Between the work bench and the
kitchen sink……
Seems to be the “working title” as
far as my (Margreet’s) contribution goes towards our blog.
Though I never do any handy man work at
home, it is kind of fun to be involved in it in the places we work
in. Except when I accidentally touched my hair against the door I had
just painted….! The annoyance had more to do with my hair than the
door!
A few days ago I was reminded again
that
“Africa is not a country, it is a
continent.”
Senegal where we are is so different
from any of the other African countries we have worked in. Upon
arrival I discovered that dress code for women is just like in N
America. Since my African wardrobe doesn’t include long pants, I
almost stand out as a white person wearing long skirts. But that is
just fine.
As far as food goes, most of it gets imported from other
countries – the main importing country being South Africa. Eating
South African bananas and oranges seems very strange but they are
nice and juicy. Dakar is a big city to supply and I can only assume
that other areas in Senegal can be self-sufficient due to
agriculture.
Shopping is always a new challenge.
After all, we have to feed ourselves and try to stay healthy. Just
GETTING to a grocery store requires public transportation in the form
of a yellow taxi. Negotiating the rate that is to be charged and get
in.
Because of our location I have not ventured into the big central
open market of Dakar. If there is no need for that, I am happy to
pass. The grocery store has quite a variety and outside the store are
several fruit/vegetable stands. Every week day at 10 a.m. a guy comes
to our compound with bananas and oranges for sale which is helpful.
In our apartment we have a stove so banana bread has been a great
snack for coffee break. I have not been able to find a cookie sheet
yet but would love to make some simple snicker doodles to share at
coffee break. (Have to find the French word first for “cookie
sheet”.)
The common route of processing our
fruits and vegetables is: letting everything (except bananas,
potatoes, onions) soak in a bleach/water solution for about 20
minutes, followed by rinsing everything with filtered water. Actually
our dishes are to be done with hot soapy water, and then rinsed off
with (cold) filtered water.
The city water is very dirty which shows
when we take our filter apart and clean it. Henk cleaned it once but
before taking it apart had to turn of the main somewhere on the
roof…
During the day the center is quite busy
because all the offices are here. At night, there are just the guest
house people around who come and go. All other personnel live off
center somewhere in the surrounding area or closer to the Dakar
Academy - a missionary school for kids very much like the one our
boys attended in Nairobi, Kenya called Rosslyn Academy.
This means, too, that during the day we
can visit with people, but at night we are a lot by ourselves unless
we get invited but that has its own challenges since most people here
don’t have a vehicle and only use public transportation.
One thing that is still missing is a
tea kettle to put on the gas stove: we make do but it is an extra
hassle.
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