The rain has begun.

Ayden thinks it's pretty cool.

Little Sponge

O.K., so maybe this says something about what generally happens around this house if the phone rings.. Sorry.

This BLOG site sucks.. The pictures are cut off on the right side because it doesn't support a whole lot of HTML code changes without using a different template, which means I have to redesign the layout which is way too time consuming.

So just click on the pictures, and you will see the whole picture instead of just the left half..... At least until I get around to fixing... Piece of junk.

O.K. So when I was a kid I was pretty good at the Young Sherlock Holmes stories and all. But something must have happened when I was a teenager or something. Maybe I hit my head mountain biking too many times or something. Forethought... What a cool concept.

If you look at this picture, would you have dropped down in there to try and follow the water line another 5km down the beach? If you say "hell no", I'm calling B.S. because I tipped you off already that I was partially retarded for not considering that.

Notice the tire tracks go in, (invisible moment of OH SHIT takes place), and then come right back out again.



Going down was easy. Getting back up was no so easy. 1 hour, a really good winch, three trees, and a cookie for the local guy just to get him to leave us alone later.... Managed to make it out.















These are cool. For some reason I didn't expect to see these again after leaving AZ. SOME people manage to get theirs stuck and throw a rooster-tail on the baby trying to get un-stuck. All the baby kept saying was "Awwwww-Mannnnnn!"... He looked like a powdered donut. Fun stuff.





The weird thing is that every morning when I wake up and go outside, the FJ is clean. Seriously. Not a joke. The locals wash it in the middle of the night. I think they're just waiting for the day the door is unlocked for payment.




This is a big ass lizard. It lives on the golf course. It enjoys pina coladas, long walks on the beach, Luther Vandross, and eating your small children. It doesn't really like 9 irons too much, and I would definatley think twice about reaching in to the water hazard to retrieve my ball. Water hazard has a whole new meaning here apparently.



When you go to a restraunt and say you would like some salt and the waitress says, "Sure, let me scrape some up for you.", be careful. It might not be very "iodized"...







And finally, a very sad before an after shot. I've been trying to learn to speak cow, but I still suck...

Before:



After:

I'm ruined for life.

Travelling the World, and what do I think about all time? Yuma...

All right. Where to start? I need to upload a few photos, so I'll plant them up here and worry about the captioning as it comes around.

Pic of Tyler on the boat between Dakar and the Island of Goree. Dowtown Dakar in the background.

Goree Island was the slave trading island used by the French slave traders to sort, prepare, and group prior to departure to the buying countries. Interesting enough, the Senegalese were not enslaved, but instead were wise enough to arrange the capture and slavery of other tribes from other countries in the region.

It's a beautiful island. Small, charming, and DEEP in history. Almost every American President has (or will) visit it during their time here in the country. The conditions were obviously brutal, yet systematic. I find it interesting that the African natives could have ever forgiven the French for this part of their history. Owning a slave is no worse than the people that captured them, raped them, killed the "weak" ones, split up the families, and sold them to the highest bidder all while living in the same upstairs building living the good life.

Anyway, enough typing. Enjoy the pics. You'll notice the wedge shaped building looks suspiciously like a slave ship from the front...

Back from a long blog vacation

Yes, I know it has been more than a month since I updated the blog.. Things have been waaaaaay too busy for me to post anything up, but I will have some things up very soon to share.

All in all, Dakar is a very welcoming place. I guess the culture shock wears off, and you start to settle in to the way of things here. There is no such thing as quality by American standards, but you kind of get used to that too. In fact, you start to feel somewhat guilty for having such high standards for things that really aren't that important.

You want a light on the wall? Hit it with a hammer to make a hole, hang up the light and patch around it with plaster. Who cares if it looks exactly like that was how it was installed? The light works doesn't it?

In the words of the great Mexican handman from Yuma "Es fine!"

I started a garden. Cool stuff. The rats are eating it at night. Bastards.

I planted a sunflower. For some of you who may not know I have this wierd relationship with my sunflowers. It was doing great. Managed to get FERTILIZER through the mail. Unbelievable. You can get fertilizer but not boullion cubes. It was doing great until today I guess. Someone apparently came by and killed it. They had to go out of the way to do it which makes it even more irritating. Bastards.

Ayden speaks three languages already. I'm sure after we move away he will lose his skills but right now it's really impressive. Half the time we just look at him like our translator when he's speaking French. I'm about to start telling people to ust talk to the baby instead of me.

He's pretty bad. Ask him. He'll tell you..... He gets into trouble all day long.... He thinks it's funny.

Tyler fell off the rock wall on the playground and skinned half of his nose off on the flagstone edging. Great kid-friendly design by the way.

It costs $16,000 per school year to enroll your kids there and they act like they are on the poverty line when it comes to playground equipment.

All of this is hear-say. I have no first hand knowledge of any of it. I work 20 hours a day 6 days a week.

My trusty steed (the Cannondale F1000) from back in the day is still a beast when it comes to getting me from A to B around here. I've picked up mad bike-messenger-dodge-the-taxi-and-not-get-killed skills since I have been here, and it's definately waaaaaaay faster to ride to work than to fight the traffic in a car. San Diego has nothing on this place. Cleaning up a head-on collision between two horse carts carrying fruit can block all traffic all day. They don't push it off to the side like we do. They have to handle each item and determine if it is still good to sell before they move it. Hilarious. Unless you're behind them in your car.

I drive sometimes too. When the suits are in play for the day I will drive, but I make sure I beat the rush...

We have a MAD Kite. (as in the bird)... He has swooped down and clawed both of us already. Not funny.. The things are huge, the talons are sharp, and you don't want to know where those talons have been. I'm starting to think one of those damn birds tried to pluck my sunflower for nesting material.. Bastards.

The dog is fat. Just what she needed.... A house with a couch in EVERY room. She' on like a permanant island hopping campaign. If you move from one room to another so does she. From one couch to the next. And she sleeps on all of them. She has a sleeping disorder and it's affecting her ever-expanding waistline. Bitch.

Whoooah! Paint!...... Latex is a no-go! Full on lead-based paint still in use here. You have no idea what paint REALLY smells like until you use some of this shit. Nasty. I guess the WHO doesn't really care about pressuring anyone to increase the health standards in third world countries. As long as none of the hite people get sick. Bastards.

The Toyota is an icon here. People I don't even know wave when I drive by and call me by name. I'm not kidding. It's not really that good when you consider the medium threat rating here, but if I want a parking space they will part the Red Sea for me. And then when I park and tip the guy there to watch it for me while I am away, they throw a party around it and put nostril marks all over the side windows. Bastards.

Anyway, gotta run for now, but it has been good getting re-aquainted with the blog.

I don't spell check this stuff, so don't mind typos of grammatical errors too much please. I ramble these things from my very small brain to my key.

Sounds from the balcony

Italy

Well, I dipped through Paris to Venice and Aviano Italy.

Italy is very nice. The weather has been nice and cool.

It a short 7 mile run yesterday it managed to go from sunny, to drizzle, to steady rain, to downpour to hail, and back to sunny again. I reminds me of a place I once knew. haha.

The run was majeestic though, there was something very calming about running through the vineyards that have so much history in them. The Italians are very friendly, and yes, they really are really good cooks.

During the trip I was afforded the opportunity to tour a local vineyard that has been in business for many generations. It's amazing how simple, yet how complex the process of wine-making is. An interesting note from the owner was:

"In Italy, if I were to shoot and kill someone I would be classified as Mafia and the Police would probably never come to talk to me about the murder. If you are caught adding sugar into your wine however, it carries a 5 year prison sentence."

True story. Adding sugar to wine (if you are a winery who bottles for resale) carries a 5 year prison sentence. I'm bringing a few bottles back (one that was born on November 10th), and the white wines are so sweet it's hard to beleive there is no sugar added.

Interesting fact #2:

The left over grape mush and skins are put into large vats and purchased by American wine companies who fly the scraps to the US to make a good portion of the high end bottled wine in the states. He couldn't tell us which wine company it was, only that we would be very surprised at how popular the brand is.

Another funny thing...... The language is beautiful.... But for some reason, it sounds strangely similiar to my Father when he speaks Spanish.... Now I know why my Mom used to make those jokes.... I don't blame you Dad for getting the language stuck to your tongue. It really is a cool dialect.

Paris, on the other hand, just doesn't impress me. I don't know why. I think I just don't like French in general. The language is really annoying. I think next time I'll just turn my headphones up really loud so I don't have to listen to the language. maybe then I will have a better time.

I'll post up a couple pictures later.

Well, what are they? I thought mockinbirds outside the window were annoying.

O.K., the honeymoon phase is over.

This place sucks.

Seriously.

The people trick you into thinking that they like you because they are all so in to saying hello like a thousand times. But in all actuality, they are just smiling while they are trying to figure out a way to rip you off.

Today we found out that the grocery store (the only nice one in town), has been double charging our credit card for slightly different amounts as to not tip off the bank. Real nice............ No wonder all the money we (the U.S.) sends here never materializes into anything. Even the grocers are corrupt. Hard to feed the hungry when the guy who sells the bread is a crook.


Anyway, all I can say is appreciate what you have in the way of food sources there in the U.S. We realized to day that all we really eat is candy and bread. Everything else that you have to cook costs a fortune. We cooked spaghetti for dinner the other night.

It cost us about $60. Noodles, sauce, ground "meat", coconut/pinapple juice.

The word for "gringo" here is "toobob". Maybe because when they see Bob they charge him two times.

Gangster Rap Made Me Do It

So we were having a discussion

You know, the kind where you sit down and solve all the problems in the World using your endless supply of infinite knowledge of topics that you have no experience to really discuss in the first place?

Yeah, well, anyway, I came across this..

This article, agree or not, comes across to me as the best explaination (so far) as to why Africa is like...well... Africa...

http://www.the-american-interest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=548&MId=24

BONUS ROUND

SSSShhhhhhh... Be vewy vewy quiet.... I'm hunting Rostyles.

I saw one of these this morning on my way in.
Sorry Mom and Dad. No Phaenopepla yet.

I forgot to mention... I asked the local what it was. His answer? "White Buzzard". I just laughed. Dad you would get along with these people! LOL.

Tyler, Daddy needs your help coloring.....

:)

Currency

Dakar uses the FCFA (usually abbreviated even further to CFA and pronounced "see-fa".

French-bank based Francs.

Current exchange rate is around 500 CFA = 1 US Dollar.

Interesting enough it took me a week to find out what the design was on the coin.

It's a fish. Somebody told me that there is a "Ray" just off the coast that looks like that, but another told me that the design is a representation of how they filet and bone mackerel here on the shore. I cannot confirm nor deny either of these claims. It is obvious though that it IS some kind of reference to their fishing industry. What's really gonna get you is when you look at the city from above and realize that the roads were built to make the design as well.

I'll see if I can come up with a picture to illustrate this.

Those little black dots are Eagles. The numbers are staggering. You can draw your own conclusion about the food base abundance that scurries through the streets to support that population.

The air has an aroma here that is unfortunately the byproduct of no-emmissions vehicle imports from France. Peugot is responsible for the poor air quality here, because contrary to the rumors, all the fuel I have seen is unleaded, therefore all of these vehicles should have catalytic converters. Instead, you see 2008 and 2009 Puegot sports cars billowing black smoke out of the tailpipes like an old diesel rig.. Sad really...

This air quality is not helped in any way by the fact that it is customary to burn your trash once or twice a week, as the cost of trash pick up and disposal is well beyond the affordability ceiling of most locals.

Welcome to the trials and tribulations of a developing country.

What's even more amazing is that even though the word picture paints a polluted and dirty picture, the beauty of this country is astounding. The shores have a different texture than I am accustomed to, the rocks are a little rougher, the water color is richer, bluer, and more intimidating.

Africa is a beautiful continent. It has a feel, a pulse, and a rhythm that so many other desrcibe in movies and writing, that you just don't really get until you spend some time here.

The people and the culture are/is amazing. For a first trip, you are always unsure, and preconcieved notions are often the downfall of many introductions, but I will discuss the people in a later blog. There is way to much to say to fit it in today.

I haven't really had the time to look up quite a few things that I have taken interest in already, but as time passes I will address those with a little more background information.

Birds.... lots of birds... But not really the "exotic" kind that you think of when you image the African continent. In the city, the diet is more appealing to the rodents that root through the trash at night, and of course the Eagles that wait for them to hold still. I don't think I've ever seen so many Eagles in one condensed area. Most people write them off as circling Vultures, (and I have seen a fair share of them as well), but they are surely Eagles. Wahlberg's Eagles to be exact. Majestic and strong. They circle above the skyscrapers all day like they are mapping their attack routes for the dimmer hours. Impressive to say the least.

20090224 DAKAR, SENEGAL

As of today, I have convinced myself that it might be a good idea to start a blog.

I have always been anti-blog because of the over-sensationalism that has surrounded blogs for years now. But I have been converted. Actually I converted myself by conceding to the fact that a BLOG is a good way to document feelings, ideas, travels, and discoveries that pictures alone cannot convey...

So it has begun. Or has it?

I'm in Dakar. It's the Capital City of the country of Senegal located in NW Africa. Senegal is the closest country to North America on the African Continent... (Or so they tell me)...

I plan to document my time here and hopefully some of you who wish to visit might find this blog usefull for planning a trip, or who knows what else....