Water Shortage and Power Outages

Dakar has been having problems with their water.  Some people that work at DA have not had water for over a month!  Most of our Senegalese workers can not afford to go to the store or "boutique" as they call them and buy bottled water.  Fortunately my family still has running water, low pressure but still there.  We have been filling empty containers and bringing them to workers to bring home.  October is the hottest month here, it's officially the middle of summer. Since the heat is so intense and the body needs to keep hydrated we ask you to pray that illness does not takeover.
On top of that the power outages have become even more frequent and last hours if not all day.  Please keep them in your prayers that this issue gets resolved without conflict or riots.

The kids of DA

I have been writing this whole time about our family and our life here.  But the biggest story here are the kids of DA.  Ever since the first day of school I continue to be amazed by these kids.  Lets first start with the elementary children.  Do you know that most of them speak 3,4 and even 5 different languages!  Just to hear them go back and forth from English, French, Wolof, Spanish, Portuguese, and countless others.  And I'm just struggling with beginner French.   And then they go and speak of all these countries that they have either visited or had to leave from because of war or a coup that broke out.  The stories they tell of gun fighting is heartbreaking.  A lot of these children are from Christian homes, but 20% are not.  There are no other elementary students that live on campus besides Monroe who is in 2nd grade so all these children live out in town.  Regan and Carter are in middle school (6th and 8th) And 6th grade is when they can start living in dorms but there aren't any right now so everyone is in 8th or higher.
This is the group of elementary students, each table is a grade. K to 5th.  I have a couple of helpers, I also work in the classrooms with individual students as well as in the office.

One thing I have found is that there is so much compassion and love here.  Everyone, including the High Schoolers are so thoughtful.  Just to show an example, Regan hurt her foot during soccer and the schools nurse wasn't around so this Senior went to a nearby tree and took his machete (!!!) hacked down a branch stripped it tied a shirt to it as a cushion and gave it to Regan as a crutch.

I know it doesn't look like that big of a deal but the simple act of him going out and doing this for someone he didn't even know was so touching to me.  And then there is the playing with the children as they change classes and go through the playground.  They take their time with people which is such a nice and refreshing thing to see!  Besides all that they are also given a lot of freedom to express themselves and not worry about being laughed at or other repercussions.  Such as in Videography class, this certainly couldn't be done in the states with some kid walking around with a "gun"

Or when they had a fun Seniors night where everyone dressed up as a Western, Caveman, Mid-evil and Future.  And they had great costumes.

                 

So now maybe you can see why we are starting to really love it here!

Nice drive in town

We had to go to the Embassy to get some documents notarized and we had a nice quiet drive.  I promise I will get video of the crazy close driving soon.  Mike doesn't like a camera in his face during that type of driving but I'll get it :)

Food!

I'm a foodie.  I love food, I love looking at it, watching it be made, talking about it and above all eating it.  I sold all my cookbooks before coming here and I think that was by far the hardest thing to part with (besides family and friends of course!)  

But I can continue my fascination with food here.  I took some pictures of the kids lunches.  It just is incredible how someone will have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the next an african fish dish ceebu jen and then next to that a beautiful sushi meal.  Sorry, but I'll be showing more pictures of food the longer I'm here.  I didn't wank to scare the kids too much with the 'crazy lady with the camera taking pictures of my food"' but they all know I'm crazy now so let the fun begin!!

Just some random pictures

Hi!  We are still without internet so I only can get on every once in awhile.  I just wanted to post some pictures so you can get more of an idea where we are at.

Most cabs have horse tails hanging from them for good luck.

 One of the many lizards we see all around.  They always have bright yellow heads and tails.

 Pick up soccer game

 Veggie stand you see around every corner

 The Senegalese love their workouts!  You will often see a group of men working out together.

 Nice quiet empty road on Sunday.  You will never see it empty on other days.

 Always things to sell at every corner.

 Ceebu Yapp delicious!