SFO- Senegal

It seems like I was in a dream the whole time we visited Senegal. I had been anticipating this trip for months and was so excited to see this beautiful country. My sister has been going to Senegal for 6 years with Manthia and I couldn't wait to visit her there. My first time going to Africa!

The plan was to leave the day after school got out! I like to plan my vacations this way- start the summer off right. Mateo and I would stay for 3 weeks, Eddie for 2 weeks. Most of the time we would be in Yene Village- about 1 hour south of Dakar. Manthia and Terri have 2 homes there right across the street from each other. One is on the beach side.

On 6/10/22 we woke up at 2:30 AM and got to SFO at 4:00 AM. We thought 2 hours ahead of time would be fine. But we were wrong. Delta's check in line was huge and barely moving. We weren't able to do a kiosk check in since our final destination was international- even though we had a layover in New York. The line was so slow and there were only 2 attendants. They were spending most of the time rebooking passengers who missed earlier flights. It was a domino effect. I was pacing and talking with manager and stressing in my Anne stress way. The manager kept saying there is nothing we can do- we will rebook you on a new flight if necessary. We saw passengers up ahead checking in and then running off to security- knowing that they would make their flight. I still had a glimpse of hope.

When we finally made it up to the desk, it was clear we wouldn't make flight- it was leaving in 25 minutes. We stood with the attendant for 20 minutes as she checked other airlines to rebook us. Travel this summer has been increasing and flights are fully booked so I was pessimistic. She reached out to another agent on the phone who worked on getting us on a new flight.

We had a new flight path on KLM and AirFrance. We would go SFO- Amsterdam- Paris- Dakar. Yikes. We wouldn't leave until later that night. So we took another Uber home with all our luggage and went to rest. This time we would get to airport 3 + hours early. Lesson learned.

What ensued was like an episode of Amazing Race- running through airports, talking with security about skipping lines to make flights, and lots of family teamwork:). Here's a picture of us in the 2nd Uber back to SFO.





Here's a pic of us boarding last plane to from Paris to Dakar and feeling like we finally won.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arrive Blaise Diagne Airport- Dakar

Image
Delayed in Paris for about an hour, we finally arrived in Dakar around 10:00PM. My sister had been waiting outside with a driver- Oseanu- for over an hour. We texted as soon as we landed and I was eager to give my sister a big hug. We waiting in a long line through customs and had to show our COVID vaccine cards. I absolutely loved flying from Paris to Dakar- just to observe the population of people flying. So different than the other flights we had been on. Most were African people- either Senegalese visiting or coming home. The designs on the material of the dresses that the women wear are so beautiful. I need to find out the name of the outfits that they wear- but basically it's a long skirt, shirt and head wrap made of the same cloth. The colors and designs of the wax print are incredible. Some men were wearing long tunics and kufi hats.  After we went through customs, we went to go find our luggage at baggage claims. It took awhile for the belt to start moving with bags, but m...
Read more

1st day in Yene

Image
We woke up around 9:30 AM the next day to my sister and Mambi greeting us. All the windows were open but the door was locked. Terri was saying, "wake up!" I crawled out of bed confused- where were we? We didn't get to see Mambi last night and so I was so eager to cuddle him. I opened the door and gave hugs.  Mambi was a little shy with us but was as cute and sweet as ever.  My sister and Manthia eat outside most of the time in the courtyard. There is a big green picnic table which is covered with colorful table cloths by Abby- their cook and housekeeper. We sat down and Abby served us coffee with a baguette, pastries, and basket of fruit and asked if we wanted an omelette. Most mornings this was a typical breakfast. Abby's omelets are so good- she makes them with onions and little bell peppers. I ate a lot of eggs while I was there. After a leisurely breakfast, we walked over to the other house on the beach. All you have to do is cross the dirt road, but watch out for...
Read more