From Ohio to Dakar

So I've finally gotten around to doing a blog!  The first few posts will be a recap of events that have happened so far, starting with leaving the United States on June 15th.

It's remarkable how quickly departure day arrived!  One minute I'm just living my life wrapping up spring quarter at OSU and the next thing I know it's up and out the door with bags packed.  We got up early so that we could go to Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I didn't think we'd make it but we arrived at Immaculate Conception parish in Clintonville with time to spare.  It was a great way to kick off a day (or two) of traveling!  After Mass myself, my mom, and my dad went to Frisch's for a delicious farewell breakfast, delightful.  My flight path was Columbus to New York (eight hour lay over) New York to Paris (three or four hours layover I think) then from Paris to Dakar!  Traveling was pretty uneventful, I finished one of the books I brought, Father Elijah, it was great.  I did lose my passport when boarding the flight for Dakar, that was pretty nerve wracking.  I have a tendency of setting things down and promptly forgetting to pick them up when I walk away.  On a weekend retreat I helped lead this spring, one of the recurring themes was me setting down and losing my clipboard, it happened easily ten or fifteen times over the weekend.  That was flashing through my mind as I frantically searched, only here I didn't have my friend and co-leader Amy to save me and find it!  Luckily one of the French flight attendants found it before the plane took off (or they kicked me off, I don't know what would have happened!).  Whew, God is good!  On arriving in Dakar we had to go through a line and get our passports checked (it was around 10pm at this point), I naturally picked the slowest line which also featured something of a scuffle (that didn't help the line move faster).  When I finally got to the front they wouldn't let me through because I didn't know the address I'd be staying at, ohhh noooo.   They let me go through while keeping my passport and other documents as collateral.  I found my professor outside, got the address then finally was able to get everything sorted.  After that it was off to the place where I'd be spending my first several nights in Senegal.  I didn't get my camera out for the first week or so, it didn't even cross my mind, so no pictures for these first posts.