Note to self: Do not plug a 120 volt hair clipper into 230 volts. You will hear 2 distinctive "pops", the one from the clipper and the one upside your head from the wife who is holding the clipper! Ouch! Guess I will do the shaggy look for the next 3 months unless I can find a good barber. Not ready to trust Peggy with scissors yet.
Took a long tour of the school across the street at the invitation of the Master of the School. I was in his office waiting for Peggy to come over and about 15 minutes of waiting I decide to go look for her. Nowhere to be found. Then she appears. She said she was hijacked to go to all the classrooms, but I think since she had the green light to tour, she took off. By the time I found her, I believe she had made every class and had loved ever child.
We were very impressed and sad at the condition of the school. The Master, after our tour, asked if we would bring letters back home for anyone who would like to "sponsor" the school. So many children, many sitting 3 to a desk designed for 2, classrooms with 60 kids, limited supplies...you get the picture. They try to feed the very little kids, 4 and 5 year olds, breakfast at 10:00am each day, but today their pantry was empty. Most of the kids come hungry to school and will have no meal.
I will say, there was much happiness and a lot of learning going on,,kids are very amazing! They even try to open the school up the the Talibe' or street kids, and they have a few that come.
I was adventurous this morning, and went out to by fruit and bread. The fruit vendor did not speak English and I do not speak French, so I don't know what I paid till I got home and counted my money and did some quick math. I think it turned out I paid 5.39 for 4 oranges and a grapefruit, not bad I would say when your wife wants fruit..
We made it over to the Muslim prayer time at the Mosque (outside) since Friday is a Holy Day and seeing the sea of men and boys, the only thing that I could think of was the scripture "Train up a child in the ways of the Lord, and when they are old they will not depart from it". We as Christian men must be training future Christians as the Muslims are doing their part...so many boys there, on there own, no man or dad but someone had trained them.
Peggy got us cornered downtown by wearing one of her beautiful "African" dresses she bought even though it says "Aloha" on the skirt by 2 Senegales men who stopped her and commented on the beauty of the dress and how it looked so "African". We had a good conversation for they both spoke somewhat good English and we got a quick course of the Wolof language. We also learned they were brothers, both fishermen and how Senegal got it's name, and that we have an African President named Obama...That last tidbit we already knew, but they were proud of it.
After a while, the big pitch came, as one of them asked if we would buy him some milk for his family as they had some rice but no milk.
Went to the Community Center and worked on a few projects. Have to try to find some screws in town tomorrow to fix some windows. I did the best to bring what I thought I would need but have come up short on a few items I will try to find here..Everything here is concrete and hard to drill without a hammer drill, but I am sure I will make do.
Tomorrow we will help out at the Center with the kids, and then try to complete a few more projects. Note to self: there are BIG spiders in Senegal, bigger than a Texas tarantula.
If you remember the little girl who we pictured that was wearing the pretty "Princess" ring from our Ashley, well she came by the center today with her dad and when I told her Madame Peggy was inside, she took off and gave her a big hug and a big happy smile. So rewarding that she remembers us.
Saw some boys taking home "dinner" tonight from Colonel Sanders Live Chicken establishment (just kidding) I don't remember the name of the place they sell the chickens but it is only a few doors down from us, but they were alive and they were heading home. It is safe to assume, not as pets.
Well, I do have some words of warning...do not accept 2 free gifts from the street vendor selling his wares, as it will cost you $20.00 for the $2.00 item you end up buying....live and learn.
Au Revoir from Senegal
Karim and Penda
Stay safe you guys! Glad you're having fun in Senegal!
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