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 :)