Saturday 8:27 pm and tomorrow we leave for the village for a few days. Will be back on Wednesday so no blogs until then.

Today is another wonderful day in Senegal.

Went to the center this morning to play with the kids and just have fun. Our little Ackmed was back and smiling from ear to ear. He just has fun with anything he does.

We then came home for lunch and a short nap, when Peggy heard a small knock on our door. It was the distinguished gentleman named: Douaada Fall from down the street who had come for some conversational Wolof/English.  He is very good with his Wolof and his ability to teach me the correct pronunciation. When he left after about an hour, he said he was "very content" because he had American friends now. We exchanged addresses and I think he will try to stay in touch when we leave.

After he had left, Peggy and I were sitting on our front porch and 2 of our little regular talibe boys came by. They asked for a drink and we gave them each a piece of bread and a banana. One little boy ate his right away, but the other was saving his banana for some reason. Well, then we were trying to have a conversation with them so we started pointing out some stuff and telling them the English names and they caught on right away. They began repeating our English and then they would tell me the Wolof names. It was quite fun to see how excited they were to speak a little English.

Fourth of July is coming up, and

 

all the local missionaries are going to a local hotel for the afternoon. Going to have an old fashioned hot dog roast and enjoy their pool and the beach. Should be relaxing and fun.

Will have a new arrival when we get back. A young girl from the states is coming for a month to be with Amy. She feels God is calling her to Africa, so we pray this will be the experience she needs to help her find her calling. If I had to choose a place to come for a mission trip, Senegal would be on the top of my list. You can truly come here and taste the lifestyle and see the people and feel the culture and really enjoy being here. No fears and lots of hospitality, and enough comforts that you do not dread being here or wish you could leave. I guess you can say, it would be an easy place to live.

My new friend, Douaada Faal


Well, good night and God Bless....till Wednesday

Ken and Peggy

Wednesday  June 26, 2013


Went to the hardware booth to buy a few items for the village this wk-end.   Had a good visit as usual.  

Today at the center we had a really  FUN, relaxed time with the kiddos.   Some were taking tests so there were not as many as normal.   We were able to do some crafts/games that require smaller groups so that was GREAT !!    Got a few good pictures of the kids with crafts and games !

Headed to the A/G elementaire school for the end of school party for this year.   WOW !!!!  What a production and they were on African time... haha    Was to start at 4 pm and got started little after 
5 pm .    This is what they do.     Got some really  GREAT pictures of the parents, staff and children.  Some were dressed UP and some were just casual.   Knew you would enjoy seeing all the  "different" scenes.     They asked Mr. McGowen and Madame McGowen to hand out a present to 2 of the children. 

Really broke Peggy's heart that there were a lot of the Talabe boys in trees just "watching" and some of them actually came into the school and watched and watched...... just want to be a part !!!
They do not get to go to the public schools (most of them)  as it cost money.   We were sure glad that the school did not make them go out or leave, as they were sooo enjoying all the activities and they were so respectful of the event.

While posting the blog.... door bell rang, got up and there was one sweet little boy asking for a drink, so we gave him a glass of water and it was gone faster than you could blink !!!    GOD BLESS these precious children !!!   Give a cup of water, hug, smile, kind word, banana in HIS name !!! 
 Mark 9:41

 Putting together an airplane !

 She needed help with the boat she was gluing   :)

 Nelson & Mytia school provided clothes to match !

 "The Director" of the school.... he calls us Father & Mother and he is our "SON" !!  Greets us ea. time like this !    :)

 Parent of a child

 Talabe in the tree watching   (:

 Youngest class... they were dancing to the music !

 Bashful girl taking her gift from the white man !

 My presentation ....

This "little" girl came right up to Ken, got in his lap and stayed the whole time with him, after he came back to his seat from presentation, she got back in his lap !!   :)  He is sooo sweet, everyone LOVES him !!!   

June 25, 2013

One month from tomorrow we will be leaving Dakar headed back to US...... our time here has
been incredible.

Today we headed to the Atlantic Old Market with Nelson and Mytia to get some eggs, and get their clothes for the school party tomorrow afternoon.   Nelson helped me buy 30 eggs.... sounds like a lot
but we will take some to the Village and eggs here are not refrigerated so they should travel ok.
We were expecting mail and so we went with Nelson to get mail and they let us in and got our package, without a key or Amy.    Texted Amy and told her and she said:  "Do you have Bryan's key?" and my reply was..... no I have Nelson..... this guy is like "magic".

I have met a gentleman that cleans the streets here in St. Louis that I have a fun relationship with, as we speak ea. day I see him and he reminds me of my grandpa from LA.   Sweet man, hard worker and really smiles each time we shake hands and talk (limited of course).   Peggy got our picture today and yesterday we gave him a  7 up as it was so HOT out and today we gave him our ice water, wow
that sure put a SMILE on his face.   So appreciative with such small things.

Then we went to visit DouDOU and he was happy to see us and then on to the hardware friend, Pap
and we took him a  7 up and he just thanked and thanked us,  this is truly a treat for them as most of them just drink nescafe.

Peggy went with Amy to find some material for a project but came back empty-handed !   Not good for 2 girls out shopping.  

Tomorrow after the center we will be attending the A/G end of school party and there will be pictures to follow,  Amy is going as school photographer...haha  but truly she does take great photos.

If you could have been a "fly-on-the-wall" today to see the MESS ( I do mean MESS) that Peggy created in less than 10 min. in the kitchen !!!!  Only her !    I'm working on a guitar for the Pastor in the living area and Peggy comes in and says:  "don't  get mad... just please come help me.. I really need help"    I go into the kitchen and there is POPCORN  EVERYWHERE !!!  Floor, counter, pan, under the counter in the egg carton.... everywhere !!!  She was supposed to pop 5 bags of popcorn for the school party and I thought she could handle that on her own..... WRONG !!!!   She had let it cool for only  5 min. and then put it in a black, clean garbage bag to transport and it burned a hole in the bag and she picked it up and there it went !!!!   So I start sweeping, eating and picking up popcorn and in walks Amy.... she laughed and said "WOW .. what happened".....  How do you explain something like that ???    Like I always say:   "She cannot be left unsupervised" 
She was successful in getting it all done and no fires   PTL for that !

Never a  DULL  Moment with Peggy !

GOD BLESS
Ken     Popcorn Peggy

Monday night, 9:26 pm and all is well.

Had a very successful day today. Went to Pastor Omer's house today to finish up the electrical in his living room and what do you know. Since we had been there last, he had his kitchen walls built so I was able to run electrical for that room also. In Africa, they do not have a lot of kitchen gadgets so Pastor said he did not need a plug in the room, just a light.

Pastor and Marmadou helped me a lot with some manual labor and Marmadou helped me pull wire. Just a few more loose ends on stuff the previous electrician had done and then I should be through and Pastor can complete his plastering of the walls.

When we got through Pastor had a surprise for us. He had bought some pork ribs and meat and had baked it for us and it was delicious. Pastor loves pork and there is a lot of pork in the Ivory Coast were he comes from, but here in St. Louis, being Muslim, there is no pork. There is a lady that calls Pastor whenever she has pork and he gets it from her. He said maybe once a year at the most. Marmadou, the young man that accepted Christ last December, had been a Muslim and has never eaten pork until today. He said it was very good...I could have told him that. hahah   Peggy still wants to bring Marmadou home with her !

I then came home for lunch and a short nap, then we went back to the church for the weekly football (soccer) match between the pastors and missionaries versus the school director and his teachers. The school won today and have the coveted silver trophy...(Painted coke bottle) but you would have thought it was real silver the way the winners carried on.  Pastor's son, Itito, was upset that they didn't win and he threw himself on the ground and carried on.  He is such a clown.

I guess you can add copier repairman to my resume'.  Bryan had an older copier that was giving an error code and wouldn't work. So I tore into it and found what I thought might be the problem and I was able to go online and find out how to clear the code and now it works...God works in mysterious ways for his children.  I am thankful it was an easy fix.

A few pictures of today's activities and tomorrow we are off to the market with Nelson and Miate then Wednesday we have a big day planned at the center and the end of school party at the church school..

Goodnight, all

Ken and Peggy


                                                                     New kitchen
                                                        

                                         My helpers

 

                                   Roast pork lunch

 Coveted "Leer Gi Silver cup"

 Poor Itito

 Old people shouldn't play soccer

                                                             The winners

 

Marmadou tastes pork

 

Sunday June 23, 2013

Hello from St. Louis:

      We had a visit today from the sweet Pastor and wife and Attito after church.  Such sweet, Godly
people and we sure do love them.    Ken is planning on going tomorrow and working again at their
house to put some more elec. in, hopefully in the kitchen !  PTL

Nelson & Mytia came here for lunch after church and we all enjoyed out time together, chicken
tacos, rice, black beans, tea and cake.      Then taught them the game "wizard"   Mytia sure does
like games !!!    Good time together..... we have adopted them !  :)

Then Bible Study at 5pm and we had 8 ladies.   Such laughter from them but I am amazed and
enjoy so much hearing them pray.   They do not pray for 5-6 min.  they PRAY !!!!!  I was BLESSED
to be there with them.  Gave our testimony.  My 2 scriptures for the ladies : Numbers 6:24-26 and II Corinthians 4: 16-18.   To GOD be the Glory .   While we were all in our room, little Ahmed came in and he sat with me and ate some popcorn..... this is the little fellow that I'm bringing home with me in my suit case !!!  Such a little sweetie !!!

Home for our walk..... the 3 older ladies were out and we talked some and they sure like to shake
hands..... ha ha  :)   One of them said  "Na nga def?"  to me and I answered them correctly  "Maa ngi fi rekk. and
they got so  :)  happy, as usually Ken is the one..... I always pronounce things the TX. way
and it is wrong !   (:     They just kept laughing and shaking my hand.    :)   FINALLY  I said it
right !!

Some of the pictures are out of focus but I assured Ken it is OK.... out of focus pictures are better
than  NO  pictures...... harder now to get pictures.    Some people see the camera and say "NO PHOTO" !  We have to respect them.

Watched Father Knows Best on dvd for awhile and laughed..... such Great, Old Family movies.

Blessed again to be in St. Louis !
God Bless you all !
Ken     Peggy 

 View across the river   drum players in the market

 

Little Akmed

Local lady and her baby

Sunday morning, 7:25 and it is a cool and breezy 77 degrees here in St. Louis.

Had an interesting day yesterday. I spent a lot of my time studying Wolof, again.
A distinguished gentleman stopped by a few days ago and we struck up a conversation, him with his limited English and me with my limited Wolof. Come to find out, he is a local businessman and actually knows the man who wrote our Wolof book.

Well, yesterday he stopped and sat down on the porch with me and asked to see my Wolof book. Peggy went and got my book, and I guess for an hour or more he and I had Wolof/English class. He was quite good as a teacher, very patient and would repeat the words until I understood them. People were walking by and would speak to him and he would smile and respond like we are doing a good thing here. One gentleman who spoke broken English told me,,"You want to learn Wolof, you come and talk to people in their homes" which is very true, practice, practice, practice.

Then, if that wasn't enough, last night after Peggy and I got back from our evening walk, our Senegalese electrician walked by and I motioned for him to stop. I had seen him earlier in the day because we were still having electrical problems and Bryan called and had him come by. It is so funny, we were outside when he walked up and when I explained the electricity would go off then on, off then on, he was as serious as could be and asked "why?". Well Peggy burst out laughing and told him "That was why we called you", and I think he understood.

Anyway, he stopped and sat down and we tried to have a conversation. I got my Wolof book and he and I had another class for an hour. He would speak English and then slip into Wolof and I told him, no, he has to speak English and I would speak Wolof. It was a very enjoyable experience and when he left he said "Sama Xarit", my friend..We shared a cup of coffee and cake and I think he was happy.

We had a few street boys stop by earlier in the day and we gave them "Tampico", a fruit drink and I guess they were famished because they guzzled it down. We like to keep drinks on hand to give to them, but a lot of time we just give them water, which they really need. One little boy came up after we had given all the drinks we had and I had to tell him no, we had no more.  But Peggy and I have noticed they always share what they have with those who don't have. More times than not, we will see them eating out of a can or bowl on the street and another will come up with nothing, and they always share what they have. I told Peggy, they are all in the same condition and I think they look out for each other that way. So the 2 boys we had given the drink to, squeezed out about a mouthful into the other boy's empty cup.

We walked down to the river at dusk to enjoy the cool breeze and sunset. We saw several of our neighborhood boys fishing in the river and one of them showed off his catch. Everyone fished with just a line and a hook and weights and throw it in the river. When they feel a nibble, they jerk the line and hopefully snag a fish. Peggy asked me would they keep the fish because it was so little and I told her a lot of little fish make a big meal...

Peggy has her devotional tonight at church so pray she does well..

See you all at end of July,

Ken and Peggy

 

                                                                   Gentleman teacher

 

 Mama and Rama our local little girls who come down to sit in Ken's lap

 Neighborhood family

 Street boys

 

Little fisherman

Friday morning, 5:00 and I hear Muslim chanting and singing.

Here is a recap from my last blog concerning the broken washing machine.
The fuse was blown for a reason, the control panel had a varistor (a very small inexpensive electronic part) that had gone bad. Now if I were home, I would order a new one, put it in and be done. But since I am not, I went online to find parts for this washer. Dead end all the way around. Found NOTHING online about this machine. So, I took out the control panel and took it to Missionary Bryan and he said, "Sure, I have a guy that can fix that". Now imagine, in Africa there is a little man in his little shop with electronic parts that can fix this thing. Sure enough, Bryan  brought the panel back yesterday and I put it back in and it is fixed. I failed to mention, this part is not intended to be replaceable by the manufacturer but the man did it. Praise the Lord for miracles....

We had our Thursday meal at Bryan and Laura's house and it was delicious, again. Bryan gave a devotion on Lot and he pointed out that Lot's lifestyle went from living with Abraham, living outside Sodom, living in Sodom, sitting in the gates in Sodom. So when Lot tried to warn his in-laws about the destruction that was coming, they thought he was joking. Why, because Lot's lifestyle had changed and his testimony had become unbelievable, because Lot had become as the Sodomites.
We have to be careful that our testimony and our lifestyle stay consistent with our actions and who we claim to be.

Last night, we had another enjoyable night at Laura's conversational English class. Our subject was "directions" and we had to help explain how to give directions in English. Think about it, in our culture we say "go down the road or go up the road" both meaning the same thing. Then we talked about reading a map, north south east west, right left backward forward....get the picture. I think my group did great.

Well, another beautiful cool day is dawning. Can't wait to see what is in store for us today.

Love and thanks for all your prayers,

Ken and Peggy

Wednesday night, 9:27

Made it home (St. Louis, Senegal) from Dakar yesterday. It was a 4 hour trip and lots of traffic, again. Peggy did OK with the ride, but was oh so thankful to be home and able to lie down. She is doing a lot better today since she has stayed in and rested. Thanks to all for the prayers.

We actually saw 2 wild camels coming home in the desert. They are around, but you don't see them that much. Also, going to Dakar last week, we saw three monkeys on side of the road.

While in Dakar with thousands of people on the streets, we were driving along, downtown, and someone said, "That looks like Pastor Omer and Marmadou'". Well sure enough it was them. We were on our way to eat, so we asked them to join us which they did. They had been in Dakar for 2 days trying to get little Marmadou's paperwork so he could graduate from his nursing classes. Realize that little Marmadou is 6' tall, but to Peggy, he is "Little" Marmadou.

Well, it was quite an adventure when we got in last night. The power was off, except 1 plug was working. We thought it was (Senecal) the local utility with the problem. Amy called an electrician, and out he came. He was able to trace the problem to 2 underground circuits, one fed half of Amy's apartment and the other fed the upstairs apartment. They were both burnt in two, under the slab. Amy asked him to stay and fix it and he stayed till 10:30. He did a really good job on the repairs and I was able to loan him my meter to check the power. He said he would have had to go and try to buy a meter if I hadn't had mine here. Anyway, we lost all our meat in the freezer but God was so good, we had brought back another supply from our shopping in Dakar so I will still have my meat,,praise the Lord.

Then this morning, Peggy was trying to wash a load of clothes and the machine would not run. I was able to trace the problem to a blown fuse (probably from the power going off and on) and I was off to find a miniature 5amp fuse in Africa....but again,,,my local hardware guy said "No, Problem I will have you one in the morning" so am praying that fixes the problem. Again, when we face problems like this back home, you can always find the parts but over here it is harder to do. Just something else to put on our prayer lists for our missionaries because a lot of their budgets just don't have funds for unexpected things...but God is able.

Peggy and I took our evening walk around the block, just so she could get out and it helps her back when she walks. We went down to the river and I told Peggy to look at the middle of the river. There was a large boat with 4 little boys in it and one was bailing water as fast as he could and the others were trying to push it to shore. Well, the water won out, and they all abandoned ship but were able to push it to shore with one boy bailing, and the other 3 pushing. It was funny in a way, but also incredible that they didn't give up.

We went a different way home, and there were some men pouring concrete (one bucket at a time) on a roof of a local house. One of the men motioned for us to come down, and he began to talk to us. Again our limited conversation kept us there for a while. One thing I did understand from him was , it is hot in Africa and the work is hard. While I was talking to the men, Peggy yelled at me and told me she was talking "Grandma" with the lady from the house. She had 2 of her grandkids outside and she introduced them to us and then she called her daughter to come outside. Well, let me tell you, her name was Mary and she works at the tourism office and could speak somewhat good English, better than our French and Wolof. She asked where we were from and we said Texas. She told us that as a little girl, she watched "Dallas" on TV and any chance she gets, she looks at pictures of Dallas. You could tell she would love to be able to visit some day. When we left, she asked us to come back to visit again inside her home and we plan to do that before we leave.

One thing about traveling in Senegal, the police will stop you for any reason at any time and so coming back to St.Louis, our truck was loaded down like the Beverly Hillbillies, and sure enough in Dakar they pulled us over. All he did this time was check for insurance, made sure we were who we were and asked Amy to marry him since she was the only single person in the truck. She declined.

Well, God is so faithful to us and Peggy is giving her testimony Sunday night, with a translator, so pray for her that she speaks     s l o w l y     and they understand her heart.

Love and prayers to all,

Ken and Peggy

 Scarf tying lessons from a Missionary friend Jenni, from Mali...

 Voila! Two African beauties....

 

 

Tuesday morning, and we should be heading back to St.Louis, if Peggy is up to riding.
Her back has been giving her lots of problems so I took her to an Osteopath yesterday and he treated her, but now she is very sick with intestinal problems. Pray she gets better as it is no fun being sick especially this far from home.

Did some grocery shopping yesterday and generally just lolled around,,same on Sunday.

Sunday we went to a local hotel on the coast and enjoyed the view. If you didn't know you were in Senegal, you would have thought you were on some tropical island.

Found a great ice cream shop, with tons of flavors and it was delicious. I believe it is made in the shop judging from the assortment.

Not much else to report...keep Peggy and me in your prayers.

Ken and Peggy