Hi everyone!
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| My new apartment building! |
Sorry for my long silence, it’s been a crazy month! I hope
everyone’s 2017 has gotten off to a great start! I finished 2016 and began 2017
intensely searching for my own apartment. My plan from the very beginning of my
stay in Senegal was to be with my amazing host family only until the end of the
year, so my room was taken starting the 5th of January!
I’d been
apartment hunting since early December, but had run into quite a few dead ends.
I was looking for a one-bedroom that was not a studio. I wanted to have a room
separate from the living room so that when I have guests we’re not on top of
each other. Apparently this type of apartment isn’t very common. I almost
caved in and got a two-bedroom, but at the last minute the agent got wind of a
one-bedroom next door to the two-bedroom I was looking at… They showed it to
me, but very briefly seeing as it was still lived in. I could tell, even in its
messy/dirty state, that it was exactly what I was looking for!
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| Unfurnished and not-so-clean, but I'll take it! |
I’m so glad I
stuck it out and pushed for exactly what I was looking for. The rent was well
within my budget as well, so that was definitely a bonus! My rent is 200k fcfa
a month, which is a little under $350! This price was because it was not
furnished, which was fine with me because I felt that I would be able to
furnish it for much less than what it would have cost me to rent a furnished apartment
(which would have been $1,000 a month).
It was the 30th of December when I found that
apartment, but the people who were still living in it were in the process of
moving across the hall to the two-bedroom apartment. They said the place would
be empty and I could start furnishing it on the 3rd… which made for
a pretty tight schedule seeing as I had to vacate my room on the 4th.
They did offer to sell me the dining table with chairs and their living room
set, which worked out well for all parties. Otherwise, my first priority was to
get the basic essentials I would need to be able to move in, meaning a bed, a fridge,
and a stove.
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| New furnishings |
My host mom has “a guy” at
the Marché Tillène (the main home goods market in Dakar) from whom she’s been
buying all her household appliances for the past 15 years or so and she was
gracious enough to go with me on the evening of the 3rd. It was
amazing! She’s a great bargainer; the guy would give her a price and she would
just cut it in half and then go up a little. I got a bed frame and mattress,
pillows and sheets, fridge with surge protector, gas stovetop/oven with
everything to hook it up including a full gas can, fan, and a mirror, all with
delivery for about $750. I picked up the keys to the apartment at 4:30, we got
to the market at about 5:30pm, had everything delivered and were home for
dinner at about 8:30. The next morning I was back at the apartment by 9am to
meet the guys who were going to install everything (provided by the guy I
bought all the stuff from!) before I had to work at 1pm.
My new place is a 10
minute walk from my host family, so Colleen came and helped me move my stuff
over. We just did a couple of trips with my suitcases/bags. We got all the
stuff moved over in time for me to head to work. After our last trip, Colleen
and I were in my new bedroom and I was talking about how much I needed a broom
and a mop so I could clean up a bit (the previous occupants did not value
cleanliness as much as I would have hoped, so the state of the apartment was
not the greatest). I was lamenting that I wasn’t even sure where I could go to
get such supplies (not like there’s a Target or Walmart around the corner) when
Colleen looked out my window and literally saw a bundle of brooms/mops/trash
cans walking by my apartment, as if conjured by my complaining. I ran
out to stop the guy and bought everything I needed (mop with bucket, broom,
handheld broom with dustpan, and two trashcans!). It was great!
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| My courtyard/patio set |
After work, I had a final dinner with my host family before
heading back for my first night in my apartment. The next day I Decided to get
wicker furniture from the guy on the main road who makes it right there... keeps
the money local and such and it’s not like I need super long-lasting furniture
for a 7-month stay. I walked over and bought an armoire for my clothes, shelves
for the kitchen, and ordered a cabinet for my entryway that I would pick up a
week later, since he had to make it. When I went back to pick that one up, I
also bought a patio set for my little outdoor courtyard.
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| The market |
Over the weekend, Arame went with me to the market to get
some of the smaller stuff I would need, including everything for the kitchen,
buckets for showers and laundry (no hot running water or washing machine), and
some other odds and ends.
It was all quite an adventure and now I’m nicely
settled in to my new digs. My host mom was a little worried about me being on
my own, but once she saw the place she felt better because it’s on a small side
road and there are a lot of guards in this area. We have one for our building,
there’s one that literally sits next to my window (for the building next door) and
one that sits directly across the one-lane dirt road that my apartment is on. I
am on the ground floor and there are bars on my windows. There’s a little
corner store about 3 minutes from my door, and I’m still within walking
distance of where I teach (although it’s a little farther). All in all, it was
super stressful for about a week, but it was absolutely worth it. I still see
my host family often, and it’s nice to be in my own place! I have a couch and a
guest bathroom, so if anyone wants to come for a visit, my door is always open. And I have good coffee...
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| Bonus of being in my own place: I can put my percolator to good use! |
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