Many New Friends in Dakar

I finally got the blackberry away from Grant!  Now, let's get the important stuff out of the way.  In a welcome but anti-climactic turn of events, we now have our luggage!!!  I blame the Portuguese this time as it is apparently common local knowledge that they screw up baggage on every flight into Dakar.

We started our day with a taxi ride to see Ismael who works for the local microcredit organisation.  Our cab driver on the way was chatty (his name is Cheikh which is pronounced "Shek" which leads me to refer to him as Shrek) and in the course of our conversation in French, I negotiated for him to be our driver for the day.  You should have seen my determined haggling!  I got him down to 45,000 CFA from 50,000 - and then we ended up paying him 50,000 anyway cause he was a nice guy - I'm sure you're all shocked at my hard nosed business skills!

Our meeting with Ismael was amazing!  He and his colleague, Doudou, spent about an hour and a half discussing the program and some of the challenges and growing pains they face.  They spoke reasonable English but would revert to French often out of habit or ease, so I got a lot of translation practice (there is some degree of satisfaction at having Grant totally dependent on me). 

Believe it or not, when you sponsor someone on Kiva the money comes in specifically for that project and they will even take the sponsors picture from Kiva into the village to show the borrower.   These are people who really seem to love their jobs and are working to advance the Senegalese and preserve their traditions and culture.  We are set up with the local contact in Palmarin where they have several projects so more on that in a few days!

After leaving Ismael to find our trusty Shrek waiting patiently for us outside, we did a quick airport trip for the bag and then an hour drive out to Lac Rose which is literally a pink lake due to the minerals and also the site of an Amazing Race episode!  No trace of Amazing Race there now, but interesting to see them collecting massive amounts of salt from the water which is then exported or sold locally.

Since our friend Doudou (from microcredit) confirmed that it was safe to do so - we are heading out to a club tonight for dinner and some local music.  Doudous friend works there so its almost like home!

Dakar is starting to feel more comfortable however its still a very big city with a lot of dirt and chaos!  Off to shower the days layer of dirt off (literally) before going out!

I'll give the blackberry back to Grant for the next post - he's funnier and hopefully he can post some pics too!

Kim and Grant

Grant here - I will post more on Kiva as well - I am more confident in the ability of lending via Kiva to make a real difference.  SEM will be posting 2 new loans on Kiva in the next day or two, so we are hoping we'll have internet access to lend some money - good karma!!