You know me...

I am always looking for a good pickup line! ;-)

None of these trucks actually belong to us. We just store them for people because we have a gigantic parking lot and nothing to put in it. In african culture, an unused vehicle is a wasted resource. We had some workers here once helping unload a truck and one of them kept repeating to me over and over what a shame it was to have so many vehicles just sitting around doing nothing.

I can see his point. I can also understand why people store their vehicles here when they go on furlough rather than loaning them out to be destroyed in the congested roundabouts.

But the other reason I am showing this picture is because it is the current view from my front door, and I am planning to move out this week. Soon I will have a different view, which I will be happy to share with you in pictures.

My friend D asked me to move in with him a couple of months ago but I was dragging my feet for a number of reasons, mainly that living on center is more convenient. However, I think it is time for me to get out and actually live in Africa rather than my western bubble within Africa. Besides, we reworked the numbers and I think living with D will be a tiny bit cheaper.

I am planning to make the move either Tuesday or Thursday night, depending on how quickly I can once again shove my life into a couple of suitcases. And maybe some boxes... I am only moving a couple of blocks and I will probably check out one of our trucks (not in the picture) so I don't have to pack so efficiently.

Actually, if you look at the picture again I think you can see where I will live. I am pretty sure that it is the (very) white building just to the right of the smaller electrical pole.

VTT- Version Urbaine

Tonight I rode the bike over to the grocery store. Lately the traffic has been so bad that it takes people an hour or more to get there in a car. I can get there in 15 minutes on bicycle. That was a fun trip. I  ride fast and since I was taking back roads to avoid traffic some of it was rough going. The dirt roads here have rocks and gullies and craters and sand pits. I can go at least two or three times faster than a car could go on the same road because I use my body as the shock absorber and I only have to worry about finding one tire track.

There was really deep sand in one spot. A scooter was trying to get through from one side and I blasted into it from the other side. We both got stuck in the middle. I helped push him out and then just walked the bike to the other side. Bicycles really are the ideal transportation here. You can't carry a scooter across a sand pit or up and down the stairs for the footbridge across the autoroute.

When I got back I spent a while talking to P, one of our guards. When I come back with the bike he always likes to tell me that I am athletic and I laugh at him. I proved to him once that he is in better shape then me. I did 30 push-ups and then made him try, and he did 35. So there! P is also convinced that I am a fantastic musician just because I can plunk around on a guitar. I think he confuses me with the roommate I used to have who actually is a fantastic musician. Or perhaps P is just an eternal optimist.

The Greatest Victory in History

Thank You for the Cross, Lord

I first heard this song about a month ago when some good friends sang it and I thought about it again today.  I looked up the chords, practiced a few times, and then recorded it so you could hear... but apparently our internet connection is not good enough for uploading videos. I have tried three times here and once on YouTube and it always bogs down the internet until it almost stops. Since I am sharing the internet with a couple dozen other people, I can't be doing that.

So here are the lyrics, and a link on the bottom to somebody on YouTube singing it a lot better than I could.

Thank you for the cross Lord
Thank you for the price you paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love you came
And gave Amazing Grace

Thank you for this Love Lord
Thank you for the nail-pierced hands
Washed me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know, your forgiveness and embrace

Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
Crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious
High and lifted up
Jesus, Son of God
The Darling of Heaven, crucified
Worthy is the Lamb

(Hillsong United)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azYQqzoEjgU

Counting my many blessings

God really does take care of me. I have had a rough month and God knew I needed some encouragement, so today I had some pretty neat things happen.

First, I found corn meal in the store. I have been looking for it ever since I got here and I can almost guarantee that it was never there. Today it was, so I finally got to make cornbread. Hurray for my favorite comfort food! I was also able to buy fruit and vegetables that were badly needed, as well as peanuts (more comfort food!) and some cereal that wasn't horrendously expensive.

To further help the budget, someone repaid me $40 today. I had completely forgotten that they owed me anything. 


Then I decided to go for a run and ended up playing soccer! I was running down a side street and some guys invited me to join them, so I played with them for at least half an hour. Even though I'm horrible, they want me back tomorrow. I'll have to take advantage of it before the novelty wears off and they get tired of running circles around me. I was just so happy to be able to play. It's almost as good as hockey. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to do competitive sports here and I have really been missing it.

When I got back to my apartment, I had a hot shower! I haven't had enough water pressure for a hot shower for nearly two weeks and I have had to learn how to "shower" from a 5 liter bottle. That shower, followed by cornmeal and fresh green beens, was amazing.

And finally, I was going through old files and I found the lyrics for a song that we sang all the time back at college. I searched high and low about a year ago to find chords for it but since it was written by a girl at school I couldn't find them. Tonight I sat down and figured them out for myself. Being able to play and sing that song was a real blessing to me. It was a song that encouraged me to accept the adventure I am experiencing now. I sing it today with just as much awe for what God has brought me through and is bringing me through, and with just as much enthusiasm and hope for what God is going to do, as I had back then.

I'm so unworthy, but still you love me.
I'm captivated by your great mercy.                               
And I'm overwhelmed by what you've done in my life.
Now to know you more is my heart's one desire.

So draw me into your presence; lead me into your courts.
Saturate me, breath upon me your breath of life.

Call me, Lord I will answer. Send me, Lord I will go.
Now forever, I surrender. My heart is yours.

-I can't remember the name of the girl who wrote this, sorry.

Busy Sidewalks, City Sidewalks...

I have done a lot more driving in the past week and a half. Two Fridays ago I drove in rush hour traffic for nearly 3 hours coming back from a remote project. That was kind of a baptism by fire. Then Friday I drove down to the port and back. I am getting pretty comfortable with it. In some ways I feel safer here than in the US. Traffic generally moves slower, even if it is crazier, and here I am always driving massive pickup trucks with iron bars on the front and back.

A couple of times when I haven't been driving I have brought my camera along to shoot pictures. I have been here for three months and I'm starting to not be as aware of which sights are unusual to American eyes so it is high time I start taking pictures.

This is a "car rapide," an emblem of my city and the cheapest form of public transportation. These old Peugot vans have been running for decades thanks to the marvelous ingenuity of their drivers. There are hundreds of them in town, each one following a vaguely defined route that is sometimes altered to meet the demands of the passengers. The capacity of the van is generally accepted to be 18 plus the driver and "apprentice" who collects the tolls, with room for about 7 more to stand if necessary.

Touba is the city which is home to the largest brotherhood in Senegal, and therefore many car rapides, trucks, restaurants, barbers, etc. are named after it. Many car rapides and taxis also have pictures of one or more marabous (religious leaders) on the dash or in the back window. This one has it plastered to the middle of windshield.

I am not sure about the significance of the other designs. They vary somewhat from one car rapide to the next but there are recurring themes, such as the eyes. "Entreprise" is not a misspelling, it's French!

In this picture you can also see a man walking buy with a wheelbarrow, not an uncommon sight in any part of the city, and train tracks. Yes, the second largest artery into the city has to come to a halt when the train comes or goes. Fortunately the trains here tend to be very short and infrequent.

Here is just a mild taste of traffic. You see a flatbed truck, a car rapide, a bicycle, a scooter, a parked vehicle, and a bush taxi all trying to share a 2 lane road. And you better believe the two taxis are going to dart around the flatbed the first chance they get. The amazing thing is that there are no pedestrians in the picture. They are there on the right side of the flatbed, and probably walking in the road, but you can't see them.

All of the taxis, like the car rapides, have writing on them. Most thank a Marabou, Allah, or both. Most of them also have a thing hanging off the back bumper that looks like some kind of good-luck charm.

This is a boutique. Generally if you want to buy something other than fresh produce or meat, you go to one of these. It's like a general store but smaller, and it pretty much just contains food. "tigo" is one of the major telephone companies here. Apparently this boutique sells tigo phone cards. Instead of monthly plans, everyone here has pay-per-minute plans. The other major phone company is Orange. You can see one of their massive roundabout signs in the second picture (above the bush taxi).

Garage Sale!

Today I rose at the crack of dawn, if you allow the crack to be two and a half hours long, so that I could go to my first african garage sale. Well, it wasn't really African. It was a bunch of Americans and Europeans selling their old stuff. In Africa.

Anyway, I had nothing particular in mind that I wanted to buy, other than perhaps a bike helmet, but I was very excited anyway. I just like garage sales, and this one had 14 families involved.

I managed to leave with an armload of goodies and I only spent $7! I was really, really tempted to shell out another $20 to buy a big tub of Legos. I know it was worth at least a couple hundred dollars. But I'm too practical and some kid will get a lot more joy out of them than I would.

Anyway, here are my new treasures:

Softball glove, free! I wanted to play in the softball tournament this year but I didn't have a glove. Next year I can play!


1/2 teaspoon, also free! I haven't had a teaspoon since I got here, which makes cooking more of an adventure. Now I can actually do it correctly.


Bike helmet, also free! Thank you, God. It's ugly as taxes but it fits (more or less).



Root Beer concentrate, $2. You can't buy root beer here. I have a special cookbook that gives me the recipe for root beer, but you need extract to make it work. Every time I go to a new store I have been looking to see if they have root beer concentrate and it is nowhere to be found. So when I saw this, I snagged it.

Double 12 Dominoes, $4. I have already become known among the singles here as the guy who always has a deck of cards with him. Now I can add dominoes to my arsenal of fun. I just need my parents to email me rules for some of the domino games we used to play, I can't remember them very well.

Risk, free. It was supposed to be $1 but I got it for free when I bought the dominoes. No risk in buying that! Risk is a classic game, one that always carried an aura of mystery for me as a child because my older cousins always played it and I wasn't allowed to because it was "too complicated."

Boggle, $1. I love the fact that it is the exact same edition, including the box, that my parents have. Makes me all nostalgic and stuff. Boggle is another favorite game at my parents' house.

Now I just need to find some people to play with!

What a day

For starters, I drove home from church. That means a manual transmission 4x4 pick-up truck on the main streets of one of the biggest cities in west Africa. Kinda wild. Fortunately Sundays are the lightest traffic days, which is why we decided it would be good practice.

To make it more interesting, we didn't go straight home. We dropped off a friend who wanted to visit some relatives of her village "family." And we decided to go and introduce ourselves. This resulted in us spending the entire morning and afternoon with them.

So I got a really good dose of local life today. It was fun! Also somewhat tiring, and it made me realize that I really need to work on understand French with an African accent.