Sunday

This will probably be the final posting to the blog.  Today is Sunday, and we will be worshiping with the congregation in the Dakar church this morning.  Afterwards, we will have a meeting with Pastor Joe Bleck and Bill Gibson to debrief on our visit and plan about how we will pursue sharing our experiences at home and returning in the future.  This afternoon, Carol and Tom will get a ride to Mbour for a planned three-day vacation there.  Shopping is on the agenda for others in the group.  Late this evening, Joanne, Tania, Lynea, Troy, and Tony will head for the airport and catch flights at 1am and 2am home to the US.  Carol and Tom will catch similar flights on Thursday morning.

 
We have had a wonderful experience together in Senegal and are encouraged by the energy and vision of the congregations, lay preachers, and pastors.  Bill and Gwen Gibson have been gracious hosts and have made our stay both meaningful and fun.  I am sure that we will return soon.

Saturday



Women of the microcredit group listen to
their president speak to the visitors

On Saturday, some of the group went to Goree Island while others remained in Dakar for beading, shopping, and resting.  In the late afternoon, everyone went to visit a microcredit program group run under the program started by Sebastian Ujereh in 2006.  Four groups of 25 women each were represented.  All four groups were involved with agriculture – growing produce for markets in Dakar.  They have been successful and are looking to rent more land.  Microcredit has been extraordinarily successful in these cultures as a means to empower women to become economically self-sufficient and thus increase the odds that their children will attend school and thrive.

In the late evening, we had a wonderful meal at the Gibson’s home, prepared by the head of the women’s culinary arts program.  Beautiful salads, local fish and spicy chicken dishes were enjoyed by everyone.  We returned to the guest house at midnight and were quickly in bed.

Twelve hours of travel and mission



Women's skills center at Mbour

Friday was a big travel day.  After breakfast, we left at 9:30 and drove one and one-half hours south to Mbour.  There we stopped to visit Pastor Jean Paul and the Mbour church.  Of great interest was the women’s skills program with its success in sewing and other tailoring skills.  When we arrived, there were over a dozen women engaged in practical techniques.  The church is in a different and nicer location than the last time we had visited six years ago.  The congregation is looking to buy land and build a building, which would be a real milestone.

Foundation of the youth center

From Mbour, we traveled about 40 miles east to Thiadiaye, a smaller but bustling commercial crossroads.  There we visited the Thiadiaye church compound.  This is church-owned land with a church building, well, gardens, and the foundation for a youth center.  Construction will continue as funds become available.  We left and traveled south toward Diofour for lunch; however, we found that the size of our party (14 total) could not be served by local restaurants and we eventually drove all of the way to Fimla on the Saloum river.  There we found a resort with dining facilities of the necessary scale – but even then it took an hour for the meal to be prepared.  By the time we headed back from Fimla, it was 4:30.  Carol, Joanne, and Tom had been in Fimla in 2007 to conduct a clinic, and it was fun to drive past the site where that occurred.


A large moske under construction outside Mbour

Our travels during the day took us past many sights.  In more urban areas stood graceful moskes, and in rural areas, smaller moskes were regularly encountered near every village.  According to our hosts, these smaller moskes are underwritten by Saudia Arabian funds.  We also saw many cattle, but few that were being herded until we were near Thaijaye.  Then the herds became larger and sometimes blocked the road.

It was unusally warm - mid-80s in the shade and over 100 in the sun.  Still, while we were panting in this heat, the local Senegalise were often wearing sweaters and knitted caps!  When the sun went down and the temperature dropped into the 70s, heavy coats emerged. 

A mini-moske in a rural setting

We stopped at the Diofour church around 5:30 in time to see the children’s feeding center in operation, sing songs and take many pictures with the children.  We blessed the pastor and his family and then left Diofour at 7:00pm, arriving back at the Dakar guest house right at 10:00pm.  There, the staff had dinner waiting for us.  After showers and dinner, everyone felt revived but ready for sleep – it had been a long, dusty, day.

Women's prison and Bible study

On Thursday, we continued our separate programs. Tom, Tony and Bill met with the lay pastors while the others met with various church staff and relaxed. The lay pastor meeting covered the same Weslyan class/band/society information Tony presented to the pastors on Wednesday and addressed certain other concerns. Carol met with Dr. Gayelle concerning the community health worker program. Dr. Gayelle was very interested in the program and wanted to follow up with both the current health workers and with Carol on the program overall.

Tanya, Lynea and Tom at the women's prison
entrance

After lunch, the full group went together to the women’s prison in Dakar. Carol, Tom and Joanne had been to this prison before about seven years ago. We are very happy to report that the prison has had a significant upgrade and is a much cleaner and more pleasant environment for the women awaiting their trials. Unfortunately, women can wait over two years for their trials – especially on drug charges. Advocating for a speedy trial is one of the cornerstones of the prison ministry. The superintendent (warden) of the prison welcomed us graciously and was very generous in her praise of what the United Methodist Church is doing for the women to improve living conditions and reducing recidivism. The inmates welcomed us in the courtyard, sang songs and danced for us. It was a happy time and brought to life the real value of the ministry that has been active in the prisons since the mission initiative was launched in 1997.



Dancing and singing before Bible study

The evening was Bible study with Tom leading the group – Ephesians 5 was the text. From 6:30 to 7:00 was time for singing and prayers. At 7:00, Tom introduced everyone (five of the visiting group and six congregants) to Bible study as practiced in America at Trinity UMC in Wilmette, Illinois. We had contextual background information, lay readings from the Scripture, discussion questions, and even broke up into smaller groups. Everyone seemed to have a good time and to come away with new perspectives in a loving, respectful environment.

Women's skills, hospital visit, leadership & management

Wednesday we had two groups working on parallel paths.  Some of us met for the day with the pastors about leadership and management of the church.  The balance of the group met with the women's skills center and visited a local hospital.


Tony shows off the lunch prepared by the
culinary arts class


The women's skills center was one of the earliest activities started in the Senegal mission, with the intention of educating women so that they could be self-sufficient economically in a society which does not care for women well.  Most girls stop their education in about the 8th grade because it costs money to go on and the family believes the girl will only be getting married anyway.  As a result, most women are not sufficiently educated to support themselves should a problem develop (unmarried or divorce) and fall into crime (drug running, prostitution) - where the prison ministry assists.  To get ahead of the issue, the mission offers a three-year curriculum at a nominal fee to teach sewing and tailoring skills, culinary arts and French language literacy to make it possible for women be in business.  Along with micro-credit programs, this has proven to be very effective in placing women in more confident standing.


The visit to the skills center focused on the activities and their needs for support.  Recent relocation of the mission has depressed registrations for the moment.  The economic downturn in the world economy has reduced contributions, too.  Sewing and tailoring are not as much in demand now as ten years ago due to the influx of mass-produced (especially Chinese) clothing.  Culinary arts remain in demand.  The cooking class prepared two delicious lunches for us on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The skills center is looking to adapt and will need resources to do so.

Carol and Tania, along with the others, visited a local hospital with Valeri from the wellness program.  They saw some very interesting differences between that hospital and our hospital's at home.  Crowding was evident, and maternity patients were given 12 hours to deliver and leave the hospital.


Entry to the hospital

Tom, Tony and Bill Gibson spent time with the ordained pastors talking about (a) the UMC Discipline, and (b) engaging the laity in the administration and leadership functions of the church.  The pastors asked many interesting questions and posed a number of interesting case studies about church life in Senegal - but nothing that Paul didn't cover in his letters!  It was a very lively time together.

-- Tom

Prison minstry

Joanne, Tony, Ndeye Fatou and Awa at the
boy's prison

The main event Tuesday was conversation with the head of the mission’s prison ministry, Ndeye Fatou Diouf.  Carol and I have known her since our first visit here in 2005 and we have great respect for her work.  She and her team work to protect the rights of prisoners to an orderly trial process and to prepare the prisoner for life after release.    That preparation includes instruction in marketable skills such as embroidery and sewing for women, reconciliation with family members, and literacy in French.  Awa, her assistant, has also begun beading classes.  The team also advocates for better conditions in the prisons.  The Tuesday conversation was followed by a trip to the boys (ages 12-18) prison.  We were not able to see conditions in the prison, but did visit with 60-70 boys in a group setting.

Tuesday evening we went to a “prayer meeting” at the church – a regular Tuesday event.  The two-hour meeting included group and individual prayer along with high-energy singing (1/2 hour) and exhortation (1 hour) on Paul’s description of spiritual gifts and what stands in our way of using them.

Beach view

 We also spent some time walking in Dakar.  From our accommodations, we walked to the beach and then along the beach to Bill and Gwen Gibson’s apartment.  Along the way, we saw a beachfront mosque with a large open area for outdoor events.  As we have seen in the past, the beach was dominated by men training for soccer and wrestling.  There were a couple of surfers, too.  The Gibsons have a nice view of the ocean today, but buildings are under construction that could block their view.  It was clear that a building boom is underway in this portion of Dakar – so somewhere (perhaps in Europe) there are people with money who are buying and building.

View from the Gibson's apartment

Monday with the animals

Joanne arrived at 6:30 this morning from Chicago via Washington DC.  She appears to have the same need for sleep that we had yesterday.  8)

The first day of the week was reserved for some sightseeing as we recover from jet lag.  So, we spent 1.5 hours driving south to the Bandia nature preserve.  In two hours there, we drove around in an open safari car and saw rhinos, giraffe, antelope, a python, and other attractions.  After lunch, we headed back to Dakar by way of the "pink lake" (Lac Rose).  The pink lake is a natural salt lake about one kilometer in diameter.  A man rows a boat onto the lake, gets out into the 1.5 meter deep saline and digs crystaline salt off of the bottom of the lake into the boat.  The boat will hold a TON on salt - so it is a long process.  Then he brings the boat back to shore, a woman empties it onto the beach and the salt dries for eventual bagging and shipment.  The woman get's 1/6 of the boat load as payment - and gets to sell her portion first.  The man also slathers his body with protective oils to counter the harsh conditions.  The lake is pink during daylight hours (and normal weather conditions) because microscopic plant life lives in the saline and turns pink during photosynthesis (instead of green).

After these adventures, we spent another hour on the road back into Dakar.  After dinner, Carol and others had a meeting with the UMW (United Methodist Women) chapter of the church here to talk about their plans and needs.  They are running the guest house that we are staying in and have done a nice job of sprucing it up - even hot running water!  They are looking to open another guest house in Mbour where more tourism is present and could use the accommodations.

-- Tom

Safe and Sound

For a change, our travel to Senegal was smooth and uneventful.  The odds were improved because we were not transporting a dozen bags packed with medical goods.  The Wisconsin contingent of four, Tony, Tania, Lynea, and Troy, met us at O’Hare airport.  Joanne will be arriving in Dakar on Monday morning.  We left Chicago at 3PM Saturday with the temperature around 20 degrees, and arrived in Dakar at 9AM local time (3AM Chicago time) Sunday with the temperature at 70 degrees.

Even without the computer display showing our position via GPS, I could sense our approach to Dakar by an increasing haze as we neared to coast.  Dust and smoke combined to dull the bright blue ocean and sky above.  Stepping out of the plane, I realized that Dakar has a distinctive odor combining – cooking fires, burning rubbish, and Diesel exhaust.

The Gibsons and Christine greeted us outside of the airport and we piled into the mission bus for the ten-minute drive to the church neighborhood.  We drove directly to the church service, which combined two and one-half hours of singing, liturgy and preaching.  I will admit that I began to nod as the sermon passed 45 minutes.  Dr. Bashir and several others of our friends were at the service.  The new church space is both larger and more open than the prior location and presents a better worship experience.  The congregation was welcoming and spirited in worship.  After the service, we walked the two blocks to the guest house accommodations and had lunch.  Thereafter, downtime allowed some rest.

In the late afternoon, a dozen of Carol’s past community health worker students joined her to debrief on their experiences in the past two years.  They went around the table and recounted successes and issues they had experienced in their past two years of work.  The meeting went on for four hours and then we had dinner together.  Carol told them that she was excited by their stories.  Much of the expressed concern was about sustaining the program through some sort of token contributions from patients and others to defray the cost of simple medications.

We slept like logs last night.  I have found that the church's internet access is very dicey - so I may not be making as frequent posts as I would like.

Tom

Senegal bound again in February 2013

Senegal Bound 

Last night I read over our Senegal blog from 2011 and was reminded of how exciting it was to start another cohort of Senegalese young people on the path to becoming community health workers for their villages and be a critical part of improving the short and long term health of their neighbors.  This year (after taking a hiatus to avoid the somewhat fractious presidential election last February) we return to evaluate the 25 community health workers we trained  and find out how they are faring.  Evaluation has been complicated by the change in mission personnel over the past two years.  Paul and Kittie Messer left shortly after our last trip and there was over a year with no "missionaries" until the Gibsons arrived this past September.  In the meantime, our stalwart Dr. Bashir has left to pursue his dream of more education in the US and has been replaced by a new physician.  Christine Boissy, the current mission administrator, and District Superintendent Rev. Joe Bleck have tried to keep us in touch with what is happening but neither has detailed information about the Wellness program.  I decided that rather than trying to bring another US training team to Senegal it would help to evaluate the prior graduates and determine the desirability of training additional community health workers, reinforcing or augmenting the education of the existing CHWs or find another way to help the mission.

 

In a week Joanne Aggens (who was with us on four missions) and my husband Tom and I will join Rev. Tony Fuller and a small group from Wisconsin to  return to Senegal.  This will be our 7th trip since 2005.  During the first four years we did "clinics" with the energetic and irrepressible Dr. Bashir.  In 2010 we started the first class of community health training and felt it was so well received we trained another class in 2011.  Starting with basic hygiene and germ theory, we progressed rapidly through sanitation, nutrition  and social philosophy leaving Dr. Bashir, Valerie and Paulette to teach cardiopulmonary evaluation, first aid, CPR and basic emergency and obstetric  management.  The most important part of the early training was to teach their community basic public health.  We take sanitation and clean water for granted in the US but in rural Africa and many parts of urban Africa it is simply not provided by the government.  As a result, babies and children are stunted in growth and die due to acute and chronic infection and adults are seriously handicapped in their productivity.  Add to those problems poor nutrition, malaria, accidents, lack of obstetric care and family planning and you have a life expectancy of under 50 years.  Simple methods of hygiene, water purification, nutrition and waste management can be easily taught and make a huge difference.  Having a village health advocate who can triage problems and solve simple ones can dramatically reduce the need for emergency medical care in a country where it is not only unaffordable but unavailable as well.

I am excited and a little apprehensive about this trip.  How many community health workers are still participating?  Will the new doctor and mission personnel be interested in continuing the program?   Do the previously trained CHWs need additional training or a refresher course?  How can I continue to serve God and my friends in Senegal?  Come with us on this journey of discovery as we see what lies in store for us in sunny Senegal.