We arrived in Senegal just about on schedule. We had the immigration paperwork mailed to us ahead of time in order to have it all filled out, but alas, amid all the other things we had going on, we neglected to fill out the paperwork before landing. So…there we were in the airport, tired and ready for sleep trying to fill out immigration paperwork. I, Jonathan, ended up having to leave the rest of he family behind and walk out through the security and customs to get a physical address for our paperwork. I got the info and gave it to the immigration officer who put in the official stamps in our passports that we had ARRIVED!
When we arrived at the luggage carrousel there were really no other travelers there anymore. We figured out that a bag that we had gate checked was missing….oops! I had to go back into a back part of the airport and report our lost bag, which took quite a bit of time. One of the airport workers sat down with Emmanuel and was drawing a picture for him in his notebook when I arrived back from the bagage loss claim department. After that we walked through customs and then out to meet the folks that had arisen early, we loaded up our bags and headed to our new apartment here in Senegal.
We live on the second floor, so we worked together to carry all of the bags upstairs and put them in our place. We found out that in trying to fill the waterbed to prepare for us, it had overflowed and flooded the house. (not like feet of water or anything, but definitely flooded from what we understand.) The folks greeting us had already had it all cleaned up so we wouldn’t have known except for the absence of the waterbed.
We got a little tour of our new digs, and there was food in the fridge, which was nice. We tried to go to the boutique (small corner store) for some bread for breakfast, but due to Ramadan hours they were not open. Daniel drove us down to the Brioche Doree to get some bread and we stopped at a “superette” not a grocery store, but bigger than the corner store. We got corn flakes and some jelly to go with the bread we had purchased (baguettes).
That same morning Eliane came to our house to meet us and prepare our first lunch here in Senegal. We had cheb yep (not sure on the spelling, but rice and meat) for lunch.
We were kind of spinning that first day to be sure, trying to figure out whether to sleep, or try and stay up. Thanks for your prayers, the jet lag was not too bad, although we do not have a lot to compare it with. 🙂
Jonathan and Jenny says
@ Rachel, thanks so much for taking the time to follow us and stay updated. The mosquitoes are definitely a challenge. We have some new screening up and some modifications to the existing setup should help. We also have a spray we can spray in the closed room and then just stay out of it for a few hours to help kill mosquitoes.
@ Julie, thanks so much for praying for us and for being willing to take the time to write, we love it and we love YOU!
rachel says
Glad you are getting settled in, sounds like a lot of hassles with the mosquitos and all…following you on Facebook too! Love You! Rachel
Julie says
Hi Roundies,
We miss you so much!! Thank you for the update…many wonderful praises!! Continuing to pray for all of you.
Love, The Howers