Working in Rufisque

We also had an opportunity to work with a small church in Rufisque, Senegal. They are building a wall to define their property line so we went to help make bricks. The first day I worked for about 4 hours.

Here are the bricks baking in the sun, notice the kids in the background.


We didn't get to make bricks the whole time so we cleaned up the church property. After working for awhile I drew the attention of some kids. And after an hour I had an Army.


It started with six or seven kids and before we knew there were 40. They followed us everywhere.


On the second day we did some more cleaning but mostly we played with the neighborhood children.


We did do some work but it was a lot of fun.


Then it was back to more games.

Fun in Senegal

We also got to have some fun in Senegal. We visited Snake Island, an island 5 miles off the coast of of Dakar.


A shot of the group on Snake Island.


The Saturday before we left we went to Bandia Reserve, a animal park 50 km away from Dakar. The ostrich pictured below hassled us for 10 minutes. I'm glad it did.


Your basic water buffalo. (note: author is not actually sure this is a water buffalo)


A Red-billed hornbill.


"Look Ma, I'm in Africa!"

The Talibe

In Arabic talibe means “one who seeks and asks” in Senegal it also has another meaning. It is the word that represents young boys who are given to an Islamic leader, a marabout, by their parents for a Koranic education. Once in the care of a marabout these boys are taught humility through begging and people who give are upholding one of the five pillars of Islam, Zakat or the giving of alms. Unfortunately the talibe boys end up begging for 10 or more during the day. If they do not bring back enough money the are then beaten. If you are interested you can read more here and here.

We had a chance to work with a group of Talibe. We cleaned them, medicated their wounds (most are infected with scabies) and then gave them clothes that we brought with us. These young children are the only people I saw while visiting Senegal that are truely impoverished, yet there spirit was not broken. It was a blessing to be able to work for them.

Here are two talibe with some new clothes (note the T-shirt of the boy on the right)


And another group.

Lahar, Senegal

Our second day in Senegal we went to a small village in Lahar. Being our first outing and the first group to go to Lahar we had no idea what to expect. All we knew was that life in the village is very relaxed. When we arrived we where introduced to the Chief of the village. We learned a little about the village, there are about 1,000 people in it, they harvest peanuts, and the kids go to school from nine to noon then from three to five. Knowing that we where Christians he made a point that Christians and Muslims in his village live together peacefully. When he found out that Megan and I were recently married he said he will pray that we are blessed with many children and many boys...I said that hopefully not too many :)

Here is the entrance to the village


This is a baobab three. These beautiful trees are all over Senegal.


Here is the primary school. Our guide Papa translated for us.


Here we are with the Chief, his son and his many grandchildren.

Dakar, Senegal Day 1

We arrived in Senegal at 0630 local time. After an 8.5 hour flight we were pretty exhausted. The first thing we did was go to a boutique and order a baguette and some jelly. There are very few grocery store in Dakar. Instead, there are boutiques everywhere. Within 1/8 mile from where we were staying there were at least 3 of them.



We stayed at a guest house the first 2 days while in Senegal. It was a beautiful place right next to the ocean.

The first Senegal meal we had was Ceebu Jen which means rice and fish. It was exquisite.

What's the point?

Megan and I will be moving to Pohnpei, Micronesia in August 2007 and our hope is that this can be a forum in which you can all keep up with what we're doing. In return you can comment on our adventures and pray for us as we explore another culture. Additionally this will serve as a journal so we can look back and see how we've changed, struggled, grown, ... etc. we will keep in touch with ourselves.

So the point is to keep in touch!