Active Days

Lest you think that our lives are wrapped up in snakes and signs, let me post a few photos of the busy month of May!

This is the hottest month of the year for those living in the east of Senegal and the west of Mali. We have two UWM families here all month and assorted others coming and going all month.

Just to make things interesting, this week we have a team of nearly thirty staying with us, too. They are members and alumni and coaches of the Wheaton women's soccer team. They came in Tuesday night and have made a visible difference in those few days. They just left this morning for a weekend of soccer matches in Thies and St Louis, but they'll be back on Monday to work with us again.



I caught them with my camera this morning at breakfast. They left shortly after that in a couple very nice buses. (A/C!)

I also did a walk around to catch the results of their work on film for you to see.







First, they are working on painting the new outdoor kitchen and the pavilion. They've sanded and prepped it. And now, the first coat of white-wash already makes it look so much more inviting!








They also have moved a lot of gravel. Remember the truck accident at our gate? That was a gravel truck. In order to remove it from our drainage ditch, they had to empty the gravel out of the truck and on to the ground. Later they scooped it up with a bulldozer. But they left lots of "gleanings" for us. Enough to do the new driveway for the Quenums (where we found that snake the other day!).












And also an all-weather ground cover under their clothes lines!














They also have put up woven fence to give the Quenums a bit of privacy. These sheets are like "termite ice-cream" so they had to coat them with an insecticide. Next we'll paint them white and we think it will look nice!









While we were at it, we asked them to also fence in the maintenance storage area. It looks so much "cleaner" and it should also discourage kids from getting in trouble in that corner!







Last, but very far from least, I wanted to mention that we graduated another group of village leaders from our own UWM Discipleship Experience, just a week back. The photo here of that ceremony may be a bit blurry. I hope so; I've been asked to keep security issues in mind when showing the students. We had a nice group to hear their testimonies of the time they have spent with us and an exhortation to put what they have learned into practice. Balla, our trainer, has been impressed with this group, so I have no doubt that they will.




Oh, speaking of Balla. I finally got a photo of the man smiling. He smiles plenty, but people generally try to remain serious for photos here! So I had to work at it. But I thought you'd like to see it, too!