Meeting Cecile

In the morning, we went from seeing drip irrigating in action, to meeting with our children in the Tattaguine village area. When we arrived at Cecile's portion of the village, she was gone! Fortunately, there were some women there (including Cecile's mom) that could shed some light on the subject.

Appartently some communication wires were crossed (not uncommon in Africa), and Cecile had anticipated my arrival in the morning. After having waited for hours, she had gone to the field. Monique, who works for World Vision and lives in the village went to go find Cecile.

Soon enough, the truck pulled up while I had been getting acquainted with Cecile's mom who was expecting her fifth child. When we met, Cecile was very, very timid.

Can you think back to the first time you met someone of another race? Perhaps for you, it was early in life. For me, it was a little later. I wasn't used to seeing black people. I can imagine how Cecile felt. I would be scared too. Here were all these white people (very likely the first she'd ever seen) hanging around and making a big fuss over her with cameras and recorders. She didn't even smile...but that was okay. Her mom and I hit it off just fine, and that was a real bonus.

We entered Cecile's home which was a simple hut with a stick roof and the walls made of hardened mud-brick. They had one bed that we sat on, and I presented her with all the things that Jack and I had bought for her. Her mom was especially pleased that I had bought some useful gifts like the math book and flash cards. At that time, I was pleased that I had thought to bring this kind women some gifts as well: some cooking tools and a nice runner for her table.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Mom reached from behind her and produced a brightly colored bolt of cloth with an African design on it in a vibrant cobalt blue and orange. Augustin, our World Vision guide--a guy no less--showed me how to wrap it around my waist like a skirt, the way the Senegaleze women do. When I emerged from the tent with that wrap on, the women in the village let out a whoop and one came up to me and began to dance. So, I did too! There was a lot of laughing when I left the village.

Even though Cecile seemed very nervous--even petrified at times, I forged a great relationship with her mom. Her mother, a Muslum lady, said that she would pray for me, and even though there was a good distance between our two families (one might even say worlds apart) we were brought together that day, and from now on through World Vision. I look forward to writing letters to Cecile and hope that as time goes on, she will realize what a wonderful opportunity she had and what a wonderful day it was.

As we drove off, we saw Cecile, surrounded by the villagers examining all the gifts she had recieved from the American lady. I have that image in my mind as I write. This is been a deeply satisfying experience for me, too. Perhaps as life changing as it will be for Cecile. Certainly, I have seen and heard what her life would have been like without World Vision, and thanks to this ministry, I can now be a part of that change.

Which One should I Choose?

I remember when I was making plans to go off to Grad School. There was no way that I could take either of my pugs with me to live in the school’s housing. My mother, having a dog of her own, issued an ultimatum to me. “Jennifer, I can only take one more dog. You’ll have to choose one of them to give away.” I was heartbroken, but I knew my mother was serious. I could hear it in her voice.

Out in the fields when I was walking Joey and Petey, I would look at one sad face to the other (at least they looked sad to me), and I would ask myself, “Which will it be? Will it be Joey, or Petey?” Every time I thought I had it figured out, I would break down and think, “I can’t possibly give HIM up!” Back and forth I would go. I vacillated so long that it was time for me to head to school, and I hadn’t done a thing about finding a new home for one of those dogs. In the end, Dad came to the rescue, and cared for my two dogs while I was gone. Mom didn’t seem to mind, but she didn’t let me forget that I had pulled “a fast one.”

Today we learned about something called, "Survival Strategy." This is very real and very sad.

Around the months of April through June, life gets very hard here in Senegal. The crops have been harvested the October before, and all the profit has been spent on food. Merchants who have bought up the grains that were harvested now break out their purchases to resell to the people who are easy prey. They have had to sell their harvest to live, have had to spend the money on necessities, and now what do they do?

There are several "Survival Strategies" they adopt to try to make it through desperate times.

The first stage is to skip a meal. Parents may ask an older teen to skip breakfast and spread out the food among younger siblings. Then more family members may go without food as the supply becomes skimpier and skimpier.

The second stage is for the parents to choose a child--typically the oldest girl because the boys are seen as more valuable, to leave the home and go into a big near by city like Dakar and find a job as an au pair, housekeeper, whatever menial unskilled job she can find. The point is to earn money and send some home to her hungry family. This leaves the girl very vulnerable to sexual preditors, sexually transmitted diseases, not to mention the fact that she was taken away from an education in order to work.

The third stage is to sell property, and this is the most severe tactic the family resorts to. It may start by selling a chicken, then a goat. Finally, a family will sell its horse or plow--the very means by which they earn a living in agriculture. The family will start the following year "in the hole" having somehow to repurchase tools to continue working.

We have seen how World Vision has entered villages practicing these Survival Strategies, and many residents have told us with their own words how life has changed for them. With new techniques and life skills, World Vision has taught them how to be more productive farmers with the drip irrigation system, for example. They are producing more crops, and are avoiding the nasty price gouging inflicted on them by greedy merchants. This is helping to eliminate the painful effects of the three survival strategies I described. People are eating, girls are staying in school, and villages are beginning to prosper because people care enough to give to World Vision through Child Sponsorship.

If I had trouble deciding which of my sweet pugs to give away, imagine how it must be for these parents sending children into a big city like Dakar?

Day 3
Today was a day full of information and fun!
This morning, we drove out to a World Vision agricultural project. We got to see how drip irrigation worked with our own eyes. They were just finishing the harvest of peanuts in the field we walked into, and we observed how two large plastic barrels were set atop cinder blocks. When the spigots were opened, water filled the rather thin lines that led to the plants. With this low pressure, slow drip irrigation system, a village is able to have up to four harvests a year, with three different crops growing at once in different sections. The crops we saw growing were: corn, peanuts, and millet. We got to sample fresh peanuts taken right from the ground. They tasted very different than the dry roasted type I was used to eating in the US!
World Vision is now teaching these villagers skills beyond the slow drip irrigation. They are selling their crops for a profit earning three times more than they did in the past per year. The people are learning to put money aside to save for equipment placement. They are also investing funds in their future—the children. To this end, they are building a school (we also saw this work in progress as schools open soon—October 13th).

Other villages are observing the difference these new systems are making in the life of the people who are now using World Vision’s model. They see how this local area is avoiding starvation during “off season” months when other areas without the irrigation system can no longer grow crops.
One member of our group asked if part of our child’s sponsorship was going to help programs like this, and the answer was, “Yes!” It’s good to know that the whole community in which the child lives receives the benefit of this partnership.
Well, I’ll sign off for the Moody Radio Team in Senegal for now… More to come!
Jennifer

Senegal blog Day 2
Entry 1

The sounds of French, pain au chocolat (chocolate inside a light, flaky bread), crêpes with Nutella, jus d’orange. It sounds like breakfast in Paris, but in reality, we’re worlds away from the City of Lights in Dakar, Senegal. Sitting in the hotel restaurant, we’re still worlds away from life in Tattaguine, the village we’ll be visiting, and the place Cecile calls home.

Reflecting on my first day in Senegal, I was surprised at how much I had already learned about World Vision. Most of it came from sitting in for a bit on their annual day of prayer and listening to the presentation. The verse they have chosen as they face their next fiscal year is from John 10:27: “Mes brébis entendent ma voix; je les connait et elles me suivent.” English translation, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” The pastor challenged the group to listen very intently to Jesus’s voice over the next year, and to follow him faithfully. He encouraged those who were Christians to minister to those around them with care, so that through their actions many would get a taste of the love of Christ through actions, and ask, “Why do you care about me?” What an open door, then, to share God’s good news!

I didn’t know it, but after the message, I was in for a treat! I was chosen as “an impartial party” to judge a chorale contest! This was a huge deal, as there were four choruses representing four different areas of Senegal. The categories we judged were based on: rhythm, harmony, lyrics of the songs chosen, movement, costumes, and the special way in which the choruses entered and exited the stage. Anyone who has seen African choirs knows that this was not only a feast for the ears, but for the eyes as well. The men and the women sported brightly colored hats, African attire and shoes to match. Their harmonies were rich and the movement spirited. All in all, it was great fun. Don’t tell anyone, but I gave them all the highest mark in the lyrics category because I couldn’t understand a lick of Serere, which is one of their native languages!

Entry 2

Happy Birthday, Dad, I wish I could be there to celebrate with you, but I know you understand why I’m here in Senegal. We’ll have to have to have some type of celebration when I get home.

Before going to the field, to see the life-changing work of World Vision in action we spent some time learning about what we would see in order to put it all into context. Precious in this country is water, something I so often take for granted. Taking life’s necessities for granted when a hurricane blows through South Florida. Then begin to lose things that SHOULD work in the US, like air conditioning, electricity, and running, clean water. All of this is semi-tolerable, because in the back of the mind is the knowledge that whatever is not working will be fixed. But what if there was no assurance that these things would be restored? How long would it be before South Floridians started seeking out water from nasty canals?
It’s something none of us want to think about, yet for many here in Senegal, it is part of daily life. On the journey today from Dakar to Fatick, we saw three young boys and two older ones bathing in standing, stagnant water left over from recent rains. We also saw a boy and a girl bathing in a river with their horse. At least the water had some movement to us, but it wasn’t the safest practice, especially since animals thing nothing of eliminating while in the river.

We did, however, see some women drawing from a borehole well, which could be a good thing, I suppose, but we learned today, that these aren’t always safe either.
Water is a huge issue as it either gives a body life, or transmits disease and nasty parasites. Some children can’t even go to school, as they spend their entire day walking back and forth to a water source that may be killing a family agonizingly slowly.

World Vision has come into areas and supplied them with wells that provide healthy water. The well is tested to ensure that the water meets with high nutritional standards. In addition, World Vision has helped train people in the use of drip irrigation, a clever way to water plants without watering neighboring weeds. The gardens remain organized and flourish, allowing the plants to make the best use of the rich Senegalese soil.

World Vision is bringing living water to nourish thirsty bodies and souls! Check it out, or better yet, help out at www.wrmb.org, and click on the World Vision banner!

We've arrived in Senegal!

After an eight hour flight, we breezed through immigration, and arrived where World Vision Senegal is holding their annual Day of prayer. It took a while for my French to kick in, with jet lag but it was thrilling to hear the prayers for unity and the desire to see Senegaleze communities transformed as the World Vision staff reflect the love of Christ to the people who need their spritual and physical needs met. As a fun twist to the day, there was a choral presentation. And I was drafted as a judge! Cant wait to tell you more tomorrow!

Samdi soir-Saturday evening

Cécile


I really shouldn't be this wound up, but I am. Or, I should be wound up...but for other reasons.

The night before a trip to Sénégal with World Vision is excellent cause to be excited. And I am, no question. But isn't it the way of things to be distracted with the temporary while on the verge of the extraordinary? I went to the archery range this morning, hoping to work it out on the target.

Converging on my poor gray matter are the three assignments that I have due this weekend for my coursework. Well, I got one of them completed. The least demanding, but it's a start!

Can we set the obessesion with grades aside for a while to concentrate on the more profound task of meeting a little girl in Africa? I'm hoping her smile when we meet will make my Survey Research paper seem a million miles away.

I just received my first letter from that little girl this week. My husband Jack and I are sponsoring her through World Vision. Cécile is her name and in her letter she told me that she is nine years old and in second grade. Her favorite subject is arithmetic, and she enjoys "playing on cooking" as her favorite game. Sounds like we have nothing in common, but wait! Cécile wants to be a teacher when she grows up. We may have more in common yet!

The children Jack and I have are short, fuzzy, get around on four legs, and snore. I get a kick out of buying new collars, and outrageous T-shirts for them. However, it is an entirely different thing to go shopping for a human girl, and is a privilege I rarely have. What fun it was to spend this rainy, South Florida day with Jack looking for bright, colorful hairbows, bags, coloring books, for Cécile and her sisters. And yes, I got some math flash cards, just for Cécile and her love of math.

Cécile closes her letter to me saying "I hope to hear from you soon." I wonder if she knows that she will have me "en chair et en os" ("in flesh and in bone" as the French say) in the very near future!

Bonjour Sénégal!

In just a few days, Moody Radio co-workers Jon Gauger, Tom Winn and I will be flying from New York City, NY to Dakar, Sénégal. Having never laid eyes on this portion of Africa before, I'm quite excited to take it all in. I have always wanted to visit West Africa, and am grateful to World Vision for providing this opportunity to fall in love with this part of the world and its people.

I'm already feeling some good-humored pressure as the "Arme Secret" or the "Secret Weapon" as I'm the only one who speaks French in our traveling group. No matter, I suppose. I've found that there's no wrongly conjured verb or incorrect pronounciation that a smile cannot make up for, so nothing to worry about.

One of the greatest points of anticipation will be meeting the child that my husband Jack and I have recently sponosored. Join me as we journey to meet Cécile and the many others who are being helped through World Vision!