Senegal SST

Bandia Game Reserve

We went to the Bandia Game Reserve and saw a variety of animals. We ate lunch by the crocodile pond and in the company of a troop of monkeys. We ended the day with a final story time before we head out for service.  …

Last Dinner at Chez Goshen

For our last Wednesday night dinner together at Chez Goshen we had pancakes and French toast and everyone dressed in their Senegalese finest.

Joal-Fadiouth

We spent three days in and around the town of Joal-Fadiouth. Joal is the boyhood home of Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first president of Senegal. Senghor was not only the first president but also a poet and intellectual whose notion of “négritude” helped define post-colonial Senegalese and African identity.  We…

Toubabs on the Court

What was billed as a friendly match between the Goshen toubabs and a Thiés club team turned into a competitive competition when some Senegalese all stars stepped on the court.

Saint-Louis

Over the weekend, we traveled north to the Saint-Louis Jazz Festival. Saint-Louis is located in the northwest of Senegal where the mouth of the Senegal River meets the Atlantic Ocean. It sprawls over a number of small islands and served as an important trading post and eventually the capital of…

Djembe Lessons

We spent Thursday afternoon at the Village Artisanal, a collection of artists, woodcarvers, musicians, weavers, and leatherworkers. The main attraction was djembe lessons!…

Beer-Sheba Project

We started off the 4th week with a field trip to the Beer-Sheba Project. The Project is a vision of a small team of SIL language workers assigned to the Serer-Sine area in Senegal and is part of their strategy to promote the use of the…

Batik

Well, not exactly. We arrived at Chez Jacqueline expecting a batik lesson, which for us meant using dye and hot wax to create beautiful, one of a kind, wall hangings and cloth. After receiving some basic instruction from Jacqueline, we came to realize that ‘batik’ is used as a more…

Dakar and a Visit from Tom Meyers

We started the third week of Study with a trip to Dakar. We began with a visit to the African Renaissance Statue finished in 2010 to celebrate the country’s 50th anniversary of independence from French colonial rule. It sits on top of a huge hill on the edge of the…

Touba

After a week of classroom lecture exploring the intersections of religion, politics and history in Senegal, we climbed back into our trusty bus and headed eastward to Touba. Touba is the holy city of Mouridism, a large Islamic Sufi brotherhood founded in 1883 by Cheikh Amadou Bamba. The city is…