Senegal Sightings 4

Wednesday: Gaby and Henk hauled four 25 kg pails of oil based paint up to the first floor apartment. We tried to dilute the first batch but that wasn’t very successful as it didn’t mix well at all. So we are going for the straight stuff. Margreet did part of the lower walls and Henk used the ladder to reach the top of the nine foot walls. The colour is more yellow than beige, but looks nice and fresh.

Although there was the ever present breeze and we had two fans running the fumes were still strong and Margreet had to call it quits after two hours. Thankfully there are good rollers and brushes to go with the paint trays and work went ahead steadily. The walls are constructed from steel beams covered with wire mesh and finished with cement; some holes needed filling and silicone was used where the interior walls were separating from the exterior walls.

In the evening we were invited by Sheila (an ethno-musicologist from Kelowna!) to play Quiddlers , which is one of the card games that we take along every trip. Together with Emma, a literacy specialist hailing from Ohio and working in Guinea Bissau, we had a great time and rolled exhausted into bed at 9.30.

Thursday: finished the second bedroom just before coffee break, which was the intent as we were going exploring after the break. With the five of us we drove downtown and were given an orientation of the many different stores, French cultural center and museums as well as several restaurants. Apparently Senegal and therefor Dakar are a tourist destination for the French. Although we didn’t see too many tourists we certainly got to deal with a lot of hawkers, selling anything from shoes to sunglasses to towels to pants and shirts.

After a nice lunch at a Senagalese restaurant we got home just after two, in time to do some more painting and checking up on Gaby’s work progress. The upper cabinets are now stained and work has begun assembling the lower ones. Since there was a lot of wood bought Henk measured all the pieces needed to make the sides out of three separate planks.

The first coat is now finished and even part of the bathroom got a quick coat as the plumber will install the toilet tomorrow. The new tile floor looks amazing!  (Ed:  Guess we must take your word for that?)  :)

Senegal Sightings 3

On Sunday morning the four of us went to the International Christian Fellowship service held in the gym of the International School of Dakar. After the service we had a kind of Munch and Mingle. As you can see in the pictures the overall dress code is decidedly more western than we had anticipated. We took a taxi home and relaxed the rest of the afternoon; did go for a stroll through the ‘hood. Although there are a few businesses going 24/7 it sure is quiet on Sundays.

With the situation so unstable in Mali we have a few extra people staying. Some have had to leave in a hurry for the third time these past two years.

Monday: Margreet took to cleaning the walls while Henk and Gaby are making steady progress on the upper kitchen cabinets. The water is dirty enough that we really should clean the clay filter daily, but that process isn’t that easy as the shut off valve is broken and Henk has to climb a ladder to turn off the main valve coming into the house. We ‘raided’ an apartment next door and were able to secure a small pot/lid which makes boiling water a bit faster.

Tuesday: We are still amazed and enjoying the cool weather even putting on an extra t-shirt. There was more measuring and cutting and Margreet prepped the walls some more by filling in the extra holes and using silicone to fill a crack in the wall. This afternoon we, Canadians, were invited to the grand opening of the Presse Café which apparently is a coffee chain in Quebec. The Canadian ambassador was going to do the ribbon cutting at 5.30 but it happened only an hour later, by which time Margreet and I had seen and heard it and after a brief stop at a grocery store went home.

Tomorrow we hope to tackle the painting of the walls…

Just Like Home?

(Ed:  Definitely NOT like home when Henk and Margreet sent these photos taken following the worship service in Dakar, Sunday January 27.  They knew their home church would be having the monthly 'Mingle and Munch' between services and wished to share the version they had earlier enjoyed.  

The pictures, taken outside in the warm sunshine reminded me of those delicious first-picked Okanagan strawberries and lemonade.  That's only three months hence, right?  :))

Senegal Sightings #2

How is the weekend progressing? We are well, but still crawl into bed early. We'll be going to the International Church here tomorrow morning.


The white cupboards (in 2 and 3)are the ones we removed. The one helping me is Gaby. The upper frames are ready in number 6

Senegal Sightings #1

Senegal Sightings #1
The last two days have been quite busy and a bit of a blur, so I’ll try to be somewhat coherent and chronological.
Tuesday: having gone to bed at 2.45 we didn’t get up till 11.30 (we may have been more tired than we thought). Several people had left prepared meals in the fridge so we had a nice lunch of potato and egg salad. In the afternoon we unpacked the last things and Henk took all the tools that we brought to the workshop for an early (or late) Christmas present. We figured that what we brought would have cost here at least $1200 – if at all available- while our cost had been $450.
Some first impressions:
- It is windy and quite cool (23C).  The SIL office/guesthouse is located in the industrial area and that makes for quiet evenings and nights.
- There are a lot of expats in Dakar so we are no curiosities.
- We are farther North than we normally are when in Africa and that makes for longer days and not the usual 6 to 6 sun up/down cycle.
-  We have hot running water!
- We’ll be using taxis quite a bit as our normal mode of transportation. Cost is $3 per trip whether one person or four.
We went to bed at 9.30 and were supposed to be woken by the alarm clock, but apparently that only works if one turns it on. Instead we rolled out of bed five minutes before our scheduled meeting of 8.30
Wednesday: we had a tour of the offices, being introduced to our new ‘colleagues’ and Henk was shown his field of operation: a two bedroom apartment that needs a complete overhaul.  It will be a combination of HGTV’s ‘Income property’ and ‘Canadian Handyman’…thankfully without the pressure and strict timeline.
Henk will be working together with our local center handyman Gaby (Gabriel). While Gaby was finishing the floor in the bathroom that had to be broken up to fix a leak, Henk started on taking down the kitchen cabinets.
Margreet in the meantime was folding 1500 tracts that are needed for an outreach this weekend. At 3.30 Marv and Edith took us shopping and we had supper at their house. In the meantime someone from the office was able to purchase a double mosquito net and that is a vast improvement over two single ones!
A regular teakettle that can be put on a gas stove burner is nowhere to be found. We use a cooking pot to boil and then carefully pour it in the coffee filter.
We now have a cell phone, which is recommended here for contacting each other. Our internet access seems to be very good as is the electricity and water supply.
Thursday: It is an official holiday and with two others we took the 20 minute ferry ride to Goree (the infamous slave island). It would have been more enjoyable if there hadn’t been so many hawkers but we saw quite a bit none the less and had a great lunch. Margreet and I didn’t venture into the ‘slave house’. Having seen a documentary on it not too long ago was enough for us.
(Ed:  this site provides information on Goree Island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor%C3%A9e and a search will find many others.)

 

(Note about the previous post, I had thought Margreet was enjoying the fare from a Dakar eatery but that McDonald's is in the Lisbon Airport.)

Home Away From Home

We are indeed in our new abode: it is always a little overwhelming to get the lay of the land. The accommodations are on the rustic side. Getting enough water filtered might be a bit of a challenge as the water is very dirty and there is only one filter in the apartment.

Marv and Edith Friese (from Winnipeg) will take us shopping tomorrow: besides the food to buy a teakettle will be a priority. We'll try to catch up on our sleep tonight.

TAP (The Portuguese airline) did a great job in looking after us..no complaints there.
The flight over from Lisbon was not bad either..the plane was pretty well filled to capacity.

We arrived at 1.30AM and it was quite smooth going through customs (finger printed, picture taken and visa issued) and getting our luggage. We made it to bed at 2.45.

Well, here we are in 'beautiful' Lisbon.

Saturday morning, after Elden and Karen Martin dropped us off, we were on our way to Vancouver (only a slight delay). We had a reasonable flight flying to London, even touching down on time. We got a good view of the whole airport as we then taxied for close to half an hour at a goodly speed all over Heathrow.

Of course we knew already that there had been some weather related delays/cancellations and now we became part of that. Quite a few cancelled flights on the departure boards. Ours showed just a delay, ..and then another and another. We did eventually leave at around ten. (after de-icing). Arriving in Lisbon at 00.30 (Monday, January 21) we were well looked after by the ground crew of the airline. Quite a task to get some sixty people organised and taken to a hotel.

After a quick shower we rolled into bed at 2.30. Margreet woke me up at 11.30 (way too early!)

Thankfully we always have a change of clothing in our backpacks!

We are scheduled to be picked up at six and arrive in Dakar just past midnight.
Will try to send some pictures as well.

(Ed. note: And here are those pictures!)

Chili on a Chilly Sunday!

Thank you all so much for your participation in the chili fundraiser event.$1,012 was given and we are so grateful.Thank you for your prayers, your partnership and your care. We'll be in touch...Blessings and love,Henk and Margreet

Getting Ready for Senegal

(Editor's note:  This post was written in November, 2012 but due to blogging mishaps :) I am now starting again and hope to have this correctly set up before Henk and Margreet leave in only a few days.)

December is just around the corner, which means that we are approaching a new year. Many of you have been following our adventures volunteering with Wycliffe Bible Translators over the past years. Again we felt called to volunteer where needed come January 2013, our 7th volunteer venture. From January 19 – March 27, we are responding to a call “to come over and help us” in the African country of Senegal .
Senegal has a population of over 12 million people – 70% live in rural areas while about 2.4 million live in or near the capital of Dakar.
Senegal allows freedom of religion. However, the task is great as 92% of the population adheres to Islam. Evangelical believers are few and the rate of growth is slow. Believers are scattered, poorly taught and under constant pressure from Muslim or animistic relatives to conform.
There are 38 languages. New Testaments are available in 6 languages. Pray for wide distribution and a deep impact on the readers. Work on 19 New Testaments is in progress.
We are thankful that once again we have the opportunity to help in a practical way to further the work of Bible translation and to be an encouragement to the local and international Christians who give so much of themselves in so many different areas of expertise.
Although we have a tentative list of things to do (mainly repair and maintenance of the offices and guesthouse of the translators) flexibility will be key again.
SUPPORT & DONATION INFORMATION
In order to correctly fulfill the government regulations regarding charity receipts, there are several ways in which you can donate to Henk and Margreet:
 Make your cheque payable to WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS”, and write “DenOudsten support” on the memo line. Place your cheque in the addressed Wycliffe envelope provided at the Info desk and the church will mail this for you. Your receipt will come directly from Wycliffe Calgary, so make sure your name and address is clearly written on the cheque or a separate piece of paper included in the envelope.
 Make your cheque payable to FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, and write “Wycliffe Bible Translators” on the memo line. Place your cheque in a regular offering envelope, again writing “WYCLIFFE” on the line that says “specify”. Please be assured that your donation will be sent to Wycliffe specifically for the DenOudsten’s support. However, please note that your donation will appear on your year-end statement as a gift to Wycliffe.
 Online – Wycliffe Bible Translators Canada, www.wycliffe.ca
 By credit card: call the WBT Canada office between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. mountain time, toll-free 1-800.463.1143.
 If you wish to give anonymously, please clearly state that information in with your cheque.
 If you do not require or wish a donation receipt, simply give your cheque or cash directly to the DenOudstens as a gift to them for their Missions trip.
The DenOudstens will be informed of amounts receipted by the church as a whole. The names of personal donors will not be passed on to respect the privacy of givers.