Crab in the Engine

I know. For a first blog after all this time, this is a bit lame. But there it is. Our friend Joanna led a week-long regional gathering of workers with Pioneers last week. The place was packed. The power cuts were interminable. The stress on her was elevated. So she's been here by herself for the last few days decompressing and getting her Dakar shopping done, I suppose. In any case, she was getting ready to leave today to drive back home. Herve convinced her she should double check her liquid levels in her engine. Unaware of that, working quietly in the office, I suddenly heard a cry of "Ahh. A crab! Mbaye? Tad? There's a crab in my engine!"

I confess I thought I'd heard her wrong. I was curious why she'd be calling for me, but it is pretty quiet today and Mbaye was off somewhere. So I went out and, sure enough, there was a very large crab huddled in the engine of her little car. On closer inspection, he appeared well-cooked. Burnt actually.

I got some "instruments" to remove him and found he was stiff and air light. We paused for the photo op and then I lifted him out with my fingers.

He was perfectly preserved. In fact, a Senegalese fellow who was visiting Herve in his office insisted that I keep it so kids could learn about crabs. I'm afraid he stank rather badly. Mbaye tossed him over the fence after on whiff!

I had intended to post a few weeks back when the IBG intensives were going on. I took a brief clip at that time. It wasn't the most illustrative of the training. I didn't catch them in class or anything. But you can see how green everything has gotten.