It's a school night

Today's adventures were purely educational.  We started with a hike to the nearby Monument de Renaissance Africaine, the largest statue in the world outside of Asia.  The monument was unveiled last year with attendance by 19 African Heads of State, the representatives from the North Korean company that constructed it for $27M USD (seriously), as well as Jesse Jackson and everyone's favorite Sengalese hip hop artist, Akon.  The vista from the base of the monument was beautiful -- in one direction, you see the city scape of almost all of Dakar, and the other direction, almost exclusively Atlantic Ocean views.  

With a multi-million dollar investment towering behind us, it was hard to overlook the greater context. Deputy leader of the opposition party described the monument as an "economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current economic crisis." Ya think?!  Julienne thought it was made out of plastic, and I wondered why there wasn't any toilet paper or running water in the bathrooms.

Hope our French grades won't be posted, too

After a brief visit back to the hotel to change out of sweat-soaked clothes (who climbs 300 stairs at high-noon in 90% humidity), we were off to our first meeting at French school.  Armed with little more than a street name and a note to look for the alley behind Oil Libya gas station, we arrived at Africa Consultant International's Baobab Center (with the help of an escort from the school, because we actually thought the school was at the gas station).  When we arrived at Baobab, we realized that perhaps we might be better suited to attend the kindergarten (jardin de les enfants) two doors down.  We signed up for 50 hours of lessons, which should get us roughly through the end of next week.

Although both Julienne and I felt a little like we were living that reoccurring nightmare where you show up for the final exam and realize you hadn't been to any of actual the classes, it was good to be a student again. We stopped by what could easily be mistaken for a chicken wing stop in Brooklyn, situated appropriately along Dakar's version of University Ave, and then perused the bookstore (children's section). 

Our school bus (if we're too lazy to walk)

Hands down the most informative part of our day was learning that the house that we will be moving into on Thursday is actually just a few blocks from school.