I know I only have a few weeks left here in Senegal but I decided that I wanted at least one of my kids to come over and celebrate my birthday with me. David was the lucky winner. He arrived in Dakar on Wednesday, April 17. After picking him up at the airport, we all headed back to Fatick that included a stop at a "fast food" restaurant in Mbour for lunch. He got to experience eating a hamburger that comes with a fried egg (if you forget to tell them "sans eouff"). Once we arrived in Fatick I let him take a two-hour nap since he can't sleep on airplanes and had been up at least 24 hours. Once the nap was over it was time to unpack all the goodies that he brought with him. I exerted extreme patience in not opening any of my birthday presents. However, the ones that weren't wrapped were not saved. I now have enough Nutri-grain bars and Crystal Light Lemon Tea Mix to last me until I come home in June.
On Thursday morning I took David for a horse cart ride to the market so I could introduce him to all my friends. They all got a kick out of me "teaching" him what to say when they greeted him. I may not be able to say a whole lot but at least I have the greetings down pat and could tell him what to say. That afternoon he attended our English class. I had told the class that my son would be there so everyone was in attendance. After class, Travis picked us up to take us to visit a couple of farms.
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| Mango tree |
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| Mangoes |
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| Cashew apples with nut |
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| Discussing irrigation possibilities |
Friday night was our weekly pizza night at my teammates' house followed by a good game of Mexican Train dominoes. A couple from another town about three hours away were visiting as well. They had come so they could pick up Minnie and take her home with them to live. (Hooray!)
Saturday morning the three men and I headed to Fimela for a fishing trip. I was not planning on doing any fishing but was going along to take pictures. We were going to ride in a boat out to the river channel where it would be very scenic: mangroves, islands, birds, etc. When we arrived in Fimela at the house of the man who was taking us fishing, he was out getting the bait. We were to leave at 8:00 and it was already around 8:15. This is typical so we went on down to where the boat was so we could unload our stuff. Finally, a little after 9:00 the guy shows up and we prepare to load up the boat. We had an extra passenger, a young boy. As we headed away from shore we figured out why he came along. His job was to bail out the water from the boat because it leaked......a lot. I was not worried because he was doing a pretty good job. However, after we had gone about half a mile the motor quit on us. They worked on it and got it going again, but not for long. After about two hours into our trip it started working again. Question: Do we take our chances and continue on our trip to the channel or return to shore? I was glad that the men decided to return to shore. That turned out to be a good decision because the motor quit again about 200 yards from shore. The young boy used a long pole to get us back to shore. The fishing trip may not have been successful but I did get a few interesting pictures and enjoyed getting to ride on a boat (albeit a leaky boat).
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| Our boat |
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| Bailing water |
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| Birds |
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| A fisherman |
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| Back on land |
My birthday was Monday, April 22. The usual celebration on a birthday includes lunch of choice along with cake. I chose my favorite Senegalese meal: vermicelle with beef sauce and yellow cake with chocolate icing for dessert. Marie Noel, my teammate's house help, did the cooking and it was delicious!
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| Vermicelle and beef sauce |
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| My plate |
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| My cake with one candle (didn't want to have a fire hazzard) |
That evening was spent packing for David's return on Tuesday. Now for the "real" reason I wanted one of my kids to come over for my birthday: I wanted to send a suitcase full of stuff home by him. He was allowed two suitcases so it only makes sense to take advantage of that allowance since it is free. Right? That will leave me with only two suitcases to deal with when I go home in June (providing I can get everything into the two suitcases without them being overweight).
David and I headed to Dakar on Tuesday morning so he would be able to get a little rest before going to the airport at 7:00 pm. Even though I will be seeing him again in a little over six weeks, it was still hard to say good-bye. I enjoyed our time together talking, watching tv shows on the computer, showing him around my town, and introducing him to all my friends. Maybe one day we can return and he can help Travis with some of his agriculture projects.
