Wednesday – Feb 1

How delightful to start a day with some sleep behind and a hot shower to wash off two days of travel! Lovely. Breakfast here always includes coffee and lovely pastries so who needs anything more?!

I would think, after all the travel I’ve done, I wouldn’t continue to be surprised by the sheer number of things happening each day. At home, a couple of sentences would cover most days. Here, I could just sit on my front step and watch the street and still have a lot to say – in a nutshell, dusty brown block buildings rising on each side of the dusty brown bumpy road, little boys running around, some scaling a small mountain of dirt (sensing a theme, yet?) in the center of the road, the occasional goat strolling by and so on.
Instead, after breakfast, we headed out to the girls’ school a short drive away. Another time, I will explain about the ministry here. Suffice it to say, the girls’s school is one part of it. Here the cooking and sewing classes are taught, and some English classes are held.
We started the day with a Bible story time. Most of these young women are from a Muslim background. They fully know what they are signing up for when they come here so there is no religious coercion. The leader told the story of Joshua today but first quizzed the girls on yesterday’s story. The girls were very responsive and such fun to watch. I am finding so many of the Senegalese women and girls so beautiful. It doesn’t hurt that the adult women wear these gorgeous long dresses, usually in vibrant colors that accent their dark skin so beautifully. Head coverings are common. They are a joy to look upon.
The team that I came over with divided into two groups, to help with a cooking or a sewing project they had prepared. Feluine and I chatted a bit about my schedule and then I visited the two classes. The girls in the cooking class look so professional in their white clothes: toques, jackets, chef’s apron. Black and white houndstooth trousers complete the professional look. Quite impressive. The sewing girls were making a Valentine heart project. After a bit, Feluine suggested I go with the English teacher and see his class. I just expected to observe, but no, I was the assistant teacher! Not prepared! Luckily, much of what he wanted from me was reading the English passages aloud, working on pronunciation and so on. But then he turned it over to me to share whatever I’d like! Spontaneous lesson plan! A bout of conversational English seemed to work. The girls are at very different levels. Some were engaged and did well. Others didn’t seem to have any idea of what was being said. More like being given a sentence of a foreign language, repeating it after the teacher, and then being expected to answer questions about it or read it aloud. Daunting. I will be working with this class more but will have some time to prepare! Just before I left, the girls decided I needed a Senegalese name. I have found that Jill is a hard name to pronounce in many countries. I suggested old white woman, but they decided on Khijada, which fortunately is just a name with no worrisome meaning! So many fun groups of girls to have future times with.
The cooking class shared their cookies with us and we very willingly accepted. They were very good and perfectly baked. Now that may not sound like a big deal but they are using ovens with no thermostat! They’ve obviously figured it out. They were very proud of their efforts and even baked a couple of pies for us to take along as dessert. Smiles and kindness.
Returning to the hospitality building where the team is staying, we had lunch. A note on food – much of what we have served is quite spicy. If you know me, you know I don’t do spicy! Or rather my body goes into instant reject mode and it isn’t pretty. So I am enjoying plenty of cooked vegetables and bread and sincerely hoping to lose some weight on this trip! An added bene! This is not a complaint and I will be cooking for myself some so I’m fine.
Lunch typically is about two o’clock with a later supper. The team was taking a horse cart ride around the old, original section of Saint Louis so I tagged along. The Portuguese were the original outside settlers but traded places with the French a couple of times. The French won so French is now the national language, used in most of the signage and menus.
Saint Louis is a seaside town built on a couple of islands with bridges to the mainland section where I am staying. The old town is on a lovely island which caters more to the tourist trade. It was interesting to see all the old French style buildings and the various shops and cafes. After the tour, we took a walk along the water on a palm lined promenade. Except for strings of laundry between trees, it could have passed for Florida or Southern California.
The weather has been great – mid 80s but with a cool breeze off the water. I’d been wondering if I’d be getting too hot, at times, but actually found myself unexpectedly chilly! Not a problem though.
We had supper at a nice restaurant overlooking the water. Feluine and her husband, Malick, joined us so a cheery, at times very funny, gathering. The menu was all in French so our one tiny bit of French person tried to help us figure out what we might be eating. Someone asked the waiter, who spoke almost no English, if there was an English menu. In true French fashion, he threw up his hands and exclaimed, “Meat, fish, chicken!” And that was the end of that! We all got good meals, though, so it worked!

Back to our places and time for a welcome bed.