The Deets

If you've ever come home from an extend vacation (a week or more), everyone seems to know that you've been away. My Facebook friends (and their friends) know, your neighbors notice and almost everyone in my church knows that I've been off gallivanting somewhere.

In no particular order, here are the 5 most popular questions I've been asked:

#1. Where did you go?

I went to Senegal, then Madrid (and for the sake of this post, I'll hold off on Madrid discoveries).

Taken on the bus ride from Dakar to our hotel in San Louise.

#2. Where did you stay?
We stayed on the island side of St Louis (which is a 4 hour drive from the capital Dakar, where we flew in) in a hotel. We had a spacious room (the owner had mercy on us girls and offered us the largest room the hotel had to offer) with a shower and a real toilet! Our beds had mosquito nets, we had giant bugs that lived in the closet of the bathroom where the towels were held and AC powered by a generated (that we may have blown out, and the entire hotel lost power for a bit...sorry other hotel guests).

Painting a column in the Trade School.

#3. What did you do?
We spent most of our time at a trade school that a local church was building. The missionaries that hosted us, the Davis family and the Stevenson family, have been partnering with the Fall family (pastor of the local church) to make a trade school for the Tailbes boys. (They also recently opened up a woman's trade school to help families bring in extra income.) 

The Tailbes boys are children who are sold by their families to Marabouts (local religious leaders). Most of these children are moved to different parts of the country to prevent them from running away. From the ages of 5-17, they are forced to beg on the streets and live in cramped dorms with jail-like conditions. Once they turn 18, they are kicked out onto the street with no job training or literacy. The Trade School will one day teach them a trade and basic elementary skills, like reading and math.

We spent our days helping pour cement, leveling floors, and sanding and painting walls. The only snag was that girls were not allowed to stand on ladders or level floors/pour cement, so we painted as high as we could go (which wasn't that high seeing how we are all under 5'4") and then we cheered the boys on as they painted the ceiling, pour cement, moved loads of dirt and performed other manly tasks. 

#4. What did you eat?

We ate A LOT. 

Every day for lunch, we went to the Falls' house. Lunch is the main meal in Senegalese culture, so it's a time when you go home and spend two hours at home, catching up with family and taking a nap. (Random fact: It's a sign of good manners and that you feel comfortable in a home if you are able to nap during lunch time.) Madame Fall would invite everyone who was hanging around the job-site to lunch, so we got to know all the workers pretty well. We ate on the floor with about 8 to 10 people gathered around a giant pan of food. Everyone ate with spoons and it was common that, if the eldest person at your plate noticed that you loved something (say the chicken), they could spoon over a LARGE portion of it to the little "slice" of the bowl that you sat in front of and you had to eat it.

My favorite dish was the spicy onion and chicken rice (that's pictured below) and the most "interesting" was the fish balls (think meatballs, but with fish and they added the bones and insides for taste).

#5. What were your most memorable experiences?
Tommy (one of the team's adult leaders, pictured on the right) and I went to Bach's (on the left) family home. We traveled for about an hour and a half outside of St Louis to his village and he showed us around. We trampled through sand dunes, walked cautiously by a BIG snake, viewed lush farmland and met the entire neighborhood.

We went on a horse and buggy tour around St Louis. It was an amazing way to see the city as only locals do. We got stuck behind a parade that was celebrating the victory of a local boxer (picture a World Series and Superbowl parade combined). It was amazing to see entire neighborhoods pouring out into the streets to celebrate.

The Kids! At the Trade School, we had all the children from the surrounding houses crowding around the doors and fighting each other for a glimpse at tabas, or white people. I have never been squished by more hugs or had my hair played with more (they were amazed that my hair was soft and two different colors).

ox Alysha Marie