Senegal Team 2010 Update #1

The first round of the team departed SeaTac airport at about 7:30am on Saturday, the 13th.  They arrived in Dakar on Sunday morning.
 
FYI:  Senegal is approx. 8 hours ahead of our time.  So at 9:30am today it is 5:30pm there.  We’re eating breakfast & they are getting ready to eat dinner!
 
A text message was rec’d from the team today:
We are safe and sound in Keur Madiabel.  It is late & we are tired but good.  Will write more later, love to all.

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Senegal Team 2010 Update #2

Rec’d 2 emails today, the one below is from Stephanie (the team leader), the other was from my mom.  Apparently there is now an internet cafe in Keur Madiabel so that is how they were able to email this year.  Emails arrived at approx. 10:30am our time which is 6:30pm in Senegal.
 
An FYI as a few people have asked:  The “first part” of the team (who are currently in Africa) is made up of:  Stephanie & Josh Kennison, John Paul, Claude Best, Cami Gurney, Doug & Cathy Enyeart, Debra Nice and Charli Spearin (who joined the team in New York).  The “second part” of the team is the group of dental professionals from Poulsbo who are travelling to Senegal specifically to lend their help to the dental clinic portion of the trip.  They are:  Lyle (dentist) & his daughter Madeline, Casey (hygienist) & her daughter Jade, Jonna (hygienist), Kristin (hygienist) & her husband Phil.
 
 
Greetings to all! We have been in Africa for four days now and are
becoming more and more adjusted. So far nine of us are here and seven
more will join us tomorrow morning Senegalese time. All of us are
doing well but could use your prayers for digestion to be working as
it should for many of us.

Yesterday we went to another village nearby to help with laying pipes
in a garden worked by a group of women. The men dug the ditch for the
pipes while the women drew water from the garden well to water the
crops and help soften the dirt for the men to dig. Unfortunately the
natives hit the pipe wrong and caused it to burst. Water flooded the
ditch and a mass effort was made to bail out the water while the men
tried to fix the break. Josh was very helpful with his engineering
skills. During our breaks Stephanie had fun singing and dancing with
the kids and Josh tried teaching the kids how to do the wave. The
whole team contributed much with the project. After we were done the president of
the womens club gifted us with three live chickens as a reward for our
help. We are sure we will be having those chickens for dinner sometime
soon. We were able to thank them for letting us help them and tell
them we were there because of our love for God and our belief that He
loves them and cares for their well being.

Other than that we have been spending time with the family hosting us
and learning the language more and more. Stephanie was able to share
the story of Gods creation with the help of a translator to some of
the village kids. They proved to have pretty good memories when she
quizzed them on what God created on what days! Pray this story and the
word of God will be planted in these kids hearts.

We had a time of worship in our building and was asked by the head of
the compound to sing in the courtyard when the weather cooled
off…this is huge! God is opening doors for us.

We will start the dental clinic in three days and will do two days in
Keur Madiabel then two days in Taibe Mbyene and another day in another
nearby village. Please pray for the seven dental members coming
tomorrow as they will have little time to rest before the clinic
starts.

We will be in touch later. Much love and thank you for your prayers
and support!!

2010 Senegalese Team

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This email was from my mom to us.  I didn’t send it out to the email update list, but I will share it here.  I left the spelling & punctuation as-is; I thought it was kind of funny & can picture my mom plugging away on a French keyboard trying to make it work!

Hi;
New thing is internet cafe.  110 yesterday. Did ditch work and watering most all day yesterday at tmb.  Sunburnt…should have used tanning bed first:  Jim says Hi Alex….everyone asked about you.  Team coming tomorrow.  All food packed with them…I know thqt will amuse you.  Hope all is well in your village…can; wait to come home.  This is a french keyboard…hqrd work and sweltering…you best appreciqte the effort1

Much Love Mom

They’ll arrive in Senegal at approx. 6 a.m. Senegal time on Sunday, Feb. 14th.  For us, that will be approx. 10 p.m. tonight.  Senegal time is about 8 hours ahead of us.  The team typically sends texts to let us know that they’ve arrived, are safe and any other updates they have.

Lot 1:  Mary from Maryland (sukebind on Ravelry)

Lot 2:  Ashley from the United Kingdom (Wonk on Ravelry)

Lot 3:  Rowena from New York (RCBird on Ravelry)

Yarn has been mailed.  It was an amazingly succesful fundraiser, we sold 225 raffle entries all together.

How you can help

I am asking for donations from like-minded friends who love yarn & fiber arts!  Please email me:  bradymom29 at gmail dot com for information about how to make a donation and possibly receive a thank you gift of some yummy yarn!

Look at the all of the yummy yarn:

Lot One (7 skeins)

See all the great yarns in Lot 1 here on Flickr or here on Ravelry.

Lot Two (7 skeins)

See all the great yarns in Lot 2 here on Flickr or here on Ravelry.

Sock Minis (over 40 mini skeinlets of yummy sock yarn!)

See more pics of the yarns in the Sock Minis Lot here on Flickr or here on Ravelry.

• 15 team members total
• Sponsoring organization is Christ Memorial Church, Poulsbo WA (although about 1/2 of the team are community dental professionals with no affiliation)
• First half of the team departs for Senegal Feb. 14 (this includes 1 lead dentist + support team), meeting one team member (who lives out of state) in New York
• Second half of the team departs 5 days later
• The team lives with a host family in the very rural village where the clinic is run.  Conditions are fairly primitive:  all water must be sanitized, there is no hot water (although there are cold showers), there is one “Western” toilet in this compound, they stay in concrete buildings, take most meals with their African host family.
• Primary language spoken is Wolof, many Senegalese also speak French. 
• Dental clinic will run for 5 days in the village of Keur Madiabel, with several possible excursions via horse cart to outlying villages to run mini-clinics
• The team will primarily do cavity fillings, tooth extractions and teach preventative dentistry
• I will try to find hard numbers, but at the previous dental clinic, I think they saw somewhere around 300 +/- patients + a lot more came to preventative dentistry “classes”

Many of you know that my mom lives with us.  One thing she has wanted to do for much of her life was to travel to Africa to help people there.  Last year, she had the opportunity to go with a group that my husband & I have been involved with.  My hubby & mom travelled to Africa together and helped set up & run a medical clinic in Feb of ’09.

She is planning on going again this next Feb. to set up a dental clinic and provide dental care to people in Senegal, West Africa.  She is having a hard time raising the funds she needs to go…it’s just not coming in and she is starting to worry that she won’t have the money she needs.  Each team member needs to have raised a significant amount of the total $1400 by the end of December in order to secure their airfare & spot on the team.

I want to host a yarn raffle!  My plan is to collect donations of yummy yarn (I plan on contributing a few skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn and some Dream in Color Smooshy!) and then I’ll be offering the raffle entries for sale to help her raise the funds for her trip.

My goal is to collect at least 16 skeins:  enough for 4 lots of 4 skeins each AND I’d love to collect at least 25 mini-sock yarn skeins to create a Sock Yarn Blankie lot.  If I can do that and then sell 100 entries for each lot, I could meet my ultimate goal:  I’d like to see this raise $500 toward her trip and I know that is high-reaching, but I think we can do it!!

I’ll be collecting donations over the next week or so and then hopefully be ready to sell tickets in December, with the drawing to take place on New Year’s day!  So the tix could make great, fun stocking stuffers for your yarny friends, or you could ask for some entries for Christmas!

Everyone who donates will receive 1 FREE entry for each $10 increment that you donate.  (For example – if you donate a skein of Mal sock, which is an MSRP of about $19, you’d get 2 tix, each lot of 5 mini-sock yarn skeins would get you one entry).  Donated yarn should be like-new, still in the skein with the ball band, free of smoke smell.  (I know that many have pets, that’s ok)  Donors mail the yarn directly to me and shipping is up to you (however one skein of yarn mailed 1^st class in the US is usually under/about $3).  After the lots are posted, you’ll be able to choose which lots you’d like your “thank you” tickets entered to win.  If you have your own etsy store or are a yarn/fiber seller, I will link to your storefront on my blog!  Free advertising!!

This is where YOU come in.  We need yummy yarny donations.  Do you have anything in your stash you could part with?  Maybe that unloved sock yarn?  Maybe a couple skeins of some super soft worsted?  Some of your handdyed or handspun?

If you have a donation you are willing to make, please email me:  bradymom 29 @ gmail. com (remove spaces) and I’ll send you details on how to donate.  I’d like to have all yarn rec’d and the lots photographed by Dec. 8, so I need to collect the yarn donations SOON. 

I know how great my friends are & how amazing the knitting/fiber/Rav community is.  So thank you for reading this & considering helping with this great cause!

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Please email me if you have any questions about the trip, donating, or anything!  If you have ideas for other things to donate other than yarn OR if you want to run a yarn donation by me (if you’re not sure), just email or find me on Ravelry as bradymom29.

Unfortunately for our family here, the dad leaves and the baby gets sick!  That does not make the momma very happy!  But on the bright side, Alex somehow managed to get me a Valentine’s Day gift all the way from Africa!  Sneaky, sweet little hubby, that one!

As I hear more, I will post to update everyone.  The plan is for them to text me as things happen in order to keep everyone back home apprised of what is going on there in Senegal.

• 8 people are going from Poulsbo/Kitsap area.  3 more from Colorado will join the team in New York.  (The Randalls led the team last year & moved to Colorado.  They have made a “recruit” who they’ll be bringing with them).
• This year’s focus will be a medical clinic to Keur Madiabel as well as at least one other village in the area.
• We are still in need of donations of medical supplies or money to purchase them.  (tax deductible!!)
• Both Alex & my mom are going so that leaves me without my 2 favorite people in the world.  Good thing I’ve got some good friends, my knitting & a few kids to occupy me!

I’m sure you remember that last year was hard because I was so ready & geared up to go and then couldn’t.  There wasn’t much for me to do besides go to the team meetings as a non-particpant.  This year has been a little easier because I’ve been able to be really involved.  I’ve led the team building/training sessions and helped to coordinate the fundraising efforts and language learning.  The best compliment I had was having someone tell me that they forget that I’m not going.  Makes me feel like I’m truly part of the team.

And so the countdown begins….

So, for now, I am working with the team doing pre-trip training, I’m helping the team and Alex with their fundraising and generally providing as much support as I can.

The team will travel to Senegal, West Africa in February of 2009.  We are working on raising our support and hopefully soon I’ll have this blog updated and you’ll begin to see more and more exciting information about the upcoming trip!

**Speaking of the baby….what mom could resist posting a pic for everyone to ooh & aah over???