Martin’s Voyage

Ousmane is happy to work in his notebook again

I honestly did not expect to see this dear boy walk through the doors of the center again.  I was sure something bad must have happened to him.  But last week, in he came!  All of the other boys were excited to tell us where he had been.

Ousmane ran away to his older brother’s K. school – he is also a T. boy.  The brother’s school was a two-hour walk away. He stayed for several weeks, and then returned.  We don’t know why, or what transpired while he was there.  But the good news is that he was welcomed back at his K. school and was not punished for running away.  This is quite rare, from what we hear.  We think that he was very surprised at the welcome he received when he came back – if he didn’t realize how much we cared about him before, he does now!

Thank you to all who have been praying for this little boy.  Having him disappear is a sobering reminder that our contact with these boys is tenuous; we have no way to know how long we will be able to work and play with each one.  Please pray that our time with them will bring glory to God, and that the boys will come to realize how special they are to Him.

About a week ago, someone very dear to me passed away.  Her name was Sue Thompson, and she had a tremendous influence on my life.  This blog entry doesn’t have anything to do with living in Senegal… I just wanted to record a few thoughts about Mrs. Thompson, for the record.

Mrs. Thompson taught art in the same school as my dad, who taught music.  She began bringing her daughter to our house for private music lessons, and that’s where the close relationship with my family began.  I have no idea how or why she came up with this idea, but for most of my childhood, Mrs. Thompson drove to our house in her turquoise woody station wagon, and later, her Volkswagen bug, and picked up the Thompson girls to spend most of Saturday with her.  I can only imagine how much of a blessing that must have been for my mom!  She remembers holding Wendi in her arms as Mrs. Thompson drove off with the other four little girls, dancing around the room and singing, “We’re free!  We’re free!”  I remember the years when our own kids were babies and toddlers – what a gift to a young mother to entertain her children for the day.

At Mrs. Thompson’s house, we were introduced to all kinds of art media.  We painted with watercolor and acrylics.  We sculpted with clay.  We made banners with felt on burlap.  We did wax batik, and made linoleum prints.  We sat for long periods of time as Mrs. Thompson made charcoal portraits of us to give as gifts to our parents.  What a treasure of an education!  I am sure that my love for art and my choice of profession was due in large part to all that I experienced and learned in Mrs. Thompson’s art studio.

But when I think about all those Saturdays spent with Mrs. Thompson, it isn’t really the art lessons that I remember the most.  I remember…

• Music.  Mrs. Thompson loved music.  She always played 8-track tapes in her car, and I can still remember the sound of her voice as she sang along with “The King and I,” “Oklahoma,” and “The Sound of Music.”  (I always thought she looked a lot like the Baroness in that movie!)   She loved opera and took us to several performances – I remember my first one was “La Traviata.”  My mom always made sure we learned the plots ahead of time, so that we would have some idea of what was going on.  Still, I don’t think any of us really loved going to the opera when we were kids – we always sort of “put up with it.”  We knew Mrs. Thompson liked it, and sitting through a performance where people were singing in different languages about things we didn’t know much about was a small price to pay indeed, for all the other things we did with her that we loved so much.

• Food.  We often went to McDonald’s for lunch.  This was a treat for us; our family rarely ate anywhere other than at home.  And on the rare occasions when our family did go to McDonald’s, my dad would buy one shake and ask for five little cups, to divide it between us.  Mrs. Thompson bought each one of us our own shake – a treat of lavish proportions in our eyes!  When we ate lunch at her house, I remember Mrs. Thompson making us “puzzle sandwiches.”  She would cut them in three lopsided pieces and we would have to figure out how to put them back together.  Sometimes we would have a picnic in the back yard and she would hand things out through the kitchen windows.  I remember her giving us Mrs. Butterworth’s maple syrup to pour over vanilla ice cream – another special treat.

• Generous gifts.  When we were very young, Mrs. Thompson used to give us nice clothing for Christmas.  She gave us baby chicks one Easter – I remember driving home from the farm with them running all over in the back seat of the station wagon.  (My mom wasn’t thrilled with that particular gift!)  Once, when I was a teenager, she took me on a shopping spree at the local mall for my birthday.  She helped me pick out my first perfume – “White Shoulders,” and bought me several different outfits.  I remember after I had tried on a few things, I asked her which one she preferred, and she said, “Let’s just get all of them!”  What luxury!  What fun!  When I graduated from high school, she gave me a painting, and when I graduated from college she gave me another.  That one is hanging in our dining room here in Africa – it has come with us to every home we have had.

• Just hanging out at the house.  My sisters and I loved her freezer and the automatic ice-maker.  She would give us sturdy paper towels that had some kind of thread running through them, and we would wrap ice cubes up and eat them like popsicles.   We also loved the hidden door inside the bathroom closet that opened up into the attic – we thought that was very cool. There was an amazing willow tree in the backyard, and I loved to climb it.

• Getting into trouble.  Once, I locked the bathroom door from the inside, then came out and pulled the door shut behind me.  Once, I crossed the road in front of her house to play in the water running down the gutter across the street after a storm.  Thankfully, I didn’t misbehave too many times, but I remember feeling badly when I did!

• Mrs. Thompson’s family.  We didn’t see Mr. Thompson much when we were at the house.  Sometimes he wasn’t there, but sometimes I think he was there and understandably holed himself up in his home office – can you imagine the chaos he escaped?    We didn’t have a clear understanding of family relationships back then, and we would often ask Mrs. Thompson if her “father” was home.  (She thought that was funny, although I’ll bet he didn’t agree!)  I always thought of Mr. Thompson as having a quiet, solid, kind manner.  There was a photo of their son Kenny on the refrigerator.  He was standing in front of a pup tent, and I got it in my head that he was away at camp.  He was actually in Vietnam.  When he came home, they made a huge “Welcome Home Kenny!” banner and put it up in the front of the house.  I was very young and had no idea about the war in Vietnam.  I remember thinking they were making a really big deal about him coming home from summer camp!  Their daughter Gail was a teenager, and not often at home during the day on those Saturdays we spent at the Thompson’s house, but I remember seeing her from time to time.  Once I got to see her room, and I thought it was extremely “groovy.”  Many years later, I got to know Gail very well when she hosted me for a summer in Virginia.  She is a woman of great faith and kindness and generosity.  I am sure that Mr. Thompson, Kenny and Gail were not always happy to “share” Mrs. Thompson with a group of noisy, sloppy little girls, but I know I speak for all of us when I express how thankful we are that they put up with us.  There’s no way to place a value on what we received over the course of the years in that home, with that special person.

I was able to talk on the phone with Mrs. Thompson not too long before she died.  I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to tell her again what a blessing she had been in my life, and for the chance to reminisce a bit about old times.  It was a very sad feeling, saying “goodbye” at the end of the call.  I knew that most likely it was the last time I would hear her voice this side of heaven.  But, I know that I will hear her voice again some day.

“Many still mourn, many still weep

For those that they love who have fallen asleep,

But we have this hope, though our hearts may still ache,

Just one shout from above, and they all will awake,

And in the reunion of joy we will see

Death will be swallowed in sweet victory!”

Until that day comes, I hold tight to the memories of countless Saturdays with Mrs. Thompson, and thank God that I knew her.

Oh, how well I remember that car!

My sisters and I painting in Mrs. Thompson's studio.

We have been plagued over the past few months with frequent power cuts, but this weekend things have gone from bad to worse… I think we have been without power more than we have had it.  It is making us all very weary.  It’s difficult to sleep without fans, to do homework without the computer, and to keep the food from going bad without the refrigerator.  Also, the boys miss the Wii!    We know that once the cooler weather comes, the power cuts will go away almost completely – but that is still three months away.  (The weather begins to cool down around the middle of November.)  Please pray for us as we try and remain patient and kind with each other when we are so hot and uncomfortable.

I’m grabbing this “power on” moment to report on the picnic we hosted this past week for the officers of the English Club at the university.  Bill and Bruce and their colleagues have wanted to do this for some time, and finally we were able to arrange a date that worked for all of us.  In case you’re not familiar with the English Club – this is the group that Bill and Bruce discovered not long into the academic year began last fall.  There are around 8,000 students at the university who are enrolled in the English program there, and the English Club is a campus organization run by some of these students.  Throughout the year, the guys attended meetings and helped out in any way they could, establishing relationships with the club members as well as the professors that sponsor it.  They have been warmly welcomed and the club has thanked them repeatedly for their help.  One of the students even wrote a poem about the guys that was published in the school paper!  Here is an excerpt from that poem…

For You All

We just are grateful

Of you all.

Being with you had been fruitful

Our whole family, this way

Thank you their way

Words now mean much

More to us because we have never seen such

Good guys like you. ( Jéré nguènn Jèf) 

(Wolof for “thank you.”)

As I hear (Naka nguèèn dèff)

(Wolof for “I hear you.”)

I suddenly think of Geoff

As Bill burst into laugh

I feel joy surrounding my heart

You’ve given us a new start

I can read Bruce’s

Mind and say he is open-hearted

We just are grateful

To you. You deserve it after all

On the wall of my heart your pictures shall

Be stuck as long as I live.

- BASSIROU THIAM

Now that the university exams are finally over, the students are getting ready to return to their villages until December, when they will come back for new classes.  So we invited them to come to a picnic before they headed out of town.   Bill and Bruce and their colleagues wanted to tell the students how much they appreciated getting to know them, and how much they enjoyed working with them.  They also wanted to tell the officers that by the time they return for the new school year, that we hoped to have a place off campus where we would be hosting events for the students.

It happens to be Ramadan right now, which makes hosting a meal a bit difficult, but we worked with it.  12 out of the  13 student officers that attended were fasting, so we weren’t able to eat right away.  We picked them up and brought them here but started out by just hanging out in the side yard.  We all introduced ourselves – Julie and I had never met the students, and there is a new couple that we hope will be joining the university team that the students had yet to meet.  Sometime after 7 PM, when it was time to break the fast, we offered the traditional food used for that: dates, bread and coffee.  We also provided prayer mats, water, and head coverings for their ritual washing and prayer.  (I didn’t know we were going to need to provide head coverings for the women.  I don’t have any scarves, so as we looked quickly for something else that would work, we came up with tablecloths.  So Janice, if you read this, thanks again for the taupe/button tablecloth – it came in handy, along with one other!)

Once the fast was broken, Bill and Bruce got to work cooking the hamburgers.  We wanted to do an American style picnic, so along with the hamburgers we had chips, potato salad, baked beans, carrot sticks, and soda.  Later on in the evening we had a surprise dessert supplied by one of our colleagues – ice cream floats!  There isn’t any root beer in Senegal, so he used orange Fanta instead.  That made for an interesting concoction – kind of tasted like an orange creamsicle!

We all really enjoyed the students.  They were fun, friendly, and talkative.  Everything went very smoothly and they seemed to really enjoy themselves.  After dinner we all sat around in a big circle and talked.  Bruce did a great job explaining to the students why he and Bill and the others do what they do.  He told them that they not only loved the English language and working with university students, but that they loved God above all else.  He spoke about how it was important to them to help the students not only with their studies and their plans for the future – getting a good job, etc. – but with their relationship with God as well.  This was well-received by the students, who nodded their heads in agreement throughout his talk, and at the end asked if they could pray for us.

How glad we are that God has worked it out for us to work with these students and the group that they represent.  Please pray that they will have good vacations with their families, and for our friendship with them to grow.  Please also pray for the English Resource Center that is not yet in existence – that God will use it for His glory.  I’m attaching a few shots of the evening – the faces are blurry as a safety precaution.

Eating dinner - good food, good times!

At the end of the evening

PS – this blog entry was written in several sittings – due to – you guessed it – multiple power cuts!

Julie and I weren’t sure what to expect at the center as the summer began.   The center opened in October, so this is the first summer that it is open.  We had heard that the neighborhood where the center is located is often flooded during the rainy season, and we imagine that may mean days when we cannot open.  We also knew that many of the older boys would return to their villages during the summer to help with the crops.  So we have been pleased that, although the numbers are down a bit from the school year, there continues to be a good number of boys that are coming to the center.

It’s so nice to finally be learning some of the boys’ names, to be using a tiny bit of Wolof in our interactions with them, and to see their happiness as they work in their notebooks.  We can really see progress being made!  Just a few weeks ago we started adding a daily sentence to our routine.  It has been fun to see their illustrations of the sentence of the day!  Here are a few that I snuck home to copy…

"My name is Arona."

"The elephant eats."

"The fish swims." (I know, this is two fish, but that's okay.)

Aren’t they great?

Yesterday Bill came in to install a wall fan for us.  It has gotten really hot and there is no air moving in the room we teach in.  After he finished installing it, I got a kick out of the boys’ reactions.  I had assumed that they wouldn’t care much about a fan – in my mind it was to keep us breathing without passing out!  But when the boys came in from playing soccer, they ran right over to the fan and followed the air as it oscillated.  They loved it!  It was a sober reminder to us that simple things like standing in front of a fan in the hot summertime are things these boys do not take for granted.   It makes us thankful once again for those who have supported the center so that we can give the kids these simple pleasures!

Saying goodbye at the airport - group hug!

When we told our oldest son, Will, back in April, that he could go back to the US for the summer, it seemed like a long way off.  But before we knew it, school was over, and it was time to take him to the airport.  We had hoped we could find a family that would be on the same plane as he was, since it was the first time he was traveling on a plane alone.  But although there is a mass exodus of teachers and missionary families that heads back to the US for the summer or for a longer furlough as soon as school lets out, we weren’t able to find anyone traveling on the same day, on the same airline.  So we were surprised and pleased to see a family we knew arriving at the airport the same time we did on Tuesday night.  Apparently their first flight was cancelled, and they were put on Will’s flight instead.  Their son is just a year younger than Will, so I’m sure that made the wait in the airport a little less boring, and we were just really glad to know there were adults that Will knew on his flight with him.

Both of Will’s flights – from Dakar to Paris and from Paris to Boston – went smoothly.  He emailed us from a kiosk in Paris, so we knew he had made it that far safely.  His second flight was scheduled to arrive in Boston just after 3 PM.  We had the flight status page up and were refreshing the page frequently right around the time he was supposed to land.  At one point I checked my email and there was a message from my sister Janice (who was picking Will up at Logan) reporting “The Eagle Has Landed!”  She was on her way into the airport and actually saw Will’s plane land.  Seconds later the flight status page also reported that the plane had landed.  It was really amazing to me, that all the way over here in Senegal, I could know – not only from reading online, but through an eyewitness report – that Will’s plane had landed, within 60 seconds of it touching down! 

Janice called me almost an hour later to say that she hadn’t seen Will yet – retrieving his luggage and going through customs takes time – but as we were talking she suddenly cried out – “Oh – I didn’t even recognize him!  He’s standing here right in front of me!”  It was so much fun to have the chance to talk to him right after he landed – we put the call on speaker phone and we all got to hear his excitement at arriving in Massachusetts.  He had already purchased a Boston Creme Donut and a muffin at Dunkin Donuts!  The next stop was the Natick Mall, where he was able to purchase a cell phone to use during the summer.

Since he arrived we’ve spoken to him several times and all is going really well.  He is so happy to be in Franklin again.  He was able to go to graduation at the Charter school he attended for many years, and saw lots of his old teachers and friends there.  Our friend Lori took him to lunch at Isabella’s – his favorite sub place.  This weekend my sister Wendi and her family, plus my niece Kate and her boyfriend,  drove out from New York State to spend the weekend with him.  He’s having a ball!  Thanks so much for your prayers for his safe arrival in the States.  Please continue to pray for him as you think of him – that his summer will be fun and meaningful, and safe!