First Term Updates – Cote d’Ivoire/Senegal

We are in the final week of the semester; finals start on Monday.  It’s extra work for the teachers as they have to prepare 2 tests: one for our ICA kids since they are being tested on this quarter only while all other students are being tested on the whole semester.  We are very appreciative of all the Dakar Academy staff has done to make this school year work for our ICA kids.

All peace-keeping efforts in the Ivory Coast are on hold now because of renewed fighting in the west near Liberia.  This includes not only the peace talks in Lome, but also the possible locating of the ECOWAS troops on the campus; the officers didn’t even show up last week.  We don’t know if this is good news or bad news since we’re hearing of so many atrocities that are happening with this fighting. You can keep up with this, too, by going to Yahoo News and searching for news about the Ivory Coast.  Do remember that the news reports aren’t always accurate, but they will give you an idea of what’s going on.

We’ve heard rumors that we may be moving soon, but we haven’t seen an apartment yet. Other than wanting to get settled, we’re not unhappy where we are.  Actually, the 2.5 miles of walking each day has been good for us; but since we have no phone, no TV or VCR (“not a single luxury”), and live away from everyone else, it does get lonely at times.  We’re both reading  more, and Bob is spending more time with his French studies. 

Thank you for your prayers. Please pray for this next week’s travels as kids and staff will be returning ‘home’ for the holidays.

We thank God for the opportunity to minister in Dakar Academy although it is very different from ICA.  Bob has a Bible and a World Cultures class.  It is unique because there are Muslim and Hindu students in these classes and this gives a rare opportunity to share  the gospel and teach Biblical values.  We live in town about 1/2 mile from the school (for now – this is still temporary).  This is different from the ICA campus in the country where we walked across a little campus road to our school.  It does gives us ample opportunity to meet African people and use our French that we are learning.

The news of the past few days has had us on an emotional roller coaster, and we’re still waiting for the end of the ride.  On Monday, our director, who is on campus at ICA, communicated the following good news to us:

“The UN relief workers are still sleeping in (one of the dorms) and they now have about 100 tons of food (rice, fish) stored in some classrooms and the chapel. They plan to start distributing it in town on Tuesday…they have some trucks on the upper field ready to go in town for distributing foods. Medcins du Monde also has several tons of medicine stored on campus, in the Korean studies room. They are looking to set up an outpost in Katiola or Dabakala to help with relief work as well but are storing their supplies at ICA for now…it is kind of exciting to see that the campus is being used for something good in all of this. It should also help secure the campus if/when the French ever leave. They will hang a UN flag if that happens which will effectively declare ICA as a neutral humanitarian post.” 

How amazing God is!  We simply ask for protection of our campus and our stuff and He not only does this, but He feeds and blesses the community from our campus; ICA continues to be involved in a form of outreach even though we’re not there.  Our director and business manager may be a part of some of these distributions.

But then today we hear that about 20 officers and soldiers from ECOWAS (African peace-keeping forces) are coming in to ICA by helicopter today to arrange the transfer of the campus into their hands once the French leave (middle of December).  We do not want this; these forces have a reputation for looting (in Liberia, etc.) that may be worse than what can be expected from local people.  Our director is not sure what jurisdiction they have, and whether claiming our campus as “a neutral humanitarian post” will make any difference.  Having armed soldiers on campus would open it to attack as well as looting.

It seems providential that the food arrived just days before ECOWAS contacted the French about our school. We ask you to pray specifically that God will continue what He started with the humanitarian efforts; He does do these kinds of things – Jesus fed the 5000.  Thank you for your prayers in this matter.

It’s very hard for us to realize that this weekend is Thanksgiving; people just don’t celebrate it over here.  We find that very sad because it’s always been a special holiday for our family.  Tonight, we did have a potluck dinner which we enjoyed very much; the kids are now watching a movie projected on the side of one of our buildings.

Tomorrow we will be dormparenting in the middle school boys dorm with the same group of boys we had at ICA.  While there, I’ll be setting up a computer system for them so that they can all have their own e-mail accounts in their dorm.  So far, they’ve all been using the dormparents’ account. Bob is trying to think of something creative to do with 12 middle school boys on their 4-day break from school; there just aren’t as many options here as they had at ICA.

In talking with some other ICA staff who are also here in Dakar, we all agreed that if we can’t be in Bouake, there’s no place we’d rather be than here with our ICA kids and other ICA staffers. (OK, maybe this weekend I’d rather be with my family for Thanksgiving and my nephew’s wedding.)  We’re thankful the Lord has provided for all of us in this way.  Tonight, as you hold your special Thanksgiving services, please thank Him for what He has done and is doing for all of us here in Dakar.