Tired and exhausted after flying all night from Mombasa to Addis at 230 am then from Addis to Dakar at 930am, I finally gathered my belongings and got off the plane once and for all. I was mad the lady had made me sit up from my sprawled-out-across-the-three-middle-seats slumber for the landing, but guess it was good because it didn’t take very long to land and I need to gather everything up. I piled into a shuttle that took all of a minute to arrive at the Dakar airport and proceed out to be at the end of a massive passport entry line. Befriended a nice Australian in line who was entering Dakar to visit friends for a month to relax, dance and drum.
Made it through the line after quite a long wait in an 20+ person line that merged with the adjacent line in a small not air conditioned room. Got through only to wait in another 8 person line to actually get my visa; apparently the first line was just for a basic entry stamp.
Senegal has an online system whereby people can purchase visas in advance and pick them up on arrival at the airport (why are there not more countries doing this?!) I’d already paid online and simply checked the “pick up at the Dakar airport” box. It was as simple as showing the officer my receipt, getting a picture taken, and four of my fingers scanned, oh and waiting in line for probably close to 45 minutes. He then printed the sticker visa right there in front of me.
Since it’d taken so long, my bags were there waiting for me on the conveyor belt. Going through “customs” aka putting all of my bags through an x-ray machine before exiting was a breeze. I walked out into the warm, but cooler than Mombasa (thanks to less humidity) Dakar air and quickly found Valentina, Tostan’s Volunteer Coordinator, waiting for me.
She greeted me warmly and together we went to get a taxi. It took a few tries for her to find one that would give us a good price. The ride to Tostan’s volunteer house took only 10 minutes or so. We stepped out into sand. Apart from the main 6 paved lanes wide road, the side streets’ surfaces are all sand. Thankfully it’s the nice fine, soft sand.
I entered into a massive 2-story apartment-like house that currently holds 8 Tostan volunteers, though it can fit many more (as I’m staying in an extra room downstairs that has 2 bunk beds and a twin bed in it). I briefly met a few of the volunteers who were all speaking French to each other (yes they all speak English though and a majority are American) before Valentina and I headed out once again.
She walked me down around the corner, not even 10 minutes, to the Tostan Headquarters office. We didn’t go inside, but met Wendy in the parking lot, another volunteer starting with me who’d been visiting family that lives in Dakar earlier that day.
The three of us proceeded back to the volunteer house where we hung out for the rest of the evening. We ordered pizza in… they have delivery (quite shocked)! It was the best pizza I’ve had in my 7 months abroad in Africa. There’s an amazing restaurant in Addis that did pizza pretty well, the problem is that they don’t know how to do pizza seasonings! This pizza… yum!
Chilled the rest of the evening and got to know the other volunteers. Mostly all from the U.S. but two are from France, one’s from Kenya. Eventually my eyes couldn’t stay open anymore after a full day of traveling and it was time for bed.
My First Day at Tostan
Tostan HQ, Dakar. A four story building… well, the fourth story is the roof which has a conference room, where our orientation is being held, the kitchen, and an outdoor terrace.
Everything was exciting and new. I hurriedly took notes and couldn’t wait to find out more information on the organization and departments. I’m just so impressed by everything that they do. I actually asked at the end of one presentation on the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) “Where is the poop?” Of course, I prefaced it with a quote from HIMYM (How I Met Your Mother) and how there just didn’t seem to be any flaws. Well, there really aren’t, at least not with the content. Yes, there are issues implementing the program and how participants react and engage, but the material itself is pretty darn solid! Hence, Tostan is opening a training center in 2015 in Thies, Senegal where they can train other NGOs and interested parties on their model. #sharingbestpratices #inlovewiththisorganization
Valentina and myself popped out after one session to run by the Gambian embassy to get my visa. It was suppose to have been just a quick drop of my passport, photos, money, and needed forms.
I realized when entering Senegal, as I watched them put my visa in my passport that I only had one full passport page left. Technically, I think you’re supposed to have four free.
Apparently, for the Gambia, you need at least two! They wouldn’t give me the visa.
How to add passport pages? As simple as going to your embassy… wrong! A.) The U.S. Embassy no longer takes walk-in appointments, you have to schedule online in advance. Well, the next available date was for in two days, but we were heading to Thies for the rest of orientation, and the next available date after that was late into next week! B.) Although possibly simple (still haven’t gotten my pages yet, so can’t tell you), it’s expensive! [Yes Dad I should’ve listened to you x number of years ago when you told me I should add my pages before they start charging to add them].
Long story short- Going to The Gambia has been pushed back and instead of leaving Dakar next Tuesday the 10th, I’ll be leaving on Monday, the 16th. It’s bittersweet. I want to see where I’ll be living for the next year, meet the team, and start getting settled into Basse. At the same time, I’m excited to get to know the other volunteers and staff here who I’ll be communicating with throughout the year and to get to see more of Dakar.
Had my first Senegalese lunch aka Eating Around the Bowl. Everyone eats together, the entire office! {More details coming…. Be on the lookout for a “Eating Around the Bowl” blog post}. It was quite good, though a little bit spicy. Thankfully was able to pick around the meat… guess this vegetarian will to have to get use to that (we’ll see if my stomach does)!
Sessions continued through the afternoon on health, safety and security. Day one of orientation was over and we headed back to the volunteer house before heading out to dinner. All of the other volunteers were invited to join. There were 11 of us total who went to a small restaurant around the corner of the house. It was a nice meal and especially nice to eat with so many people coming from many nights eating dinner alone in Mombasa. I really like all of the other volunteers and am glad to have an extra week to spend with them, despite how much harder it may then be to go.
Day One- Tostan. Check.
