Touchdown in Dakar!

What a journey to bring me to this spot.  I applied for a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classroom fellowship last school year.  I found out that I was accepted in August so I began my school year knowing I was participating in this wonderful program.  All of first semester, I studied and took a class on Global Education.  Then in December, right before winter break was to begin, I received my posting: Sénégal!  I was over the moon!  I have always dreamed of traveling to Sénégal.  Africa was a part of the world that I did not know much about and being able to use my French there was huge bonus.  So the preparations began…

April 14, 2019:  Departure Day.  (Also, the date of my late dad’s birthday-It seemed like a sign!). I woke to find the earth outside my window in Chicago covered with snow.  Yes. Snow.  In April.  My flight to Brussels was not until 6:00PM so I was pretty optimistic.  Many of my other colleagues who had to fly into Chicago were delayed or cancelled.  Luckily, I boarded my flight with a few other Fulbright fellows, albeit 2 1/2 hours late. Somehow, I found myself in seating in Premium Plus (bonus!), so I settled in for the flight across the Atlantic.  As we landed in Brussels, we were whisked off the plane, onto a shuttle and rushed onto our flight to Dakar.  And we were off again!

Six hours (and a lot of bumps) later, we began our decent into Dakar.  I gazed out of the window across the great landscape.  The land was vast and barren, but so beautiful.  It literally took my breath away.

We had made it to Dakar. Unfortunately, our luggage did not.  The airline was not able to get our bags on our flight to Dakar so we were told we would get them the following evening.  Luckily, some other colleagues on another flight did receive their luggage and were kind enough to let us lend us some clothes until ours arrived.

As we cleared customs, and entered the main airport, we could hear singing and music.  The Senegalese soccer team was flying in at the same time and there was a band and singers and dancers to greet them. It was such a wonderful welcome for us as well!  Here is a small snippet of our greeting:  Senegal Airport Welcome

We were met by our local hosts and in-country consultants, Mouhamadou and Aissatou.   Bags were loaded onto the top of our transport and we took off for our hotel.  I was so exhausted from our flights and a little disappointed about not having my “stuff”, but the ride cleared my head:  I was here!  Let the adventure begin 🙂