Dakar, Senegal
The port visit that was not to be.
We were up early this morning to meet with at 7:45am for our excursion today. Megan and I were both up at 6:30am and dressed to head to breakfast in the Lido. We filled our water bottles in anticipation of another really hot day. We headed to the Main Stage to meet our group and awaited to be called to head off the ship and load our bus…and we waited…and we waited. At this time the Main Stage was filled with those of us waiting for the 7:45am excursions as well as the 8:00am and the 8:15am groups. And then the announcement came; due to a concern about the safety and well-being of the passengers on the ship due to current political unrest in the downtown of Dakar all excursions were cancelled, and no passenger will be allowed off the ship today. This now became a service stop and we would only receive supplies and then we would move on. We checked the news and discovered that here yesterday there were riots and protesting that resulted in the use of police force and tear gas. More of the same was anticipate for today. I put some faith in the captain and Holland America whenever I step on a ship. That they are monitoring these things and making decisions that ultimately put our safety first. Some of the passengers were not happy with the decision, but we see it as an anticipated deviation in our itinerary and it was completely for the right reasons. So we walked the outside decks and took several pictures as this is the closest we will be to Senegal. We decided it counts as us having been here, especially since we wound up being at the pier all day. We spent the morning getting our laundry sent out and then we went and sat with the ladies who showed up at the Project Linus meeting place. It wasn’t all set up like most sea days, Marty decided the crew was so busy doing other things we didn’t need all the supplies brought down from where they are stored since it wasn’t on the regular schedule to do today anyway. The ship added a few additional activities and printed up and distributed a modified Daily Program as well. Throughout the day Megan and I watched them offload a huge cargo ship using large cranes to lower containers down to the pier and then huge machines picked them up and stacked them like Legos. We also watched them drive a fleet of new vehicles into the barge for transport to somewhere new. It was a busy port for sure. As the day progressed we know of at least three passengers who were sadly transported by ambulance to a local hospital from the ship for unknown to us health reasons. I pray they are safe and that they are receiving exceptional care here. Megan and I spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming at the pool. I read my book in the sun and Megan took hers to the shade. By the time it rolled around to getting ready for dinner, we decided we weren’t ready to leave the pool yet and opted to eat at a later time and at the buffet this evening. We wound up eating around 6:30pm after we had showered and put on our comfy clothes. During dinner we received an announcement from the captain informing us that due to the political unrest that our supply containers were not cleared and could not be loaded today afterall. We were informed that additional orders were being placed for future ports and that they were hoping to get the containers from here to another port later in our journey. We were told to expect a decrease in the variety of things available to us during this time and that further supplies would be obtained soon. His closing line was to tell us that we were in luck, because we have not run out of wine or toilet paper. I am happy that we are leaving port before sunset. I was getting nervous about being here after dark. After dinner we took a walk to the back of the ship and got a few beautiful sunset photos as the sun set into the fog on Senegal behind. We said goodbye to this port and to the adventures that were not to be on this trip around the world. We headed back to the cabin and I started my next project Linus blanket and Megan went off to play cards with Gail and Marty, Robin, Tom, Barbara and Sherry. They had a big group tonight. Megan is enjoying getting to know new people and I am trying to give her time to be independent in the evenings as well. Tomorrow we have a sea day, we actually have two coming up. We set sail now to the Canary Islands for a couple of ports there. Despite what happened today we made a memory. And we will remember our visit here regardless. Blessings and hugs to you all!
Live Vicariously Through Debra 
Amen to being safely out of there!!!
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