Getting in to Dakar

Me and Hadiel in the van on our way from the airport to the training center in Thies

March 11, 2010
Dakar, Senegal

Part I: The Landing

We landed in Dakar early morning on Wednesday March 10. It was dark and hot and the smell of sea salt permeated the air. We debarked the plane on the runway and walked to the gate. We were met by our country director, Chris Hedrick, the associate country director, Mamadou Diao, and a few Peace Corps volunteers who came to welcome us and help out during our first few days of training. Most of us did not sleep on the 8–hour plane flight form DC to Dakar; either we were too nervous or were enamored by the plethora of movies afforded to us on our private TV monitor. I opted to knock myself out and sleep as much as I could, crammed against the window of the plane and the PCT next to me. I woke up an hour before we landed. I took a look out the window and was amazed I could see the stars. It seemed as though they surrounded the plane; I’ve never seen anything like it.

We landed about an hour early, around 5 am, tired and disoriented. We headed for baggage claim and prayed our stuff had made the trip with us. Fortunately, everyone’s luggage arrived and not one thing was out of place. We then headed to customs and immigration. A nervous energy circulated amongst us as we fumbled about with our customs papers and waited in line to get our passport stamped. Our attempt to make small talk distracted us just the slightest from the uncertainty of what we were about to begin.

I stood in line talking to Geoff, a PCT who had gone to Tulane and plays the accordion. He had just celebrated Mardi Gras and the Saints Superbowl victory and was telling me how much fun New Orleans had been before he left. We both filled out our customs papers wrong and were joking about how incompetent we were. What a great first impression of us new volunteers coming to Senegal!

I got to the front of the line, my 2 years worth of luggage dangling from every limb. I stepped up to the customs agent, handed my passport through the glass and gave him a big smile. He chuckled, said Bonjour, and flipped through my passport. He glanced at the picture, glanced at me, turned the page and stamped my passport. As he handed it back to me our eyes met. He held on for just a second as he gave me a knowing look that said, “welcome to the beginning”. I took my passport, put it in my pocket and took my first steps into Senegal.

Part II: Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few from our drive from the airport in Dakar to our training center in Thies.

Since i didnt know this before, the pictures are published above this entry. My bad.