Cote Petit

We left Dakar this morning for the Niassam resort. We thought it
would be a 4 hour drive over most "African" roads. The first 2.5
hours were on very good roads - paved
with very little pot holes. Then we came to a dirt road, which we
expected. Then the unexpected happened - the Dakar-Niassam Rally.

We went from dirt road to goat trail to barely having any trace of
previous journeys! This was a short cut, but there were times I am
sure that even our driver wasn't sure which way we should go. In
these circumstances one begins to wonder how much gas we have, should
a mid 80's Toyota Corolla really be off roading, if we break down are
we close enough we can walk? All valid questions and luckily none
needed to be answered. We arrived safe and sound at Niassam.

What a beautiful spot. A complete departure from the hustle of Dakar
to tranquility. Our room is a tree house in a boabab tree. The main
floor has our washroom and shower, second floor has the hammock and
breakfast table and the third floor has the bedroom.

Kim has been a great translator for me and it is amazing to me how she
can switch to English or French - snap- just like that. Today though
it became a bit clearer to how her mind works (or doesn't). We were
talking to Sebastian, who is French and we guess is the GM of the
hotel. He tells us something in English in his French accent. Kim
turns to me and tells me what he said. I didn't think his accent was
that bad! She really doesn't hear a difference between French and
English...amazing to me!

gm

Picture Perfect

Ok, here is my first attempt at posting pictures from my Blackberry.
There should be a picture of Kim enjoying a Diablo Menthe (Sprit and
mint)...and NO alchol if you can believe it!!

We just sat down for dinner at Just 4 U - where we think our friend
Doudou from SEM knows someone who works here (Jo) but nobaody here
seems to know him. But like our waiter says - everyone in Senegal has
many names and we may know him as Jo and he knows him as Mohammed!
C'est la vie!!

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!!

Dakar During the Day

After a few hours of sleep, we got up around 11am.  Our hotel (Hotel Farid) has a Lebanese restaurant in it (actually across the street currently due to construction), we are too late for breakfast today, but just in time for lunch.  Great lunch - chicken skewers. 

Our only adventure for the day will be to Isle de Goree, the island where they shipped slaves off to Europe and the US.  It is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, we know the general direction. 

We get to the general area of the docks and ask a security guard where it is.  Actually Kim asks him in French where the boat is.  He looks at her and smirks - you mean where do you board the ferry? (in French)  Kim didn't know what the word for ferry was so she learned a new word and we where on our way!

Get to the ferry terminal and pay.  Then a nice local comes by to offer his services as a guide.  We have an hour to kill at the terminal and don't really want to listen to someone that whole time.  So we sit and wait.  It is about 30C here, so sitting out of the sun is a must. 

On the ferry ride, the same guy comes over to us, do you want a guide now?  No we say.  He says ok, but you'll end up getting one.

We get off the ferry after the short 20 minute ride to more offers to guide us.  We start to walk around and one of the guides finally convinces us.  He says he lives on the island and he can do this or live on the street - good point.  So he tours us around the island with us "tipping" him at the end.

We see several of the forts that were built on the island over the years by the various occupiers (Dutch, French and English).  We visit the Slave House which is where the slaves were housed before they were sent off (for Amazing Race fans, this was in one of the episodes). 

Then we head back to the mainland.  We head back to our hotel, coming across a young man who starts complimenting me on my shoes.  Then walking along with us, he compliments be on my nice pants.  Then there are a few more guys in close and my friend grabs at my pant leg.  And I mean grabbing the fabric in his hand like he is going to pull off my pants!  Kim and I both go to smack his hand away and the immediately cross the street.  Do a little reconciliation of the pocket contents - everything is there.  Got the heart racing though!  Don't know if this aggressive local was doing that to get a kick out of tourists or he was trying to pick our pockets - he was successful on the former and unsuccessful on the later!  He also didn't follow us or anything when we crossed the road.  Perhaps with our hyper sensitive awareness to potential pick pockets, we did the right thing and thwarted his attempt!

Back at the hotel we called the man from SEM (the micro banking organization) and set up a time to meet on Saturday.  We are very excited to chat with him about his views of Senegal and what works in aid and what doesn't.

For dinner we went to a Lonely Planet top recommended restaurant which was at the end of our block.  Tried some Senegalese specialties, Kim had rice with fish and vegetables and I had meat, vegetables and cous cous.  Both very good - all for C$20.

Then we attempted to contact the airport.  Finally got through and they said try tomorrow since there is only one flight per day, it wouldn't be in yet.  Hopefully tomorrow we can track it down!

The time change has my sleep screwed up, after 2 hours of sleeping it is now just after midnight and I am wide awake!  Good time to post!

gm

In To Africa

We have landed in Dakar.  We have passed through customs.  Now we wait for our one and only piece of checked baggage.  It is 2am local time.  We are reminded of our last adventure in Tanzania - where we waited for our luggage, two weeks later reunited with it.  And we wait.

By 3am the baggage handlers have unloaded the Air Portugal plane...and there is no bag for us.  So we make the all too familiar walk to the African baggage office.  Kim utilizes her French spectacularly!  We get a confirmation that the search is on...should be here tomorrow, probably "delayed" in transit - it will be okay.  Do we believe them?  What choice do we have!  Luckily we have learned from previous trips; we have most of the essentials - except large bottles of sun screen and toothpaste, but we can make do!

Next was the adventure of finding a taxi to take us to our hotel - now it is 3:30am.  As you walk out of the airport the mass of taxi drivers offer you "deals".  We know (we think) how much a ride should cost.  First driver says 20 euro - about 4 times what we think it should be.  So we walk away after a bit of negotiating.  Then another driver comes by - 5000CFA (about C$10) more like what we expected.  Deal done, we walk towards a cab and get handed off to the actual driver.  We hop in the back seat and hands start flying into the car - beggars.  Kim fends them off until the driver finally gets in and we drive off.

Imagine driving on a road with no street lights, no lines and lots of pot holes and other obstacles - oh and add to that the wind shield has a "grease" film on it distorting vision.  The taxi wouldn't/couldn't go over about 30 km/h - which might have been best.  When we started seeing signs for the centre of Dakar we were both relieved that we weren't going to run our of gas, get a flat tire or get pawned off on to another taxi - which we were both thinking.

Pull up to our hotel at 4am and there are 8 Italian guys checking in ahead of us (ladies, its Kim, and let me clarify that usually 8 young Italian men would be welcome but picture very loud and carrying more luggage than I would take to New York for a month).  By the time we get to our room it is about 4:30.  We are exhausted.  We were hoping to get a start to the day at a reasonable time, but decided to sleep in!!

Next - our first day in Dakar and the aggressive local intent on making his living off tourists...

Getting to Africa

We are just at the airport in Lisbon, Portugal ready to head off to Dakar.

We spent about 3 hours outside the airport in Lisbon and got asked if we wanted pot/coke/hash about 7 times.  Put a backpack on, step off the bus and bam...the offers start coming.  Kim and I must be naïve because neither of us can ever remember being offered those sorts of things before!

Our 24+ hours of traveling is nearing completion and we are excited to really start.  By the way, great article on Senegal in the November issue of Conde Nast Travel magazine - if you can read it online you will get a great sense of what we are going to be experiencing (hopefully!).

gm

The Airport

We are now checked in; we said goodbye to our one and only piece of checked luggage...now it is in fate's hands - or Air Canada baggage handlers.  I prefer fate over the baggage handler but there is only so much I can do...

We attempted the upgrade but no luck with our Aeroplan tickets, but we are kicking back in the Maple Leaf Lounge currently.

gm

One more sleep!

We are down to a couple days at work (which really aren't going to be productive!) and one sleep before we head off!!

We still don't know if we are going to make it into Libya. We received a reply from the Canadian Embassy in Tripoli - they confirm that Libya is expecting the Arabic translation to be "sealed". The Canadian Passport office toll free line says no problem to do that, just drop by an office. So I head over to the Passport Office in Calgary and grab a ticket and wait the required 1 hour. Talk to the Passport official and she takes the two passports to get them stamped. I am feeling pretty good. Things are falling into place. Then...she returns...two passports...unstamped.

She says they can't do that. I tell her my story about the Canadian Embassy in Tripoli and my phone conversation. She goes to get her manager. I tell her the story. And she looks at me like I am on crack. She can't read Arabic so she can't certify the translation. I agree. But the Canadian Embassy in Tripoli say it is ok!!! All she can do is request a clarification from the "policy" department which takes 48 hours. I don't have 48 hours. She can send an urgent request but no guarantees. Ok...do what you can.

So now it is time to think of alternative plans. So far we have these: go to the airline office for the airline we fly into Libya in Dakar - ask them. Go to the Canadian Embassy in Dakar, see if they will stamp it. Go to the Libyan Embassy in Dakar, see what they think. Repeat in Bamako and Accra. Other than that...we'll just have to wing it!!

Amazing Race - Ha!

Kim and I are both huge fans of the Amazing Race - who isn't really? Contestants on the Amazing Race just have to deal with getting to a place - not getting IN to a place. That is what Kim and I are up against.

Today I pick up our passports - looks good. Arabic stamp is in place, Passport Office embossing in place. Before I leave the Harry Hays Building - I call my Arabic translator Giovanni. (When I told Kim that Gionvanni was going to translate, she made sure I told him that we need a translation from English to Arabic...not to Italian - an appropriate question with a name like Giovanni!) When I first talked to Gionvanni he said he would be downtown on Friday and he could drop by to do the translation. How much better does it get. So I speak to Giovanni - he is almost downtown, he'll be by shortly.

Giovanni arrives at my office and proceeds with the translation. Turns out he was in the "foreign service" for many years in Italy, Vatican and several other places. Today he runs a interpreter and translation business in Calgary, as well as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Guinea. So if you ever need to go to Guinea...I can hook you up! My new friend Gionvanni departs and I am pumped - everything seems to be in place. I fire off an email to Kim and then to Mike in Libya letting everyone know we are good to go. At least that is what I thought.

Seconds later my phone rings - Mike from Libya. He wants to confirm what we have exactly in our passport. There have been all kinds of "issues" for those entering Libya. He thinks we need to have the Arabic translation "embossed" by the Passport Office. So I call the Libyan Embassy in Ottawa - leave a message. Call Passport Canada (found a better phone number too!) they haven't heard of any details on what is required. Email a copy of the translated pages to a contact at the Canadian Embassy in Tripoli - we'll see if they can add any information. So now we wait to see if there is any clarity on this issue.

People keep asking Kim and I - why West Africa. I had been responding about the French speaking aspect, blah blah blah. What it really is - we have been to all the "pedestrian" locations - we need adventure. All of the above is adventure - flying by the seat of our pants!! Kim's mom won't like that, but we'll have our helmets on Judy!!!

5 more sleeps...

Overcoming Obstacles

After a bit of scrambling to figure out exactly what we needed to do to get our passports up to snuff for the Libyans - we are on track. Although I must say that Passport Canada doesn't like answering their phone nor do they know a lot when they answer it.

After my phone conversation with Passport Canada they said the best thing to do was go to the Passport office and see what they can do - it normally takes 10 working days to get the stamp in the passport. Over night our friend in Libya said that if we couldn't get it done in Calgary, we could FedEx our passports to the Canadian Embassy in Tripoli. That was an option, but Kim and I really didn't want to send our passports that far this close to our departure.

So first thing this morning we trotted over to the Passport office. It had been open for 20 minutes and we were 98th in line. The Commissionaire at the door was confident that we could get it done in our timeline, but that I must sit down and turn off my cellphone. And don't ask anymore questions. There is a bureaucracy here and they will process me when they get to it!

We talk to a Passport officer, she says normally takes 10 working days for $12, but we can get it done express for $30 more. Great. She goes to work processing mine and says we'll have it back on Tuesday - the day before we leave. I am thinking that is fine. Then Kim asks about what information is translated - good question. It is just items like "name" and "date of birth" that are translated...not the actual information. So if we get it back on Tuesday, that won't leave us enough time to get our names, etc. written out in Arabic. Now we are getting our passports back on Friday.

Currently we are locating an appropriate translator that can do it by Tuesday...so it looks like our visiting Libya is still alive!!

gm

2005 - South African Air labour strike...this year...

What we have learned in our years of traveling to different places - always expect the unexpected.
You may remember on our last trip to Africa, we found out about a week before our departure that South African Airways was shut down with a strike. We survived that - without luggage for 2 weeks - so we can survive most things that get thrown at us.
This morning we learned from our Libyan friends that the Libyan government changed their entrance requirements and didn't tell anyone. They now require everyone entering or exiting Libya have an Arabic translation of their passport. There were several tourists that arrived and had to turn around and go back. Some tourists who were already in Libya couldn't leave because they didn't have the translation - doesn't always make sense!!
Check out this story in the International Herald Tribune - it is kinda funny - mostly because we aren't there suffering through it!!
Now we are attempting to get our passports translated and waiting for the next curve ball!

Bonnes Nouvelles

Today we received great news from our friend Mike in Libya - we have reservations for airline travel from Accra to Tripoli!! For a decent price too! In business class - now I am not quite sure what business class is like on Afriqiyah Airlines, but it has to be better than back of the bus...



We also got our air travel booked from Tripoli back to Frankfurt - so our trip planning is pretty much complete!



Also over the weekend we were in touch with a micro finance group based in Washington, D.C. who do work in Senegal. I found them through Kiva - an online micro finance organization which allows you to loan money to a person (and their project) and they repay you over a specific period of time. You can contribute as little as $25 towards as many projects as you like. As the repayments come in, they are credited towards your account and you can lend them out again. Great idea - I would recommend you checkout http://www.kiva.org/ - this is the best way to end poverty around the world - free enterprise. Lend a hand up, not a hand out!



Back to micro finance in Senegal...a village close to Niassam where we will be staying for several days is one of the many villages SEM is active. Kim and I hope to visit with some of the clients of SEM who benefit from Kiva lenders. What better way to close the circle!!



Lookout, I am a Kiva convert now...wait till we visit with some of the people that have benefited from them!! If you join up, you can put my email (grantinv@gmail.com) in the referral - I don't get anything but a thank you and hopefully build up some "goodwill" with Kiva!!

Immunization, Part Deux

Since West Africa is predominantly French speaking, I will be throwing in bits in my dazzling French...lookout!!

If you go back to the May 17, 2005 entry from MacAfrica 1, you will find a funny story about Kim and needles. On Monday this week, we went to the clinic to get the low down on our requirements for MacAfrica 2. Kim had been doing some research to discover the likelihood that we would even require a shot. The only one we might need was for meningitis. To keep Kim calm on the ride up to the clinic I told her that I thought we probably wouldn't need any shot...known that we likely would - if you read about my previous experience with the woman and needles, you'd lie to!

A doctor friend of ours also said that drinking a V8 juice just before you go to get your shots will help you reduce your chances of fainting - also keep your quad muscles flexed. I don't think Kim has a problem keeping ALL her muscles flexed when she is going to get a shot. With my lying and the V8 juice in her system, Kim is at least looking calm.

When we get closer to the clinic she begins to get a bit tense. I have a feeling that if I had to stop at a red light or stop sign, she would definitely consider bolting - so I just keep cruising. We get to the clinic, with Kim in tow. Get settled into our chairs to wait for the doctor. I go to the washroom - leaving Kim unattended for a few minutes - knowing that I might come back to an empty chair. But Kim is there when I return...phew.

We go into see the doctor, she reviews our previous shots and everything is looking good. I can see Kim thinks she is just about in the clear. Then the dreaded map comes out. The meningitis countries map. It includes Senegal, Mali and Ghana - we need the shot. Kim goes white - I am thinking she might faint before we even see the needle this time. All is okay.

Next we sit in the "shot room". Kim assumes her position in the big lazy boy chair, we prop her feet up. The nurse comes in and within 15 seconds has the needle set up, in Kim's arm and ready to shot me - wow - she is good. Kim doesn't even have a chance to know it was coming. There was a bit of tenseness, but no fainting. What a trooper Kim is, but not nearly as entertaining as before. Sorry.

One more thing off the travel checklist...

Our First West African Friend

As I previously mentioned, we chose to use a tour company called Riverside Mali for our tour through Mali. You must remember that tourism in West Africa is a fledgling industry. Many countries in the area have been ravaged by civil war for much of the last 2 decades (or longer), which has kept the tourists at bay.

How we chose Riverside was very "2007" - we searched the internet and found them. Then of course we tried to find A review or two of Riverside. This is where our due diligence ran into difficulty. We couldn't find a review any where. That made us a little suspicious. Was Riverside a real company? Were they out to scam a couple poor Canadians?

Our next attempt to figure out who Riveside was included searching other tour companies we had found - did they have reviews. Nope. It appears no one has written a review of their travels through Mali. Fine. Let's try and find out who owns them. We had some success with this angle. The owners are a French couple who came up on various other websites in regards to Mali. The wife was behind the campaign to have Timbuktu placed on the new list of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Now with that info, we established contact with Riverside. First by email - Kim asked for some information on the tours available and pricing. A response came from Dicko - great! One of the things that Riverside "markets" on their website is tours of the Niger River on jet skis. Hooked me with that! Dicko says that the jet skis are not worth it. We find that kinda weird - the are a much more expensive option - perhaps Dicko is really working for us!

Now instead of email, Dicko figures a phone conversation would be easier. So Dicko calls Kim (who is THE French translator for MacAfrica 2007). They have a chat about Canada - Dicko hasn't had many Canadians visit him. He asks about our weather and is truly amazed that it gets as cold as it does here and we live through it!

Once we decide on the tour program we want, it is time to get some money to Riverside as a deposit. Once again a little tepid about wiring money to them. Kim gets on the phone with Riverside's bank - PNB Paribas in Toronto. No luck finding anything out. Then calls PNB Paribas in Paris. Once again no luck. Who cares at this point - let's fire some money to them.

With everything in place, we figure we won't hear from Dicko until we are in Bamako, Mali. Not so. Dicko calls Kim almost weekly. To chat. How's the weather? How else can I help? They exchange photos of Mali and Canada. Once again he can't believe that there is that much snow here (Kim sent a picture of her skiing!).

We aren't sure if Dicko is just super friendly or if we are big spenders from Canada so give'em the gold treatment or if it is part of the slickster scam?? One of our friends who spent time in West Africa told us that they are just really friendly and many of them get a phone number and just call to chat. No agenda, just saying hi. He recently called to wish us much happiness for the new year as Ramadan is near it's end and then they will be feasting!

We are very excited about spending 10 days with Dicko touring through Mali!! He is going to be great!!

Let the tale begin

Over the last 6 weeks, Kim and I have been spending more and more time planning our West African adventure. We had book the majority of our air travel on points back in January 2007. We knew that December was the best month to travel in West Africa since it is the dry season.



Let me take a step back first - why West Africa. Kim and I had really enjoyed our East and South Africa experience in 2005. We also enjoyed Egypt in 2007. So Africa was certainly a place we wanted to explore more of. Since Kim is fluent in French - although she thinks she isn't most of the time - we thought French West Africa would be fun. And who wasn't told when they were a kid that they were either going to get sent off to Timbuktu or they were going to drive their mother to Timbuktu!



We had booked our travel to start in Dakar, spend 3 weeks in West Africa and depart from Accra, Ghana back to Frankfurt where we had 5 "open" days. During these days we were planning to visit the Wrigglesworth's in Libya. You can imagine booking a trip almost a year in advance can be a bit anti-climatic. Get the tickets booked...and wait.



August 21st came around, by instinct (with 3 months to go) Kim and I started to get serious about booking "stuff". First we had to figure out what we wanted to do with our 3 weeks. After much consideration, we decided that after 3 days in Dakar, we would travel to a nature reserve south of Dakar for 5 days. We found an article in the New York Times profiling a couple of nature lodges. One was very expensive, the other not so much. Surprisingly, we choose the cheaper one - Le Lodge de Niassam. After this we are heading back to Dakar to fly to Bamako, the capital of Mali.



Mali is a country that Kim has really grown fond of. We planned to spend 10-12 days in Mali. I will tell the tale of picking a "tour" company in a later post. Our journey through Mali will consist of a flight to Timbuktu, driving to Mopti, camping on the banks of the Niger River, hiking in the Dogon country (sleeping under the stars, on a roof!), spending a day at the famous Djenne Market and finishing off with a couple days in Bamako. From there we fly to Accra, Ghana.

So far we haven't made firm plans for our 5 days in Ghana, but we think we'll travel to Cape Coast for a few days and then back to Accra for our flight back to Frankfurt.

From Frankfurt we are hoping to travel to Tripoli, Libya to see our friends who live in Benghazi. This part of the trip depends partly on travel visa's. Libya is trying to develop a tourism industry, but they don't have all the parts in place currently.

Mac Back to Africa

MacAfrica is going back to it's "homeland". Kim and I will be traveling through West and North Africa this Fall. We will be hitting Senegal, Mali and Ghana in West Africa and hoping to visit friends in Libya.

We head off on Nov 21 - so the plans are taking final shape...shots are on tap in a week or so (I hope to not have to repeat the scene from 2005!).

Keep watching for more regular posts as we get closer to launch date...

Thinking of traveling to Africa

If you are thinking of traveling to Africa and are looking for some advice or have questions, drop us a line at macafrica@gmail.com. We would be happy to provide you with our thoughts and advice!

What Now?

There seem to be a few people still looking at this blog...

It could be the addiction of known what is going on in Africa...well we can't help you on that front anymore...

Perhaps people are so bored at work they figure reading MacAfrica's old stories is better than talking to Fred in accounting...

Most likely people just accidently click on their MacAfrica link in their favorites and curse our stupid trip that happened so long ago...

If you aren't careful I might just start posting about my thoughts...which I know won't be very thrilling or long or frequent!!

Grant

News

News Flash - you two are the only ones (besides me) reading this blog now. Has this replaced your rapid fire crackberry communication or is this just a more public "add on"? And everyone knows me well enough to know that I wouldn't swish and describe diet coke. DC is for thirst quenching...perhaps mindlessly passing a few minutes. Wine, on the other hand, is an intellectual discussion. A value added proposition to the precious moments that stand still in it's presence. Wine is a level of complexity that, when added to food, provides the most monumental oral satisfaction possible when one is by ones self.

Wine snob gone overboard

Yesterday, Kim and I are out enjoying Alberta's 100th Birthday and during dinner Kim raises her glass of Diet Coke...swirls it around...takes a deep sniff...sips a bit, rolls it around her delicate palate...proclaims the deep taste of caramel and the tintilating sensation of phosphoric acid tickling her throat...help!

g