PGA continued

After the last post about our PGA trip to Senegal and Gambia, I wanted to post again to share a bit more and some more pictures. It’s taken a while, but here you go . . .

After we talked to the appropriate government officials, the first order of business in each village was to talk to the village chief or, if he wasn’t available, one of his advisors. Here we are talking to the village chief in one the first villages we visited. We wanted to find out who lived in the village, what languages they spoke, what religions were practiced in the village, what was happening in terms of literacy, etc.

However, we didn’t just want the chief’s opinion. We also wanted to hear what regular people had to say, so we found lots of people, both male and female, from all different ages, to ask them different questions. What language do you speak at home? What language do you speak at work? What language do you speak in the market? What language is spoken during a ceremony? Do you want your children to be able to speak a foreign language? Do you want your children to be able to read your language? Would you marry someone who couldn’t speak your language? What if he only spoke your language? What language do you prefer to speak? . . .

In one of the villages we happened to arrive on the day of a funeral. But they were so inviting they didn’t mind. They even let Jen and I help a little with making the lunch for all the guests, and then we got to eat there as well. So hospitable! It was my favorite village we visited on this trip.

In one of the towns we visited, we met this old man. He wasn’t from the people group we were researching so we didn’t ask him our questions, but since he greeted us we said hi. And we were surprised to find that he spoke English in French-speaking Senegal! He said that he had learned it in high school and I guess he hadn’t forgotten it all yet. What a great memory he has, and what a surprise to us!

This was the hotel room I shared with Jen at our first hotel. The first night we didn’t have the mosquito net up, but after waking up at 5am to something crawling across my back, then turning on the lights and seeing that it was a mouse, I insisted on putting up the mosquito net. Yes, it could have chewed through it like it chewed through my backpack zipper a few nights later, but at least it was a deterrent. And it decided it was enough of a deterrent that it left us alone after that, except for the unfortunate backpack zipper (that I was able to get replaced when we got back to Dakar for $2.40).

Our trip took us into Gambia as well as Senegal. Gambia is English-speaking, which was a change. And since we spent almost 48 hours in one of the touristy cities on the coast, we were amazed by the things we saw that looked like the US – there was even Chick Fil A! We didn’t eat there, but we did enjoy other very yummy meals. I wanted to stay a week!

During our time in that touristy city we did get to be tourists for a few hours, which meant a trip to the beach! So much fun!

Ok, there’s a little more about our PGA trip for you guys. Thanks again for praying!