Senegal Sightings 4

Wednesday: Gaby and Henk hauled four 25 kg pails of oil based paint up to the first floor apartment. We tried to dilute the first batch but that wasn’t very successful as it didn’t mix well at all. So we are going for the straight stuff. Margreet did part of the lower walls and Henk used the ladder to reach the top of the nine foot walls. The colour is more yellow than beige, but looks nice and fresh.

Although there was the ever present breeze and we had two fans running the fumes were still strong and Margreet had to call it quits after two hours. Thankfully there are good rollers and brushes to go with the paint trays and work went ahead steadily. The walls are constructed from steel beams covered with wire mesh and finished with cement; some holes needed filling and silicone was used where the interior walls were separating from the exterior walls.

In the evening we were invited by Sheila (an ethno-musicologist from Kelowna!) to play Quiddlers , which is one of the card games that we take along every trip. Together with Emma, a literacy specialist hailing from Ohio and working in Guinea Bissau, we had a great time and rolled exhausted into bed at 9.30.

Thursday: finished the second bedroom just before coffee break, which was the intent as we were going exploring after the break. With the five of us we drove downtown and were given an orientation of the many different stores, French cultural center and museums as well as several restaurants. Apparently Senegal and therefor Dakar are a tourist destination for the French. Although we didn’t see too many tourists we certainly got to deal with a lot of hawkers, selling anything from shoes to sunglasses to towels to pants and shirts.

After a nice lunch at a Senagalese restaurant we got home just after two, in time to do some more painting and checking up on Gaby’s work progress. The upper cabinets are now stained and work has begun assembling the lower ones. Since there was a lot of wood bought Henk measured all the pieces needed to make the sides out of three separate planks.

The first coat is now finished and even part of the bathroom got a quick coat as the plumber will install the toilet tomorrow. The new tile floor looks amazing!  (Ed:  Guess we must take your word for that?)  :)