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.

David's Visit

     I know I only have a few weeks left here in Senegal but I decided that I wanted at least one of my kids to come over and celebrate my birthday with me.  David was the lucky winner.  He arrived in Dakar on Wednesday, April 17.  After picking him up at the airport, we all headed back to Fatick that included a stop at a "fast food" restaurant in Mbour for lunch.  He got to experience eating a hamburger  that comes with a fried egg (if you forget to tell them "sans eouff").  Once we arrived in Fatick I let him take a two-hour nap since he can't sleep on airplanes and had been up at least 24 hours.  Once the nap was over it was time to unpack all the goodies that he brought with him.  I exerted extreme patience in not opening any of my birthday presents.  However, the ones that weren't wrapped were not saved.  I now have enough Nutri-grain bars and Crystal Light Lemon Tea Mix to last me until I come home in June.
     On Thursday morning I took David for a horse cart ride to the market so I could introduce him to all my friends.  They all got a kick out of me "teaching" him what to say when they greeted him.  I may not be able to say a whole lot but at least I have the greetings down pat and could tell him what to say.  That afternoon he attended our English class.  I had told the class that my son would be there so everyone was in attendance.  After class, Travis picked us up to take us to visit a couple of farms.

Mango tree

Mangoes

Cashew apples with nut

Discussing irrigation possibilities

     Friday night was our weekly pizza night at my teammates' house followed by a good game of Mexican Train dominoes.  A couple from another town about three hours away were visiting as well.  They had come so they could pick up Minnie and take her home with them to live.  (Hooray!)
     Saturday morning the three men and I headed to Fimela for a fishing trip.  I was not planning on doing any fishing but was going along to take pictures.  We were going to ride in a boat out to the river channel where it would be very scenic:  mangroves, islands, birds, etc.  When we arrived in Fimela at the house of the man who was taking us fishing, he was out getting the bait.  We were to leave at 8:00 and it was already around 8:15.  This is typical so we went on down to where the boat was so we could unload our stuff.  Finally, a little after 9:00 the guy shows up and we prepare to load up the boat.  We had an extra passenger, a young boy.  As we headed away from shore we figured out why he came along.  His job was to bail out the water from the boat because it leaked......a lot.  I was not worried because he was doing a pretty good job.  However, after we had gone about half a mile the motor quit on us.  They worked on it and got it going again, but not for long.  After about two hours into our trip it started working again.  Question:  Do we take our chances and continue on our trip to the channel or return to shore?  I was glad that the men decided to return to shore.  That turned out to be a good decision because the motor quit again about 200 yards from shore.  The young boy used a long pole to get us back to shore.  The fishing trip may not have been successful but I did get a few interesting pictures and enjoyed getting to ride on a boat (albeit a leaky boat).

Our boat

Bailing water

Birds

A fisherman

Back on land

          My birthday was Monday, April 22.  The usual celebration on a birthday includes lunch of choice along with cake.  I chose my favorite Senegalese meal:  vermicelle with beef sauce and yellow cake with chocolate icing for dessert.  Marie Noel, my teammate's house help, did the cooking and it was delicious!

Vermicelle and beef sauce

My plate

My cake with one candle (didn't want to have a fire hazzard)

     That evening was spent packing for David's return on Tuesday.  Now for the "real" reason I wanted one of my kids to come over for my birthday:  I wanted to send a suitcase full of stuff home by him.  He was allowed two suitcases so it only makes sense to take advantage of that allowance since it is free.  Right?  That will leave me with only two suitcases to deal with when I go home in June (providing I can get everything into the two suitcases without them being overweight).
     David and I headed to Dakar on Tuesday morning so he would be able to get a little rest before going to the airport at 7:00 pm.  Even though I will be seeing him again in a little over six weeks, it was still hard to say good-bye.  I enjoyed our time together talking, watching tv shows on the computer, showing him around my town, and introducing him to all my friends.  Maybe one day we can return and he can help Travis with some of his agriculture projects.

Fun With Friends

     Last week, one of our Senegalese friends gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy.  I was dying to go see the babies and hold them but I had to wait.  They arrived early and were very small and the mother's blood pressure was very high so they had to be taken to a hospital in Thies (pronounced "Chess").  They were able to return to Fatick on Monday.  Yesterday, Jourdan and I went over to visit with the family and see the babies.  They are so tiny and precious!  I couldn't help myself.  When they placed the baby girl in my arms, the tears filled my eyes.  They are truly little miracles from God.

Baby boy

Baby girl

     After holding the babies for a while, we then sat around in the shade visiting with some of the sisters and friends.  One of the older sisters, who lives in Dakar, brought some Senegalese outfits to sell.  She pulled out a dress that was perfect for me and a skirt with a dress top for Jourdan.  Marie Noel even found a beautiful green outfit to try on.  Of course, we had to model our outfits for everyone.