Salam a lay koum!

lunes, 10 de noviembre de 2008

Today was a great first day! The visit to the UNICEF Dakar office was very informative and the people were friendly and knowledgable. I am really happy the students are participating and Maria is a great translator. Happily they speak lots of English as well as French. But the best part of the day was getting away from the air conditioned offices and hotels and to visit the ACAPES project in suburban Dakar. Just the bus ride showed us the abject poverty of this city and then we entered what seemed like an oasis of hope. There I met 5 students who were all chosen to come to this school where they reform and assist students who have been rejected by their schools and often by their families through conflict and loss. While the girls made juice I bravely approached these 5 adolesents. My French is weak but to my surprise a smile is all you need. Through English, Spanish, the global topic of football, looking at their schoolbooks, sharing a glass of their juice, discussing Barack Obama, even spoke of theatre as they act in social help sketches and learning phrases in Wolof ... Salam malekum!! - we spoke for an hour and became friends. What an amazing group - they work half the day and study the rest. Their maths exercises were more advanced than I remember at my school! They had hopes of going to University - one, David, to study English. And the world is now small. We exchanged emails and they will write to practice their English. The Director of this centre is an amazing man. We must set up some direct help to this place. A good day. Faith restored that UNICEF makes a difference with the funds from SEK. Tomorrow onto the South to Kolda ...all excited. Saludos a todos. This sure beats office work!