Tooting Chrissy's horn

Chrissy spent last year in the Phillippines as a Fulbright scholar researching post-abortion care for women. She has been selected to present her research at an international Nursing conference in Hawaii July 13-16. I am so dang proud of her and wanted to share her great news with everyone.

To present her research, Chrissy has to prepare a 4' x 8' poster of her entire project. Not easy! A year's worth of research can't possibly be condensed to that size, so she's having to pick & choose what will go on the poster. She enlisted Christine, Amy, and I (Nursing experts that we are) to help her work through some things.


The poster in progress











After such hard brain work (Trey is scoffing at me right now...pretty sure me proofreading Chrissy's poster is nothing compared to medical school in a foreign langugage, right?), we had to just relax, eat scones and do...nothing.

Together again...

Christine is back in Corpus! We grilled burgers to celebrate us all living in Corpus again. Who would've thunk it?


Jennifer (Christine's sister), Christine, and Amy


Eppie


I was also introduced to my soon-to-be new roommate, Eppie (pronounced Ee-pee, Christine's cat). Why do I keep finding these people to live with who have big, hairy cats that I'm allergic to?


A room with a view

This is the view out my back French doors. Pretty nice, eh? (Except for the fact that it was really hazy this particular day.) There's a beach right across the street, which serves as a great place to study.

Duke!

This is my friend Mark's dog, Duke. He's a half Dachtsun (sp?) and half German shepherd. Let that one sink in for a minute...they had him fixed last weekend, and put this cone on his head so he couldn't take out his stitches.

But there was one problem not considered...Duke is actually long enough that he managed to wind around to his back end anyway and pull out the stitches. Ouch! Don't worry, Mark took him back and he's ok. But great story, right?

Happy birthday to you...

This is the day of birthdays, at least for the people in my little world. So, happiest of days to Frank Vaughn, Tad Sommers, Beth Stahl, and my aunt Elsie!

I'm still trying to figure things out...I heard some people tried to post comments and weren't allowed in. My apologies while I work on it...and I haven't figured out pictures yet, so it's still just boring text. I'm hoping to sit down with it this weekend and get the kinks worked out. In the meantime, thanks for your patience!

Learning to blog

My friend, Kari, created this blog for me while I was in Senegal last week and now I'm learning how to continue it...bear with me!

I'm really excited about the coming months. Christine, a friend from Corpus, has recently moved back here and we, along with our friend Chrissy, are looking for a place to live! I haven't had roommates in quite awhile, but I'm looking forward to community on that level. And I'm sure "so funny I wet my pants" adventures await us! So if any of you Corpus Christians out there know of rental houses, fill us in...

Now, I need to learn how to put pictures up on this thing...

The twins!!

Hi everyone, sorry I disappeared after Saturday! Here's what has been going on...

Sunday, I went to the International Church in the morning which was great--even after just a week in a M'lim country it was wonderful to be surrounded by believers! After church, I hustled over to the Niangs new house (which I could find by myself after only the one time on Wednesday, pretty impressive if I do say so myself). Well, there's ALWAYS something unexpected when you plan a day with the Niangs, as many of you can testify to. So this time, the dad's side of the family was having a HUGE family reunion! I spent the day with 50-60 people I've never seen in my life! But Ndeye was in the country this time, so that was good. The family was very welcoming to the stranger tubob (white person) who had crashed their reunion.



Monday, Patricia and I ventured out again to find Assane & Ousseynou. Armed with the name of the town and a phone number to call when we arrived, we set out at 7am for M'bour. After a raapide, a 7 place (group taxi), and regular taxi, we arrived at the intersection where we were to call. Patricia called and was told they didn't know anyone by the names Fama (their aunt), Assane or Ousseynou (which actually is strange, b/c even if they didn't know the Fama, Assane and Ousseynou we wanted, they should have known other people by those names. You see, there's like 5 names in West Africa and they are just used a billion times over.). So Patricia tried the only other number we had and they said Fama would be out shortly.



As Patricia and I waited by the intersection, I realized that I don't know what Fama looks like and she didn't know what we look like so I asked Patricia how she'd figure out who to look for. In the middle of a town about 2 hours from the capital, which resembles a large village, Patricia looked at me and said, "Nabou (that's my Senegalese name), you're white." I said, oh yeah, and we continued to wait.

Fama came and greeted us and took us back to the house...A & O peeked out from behind a wall, and I could NOT believe it. They were HUGE! And scared of white people. Assane cried and Ousseynou ran away. Good grief...don't these 2 little African kids understand I just spent almost $2000 and flew around the world, took 2 trips to villages to find them which included 2 taxis, a 7 place, and a raapide JUST TO SEE THEM? No. They don't understand that.



Anyway, about 15 minutes into my short one-hour visit, Ousseynou was sitting on my lap and Assane would stand near me. Another 10 minutes and both were sitting comfortably in my lap. The bad news: they now attend a school (probably along the lines of a day care) where they are starting to learn the Koran (I should have taken them back to the US back in 2003) and their dad has not visited or sent money for 2 years. The good news: they are both healthy and happy where they are. I noticed a Christian school in M'bour as we passed, so we can pray they are influenced in some way by another Christian along the way.

After an hour, we had to head back to Dakar so Patricia could get to class and I could make my way to the airport for early check-in. The Yorktown students asked me if it was hard to leave...and I had to say not really. When I left Senegal in 2003, I was leaving home. I was leaving my best friends and my life behind. Now, I was saying goodbye to friends, which is never easy...but I was returning home, where my life is now. It was a good visit and I am so grateful for the opportunity to reconnect...I could tell from my time with friends there that they were so excited I had come back to see them. Patricia said she thought I would just leave Senegal and forget about them. I told her that would never happen...they are my friends. I don't forget my friends. So I pray that my time and presence there made an impact.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragment along the way! Y'all have been great!
Peggy
PS These are the twins now...

Day 6

Today was my visit to Sindou...the village where Kari moved after I left Senegal. I wanted to go hang out with Jana, who came to work with the Lebou and Kari, and to greet Kari's friends out there. I was able to hang out with Astu and Bintou, some of Kari's best friends for the day. Everyone was excited to see the wedding pictures and hear the news from America. :)

I've attached a picture of Papp and Astu...they got married recently and are doing great. Please pray for this young couple...they are not believers. Pray also for Jana as she finishes her term in September and returns to the States.

Tomorrow, I'll go to the International Church here in Dakar and then spend the rest of the day with the Niangs...Ndeye promised she wouldn't leave the country this time! :)

Peggy


Astu and Papp

Day 5

Well, I relaxed a bit today...did some final gift shopping, ran by one of the offices to greet the workers, and then hung out at the beach with my old supervisors, the Sikes, and some other missionaries.

Tomorrow holds some adventures, to be sure...I'm headed out to Sindou, the village Kari moved to after I left. I'm going to greet some of her friends, and hang out with some volunteers who will be doing some stuff in the medical clinic there and teaching a little ESL. Pray I can find Astou and Bintou, friends of Kari's that I want to greet.

Astou's mother passed away not too long ago, and Kari's roommate after me, Jana, hooked me up with her to share stories and bond a little bit. I was able to send prayers to her via Jana's email, so this will be a special day for us too!

Thanks for your continued emails of encouragment...even though I haven't had time to get back individually very much, I am reading them and they make me smile! So thank you!
Peggy

ps -So Demba told me that the Mahoneys have Sinatra now...I asked Tim, and he said yep they have him and he's even bigger now...I had to see this for myself. So I went over there and took some pics of Sinatra...or "Frankie" as they now refer to him...Kate, I think he's even more spoiled now than when he used to sleep on top of your head! See attached picture...


"Frankie" Sinatra

Day 3

View from insied a raapide

Okay, now today was more like it...more like West Africa, I mean.

I had 2 objectives...one to buy gifts this morning at the Artisan Village. That was accomplished. The second was to find my twins...not so easy!

I was very proud of myself however, b/c I remembered EXACTLY where to go, even the last turn which was always hard to find. However, we arrived to find they have moved to another town a year ago! Oops...so we ("we" is me and Patricia, who is a complete lifesaver!) called the number they had, and found out they are in a town about an hour from Dakar in a different direction...two hours from where we were! So Patricia will call again to see if a visit on Monday is good. Monday is also the night I fly out...so it should be interesting!

We took raapids, which are public transport and that was an amazing adventure. Oh one other detail from the story...they were "fixing" the road to the twins' house,so we had to go another way...with lots of sand...we got stuck! Ha...

I've attached a picture from my seat in one of the raapides...this was my view for a good part of the day today!

:) Until tomorrow,
Peggy
PS Kari, your little girl still lived there and was doing great!

Day 2

Peggy and Cire Niang

Hi everyone,

Day 2 has come and gone! I had a great day...things are going RIDICULOUSLY smooth for those of you who know how "plans" go in West Africa!

I spent most of the day with my old neighbors, the Niang family. Ndeye, the mom, failed to tell me when I talked to her yesterday, that she would be in the Gambia (the country south of Senegal) for a couple of days! So I hung out with the rest of the clan...they had moved to a new house since I left so Pappy, the 18-ish year old, met me at the old place and we went to the new one. It was so fun to be with them again! They had all grown so much, it was ridiculous! I was like one of those old people at family reunions who keeps saying "My, how you've grown!"...except I said it in French and Wolof.

Anyway, I just spent the day West Africa-style...hanging out, eating some great rice and sauce, and hanging out, and drinking attaya (the 3 rounds of tea), and playing with the kids. Yacine, who was 3 months old when I left, is now almost 2 years old and she walks and talks...so crazy! Cire, who was a WILD child, has calmed down and now speaks French, thanks to being in school...I hung out with him a lot today.

So...here's a picture attached from today of me and Cire.
Tomorrow, Patricia and I are taking public transport (prayer request #1) to find Assane and Ousseynou, my babies (prayer request #2).
Love you guys!
Peggy

Day 1

Hello! Day One went great! I walked to one of our offices and totally surprised my friends Robert and Maye! It was so much fun to see them again! Patricia also came and we ate lunch together (Mafe--one of my favorites!) and got to catch up...they were very excited to hear what I've been doing for nearly two years. They also loved seeing pictures from Kari and Trey's wedding! Thanks for your encouraging emails! I have had a good day, but your encouragement is always appreciated!

Love, Peggy