Lompoul Dunes

     One of the places that I wanted to visit while in Senegal was Lompoul Dunes (Desert).  With only three weeks left in this country, plans were made to go to the dunes with Amanda and Lindy, my journeyman friends in Dakar.  I traveled to Dakar on Friday morning.  That afternoon the three of us were off on the 150 km drive to the dunes.  We parked our truck at Lompoul Village where we loaded up on another truck to head to our encampment.

     Since I have never slept in a tent before and I'm sick of sand, you might wonder why I decided to go to Lompoul Dunes.  I had started wondering that myself but I managed to convince myself that this was going to be a memorable adventure.  After about a 20 minute ride out in the middle of nowhere, we arrived at our encampment.

Our tent

At least we had beds 

Our bathroom was behind the grass walls

Shower

Toilet 

     As you can see, the bathroom was a little rustic.  The desert is actually pretty cool in the evenings and mornings so we were never hot.  Thus, we did not sweat.  Thus, I decided not to try out the shower.  The toilet, on the other hand, was a necessity.  As you can see, it was a porcelain toilet (thankfully not a squatty potty).  However, it was sitting over a hole in the ground.  The bucket was for filling with water to pour into the toilet after each use to "flush" the toilet.  This was the height of luxury since they even provided us with toilet paper.

     After stowing our stuff in the tent, we headed out to "surf" the dunes.  That is to say, Lindy and Amanda were going to surf the dunes; I was going to be the photographer.  Surfing the dunes was not quite what we were expecting.  The boards would go a little ways and then just sink into the sand.  At least I was able to do my job and take pictures of the action.

     Around 7:45 pm we headed to the tent where we were to eat our dinner.  They had set up mats outside the tent with appetizers on them for all of us (there were four French couples there as well as us).  We had peanuts, chips, and olives to eat and a pitcher of some fruit drink that looked a little like lemonade.  Well, I quickly discovered that it wasn't lemonade.  It had quite a kick to it (if you know what I mean).  When our hosts discovered we weren't drinking it, they offered us something else to drink.  We shared our pitcher with the French couples who were quite delighted to drink it for us.  Shortly after 8:00 we went inside the tent to eat our supper.  The first course was a delicious soup.  It was followed up with couscous, sauce, and beef.  Dessert was some fruit.  We were pretty tired and wanted to go to our tent but we had to hang around for the bonfire and after dinner entertainment.  Finally, around 10:00 we made our way to the tent and into bed.

Appetizers

Bonfire

Entertainment

 

    In spite of it being pretty cold outside, we were quite snug in our tent.  There were no sounds except the birds and wind which made for a wonderful night's sleep under the warm comforter.  Amanda and I decided to get up around 6:30 am on Saturday to go see the sunrise over the dunes.  It was so quiet and peaceful sitting there waiting for the sun to rise.  I sat there meditating on God's beautiful creation that I was able to enjoy.

Sunrise

     We had our breakfast around 8:00 am.  It consisted of bread, jam, juice (without the kick), and your choice of hot tea or coffee.  

     After breakfast we decided to take a camel ride in the desert.  My first (and I thought my last) experience riding a camel left me pretty sore so I was a little hesitant to ride one again.  Amanda and Lindy talked me into going with them, though.  It wasn't bad at all so now I can say I've ridden a camel across the desert.  Well, that may be a slight exaggeration since we only rode for 30 minutes and our guide walked in front of the camels.  

     Though Lompoul Dunes is not the Sahara Desert, it is very close to what the Sahara looks like.  It was not quite what I expected but it was still beautiful and a lot of fun.

Prayerwalking

Fatick

     This morning I decided to go to the market to check the mail and buy some bananas.  Instead of riding the horse cart, though, I chose to walk.  It afforded me a great opportunity to prayer walk as I was going.  I do this often as well when I ride the horse cart.  My first prayer was that of thanksgiving.  I'm so thankful that God gave me the privilege of living in Fatick, working with wonderful teammates, and meeting these beautiful people.  Join with me in my walk to see through my eyes all that was a part of my prayer walk.

Students walking to school

Woman selling bread at her boutique

Woman headed to market to buy food for her lunch

Man delivering water to homes without water

Construction of new market building

One of my friends in the market who sells fabric

Talibe boys

Talibe boy begging

    Talibe boys are given by their families to a maribou.  They live in poor conditions in single rooms packed full.  They rise around 5:30 in the mornings to pray and then are taught by the maribou.  Around 7:00 the will leave to walk the streets to beg.  Any money and rice that they are given must be brought back to the maribou.   

Mosque

    The country of Senegal is over 95% Muslim

Ladies shopping in the market

My tailor's helper

My tailor

     




















     After returning to my home, I began to think.  Why is it we think of prayer walking mostly in other countries?  Is this not something that can be done by all of us no matter where we live?  I'm currently living in a country where many people are following another god and do not know Jesus as their Savior.  This can be said even back in my home town; many people are following other gods.  When I leave Senegal in a few weeks, I will continue to pray for these people even though I can no longer prayer walk here.  However, that doesn't mean I need to stop prayer walking.  The same could be said for all of us.  Think about all the places where you and I walk every day:  stores, parking lots, our jobs, schools, ball parks, etc.  I plan to continue to prayer walk.  Will you join me?

Parties

   

Birthday girl

     It looks like May is going to be a party month.  We actually started the partying on April 30th by going to one of our friend's home to help her celebrate her birthday.  She and her sister are good friends of ours and have been to visit us in our home many times.  Celebrating birthdays is not very common in the Senegalese culture.  Jourdan helped to make it special by baking a birthday cake.  Since many friends were busy with school activities, it was just Jourdan and I along with some of her family who helped to make her birthday special.  We were served something to drink as well as fish fatayas before we had the cake.  One of the sisters played some music on her phone and did a little dancing.

Even the youngest sister joined the dancing

     After the dancing it was time to take some pictures and eat some cake.

          The two oldest girls are very busy right now studying for the test that they have to take in July.  They must pass this test in order to be able to go to the university to continue studies.  This doesn't leave them with much time to visit them either at our house or their house.  I may not get another chance to visit with them so we had to do group photos.

Me (adopted grandmother) with all the family

     On May 2, Kim hosted a pizza party for her advanced English class.  Jourdan and I were able to attend and help out with the fun.  A game of Jinga was begun as the students started arriving.  There was some heavy competition going on between some of the guys.

     The homemade American pizza was a big hit with everyone.  Kim prepared dough for three pizzas.  We brought everything into the dining area so the students could see how to assemble the pizzas.  They each got two pieces to start off but many went back for seconds.

     Since I only have a few weeks left here in Senegal, this might be my last time to be with this group of students.  I wanted to make sure that I remember them (especially since they all call me "Grandmother") so we took a little time out to make group photos.

     Our next party was at our house on May 6 to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  Yes, I know Cinco de Mayo is May 5.  However, we were in Dakar for the weekend so we had to delay the celebration for a day.  Jourdan invited four of our friends over for a Mexican meal.  She prepared a Mexican casserole and some Mexican chocolate cookies.  After enjoying our meal, the girls then did a little dancing.  They started out trying to do the salsa but ended up doing some Senegalese dancing.  I just watched since I missed out on the dancing gene.

     Because Rose Nicole works at the hospital as a nurse, she doesn't have a lot of free time.  I may not have the opportunity to see her again before I leave so I had to have a picture of the two of us.

     I'm sure there will be a few more gatherings during the next few weeks where I will be having to say my good-byes to my friends here in Fatick.  One thing a person quickly discovers when they arrive in Fatick is how friendly and hospitable the Senegalese people are.  I will miss these friends a lot even though I'm excited about going home to my family.