On that Saturday night, remember, I have now been up for two whole days, but I am holding my own. Anyway, that Saturday night Sherrill and I met up with a former college-mate who had been visiting in a small area with a team from his church. Their church has adopted this village and they were helping to build some structures for them, while they also had Bible studies. Anyway, I had not seen John since 1975, when we graduated from college. And here we were, thousands of miles from home, meeting for the first time since college. Amazing or what? We had a great visit !!

John Bush and Sherrill Holloman

John and his team, with me and Sherrill

A shot of the restaurant

 

These next few pictures are of some of the dishes we had -- these are for my daughter who loves to take pictures of food!  Above is a dish of olives with garlic.  Since I don't like olives, I didn't try this.

This was my dish - a Lebanese chicken dish-- basically grilled chicken on a skewer, rice with something on top of it, and a soy-type sauce in the bowl.  Delicious!

The lady who sat next to me ordered this fish dish - (loved the head staring at me).  It must have been really good because the next time I looked over at her plate, all I saw was a fish skeleton with the head still on it!

Sherrill had this vegetarian pizza.  I was too full to try it.  But she said it was great!

While in Fatick, I went up on the roof of Sherrill's house to get a better view of the houses and layout of the land.  You will notice that the houses appear to be made of a type of brick--- these bricks usually hold up well, but since they are poorly made, when the rainy season comes you will find many houses with walls that have fallen in.  And as I mentioned before, most all houses have some type of fence around them.  This gives them a little privacy.  They usually keep these yards fairly clean, but just outside the walls, on the streets, you will find all kinds of trash, sand, animals (goats, mostly).  These goats seem to know not to wander off, even the little babies, which are really quite cute.

This house is right across the street from us.

Just to the left and across the street is this house.  I like that the fences give them a sense of privacy and security for the children to play.

Looking right, is this view.

Just to my right, next door.

Our backyard friends, Sheep - their ears lay down

Front yard, goats- their ears stand up.

A quiet resting place, the bench in front of Sherrill's house.

They try to find ANY shade they can, even if it's just a sliver of it!

 

While there, I got to visit "downtown" Fatick.  It's really their market place.  Like no market I've ever visited.  But, again, the people are so friendly.  Sherrill introduced me to quite a few of the ladies she has made friends with, speaking their language, Wolof.  Of course, she only speaks a little, but I was so impressed that she could communicate with them! ( Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks!:)

Fresh beef anyone!

Sherrill walking down one of the roads through the market.

 

Inside the market, looking down one of the "paths".

 

A table of goodies, hard to tell what some of this is, but I can tell, there are some dried fish heads on this table.

Fish and shrimp table

One table in the fish market

 

"Fresh" bread.  It's actually quite tasty

Some kind of fruit - the little black spots are flies.  I'm not sure what the green stuff is.

 

Sherrill buying some dinner napkins and tissues. 

Sherrill and I went to the market two different times.  One time we rode the horse cart and the other time we had access to a vehicle.  When we had the car we were able to ride around and see some sights.


                                     
                                               Horse cart and motos and cars share the road.

I wanted a shot of one of the ladies carrying something on her head.  This is quite common.  Such balance!

The gentleman in this shot is blind, and the little boy in the orange shirt is leading him.

 

This group of little boys are called Taliba boys.  They are given over to the muslims to train, and they go out with little yellow buckets to collect money. Some of these children are as young as three.  They receive little food and clothing.

One of the "shops" on a corner. 

                                                       Another shop on a corner.

The entrance to the hospital.

A wagon in the front of Sherrill's house.

This is a mound of salt.  There are squares of area where ocean tides bring in the water, and when the tide goes out, the water is left in these "squares", when the water evaporates, what remains is salt.  It is then piled up and eventually sold.

 

This is the pharmacy in Fatick.

And these are the pharmacists.

The gentleman on the left is the owner.

One of the buses unloading a man and his sheep.

 

A horse cart crossing the salt flats.

 

A family I met - the young lady in the middle graduated from "university", and speaks English well.  She is also Catholic.  Her mother is in the front.  A niece in the back.

The lady is the front is Mom-Deet (this is a phonetic spelling)  Speaks no English, but very friendly.

I also had the opportunity to do an art project with the Kid's Club - a group of young local children who meet to learn stories from the Bible.  Some speak a little English, but most speak French, the main language, or Wolof, the local language. The story that day was of John the Baptist baptising Jesus, and the dove coming down and landing on Jesus shoulder.  They cut out a picture of a dove, then glued it to a clothespin, and they could then clip it to their shirt on their shoulder to help them remember the story.

Following are some random shots.

 

 

Looking west from the roof top of the missionaries' home on Pizza night.

Kaitlin, Melody and Amy on the rooftop

Sherrill and Kim with our delicious homemade pizza

 

Amy and Kaitlin dressed up in traditional "fancy" garb for Tabaski Day celebration.  They were invited to SIX different homes to share the food and celebration.

 

Driving back to Dakar you can get a glimpse of the coastline.

 

This shot is for my brother, Eric, who is retired from Shell Oil.  This was the only company I recognized in Dakar.  There were some local stations.  But Shell is well represented there.

 

Cab stopped in the road.  If they have car problems, they just stop where they are and work on it.

 

The day I was to fly out of Dakar, we had several hours to wait until I could go to the airport.  Two missionary girls were kind enough to allow us to rest at their apartment. This is a scene from their balcony looking to the right.  The road is dirt but the apartments are faily nice.

 

This is in an area of Dakar that is rather nice.  Another home.