On coming home

After a Friday morning in a market near Saly, where we were staying, we all drove to Dakar, and said goodbye.

I had had an amazing two weeks away. I had missed my children and husband more than I thought I would, partly because I kept seeing and thinking things that I desperately wanted to share with them. "Angus would love to be seeing this," "What would Ken think about this?", "I wonder how Isla would react to this?"

I am glad to be home and have been far less culture shocked on returning from a developed country than I have been previously. I don't know why. My main reflection was whilst cutting the grass on Monday. I found it absurd that there were cattle in need of food; hungry goats, donkeys and horses in Africa, and here was I cutting and throwing decorative grass. The imbalance of resources seemed so unfair. I am not even going to mention the relative sizes of our house versus those we saw in the villages in Africa, or the abundance of resources and colour in Angus's and Isla's school and nursery.

While I am trying to work all this out, here are a few random photos from Africa that didn't make it into my other posts.

A pile of letters for the sponsored children. I had never really thought about what happens to the letters I send to Aloyse.

Dakar from a rooftop.

The bathroom at our hotel. Isn't it beautiful?

A group of school boys waiting for a lift to school. Hitch hiking to school seems to be normal.

World Vision gifted an ambulance to an ADP in Senegal. Basis isn't it?

Bullet cases being worn by a musician lady being used to create pleasure and music instead of pain. But where did they come from?

A group of children with Jane checking out a photo she had taken of them. This was very popular.

Sheep? Goats? Anyone know for sure? Makes you understand some of the biblical imagery of confusion over sheep and goats.

How to embarrass British women -  make them dance! But honestly, we didn't care how silly we looked. The pleasure in us dancing was far greater than any embarrassment we may have felt.

This is a Scout and Guide meeting area. Seriously, scouting has reached Senegal.

The greatest amount of teaching resources I saw in any school room.

Spot the chalk boards and lack of anything on the wall.

Off to meet her sponsored child. Spot the lady on the left carrying water on her head, and a baby tied to her back.

These girls had a small bouncy stone and were playing a kind of marbles game.

Group photo orchestrated by the girls on the back row. Sharon our group leader on the back right; Tricia an Ambassador on the left.

Another Fiona, a WV staff member with a tiny baby goat. It was very sweet.

Chasing bubbles.

A beautiful painting about child sponsorship in a WV Office.

Motorbikes are the best way for WV staff to get around.

African countryside out of the car window.

Against child Marriage. A Poster in a school.

WV have been encouraging irrigation and market gardening. It has been very successful.

A WV well. In the rainy season the water would be up to the shelf.

Close up of mud huts.

African Cows in the shade.

A compound

In Dakar we saw a lot of road side plant nurseries. A welcome splash of colour.

More plants in the nursery. 

 

 So all in all, I am very glad that I went. Would I go back? Definitely. And the children want to go next time.