Wednesday the 15th , and there is a LOT of activity outside and it is NOISY.. The Jazz festival is starting today and going through Sunday and the people and traffic will be horrible.  Right now there is recorded Islam chanting going on outside and it sounds terrible.

Had a day of firsts today. Woke up at 5:00 am and started my day a little under the weather. Having a cough and congestion, nothing serious and it is really my semi-annual crud I get in the states every May and October, so say a little prayer for me.
We thought we had packed all our meds for this stuff, but I guess we didn't but PTL I have some liquid cough and congestion medicine which is really helping. Will get a good night's sleep tonight and claiming complete healing in the morning.

Our host had to make a quick trip to Dakar so Peggy and I were on our own to get to Wolof lessons and the community center for the little kids day.
It was a piece of cake, all you have to do is stand outside and flag down one of the hundreds of taxis that go by and hop in. I had a landmark (Muslim mosque) on the mainland and I just told him the name and off we go. Very little traffic this morning so we got there rather quickly. Peggy hopped in the back seat and she immediately started playing charades with me in the front. The best I could make out is she was gagging for air because, let's just say the back seat reeked of everything imaginable. I told her I was quite comfortable in the front. When we left the center after lessons, we had to walk to the main street and try to flag down a taxi but all of them seemed to have people in them. No problem for Senegal, because one stopped and we hopped in even though there were 2 other men in the back. I let Peggy get in the front this time and off we go for home. Made it with no problems. I rather enjoy the taxi rides because they are used to this traffic and handle it quite well. Peggy prefers walking or driving.


Our Wolof teacher showed up and we had our 3rd class. Today was a little more difficult and he asked Myte' to interpret his French into our English and we had good success. We find it better for us if we force him to explain as best he can in English but it is harder for him. I am enclosing pictures of the blackboard with our lesson on it. If anyone knows Wolof, email me and tell me what it says we will be quizzed tomorrow. I think we will both be glad when Friday gets here and that will end our lesson.

Went back to the center after lunch and played with the kiddos and helped with crafts and played basketball with the boys.

While at the center I took a picture of the 2 electrical meters, 1 feeding a home above the center and the other feeds the center. You may not be able to see it, but there is only 1 set of wires feeding each building and it is small wire. So everything in that house comes off one breaker. It is a miracle anything works over here and there aren't more fires, but then again everything is cement.
The other picture is of a telephone lineman, notice the climbing gear and the tennis shoes. I tried to explain I did that as a job, but he didn't understand English.

Last night Amy invited Pastor Omer and his wife over for supper. I had brought some gumbo mix from the states and I made chicken gumbo. Needless to say, neither one had ever had gumbo but his wife really liked it. It was funny too, we had iced tea and they never drink iced tea but all their tea is hot and SWEET and served in a shot glass. We had some Sunday at the church and it is really strong. I liked it but I don't think I could drink a lot of it. They cook it right on the streets over here and everyone drinks it. We also served some bread with the meal and Pastor Omer said this is the first time he has ever eaten bread with rice.

After supper, we showed Pastor and his wife pictures off my computer of MAPS projects, our family pictures and other stuff. They do not understand why we only had 1 child and it was hard to explain the concept to him.  He and I then had a mini English/Wolof class but there are so many variations of Wolof spoken, he did not know some of what we are being taught.

Tomorrow will be another lesson day, as well as lunch with Bryan and Laura and a devotion.

Today the water was off again on again and there is no apparent reason behind it but it hasn't been an inconvenience at all.

Till tomorrow,
Fanaanal ak ja'mm or Yendul ak ja'mm, depending on when you read this.

Ken and Peggy