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I saw what I saw

Sara Groves said so well (re: her visit to Rwanda) so much of what I'm thinking, feeling, working through now that we're back from Senegal. Our trip may be history - but the impact left on me by the things I saw, heard, smelled, felt, tasted - the things that struck & stuck - are the most precious souvenirs I brought home & I trust they will help me (all four of us!) to navigate the future more appropriately - more compassionately/less selfishly.

Groceries

This is a grocery store Ramona shops at sometimes. The 2nd pic is canned lunchmeat - we ate it on sandwiches - it's basically like balogni. The first pic is of aprx $70 worth of groceries! Essentially one bag/box (no meat or produce were purchased on this trip!) plus that pack of soda. A box of Special K/cornflakes type cereal is aprx $8 U.S.! Ramona makes her own granola to use as cereal & save money.

kesheing-kesheing

David bought some of these....




They're like gourds of some kind w/ seeds in them & attached by a rope. Alexis found this video on youtube. All I can say is that if David gets as good as this guy he better do special music one night in church! :)

Weee're Back!

Wow. Did all of what I recorded here actually happen?! It almost seems like a dream. Our time flew by while we were in Senengal! We did so much in such a short time & tried to photo journal thru it all but just could not keep up.

Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Ramona were SO good to us...we EXPERIENCED Senegal bc of them & bc of that we learned SO much. I admire them for what they are doing there & we understand the culture & environment & challenges the people there (including Jimmy & Ramona) face so much better now.

Interesting note....Remember how when we arrived all Justine wanted to do was turn around and go home!!!? Well - by the time it was time to go home, she wasn't ready to leave! :) She was no longer afraid of the people and their ways bc she had a much better understanding of why they do the things they do that all seemed so foreign & frightening at first.

Pics were time consuming to upload & videos took forever so I'll be adding to this blog for a while & hopefully the girls will allow me to include some of their journal clips/entries as well so stay tuned :) I posted a couple short video clips below already.

Window Shopping

Click here for more on WINDOW SHOPPING or just picture a US highway with a traffic jam due to accident, mixed with a flea market, except the vendors are on foot going from car to car. Where the traffic jam begins is where you REALLY get inundated w/ vendors - probably bc they want to be the first one you see w/ whatever it is they're selling. I don't have a clip of that - but this is a short clip Ramona gave from somewhere along that route. I did not take many pics here at all bc often if someone sees you take their pic they'll expect to be paid for the pic you took. Seriously. Ramona just acts like she's listening to her IPOD but she's really filming :)

Driving in Dakar

This is a jagenjai (sp?!) ...public transit! They're usually packed w/ people like a can of sardines & people often ride on the back bumpber. They hop in & out/off & on  while it's moving - & here the guy up top is standing while it's moving & I think he's pumping something up - just not sure what.





Ramona gave me some of her videos to share. This is a very short clip looking out the window while driving in Dakar... the yellow & black car at the end is a typical taxi & the white vans are one form of their public transit called Jagenjais (quite sure butchered the sp of that word!). The women (men too, actually) carry all sorts of things on their head. Buckets of water, crates of eggs, bowls of fruit/fish, you name it! People on foot (you'll even see a bicyclist here) are continually mixed in w/ the traffic - esp in the more congested areas of the city & traffic.... hardly any crosswalks or traffic lights. Now that I think of it, I don't even remember seeing a traffic light. My brother said that the new teachers at the school where he teaches are not even allowed to drive for three months.

farming

We visited some land near Theiss...not sure just where we were here - but they are trying to develop a farming ministry to teach nationals how to grow crops & raise animals in hopes of improving their quality of life & helping them to sustain themselves & earn an income by selling their harvest. It's a long slow process but they are indeed making progress and that was encouraging. In the US we are an instant gratification society. But here - it's different. Tho' it doesn't look like much, this is exciting to see. I was struck by how much patience is required here to do just about anything. Rocks dug from the ground are going to be cut to make bricks to build a small barn. Small green pepper plants are growing nicely under those white sheets. In the 2nd pic the kids are peeking into a well. I believe they had to dig 128 meters to get water!

Fine Art

We stopped in to see some of this artist's work while visiting in the city of Theis and he was kind enough to show us a demonstration of his technique.  His work beautifully captures scenes of African life. Alexis used b-day money to purchase one of his paintings on paper. Here he is showing how he paints on glass.

Eric - this one's for you :)

Hey Eric - this one's for you. When we began talking about this trip awhile back, this is the clinic that Jimmy was thinking you might want to try to coordinate a medical missions trip with....remember you e-mailed w/ a doctor there?  Anyhow - we visited a city called Thies today & stopped in at this hospital. Just tho't you might like to see a pic of it.  It has been upgraded to a hospital now ... complete w/ an operating room. Occassionally the send short term teams out to various villages so who knows --- perhaps someday you can come here too! :)

Q. Can you guess what this is?

A. Believe it or not it's tea!! It's bundled this way & sold alongside the roads here. We had some after lunch today & it was quite a tasty treat!

The Basket Shop

Aren't they beautiful?! We stopped here at a basket shop alongside the road today & bought several directly from the couple who make them. No middlemen here :)

The Door of No Return

The Door of No Return

These are pics from the former slave house at Goree Island - an island 900 m long by 350 meters wide. Goree Island was a key foothold during the the 300 or so years of slave trade bc of it's location which made it convenient to ship slaves to various parts of the world. This was one of I believe 28 slavehouses that used to be on the island. What a sobering experience as our guide shared the horrific history of slavery!

Sharing here just a smidgen of what what we learned that day.

Portugual, Dutch, British, & French each at one point controlled Goree Island.

There once was a yellow fever epidemic that killed 21 out of 24 doctors on the island.

The slave port had a a door known as the "Door of no Return" bc once a slave passed thru' that door they would never come back. From that door they boarded slave ships to be sold in other countries. Also, slave traders wouldn't risk sick slaves for fear of the spread of disease so they would throw anyone who looked sick out the door.

There were cells for men, women & children.

Men needed to be 140 lbs to cross the ocean.

Women's worth was determined by their virginity - or not - and they were placed in different cells depending on this.

If a slave girl got pregnant with a white man's baby she was set free and the baby would become an upper class citizen.

The Portuguese were the first to begin slavery & the last to end it.

I could go on & on. These were just a few of many things we learned. The girls have long journal entries on this part of our trip. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been like to have been a slave but I think bc we visited here we all have a much better understanding of how horrific it was that would be difficult to gain any other way - Joyce

A view of Goree Island from the ferry we took over there.

Senegal Snapshots

Not sure why - but I posted a few misc pics & they ended up about 5 posts back & I can't seem to relocate them. But you can view them here at Senegal Snapshots  - Joyce

Can I get anyone a bag of water?

I just can't get over this...they sell bagged water here in much the same we sell bottled water. To open it you just bite a hole in it & squirt in your mouth. Vendors on foot even carry bowls full of bagged water on their heads & sell them on the road in traffic. - Joyce

T-Boys through MY (David's) eyes!

Yesterday we all went to the T-boy center. When we walked through the gate to the center i was holding a case full of supplies for the t-boys while Alexis held the other. We came into the main room and i saw a couple of the boys reading from books and writing. Shortly after we had put the cases in the back room i found out that the boys were learning french because their main language was "Wolof." Then i found out that after the t-boys are done here they have to go back to their maribu to read from the "Tora." This really surprised me because it means that some of them choose to learn how to speak french and then go to learn more when they have to read the Tora, even though they could just decide to have fun instead of work. Also the fact that as young as they are they still go our into the streets looking for money, even with all the dangers of their poverty stricken region. This was a real eye opener, and shows how we take normal things for granted. We then talked with the women in charge of the center and heard about the usual schedule of the t-boys and their cup system where they place their earned money in their specific cups to keep it safe. We saw where they kept their extra set of clothes and toothbrushes ans learned more about their hard life, which at some points causes them to refuse help from the T-center even though it is like their safe house. Then we decided to pump up the soccer ball and go play a game. I ended up playing with them and i had so much fun. You could see the enjoyment they all got out of getting to let loose and play a game they all loved. Even the smaller of the kids were able to compete pretty well. Of course me having played soccer since i was three, i was in my comfort zone as well, but there were a few exceptions. One, the feild was a giant sand field so it was a lot different than grass. And two i had no way of communicating with them besides calling out so they would see where i am in order to help them. But when there was about 15 mins left of playing time the ball landed in a puddle of water we werent sure was clean so i ended up skipping out on the last 15 mins of the game, but i think my team won anyways;) They were a great bunch of kids and even though they didnt know me they made me feel at home on the feild, but still gave me a run for my money. Then after the game we went back to the center and they had lunch which consisted of a part of buttered bread and a cup of milk. I wondered how much the actually ate in a whole day and as i helped hand out the bread i thought about how hard it must be for them, but how amazing this center must be for them, and its great help as a christian mission. After lunch was over we got out the matchbox cars that had been donated and we brought along and passed one out to each of the boys. They were exstatic and immediately started running around pushing their cars and trading with one another. It was amazing seeing how something so little and so simple could make so many kids that happy. It felt great being able to help them and even better being able to see their reactions to it. Without even knowing any of them or without any of them even knowing me we thanked one another and being able to see the smiles on all their faces was priceless. Once they got their cars they scattered and eventually all left. Soon after that we left too. Knowing about a place like this shows us how lucky most of us are but how our little contributioins can go a long way in helping thoughs that need it. It was definitly a great experience seeing the T-center and the kids there. Now the next time a missions offering comes around i wont hesitate to support it.

My (Joyce's) note:  Bread & milk was actually their snack.  They could come back for lunch later. They are so goodto the boys there.

 

African Renaissance Monument

After shopping for handbags at Samba's we stopped at a lighthouse and then here. This a brand new sculpture in honor of the African Rennaisance. It's bigger than the statue of liberty, cost $27 million to build & it has created a lot of controversery here. From what I gather, some are angry that the President of Senegal gets 35% of the revenue generated by admission to enter the statue. Some are angry that the woman's hair does not look African enough - & some are appalled that so much of the the woman's chest and leg are revealed. Revealing a woman's thigh is particularly offensive to the Muslims here. We climbed all the way up to it. The bottom pic is the kids sitting on the to step & enjoying the view from there.

For more info click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Renaissance_Monument

Shopping for a new handbag

Today we visited a store called Samba's.  Actually, it looked more like a shack when we pulled up. You'd never know what it was unless you knew what it was! :)  When we walked in we saw big piles of fabric scraps on the floor & maybe 5 people sewing  in a small room. Beyond that room was a small room full of various kinds of handbags for sale....purses, camera bags, duffle bags, etc.  There's so much time & detailed work put into these bags! They are truly works of art. We left w/ a couple new things.

David's thoughts on Engaparu

Dear Mom and Dad,

           Hello! This is David. Joyce showed me your post so now im going to tell you about some of my  experiences in Africa and what i thought about them. The trip here has been pretty crazy to say the least but overall has been an eye opening experience and a lot not fun. The day we got here we went out to Engaparu which is a place down by the beach. We stayed at the beach house for the weekend and it was a blast. The trip down there was a long one and was full of new stuff to see. I feel as though going to El Salvidore really helped me not be too surprised about all the poverty and people, so i guess i handled it well. There is a lot of trash all over the place and even in the nicest of places. The air is a little thick and with animals roaming free sometimes it smells pretty bad. The roads on the way to the beach house were surprisingly worse than ours back home;) Once we got there it was beautiful on the beach and we played catch with a football on the beach with one of the kids we saw walking by. We also met some of the people their uncle knew from his work, who were staying with us at the beach house. That night the power went out and it has been doing that consistently throughout our trip, so by now we have gotten used to it. But regardless of there being no power we were still able to watch "Up." It was still good even though i have seen it a bunch of times, and it was a nice reminder of home which we all needed from our rough start in Africa. The weather here is amazing but very hot and humid, so sleeping takes some getting used to and the ocean breeze blowing through the beach house was a help in going to sleep. Communicating here is a lot harder than it was in El Salvidore, considering i know alomost no french or "Wolouef" the other language here. The next morning we went to a safari place which i have already told you all about in my other post. But it was a lot of fun and i can now finally say i have seen some amazing african animals. Then later that day we went to a European hotel where we got to swim in a pool and eat dinner at the same time. I ordered "poulet yassa" which is chicken and rice with a very interesting onion type sauce. It is a very African type of food and it was extremely delicious! Then we went and shopped by the beach a little and we all ended up getting something, i got a bracelet that Alexis said i should get and i have started to like it. We also tried some of the African tea which comes in three levels the first being very bitter and the third being very sweet. The owner of the store gave us all a taste of the first level and it was acually not that bad. We left the hotel restaurant and went back to the house to go on the beach. We collected a bunch of shells which the girls will turn into some gifts for their friends back home. Unfortunately none of us used sun screen so we all walked away a little burnt. We had a weird chicken cassarole thing for dinner and it was acually really good despite the fact it kind of looked like a grey blob. Then their uncle and his friends from work went boogie boarding at night while the rest of us sat under the stars at the beach. It was so open and you could see endless stars. But that was our last night at the beach house. The next morning we all got up and left to go to "Acrobaobab" It was a high ropes course and it was wicked cool! They showed us how the equipment worked and then we went through the mini practice course, then finally we were ready for the real thing. We started out climbing through a hole that was in the middle of a baobab tree and it was like rock climbing all the way to the top. Then we went on some short zip lines and bridge obstacles. it was tireing by the end but it was fun. Then it ended with a huge zipline and the people working there waited at the bottom with buckets of water they threw at us. The water was refreshing. Then we went back to the front desk and the owner there gave us the third level of tea, which was also very good but a little too sweet. We bought shirts and got certificates and then headed off back to their house in Dakar. That was our experience in Engaparu and it was tons of fun. But now i was just told that your post was asking about my thoughts when going to the Talibe Center, so im just going to end this post and make a new one for that. Bye.
                                                                                                                                     -David

Senegal Snapshots

This is a familar site here


There's construction going on next to my brother's house. I believe some of the workers have have built themselves a temporary home out of some of the bricks.

Ngaparu sunset

Senegal's flag

Those are fish she's carrying.

I love this pic of Alexis climbing up thru' the baobab tree :)

The ocean view where we ate dinner for Alexis' B-day.

More pics from our visit to the T-boy Center

This littlel guy is sitting along the edge of the soccer "field"

They've started a little garden at the center. Amidst all the dust & rubble to see these boys tenderly nurturing their plants by scooping handfuls of water on them was just so sweet.

Right alongside the soccer field

Some neighborhood kids near the center that came & played near us

When the boys come to the center they place the money they've collected by begging here in cups with sticks with their name on it for safekeeping. Some don't know how to read their name so they will notch the stick to identify which is theirs.