Dakar Airport:
We entered into a hot, humid atmosphere. It was barely light outside and I could see two buses waiting. One was partly full. The other was empty. Moby and I waited at the top of the steps for the rest of the gang. Oh, by the way, have you ever tried dragging a 20 pound carry on bag AND a 15 pound laptop bag at the same time down the airplane steps??? Not cool.
Once the others got down we headed to the bus. Climbing on, I saw the crew heading for the other one. The bus drove us to the airport steps, and we piled inside. It was exactly like my trip to Morocco. There was nobody around except for the passengers. Mommy had to fill out some immigration papers, which took a while, seeing as she had to do 7, and we went through the gates. Our passports were stamped and we went to the right to the baggage claim.
After finding our 28 bags, we had to pile them onto the carts, some which had wheel problems, and then it was customs. It was basically security, except we had to do every bag, and we weren't going through. Once THAT was done we piled the bags BACK on the carts, and went outside to the now light sky dotted with gray, polluted clouds.
The sheikh escorted us to the taxis, as we tried to decide which bags would go where. We wanted to keep the valuable stuff with us, but eventually it all went in the trunks. On our way to the school, I noticed a lot of different smells. Fish, burning trash, (yes burning trash. There's no landfills,) diesel, (all the cars run on it,) and lots of food. We arrived at the school, unloaded the bags, and went to rest.
The School:
Now I am going to try to describe the school in the best way possible way. It has 3 floors and is made out of earth like all the buildings. Shiny tiles, four balconies, four student bedrooms, a dining room, courtyard, classroom, and a roof you can go up and recite Qu'ran on or something. It's awesome.
Skeeters and Flies:
I am telling you... there's too many of these insects here. Two days after we came I counted 70 mosquito bites on my body, even with a net! I'm not joking either!!! Moby had 18 on one hand! They're like vampire bugs. The flies don't bite, but they annoy you. There are these really big ones with like a blue armoured shell and HUGE red eyes. They scare me. Good thing we have fly swatters. Bugs! I hate bugs!
The Food:
Rice, rice, and more rice. Almost all the time. Sometimes we get soda, but it doesn't taste like American soda. The aftertaste is weird. They have bread and chocolate in the morning, with some sort of coffee. I am still getting used to the food. Right now I am craving Ramen Noodles. A lot! Oh well. That's one thing I will have to look forward to when I get back.
Struggles:
When I say struggles I mean things like water and power. Over here, these things shut off from time to time. It is a third world country, you know. Currently, the water is very low. But what really sucks is when the power goes off at night, because then the fans go off, and it gets HOT!!! I wake up wondering what's going on, then I see that the fan isn't working. Argh!!!
Weather:
Right now it is rainy season. We are getting quite a bit of rain actually. The thunderstorms here aren't very big, and even so, the building is made of cement. But I am grateful for this because once the rainy season ends, it will be hot, hot, hot! Back home it gets hotter than here, but you never notice it because you have an air-conditioned house to go into on those days.
Our Kitten:
My mom and dad were coming home from the bank, and along the way, a stray kitten followed them back to the school. In the morning we woke up and saw it come out of the bushes. A white kitten with a fat belly, due to not getting enough to eat. We were confused about the gender at first, thinking it was a boy, and now we think it's a girl. We had gone through a bunch of names, first Snowball, then Angel, then we finally decided on Medina, the name of a Muslim holy city. She isn't quite so fat anymore, and eventually we will take her to the vet to get her spayed and given her shots. But on top of it all, she is a stubborn kitten, always trying to get inside. We don't want her in, because she might get fleas. But on her third day here, she caught her first mouse, which increased her chance of staying. Yay!
The Classes:
My last for the night. Our classes. At 730 we wake up to get dressed and eat. at 845 we go to Qu'ran class, then we are SUPPOSED to get a 45 minute break, but the teacher keeps us late for some reason. After this break we have French class, which is really weird because all we do is write stuff down and read from a French book. At 100 we get our lunch break. Normally, this would last 3 hours, but they added an extra class, so now it's 1 1/2 hours, and lunch is always late, so we can't ever take a nap. Next is Arabic class. 2 hours. Then we would normally get off for the day, but they put in another class, which I think, is totally useless. It's another Qu'ran class, but I already know what they are teaching. And that lasts 2 1/2 hours. But I don't go to it. I do something else. After this class is over and we get off for the day. Yes!
We entered into a hot, humid atmosphere. It was barely light outside and I could see two buses waiting. One was partly full. The other was empty. Moby and I waited at the top of the steps for the rest of the gang. Oh, by the way, have you ever tried dragging a 20 pound carry on bag AND a 15 pound laptop bag at the same time down the airplane steps??? Not cool.
Once the others got down we headed to the bus. Climbing on, I saw the crew heading for the other one. The bus drove us to the airport steps, and we piled inside. It was exactly like my trip to Morocco. There was nobody around except for the passengers. Mommy had to fill out some immigration papers, which took a while, seeing as she had to do 7, and we went through the gates. Our passports were stamped and we went to the right to the baggage claim.
After finding our 28 bags, we had to pile them onto the carts, some which had wheel problems, and then it was customs. It was basically security, except we had to do every bag, and we weren't going through. Once THAT was done we piled the bags BACK on the carts, and went outside to the now light sky dotted with gray, polluted clouds.
The sheikh escorted us to the taxis, as we tried to decide which bags would go where. We wanted to keep the valuable stuff with us, but eventually it all went in the trunks. On our way to the school, I noticed a lot of different smells. Fish, burning trash, (yes burning trash. There's no landfills,) diesel, (all the cars run on it,) and lots of food. We arrived at the school, unloaded the bags, and went to rest.
The School:
Now I am going to try to describe the school in the best way possible way. It has 3 floors and is made out of earth like all the buildings. Shiny tiles, four balconies, four student bedrooms, a dining room, courtyard, classroom, and a roof you can go up and recite Qu'ran on or something. It's awesome.
Skeeters and Flies:
I am telling you... there's too many of these insects here. Two days after we came I counted 70 mosquito bites on my body, even with a net! I'm not joking either!!! Moby had 18 on one hand! They're like vampire bugs. The flies don't bite, but they annoy you. There are these really big ones with like a blue armoured shell and HUGE red eyes. They scare me. Good thing we have fly swatters. Bugs! I hate bugs!
The Food:
Rice, rice, and more rice. Almost all the time. Sometimes we get soda, but it doesn't taste like American soda. The aftertaste is weird. They have bread and chocolate in the morning, with some sort of coffee. I am still getting used to the food. Right now I am craving Ramen Noodles. A lot! Oh well. That's one thing I will have to look forward to when I get back.
Struggles:
When I say struggles I mean things like water and power. Over here, these things shut off from time to time. It is a third world country, you know. Currently, the water is very low. But what really sucks is when the power goes off at night, because then the fans go off, and it gets HOT!!! I wake up wondering what's going on, then I see that the fan isn't working. Argh!!!
Weather:
Right now it is rainy season. We are getting quite a bit of rain actually. The thunderstorms here aren't very big, and even so, the building is made of cement. But I am grateful for this because once the rainy season ends, it will be hot, hot, hot! Back home it gets hotter than here, but you never notice it because you have an air-conditioned house to go into on those days.
Our Kitten:
My mom and dad were coming home from the bank, and along the way, a stray kitten followed them back to the school. In the morning we woke up and saw it come out of the bushes. A white kitten with a fat belly, due to not getting enough to eat. We were confused about the gender at first, thinking it was a boy, and now we think it's a girl. We had gone through a bunch of names, first Snowball, then Angel, then we finally decided on Medina, the name of a Muslim holy city. She isn't quite so fat anymore, and eventually we will take her to the vet to get her spayed and given her shots. But on top of it all, she is a stubborn kitten, always trying to get inside. We don't want her in, because she might get fleas. But on her third day here, she caught her first mouse, which increased her chance of staying. Yay!
The Classes:
My last for the night. Our classes. At 730 we wake up to get dressed and eat. at 845 we go to Qu'ran class, then we are SUPPOSED to get a 45 minute break, but the teacher keeps us late for some reason. After this break we have French class, which is really weird because all we do is write stuff down and read from a French book. At 100 we get our lunch break. Normally, this would last 3 hours, but they added an extra class, so now it's 1 1/2 hours, and lunch is always late, so we can't ever take a nap. Next is Arabic class. 2 hours. Then we would normally get off for the day, but they put in another class, which I think, is totally useless. It's another Qu'ran class, but I already know what they are teaching. And that lasts 2 1/2 hours. But I don't go to it. I do something else. After this class is over and we get off for the day. Yes!
posted by Noura @ 7:36 AM
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