Famine Relief

As my previous post makes clear, I have no problem obtaining food; but that's not true for subsistence farmers in parts of Senegal this season.

North of Dakar, the rains came so late this year that the harvest failed, and some villages ran out of food for some of their livestock, losing them to starvation. Fortunately, the rains have begun, and surviving livestock can feed on the vegetation that is now growing. Meanwhile, some of the families' own food stocks are down so low that they eat only once a day.

How to Help. WorldVenture, one of Dakar Academy’s owning missions, has organized a relief effort to help these folks hold on until the harvest of the second planting, later this fall. If you'd like to help, you can send donations to WorldVenture / 1501 W. Mineral Ave. / Littleton, CO 80120 / Attn: Special Project #6403-933 Famine Relief. (You can also give online at www.WorldVenture.com.)

How Much Does it Cost to Live in Dakar? What Do You Eat?

These are two of the most common questions people ask me. Today, I'll give you a "taste" of the answer to both questions.

Good Eats. I usually have cereal and juice for breakfast. One lunch this week I had the Senegalese version of fast food. Neighborhood Senegalese restaurants fix one meal each lunchtime. You provide your own large (mixing) bowl, and for the equivalent of 50-75 cents US, they fill it with an enormous serving of a traditional, rice-based dish. Fish and rice on Monday, chicken and rice on Tuesday, etc. On Friday, I had the beef offering--mildly spiced fried rice with chunks of beef mixed in, topped with deliciously pickled vegetables.

Otherwise, I've been alternating among several dishes my cook prepared for me (she comes every Thursday): chicken in a hot tomato-mushroom sauce, meatless chili, pizza, and meatloaf, along with rice, couscous, pasta, whole wheat rolls, and canned corn. Plus cranberry scones. Fresh fish is also plentiful here. Jealous yet?

Where's the Kroger's? As for cost of living, I just took my first trip to Le Caddie (the neighborhood market, or marché--pronounced mar-shay) since my return to Dakar. It's a mom-and-pop shop a couple of blocks from campus, owned and operated by a delightful Lebanese couple. (Many of the middle-class business owners in Dakar are Lebanese.) What I bought and how much I paid will give you a feel for the availability and cost of western foods.

• 3 boxes of breakfast cereal (including 1 Kellog's Rice Krispies, 1 Quaker Cruesli, and 1 "Temmy's Bran Flakes," from Egypt)
• 2 1-litre boxes of juice imported from France
• 3 1-litre no-refrigeration-needed plastic bottles of skimmed milk from France
• 1 litre olive oil
• 3 28-oz cans of beans (white, red, black)
• 1 medium can of mushrooms
• 3 packages of facial tissues (Kimberly-Clark)
• 1 packet (200g) of butter (French)
• 1 pkg of napkins from the United Arab Emirates
• 1 box of brown (cane) sugar (France)
• 1 bag of white sugar, locally hand-packed in unlabeled bags
• 1 pack of fresh pita bread, hand-packed in unlabeled bags

Total Cost: 30,760 cfa (West African francs), or approximately $60.00 US

The Procedure Failed, but the Patient Survived

In my post of a few minutes ago, I forgot to thank all of those who have asked after my brother. Though doctors were unable to place a stent, medications dissolved the blockage in his artery. He is home, is recovering very quickly, and is grateful for everyone's concern and well-wishes.

Back "Home" in Dakar

Return Trip. I arrived in Dakar last Saturday night after one of the smoothest trips I've ever taken. Ironically, no one checked for my visa upon my return. Though I had my usual pre-return blues (they begin after 4 weeks back in the States), it's good to be back "home."

Teaching. I've just completed the 1st week of my 5th year teaching at Dakar Academy. I've always enjoyed the students here, but this appears to be the nicest crop yet. This semeseter, my responsibilities include:

• Elementary School music: grades K-5, meeting 2x per week for 30 minutes each
• Middle School music: grades 6-8, meeting 2x per week for 45 minutes each
• Chamber Choir: 9 high school students selected by audition, 2x per week for 45 minutes each.
• Overseeing Elementary Chapel (speaking and leading music, and finding others to do so)

This week I invented a musical game that the 3-6th graders really enjoyed.

Campus. The picture above is an old one, but shows an area of campus largely unchanged since I took it: the elementary school building (6 classrooms, a small kitchen, two bathrooms, and in the middle, the 2-story auditorium where I teach) and elementary playground.

Weather. The weather is always noteworthy here, even if it's weather as usual. As expected at this time of year, it's hot and humid. Thankfully, the power has stayed on for a whole week, so I've had the benefit of my new (used) air conditioner at night. It's also been cloudy. We had a welcome downpour today, wiping the dust off the leaves and washing much of the the humidity out of the air (and turning High School PE class soccer games into a mudbowl).

I would not be able to take this same picture today, because a new, 3-story classroom building covers the spot where I stood to snap the shot. In addition to the badly needed additional classroom space, the bottom floor of this new structure provides a great benefit: a shady, breezy, open area for lunchtimes and other large gatherings.

Birders Alert. I awoke to what I believe was the sound of an owl in the middle of the night earlier this week. A colleague thinks she saw one on campus recently. I've never seen an African owl, but perhaps I'll be able to post a picture of one here someday.

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Still in the US, still in the US, still in the USSA

Those old enough to remember such things will be able to deduce from from the title of this entry that I've been listening to Beatles albums lately.

I'm still in Michigan. I was to have left for Senegal on Tuesday Aug 7. Visa problems (long story) prevented my boarding the plane. After several phone calls to Dakar and several days of work by an Air France representative, we got things worked out, and my departure was rescheduled for Sunday, Aug 12, but...that afternoon, my brother came home from exercising with symptoms that sounded ominously similar to ones I had 22 months ago. I called 911, and he was rushed to the hospital, treated in transit for, yes, a heart attack.

He's back home now, doing well. He received excellent treatment, delivered cheerfully and professionally by University of Michigan Health System staff, and was himself a model patient. His prognosis is very good. Family, neighbors and other friends have been very supportive (both to him and to me). And, despite some frustration at being denied entrance to my first plane, I'm grateful I was still here 5 days later to recognize the symptoms, and I'm grateful it was a "minor" heart attack.

I am now scheduled to return to Dakar tomorrow (Friday the 17th), leaving him in the good hands of his daughter, who came from out of state, and other relatives and friends in the area.

When I arrive in Senegal Saturday evening, I will have missed the first two days of school, two days of annual orientation, and several days of last-minute prep. Fortunately, I often teach best when I'm improvising. I'm not looking foward to the heat and humidity, but hope it will help me lose some of the 30 lbs I've gained in the past 9 months!

I do look forward to using this blog to keep family and friends updated more often than I have in the past. Suggestions are welcome. (Yes, I know, add more photos. I'll work on that once I get settled in again in Dakar.)