I know, it's been a while

Well, it's been a while since we've posted here. We've thought about it often, but neither of us has been in the groove of posting. I'll give a quick recap of the past three months.

Back in January, the weather shifted to cool and we absolutely loved it. For us northerners, it was like having spring or fall continuously - only it never rained. The temps are now starting to slowly creep up and the humidity is following the rise in temperature - signalling the return of the rainy season in the near future.

Senegal managed peaceful elections and everyones concerns over the potential for an embassy evacuation were for nothing. Better prepared and not need it than not be prepared and need it. There is a new president, Macky Sol, and the people of Senegal are ever hopeful for change.

We snuck in a short vacation to Germany at the end of March. Carl had a conference in Garmish, so Matt and I joined him for a few days. While I would consider it a working vacation on many accounts, it was still nice to be out of a third world country and into cleanliness and order. We managed to travel to the top of the Zugspitz, spend an afternoon in Innsbruck, Austria, and visit the Porsche museum. It was a very nice trip - rain and all.

I've been brewing beer in an attempt to get some variety of flavor here. For the most part, we have two beers readily available here - La Gazelle and Flag, both brewed in Senegal. Neither is fabulous, but either will do on a hot day. Carl picked up a gas grill from some folks who are leaving this month. He's really been missing his Weber and considers this his big score. To go with the grill, we've found a butcher who has decent meat to grill and we stocked up on A1 on our last trip out of country. And, then, of course, there are the shrimp. Camerones (sp?). Monsters, really. I'd say Carl is pretty much set for summer grilling.

Some of you know, many don't know, that we have added two dogs to our family here. One dog I adopted from the street. Happy seemed to be the right name for him as he joined me on my morning walks. He was previously known as Dnindi (Dindi) as I was told just the other day. I fed him and gave him attention then took him to the vet and considered him mine. I think the vet just smiles and rolls his eyes when he sees yet another American adopting a street dog or ABD (African Brown Dog) as they are known. Then there is Joy. She came to us from South Africa. She is a bullmastiff (think the size of a small pony) and she is lovely. Two of her sisters are here in Dakar, too. We still have our cat, Rocket, and she is doing quite well. Not happy to be in the company of two dogs again, but she'll manage.

Soon, we'll be heading back to the states for another short vacation and when we return to Dakar and the full heat of the summer will be upon us. Sadly, come August, we'll be sitting inside with the a.c. on as it will be too blisteringly hot to venture outdoors much.

I hope everyone is well and springtime in your part of the world is beautiful.

Laurie, Carl and Matt