Getting there

Sorry for going MIA. I have not been able to access internet very easily. I*ll eventually catch up in chronological order. But just to go back to the future before we begin, I have now reached my final destination and completed my first day at work. I*ll be adding more photos to this entry too.

Fear and Loathing in Montreal

On the second to last night before my departure, I couldn’t fall asleep because I was continuously coughing. Since it was late and I was overtired, I found cough syrup to calm it down. It had expired in 2006 but I figured the active ingredients must still be somewhat stable/active and therefore took it. I was too tired to get a teaspoon to measure the indicated dose and drank it straight from the bottle. I had a terrible night, but the coughing did stop J As soon as I got up, I felt something was wrong in my head. I felt like one of the characters in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with Johnny Depp). The day went on and my bizarre buzz continued. I felt drunk but had all my faculties, I felt overtired but wired at the same time. I felt spastic and clumsy all at once.
After a quick widipedia search, I found out that my buzz/symptoms were indicative of an overdose and that the active ingredient in Benylin is similar to Crystal Meth! The drug they were hooked on in the movie!
So there I was, on a crystal meth high the day before my departure! Just the type of thing that only happens to me… haha

Atmospheric transgressions

The day of my flight, I had a family farewell gathering chez my sister’s. As the hours went by, the lump in my throat got bigger and bigger until I ceased fighting it and gave into a waterworks breakdown. Quite embarrassing considering I consciously and deliberately put myself in the position of leaving friends, family and Phil for months. My tears were not tears of sorrow. Rather, it was the realization of the love that surrounds me and the reality that I’d be far away from it for longer than I’m used to. I hope I didn’t traumatize my nieces and nephews with my perfuse crying.

My flight from Montreal to Casablanca was uneventful. I had to pay 50$ in extra luggage charges and that’s after reconfiguring my luggage contents on the floors of the Trudeau airport to avoid having to pay 100$... We (six of us travelling together) got to Casablanca in early their morning, middle of the night Canada time. Since our next flight to Dakar was only in the evening, we eventually got shuttled to a hotel where we occupied rooms for the duration of the day. The hotel was boring and there was a lot of waiting around involved. The air in Morocco was nice: it was very hot and dry. This was my introduction to the musalman world; Arab written everwhere, syllables I have trouble replicating, signs of Ramadan, traditional attire, etc.

The end of afternoon finally rolled around and we got to the airport nice and early to make sure to catch our flight. On the e-ticket, it was marked 8:30 but on our print out it was 7:30 pm. The flight was indeed scheduled for 7:30 but it got delayed until 8:40 and even later. Funny how things work… We had only been provided lunch so we were starved while waiting at our gate. So, they eventually told us (in fact, nobody in Casablanca ever told us anything…they’d just say “wait a little bit” or “go there”, waving the hand in a general direction, whenever we’d ask for instructions or indications) to go to a cafeteria below and that we’d be served supper. 45 minutes later, we each received a tray of food: almond croissant, crepe, biscuit, baguettes, and another airy crepe plus a couple dates, a hard-boiled egg and a sweet fried dough contraption. Unimpressed with our meal, we couldn’t believe they were only feeding us carbs. We thereafter found out that this was a Ramadan meal which was being served because the sun had fallen. When we finally got on the flight, they served us a normal meal (but we were already full with the carbs).

We landed in Dakar a bit past midnight. Amazingly, we didn’t get to bed until 4 am (and the airport is only 20 minutes away from our residence)! Getting through customs took a long time; it was our first taste of the non-linear progression of time in Senegal. Fortunately, everybody eventually found their luggage. Then, there was a torrential pourdown. When I say torrential, this means that between the time we got off the plane and made it to the airport’s exit, there was a foot of water in the streets! We searched and searched but couldn’t find our driver who was supposed to take us to the residence. We felt so lost in the middle of the night with persistant Senegalese people buzzing around us with all our luggage huddled under the rain. We had been told to keep hold of our luggage at all times as this was a spot infamous for theft. About an hour later, two of us had searched the busy but dark street and found the driver, Serge. It took at least another half hour for him to get the bus closer. Our luggage easily took up more than half the bus space. The drive to our residence was a slow because it was dark (no street lights because no electricity) and impressive one as everything was new for me. When we got to our to our destination: Centre l’Abri, the bus couldn’t make it up the driveway to our building because it would get stuck and sink in the mud. So we eventually had to hop out of the vehicle (which had its own microclimate as it rained on me the whole drive long) into unknown terrain with mucky water up to our ankles with no headlamps (no electricity). Obviously, our headlamps were somewhere in our luggage… We were greeted by a fine person who opened up our rooms and gave us the keys in pitch dark. Thanks to our “ex-smokers”, we were able to light candles in our rooms and access our headlamps. The electricity eventually came back on and we were happy to take cold showers and hit the hay. Our first real sleep in two days. Ouff!