The Senegal Experience: A Pile of Dirt and a Swimming Pool

Hello everyone. You might, or might not, have noticed that I didn't blog yesterday. This was merely because I didn't want you guys to get dependent...and to get excessively worried when a day happened to be missed. So, now there is no more dependency. The last couple of days have been quite fun-filled. Yesterday began again with a breakfast of baguettes and chocolate. Our team was split, in what appeared to be a practice day for next week, when we will be apart. Brea, Chelsea, Erin, Kesha, and I traveled with Cal to the market. We went there for the purpose of buying some new clothes for some Talibe boys. There were 5 boys who had scabies again this year pretty badly. We bought new clothes for these boys. We guessed sizes. It was interesting. I believe that we were the first volunteer group that Cal had actually taken to that particular market...other than being rather far away, I don't see why. After the market, we went to "Score." It is the closest thing that there is to a mall in Dakar. We had actually parked in that parking lot and walked to the market. The 'mall' had few stores. There was a bookstore, a grocery store, a Wrangler store, a sporting goods store, a restaurant, and maybe a couple of other stores. We only went to the mall to eat lunch. We ate at the restaurant, obviously, which was a Caesar's. There are a few locations of Caesar's here in Dakar. They serve pizza, paninis, sandwiches, and some schwarmas too. The food is quite tasty, we ate at a different location last year too. After lunch we headed towards Yoff. We stopped by a pharmacy on the way, to pick up some pills and ointment for the seriously scabies infected Talibe boys. By the way, Talibe is pronounced: tal-ee-bay, just so you know. When we arrived in Yoff, we sponge bathed the boys, cleaning them from head to toe. After they were clean, we applied ointment to every place on their bodies, save their faces. We then gave them their first weekly dosage of 5 pills. After their pills, they received their new clothes...even underwear, which was a novel idea to most of them. The scabies looked pretty bad...and it was sad. But, the boys were quite happy when they realized that they were no longer sore and itchy. They smiled and chased us, laughing, back out of their neighborhood as we drove away. When we arrived back here in Grand Yoff, we began to prepare dinner, spaghetti with meat sauce. It was excellent. Dinner was done about twenty minutes before the other part of the team returned. I suppose I should give you some idea of how they spent their day.... Andrew, Chris, Ryan, Travis, Meg, and Rachel all traveled to Kayar. This is a compound where a friend, whom we gave an American name to last year, lives. His name is John Wayne. He is a very nice man. The team went there to help build his new house. They expected to arrive and to see a mason. They saw no mason, and good thing too. There was no way a mason could've done anything. There were gigantic weeds overrunning everything. It is my understanding that the day was spent digging weeds out, eating some Ceebu Jen, drinking some attaya, and playing drums and dancing. John Wayne was quite thankful for the assistance with his weeds. I believe we will be going back to his compound sometime before we leave here. So, the team rejoined for dinner in Grand Yoff. The spaghetti was great, and the renewed fellowship was even better. Great for a practice separation, but nowhere near the length of our upcoming one. The team will be split Saturday morning...and not reunited until the following Friday. It is sure to be difficult, but wonderful. Today. Today was good. Today, daffa neex na. We started the day again with baguettes and chocolate. We were together again for the majority of today...and it was nice...very nice. We had a meeting time this morning, after breakfast, and then we left at approximately 10am. We arrived at Malika, a drum-making shop/compound north of Dakar, at about 11. When we arrived, we had a tour of the compound, which was quite large and beautiful. We were there primarily to help move and spread out a pile/mountain of dirt. Problem was, we couldn't find the shovels. So, one of the workers was sent after them. The lady that runs the place is from Holland, she was very cool. We looked at some of the drums, several on our team will be buying one. Soon enough, shovels were found. The 5 guys from our team and David moved immediately to the mountain and began to move it. We probably began about 11:30am. The 6 girls from our team...were given some drinks...and then shown to the pool. After the drinks, the Dutch lady said to them, "Okayyy, now it is time to swim!" The girls objected, "Oh, we can't we didn't bring any suits." The reply was more than immediate, "Oh, do not worry, I have some! Wait a moment." The Dutch lady then disappeared and reappeared very quickly. On her reappearance, she was accompanied by a massive wad of swimsuits. She threw them on the floor and commanded that the girls find one for themselves. So..somewhat reluctantly (or so we've been told), the girls obliged her. They swam...and tanned...and talked...and drank lemonade...and swam some more. Meanwhile...the guys moved a pile of dirt...and rocks...with old, broken, beat-up shovels. Lunch was to be served at 1:30pm. The men stopped working at 1:45 or 2:00. By this time the girls were out of the pool and were merely lounging around in the shade. We joined them and relaxed our aching bodies. Some of us even got to dip our feet into the pool. It was joyous relief from our labors. At approximately 2:15, lunch was served. It was Ceebu Yap, common bowl, rice, veggies, and lamb. It was pretty good. Some of us even tried snail. A couple even liked it...I thought it tasted like catfish bait. After lunch we ordered drums. Then, we split again. Chris, Erin, Kesha, and I left with Patty to attend to the Talibes again. The rest of the team remained at Malika. Patty stopped by her house, where she was switched out with Cal. We then continued with Cal to Yoff, to the Talibes. We once again washed them from head to toe, and applied the ointment in like manner. I'm quite certain that we washed many more than 5 boys...but we didn't mind...they all needed baths anyways. When we had finished with the Talibes, we headed back to Grand Yoff. We happened to arrive at the same time as the others. Andrew, Ryan, Travis, Brea, Chelsea, Meg, and Rachel remained at Malika with David and Cheryl when we left. After ordering their drums, they played some soccer, some volleyball, swam, drank attaya..., and ate lemons...massive lemons. From what I hear, it was a very fun and relaxing afternoon. When we all met back up at Grand Yoff, we had a dinner of leftovers. Ever since then, it has been quiet. Quiet reading..some phone calls, some cards. Very lethargic activities. It is now 9:50 and I believe that there may already be several people in bed...I am heading there shortly. We are all quite exhausted after a long day in the sun. Please continue with your prayers, that we would stay focused, stay united, stay smiling. Pray that God will use us as moons, to reflect his light on the Lebou, the Lehar, and the Manjack. Thank you all and God bless.

Here is Cal with some of the Talibe boys (the one in the far back left in the navy shirt and blue jeans is one of the ones we had cleaned, medicated, and given new clothes to)