Living in Africa

There are some things here in Africa that we have had to get used to.

1. Always having dirty floors.  While in Japan we got so used to their tradition of not wearing shoes in the house that we don't feel like we are truly home until they come off.  Here with the winds and being so close to the Sierra Desert dust is always in the air and it settles everywhere!  Our feet are filthy every night and we have to sit in bed and clean our feet before we can lay down.

2.  Brushing our teeth while not using any tap water.  Try it, it's hard to do.  We bring a cup in of filtered water and use that to clean brush and rinse your mouth.

3.  Having to filter water.  

These are called candles and we have to scrub them every 2 days.  They are what filter the water.

The pink bucket is for my bleach water.  After I get done washing a dish I dip it in the bleach water solution to kill any germs.

4.  Having patience.  There is a saying here "you might have the watch but the Senegalese have the time".  Nothing is done here quickly.  Mike went to the bank and had to wait for over 4 hours to talk to someone.   And right now we are still waiting to get our internet hooked up, they say it takes a month to get it.  But we are fortunate to have friendly neighbors and they are letting us share with them until it comes.

5.  Having to soak fruit and vegetables in bleach water for 20 minutes and then rinse off with purified water before you can eat it.

6.  Not having a one stop Grocery store.  When you need something, if they have it here to begin with (and that's a big IF) you have to try the American store, French Fry store, Casino,  Orca or many other little stores along the way.

7.  Power outages, they say they are really common, especially when the heat gets up there and everyone puts their air conditioners on.  Right now we have only had a few, some minutes some for hours, but I guess it could stretch for days.

8.  And the biggest thing is the heat!  I had no idea when you see its only 84 degrees you think no big deal, then add almost 100 % humidity.  There is a reason why the saying "it's African hot!" exist.  You just constantly are sweating, and October is supposed to be the worst month of all and could go through to January.  That's why I have the greatest husband, he got me air conditioning for the living room!  It cost too much to run it so it's being saved for the worst of the worst.  Isn't it pretty :-)

These things might sound like complaints but I don't mean them to be, it's just different.  We have only been here 12 days and in those 12 days we have gone from wide eyed wonderment/shell shocked to living the Senegalese lifestyle (with an american twist :) and I think we are doing really well.  Mike got his permission to start driving so we will go out this weekend and explore more of the county and we are all excited by it!