random pictures

******oops, I forgot to publish this one so it's a little old.

One of the best thing about being here for the summer is getting to see these trees bloom.  Streets all around Dakar are filled with these flame trees.

Regan finally had a Birthday party just a few weeks after her June 6th birthday.

It was a spa/pizza party

                                                                  Now that is a good friend!

                                                 
                                                                           facial masks

This is Monday Market.  There are markets every day of the week but they are set up on the mediums of the street in very close quarters.  This is the one most people like to come to because it's at the stadiums parking lot so more room to bend down and look at the piles of shoes and clothes.  This is where we will be doing back to school shopping.  By the way the shirt Regan is wearing in the above picture from her Birthday party is from Monday market.  It's a shirt from a dentist office and on the front it says Have a nice ray.  It's for laser teeth whitening but Regan's nickname is Ray so we were pretty excited to find it amongst all those heaps of clothes.  You never know what your going to find.

Shoes you can get as low as a $1.00 to $25.00 depending on the size, type, name brand and quality (how used and dirty they are or some actually are new)

                                You gotta get Beignets (puffy fried doghnuts) when you go there.

                        The girls and I have finally accomplished taking taxis all by ourselves!  I even was able to negotiate the price. I see going to monday market has helped me with my french numbers.

Ebola

Yep, it's scary.  Not gonna lie.  But thankfully the one case we have had here in Senegal was contained, treated and made a full recovery.  And really AIDS and Malaria are a lot more deadly here in the bush.  But, now that Mali has it's first case it effects us because of so many parents that board their kids here are serving in Mali.  My heart goes out to the family of the little girl (in Mali) because they are going through such a heart breaking and scary time and with the whole world pointing fingers at them.  It's just not a good situation any way you look at it.  So please join us in praying for them and for all of those that are effected by this and for those that will be working on containing this horriable plague.

lions!

We went to Fathala Nature Reserve here in the southern part of Senegal and walked with Lions!  Mike stayed back at the hotel with Monroe.  It was incredabile!  The walking sticks that we are each carring is what signified to the lions that we were the ones in control.  They are treated so well there, with such respect and love.  I often feel sorry for animals when they are on display but these lions were very content and very well cared for.

Family visit

Since the start of 2014 I have had London and a family visit to look forward to.  My Mom, sister Angie and niece Alexis came and have now gone.  And school is about to be out for the summer so that means everyone is making plans to go back to their country of origin (Canada,USA,Brazil,Korea,Japan,England,Germany and all around Africa).  And then there is us who will hold down the fort.  Mike will be working hard on his dissertation for his Doctorates in Leadership.
So what are the kids and I to do?
I have some things lined up for us.  Such as french classes, travel around Dakar more on our own, help out at the talibe center, develop deeper friendships with the people that are staying here and do cooking classes with the kids friends.  I have been taking a lot of pictures this year so I will soon be posting those as well.

But I have to admit I'm depressed.  I am not looking forward to the heat, as well as the electricity and water cuts, and the craziness that comes with school and all the activities that go with it will be gone so the campus will be silent.
But, enough of my whineness.
God is great!  During my family's visit we got to go to a local talibe center and a village 3 1/2 hours from Dakar and got to see amazing healing and how God works through others.  I will post pictures from the village in another post but because of the subject matter I won't post any from the talibe center.  If you have any questions about the talibe kids and how it works you can look it up on wikipedia.  The talibe kids are a constant here in Senegal, they are all around and several groups have set up a center or "home" for these boys so they know they have a safe and loving place to come and take a shower, food, medicine and can even play a little bit and just be a kid.  The boys are brought from their villages at about the age of 5 to 15 where they go out on the streets and beg for money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talibe


It has been an amazing year.  God has shown me so many things that my mind is still scrambled and trying to make sense of it.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  Mike and the kids have learned so much as well. It's definitely been a year we will never forget.  So for now we will enjoy the summer and see what next year brings!

England

We are back.  I'll admit it was very hard to come back.  Not just because of the vacation aspects of it and the beautiful scenery but because of the lightness there.  It's just very different here in Dakar.

Here are some differences:

 They have a McDonald's

They have huge road signs 

They drive on the other side  (Mike took to it really well, even with the gear shift on the left)

They have a really big clock

A large Ferris Wheel

Their guards wear really big hats

They have amazing castles

Great photo ops

A great subway system 

And a beautiful bridge

As you can hopefully see by the pictures we had an incredible time!  It was a little chilly the first few days we were there and it was great because I didn't realize how much I missed the colder weather, I kept thinking we were there at Christmas time.  

This trip was exactly what we needed, it really did revive us. We know God brought us here to Dakar and we aren't done here yet but God willing this won't be our last visit to London.

Sportsmanship

I have to brag a little bit about the kids here at DA.  Before we came over Mike was working at a Christian University in Omaha (Go Grace U!) and when we were first thinking abut him working there we went to a volleyball game that Grace was playing in.  After the game both teams gathered around and prayed, it was my first experience of a Christian school and how they came together and prayed after winning or losing to another team.  It was beautiful!  We immediately decided Grace was a great fit and would be great for the kids to be connected with.

Well, now we are here in Senegal at another Christian school.  And it's just as great.  The kids here are talented, unbelievably talented.  They compete at such levels that you would be amazed that these kids are not brought together through sports scholarships.  But beyond that they are so supportive, always pushing each other to try their best, giving advise and cheering each other on.  Recently the basketball team had a championship against a rival school and during the game the other school was yelling and chanting, putting our players down, just being very rude.  Well our students continued to be respectful (and win :)  But what was amazing was our players continued to compliment the other players when they scored.  It really was a great thing for a parent to have their kids see.

 Mike played on a softball team and they won the W.A.I.S.T. (West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament).  It was against other teams from the American Embassy, Africa and the Peace Corp.

And look it really does get cold here but Carter is from Nebraska so it's not too cold for him :)

 Mike

 We had Olympic days here.  It's 1 1/2  days of track and field events.  No school so all the kids can come and cheer everyone on.  There were 5 color teams and all the grades were represented.  It was great to see and hear everyone cheering each other on.
  

Monroe

 Regan

 Carter doing the broad jump

 Obviously they have fun with the team colors.  Some boys colored their hair blue!

 High jump

 Regan doing the Long jump

 Carter getting ready for his run taking place in the park.

There is always something going on, now if you'll excuse me I have to go watch a soccer game :)

Mike can rap??

So here is a little back story, when we first were researching Dakar Academy and deciding to come or not Mike went on twitter to see if it was ever mentioned on there.  Well it was by only one student, a senior that lives off campus and he was just asked if he attended and had good things to say about the school but that as an off campus student he doesn't get to participate in a lot of the events.  Well Mike started "following" his twitter account and it became obvious he was a huge Eminem fan, he's a rapper.  We had already found out about Senior cafe, a talent show, so Mike declared to me that if we do indeed go to DA that he will preform a rap song with this student.  Mike is definitely a man of his word because he did!  It was all done in secret, practicing here at the house and changing some words to make them appropriate and at the show he was only listed as special guest.  The crowd went nuts.  It was a lot of fun to have the students be shocked that a middle aged business man can rap.  He even made his kids proud and not too embarrassed :)