Senegal 2010 - Day 11 (Sat.)

A couple of details I'd forgotten from previous days: 

- we did indeed pick up our tailored shirts and trousers on Thurs. Each item (material + labour) cost roughly £4-5. I think we would have been prepared to pay much more given the quality of the tailoring and the material, but our priority was to leave as much of our funds as possible to the Brothers in Richard-Toll, so we just paid the price we were given. See below for a photo of some of the group in their new togs.

- also on Thurs.: we were invited back (thanks to Frère Jean-Yves' intervention) to the hardware store to watch Liverpool vs. Benfica in the Europa League (UEFA Cup). A few of our group, less keen on football, stayed back at the house. The spooky thing was that the match seemed to be following the exact same path as the Man. Utd. game the previous night (which had ended in tears for the Red Devils), i.e. Liverpool down on aggregate, race into a 3-0 lead, only for Benfica to pull a goal back and leave the Scouse fans on tenterhooks. They needn't have worried. Unlike the night before, Liverpool didn't get a man sent off and were about to put the score beyond the reach of Benfica with a fourth goal. I bought some fizzy drinks for the gang (those at the match + those back at base) - non-alcoholic for the teens and... you can guess the rest :-) A little treat that was a welcome change from the filtered water (though Frère Jean-Yves had let us fill his fridge + freezer with umpteen bottles so we always had chilled water available after our activities with the children)

************************

Saturday was our last full day in Richard-Toll, but we had 3 + a half days left in Senegal. Those extra days were to be spent with our Brothers in Diourbel. But more about that later.

We spent most of the Sat. resting, washing clothes, walking to lunch (+ back - Frère Jean-Yves' car shuttle service again in operation), packing bags... During the morning, I went out with Jean-Yves to buy packed lunch supplies for our journey the following day. He also very kindly offered to take me on a drive around the town to film (for our tour video) slices of Richard-Toll life that I was yet to capture on film. During our drive I also took some photos. Here are a few:

One of the varied types of "public" transport. Most of these buses were fully enclosed minibus-style, but this one was a little different.

Main street Richard-Toll.

Shopping in a local store. Frère Jean-Yves indulges in light-hearted banter with the shop keeper, something he does very well with all the local people and you can see in their responses that he is much liked around the town.

Some donkeys having a well-earned break from their labours.

The Brothers' community house. The white domes are a couple of our mosquito nets. Two lads slept outdoors the whole week. Given the temperatures this was understandable.

Local women in colourful dress walking along the main road into town with the community house (and to the right slightly behind the primary school )in the background.

St-Louis 106 kms. - where we stopped for lunch on our way to Richard-Toll a week earlier.

In the neighbourhood behind the community house.

At lunch - something I'd said made Rolo + Alex fall about laughing... unintentionally on my part!

Issa, a Muslim friend + neighbour of Frère Jean-Yves who occasionally calls in to watch the football with him. A big fan of Bayern Munich. It just so happened that we had been given a Bayern top amongst those collected by pupils, parents, etc... in Southampton. Who better to give it to?

Supper. Time to show off the new clothing.

The Brothers' kitchen. Sougounda (right - a lovely lady) had worked tirelessly for us all week, helped by her sister (seated). Amongst the extra things she did for us was produce bottles full of dilute lemon cordial and then also bissap cordial (bissap is a flower that when dried can be eaten or used to produce jam or fruit cordial) that went down SO well with our chilled water.

As this was our last meal that Sougounda was to have prepared for us we made a little presentation: an envelope with money for her family and 2 mosquito tent nets for her children to use (which she was delighted with - even the locals here get bitten and need protection, especially at night).

A final treat prepared for us by Sougounda: copious amounts of gorgeous chips (with salt + vinegar, of course!!)