Wedding Photos

As mentioned previously, we will be having a little celebration with friends and family in the US in Akron, OH (Address: 940 Ironwood Road) - an opportunity for many more fun pictures! The party will be on Saturday 27 September at 3 PM. It would be helpful if you could RSVP if you think that you are coming so that we have an idea of how many people are expected. Please respond with a comment on this blog post if you think you can come, and mention how many of you are coming!

Well, the wedding photos are in. I believe that the photographer is still uploading some of the photos, but all of the photos from Friday's civil and church weddings are included here. Photos from Saturday's traditional ceremony are still being uploaded. The link to the photos is located here, from which the photos can be downloaded or ordered directly from the site:

http://riccimedia.smugmug.com/gallery/5922145_jiW74#P-1-16

There's lots of pictures, some bad and some very good. Sorry, we didn't do any sort of filtering - too busy enjoying a honeymoon in Vegas! If you don't have time to look through them to sort out the good from the bad, here is one of our favorites from the wedding:

New Plans for September

There are new plans for September - the end of September that is. The beginning of the month is going to plan. My parents are here and we are touring around Dakar and the surrounding areas. I am a married man now, and all has gone very well. More pictures are to come!


Change in plans is for the end of the month. Jeanne has gotten a US tourist visa and we are planning to visit at the end of the month. In fact, we will be arriving in just a few days. Our itinerary includes Akron, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas, and back to Akron. We are planning to have a bit of a party at my mother's house in Akron on the 27th September before heading back to Senegal on 1st October, before we both have to return to our jobs.

Look forward to seeing you, if possible!

Wedding Planning

This summer, I’ll be taking a month vacation as I have the last several years. This year is different, though, as I won’t be getting to the US. In fact, I won’t be traveling far away at all. Instead, my parents, family members, and friends are coming to Dakar and we’ll be celebrating my marriage with my Senegalese fiancee Jeanne Faye.

So, I haven’t talked much about her before, I know. But, last year when I was planning to move to Dakar, there was a very good reason. Jeanne and I have known each other for over ten years now, since my first arrival on the African continent when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. In fact, it’s her uncle that was my host family in my first two months here. And somehow, over the years, we’ve managed to stay in touch and our relationship has grown.

Now, on September 05, 2008, we will begin two days of festivities. The first day is scheduled to be in Dakar and will comprise of the civil ceremony and the church with around 100 people. The second day will be in her hometown Thies, about 50 miles from Dakar, where we will have a traditional ceremony with lots of people at her parents’ house. Seven people, including my parents, are making the trans-Atlantic trek to be here with us for 10 days. Afterward, we are planning a ten-day honeymoon in Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony that comprises 11 tropical islands off the coast of Senegal.

Jeanne’s full name is Jeanne Françoise Guignane Faye. She was born and raised in Thies and moved to Dakar about ten years ago to take a job at the YMCA where she became (and still is) a kindergarten teacher. Jeanne speaks four languages, of which two are French and English (and for those who are curious, we typically speak French between us). She is from a Catholic family, a not-so-common thing in this Muslim country, and of the Serere ethnicity. She has 4 sisters and 3 brothers, all in Senegal except for one brother in Turin, Italy.

Today, we are living in Dakar, around 20 minutes by taxi from the town center and very near the YMCA and one of her sisters. We live on the fifth floor (by American definition) of an apartment building (no elevator) (picture to the right) with a fantastic view of the city and the peninsula (picture below taken from the balcony). Fatim (my adopted Guinean daughter) who is typically living with Jeanne’s parents during the school year is staying with us and studying English four days a week in summer school. And as Jeanne is on summer vacation, she has been taking care of most of the wedding details and setting up the apartment. We are happy in Dakar and hoping to remain here for a little while at least. I have been fortunate here and have been staying busy with work.

Last time I wrote, I wasn’t really certain about the contractual status of my job. Now, I am still a consultant and not an official employee of the World Food Programme, but things are going well. The last time I wrote in March, though, I wasn’t sure I would still have the same job at this point. Well, things look good for the moment, and I expect that after my vacation in September, I will get another contract, probably for several months. This is very good news, particularly with the new responsibilities in my life and the ever escalating prices of food, transport, and the devaluation of the dollar, not to mention prices of life in the big city of Dakar.

People ask if we will be doing something in the US for the celebration of our marriage, as I know that not everyone can come to Dakar. Well, I have two little sisters who are both getting married next summer in Dallas. We would very much like to come and celebrate, but I am not certain if Jeanne will have her entry visa for the US by then. I have an American friend who married a Senegalese woman, and it took them two years to complete the visa process. In any case, we will make it a priority to begin working on it first thing in October! The first step will be an entry visa, or a green card. Nationality would be another decision, and would come later in the process.

And so, with such a big event happening just weeks away, I had to drop a note and let everyone know the good news, if you haven't heard already. You can find some photos of Jeanne and I over the years at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AaronSharghi/AaronJeanne

I hope this e-mail finds everyone in good health and happiness. And if you are swinging through Dakar in September, do let us know!

The Me Update

It is March 04 and I am riding high, 30,000 feet above the African continent on my way to Accra, capital city of Ghana on the south coast of West Africa. It will be my first time to return since I went on vacation for the turn of the millennium in late 1999 – early 2000. That was a great vacation that turned tragic when 2 of my 3 companions, Jesse and Justin, died in a car crash in Guinea as they were returning to their work sites in middle Guinea.

This time, however, my objectives are a bit different. I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer, and I am not going on vacation. No, this time I am a consultant working with the UN World Food Programme and I am going to do some training in the country office based on experience that I have gained in the last five years with this organization in three different African countries. I will be spending about 5 days in Accra before continuing on to Cameroon for a week and then return to Dakar.

Is that correct, to Dakar? It wasn’t long ago that I was in war-torn Chad, not far from the Darfur border! For those not in the loop, I am now based in Dakar, Senegal on the western-most tip of the continent. My arrival there was partly planned and a lot of luck! So much luck, and so fortunate, I can’t describe.

I spent 2-1/2 years in Chad with the World Food Programme. As a consultant and not an actual staff member, a future job in another country is not at all guaranteed with this organisation. With the escalating prices of food costs, and the complete downturn of the dollar on the world market, the organisation has been struggling to cut costs in the last year or so. In December, I became a part of the organisation’s cost cutting and was informed that my contract would not be renewed beyond the end of the year. This news was good and bad at the same time – I certainly didn’t want to spend more time in Chad, it’s a difficult post. But at the same time, it hit hard to know that I would be an unemployed free agent within a month.

Having unemployed status, I suddenly had a complete freedom of being able to go and settle anywhere in the world. How incredible to have such freedom! Anywhere at all that I wanted was open to me. I chose Dakar, Senegal. For one, I have my girlfriend Jeanne there, who I have determined I really like. And for two, I have my practically adopted daughter there, Fatim, who is 15 and has been going to school there for over 2 years. Also, I was just ready for a bit of a normal life (which I can do in Dakar but is certainly not the case in Chad).

There, that was pretty much settled – I was determined to find work in Dakar. However, it wasn’t necessary to find work. Work found me. Two days before my departure from N’djamena, capital of Chad, I got a phone call from the WFP regional office that covers 17 countries in West and Central Africa. They were interested in hiring me for a short-term contract for a job that I was completely qualified for! Now, try to tell me that I didn’t choose the right place to be going to!

So, here I am on that short-term contract that currently ends on March 31! I am hoping that it will be extended so that I can stay in Dakar and keep making a bit of money! It is stressful sometimes to think what may happen if I don’t have work in a month, or if I am faced with a work offer in Sudan or some ugly place that I don’t want to go to right now. However, I am committed to be in Dakar for at least a year or even longer if I can figure out how to make that work!

After one month in the US, on February 2^nd, I arrived into Dakar. The first thing I did, upon catching up on some sleep, was go to a wedding and a baptism for a new child, both in Jeanne’s family. The top news was all about Chad – rebels invaded the capital and bodies of armed men littered the streets. Phone networks were down in Chad, and my colleagues were witnessing helicopters falling out of the sky while hiding in corridors of the international hotels seeking safety from stray gunfire and shrapnel. Over two years in that town, and I was fortunate to not have seen that – I got out of there just in time. Thanks WFP for not extending my contract!

Today, I am very happy in Dakar. I have rented an apartment, which has three bedrooms on the 5^th floor of a new apartment building (no elevator, good exercise). It is not yet finished – still under construction – but should be ready no later than 01 April. My job is going well, but keeping me very busy and it can be a bit tiring. And now, I will be doing some furniture hunting! Meanwhile, I am doing training sessions with staff in different country offices, so I am getting a small tour of West Africa at the same time! So far, I have gone to Guinea (got to see some old friends) and right now, in Ghana. Next week, I continue to Cameroon and then after Easter, I go to Benin. Should my contract be extended, I believe that I will be visiting a few more countries still, including Chad.

And so, having started at 30,000 feet, my story finishes at close to sea level here in an Accra hotel, off the Gulf of Guinea. June will mark ten years since I first came to West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. People ask what’s keeping me here. I am not completely certain. People ask when I expect to live again in the US. I am not sure. I can only focus on today, and today tells me that I am in the right place and life is taking me through some incredible journeys and I feel blessed to be led in such a direction.

It's HOT in Chad

It’s been six months since my last update. I am at the same job in the same country, though the political climate here is in constant change. Yesterday marks the one-year anniversary of my evacuation from Chad to Cameroon. This is the “hot” time of year that armies can move freely through the desert and across the land; once the rainy season begins in June, temporary rivers known locally as “wadis” begin to form and prevent free movement. But, let’s avoid any political discourse related to central Africa – it’s a hot topic! There are plenty of news stories on the net if you are really interested, like this one from America’s own, CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/04/10/chad.un.reut/

Speaking of HOT, Chad is a hot place to be right now. On the BBC site for climate change(see http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/), the 10 hottest and coldest places in the world scroll at the top of the screen. On Monday, 7 of the top 10 hottest places were in Chad! That compared to the six inches of snow in Cleveland. My thermometer at home recorded around 118 degrees for several days. All of this changed midweek, however, when the thermometer fell by around 10 degrees. Here is the Yahoo weather forecast for that day:

So, with this kind of weather, I have to be thankful that I spent much of March in Dakar, Senegal – on the western-most point of the continent, and benefiting from the cool ocean breeze. But, in addition, I was blessed with a visit from my sister Jayme and my mom. From the 3 through 13 March, we took a tour through a few towns in Senegal near the capital Dakar, and then spent the remaining five days in Dakar itself. All in all, it was a fun time. I have posted some pictures on flickr.com from the trip!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56699809@N00/sets/72157594498927173/

After the vacation, I was lucky enough to get to go back again for a WFP workshop. The problem was that Ethiopian airlines stopped flights from N’djamena to West Africa after my first arrival, and now it was necessary for me to take a four hour flight east to Addis Ababa before heading west, which is a 2-stop and 11-hour journey! (See map below, click for a clearer image) But, I did benefit in having some good Ethiopian food in Addis Ababa during my layovers, which amounted to 2 days and 5 nights for my three trips through there! And when the last trip was all done, despite the heat and the political problems in Chad, it was good to be at “home” in my own bed.