a first for us, it was really nice.

After Goree, we took Chuck to our friends house for a few hours, then we had a nice dinner, at the traditional Senegalese time: 8:30p and then promptly got Chuck to the airport to catch his flight back to civilization. Other than a minor traffic stop, it was a wonderful and uneventful visit.