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.