Translators

Here's a team picture, because of course, our team was not complete without our interpreters. They were such a huge help in translating, but also in helping us understand the culture.





From left to right they are Deborah (France), Ibou (Senegal), Simeon (Germany), Phillipe (Senegal), Noemi (France), Dokour (Senegal), Abel (Senegal), Guilaye (Senegal).





Here we are with Alioune, who missed the above photo. He actually lives in the village the basketball court was built in, and was so excited to have this opportunity for the kids of the village to hear the gospel. He also took Eric and I to his home to use the restroom (very similar to the Center's restroom), which was so nice of him.






The local interpreters knew that the best way to keep kids back is to walk the line with a stick!

Getting Started

Our first day there, the locals who built the court put the second coat of paint on the lines. That was such a blessing and answer to prayer, as we weren't sure if the court would be done in time.




The guys went and checked out the court on the first day. They also pumped up all the basketballs. Unfortunately the pump that worked was in a missing bag, so they had one pump that leaked. But Brian pulled a MacGuyver and put a piece of gum over the hole. Brilliant!






Here was the court when we first arrived the second day of our trip.






The nets had to be hung on the hoops before we could start. Normally these racks have a plank between two of them to make a platform. We just used them like ladders.






Eric and I were the brave ones who climber it. We attached them with zip ties, then had to use my knife (Thank you God for cargo pockets) to cut the ends off and turn them down so they didn't pop the balls.




We realized right away that the nets needed to be stretched out.






We had so much fun shooting and little by little kids gathered around the court.






So we gave them balls too and let them try. They definitely needed the camp!





Then we saw the kids coming!

Basket Ball pictures

Here's several random pictures of the basketball camps. In the next couple posts I'll explain more about how the camps were run.

Drills and Games

After every group went to each station once, we lined them up at one end of the court to do dribbling drills up and down the court, and around the world. This was one of my groups, the girl at the front of the line is named Dabagum.





I tried to get some good pictures of the girls doing dribbling drills, most them were of the ball on the ground and the girl chasing after it!








There were some athletic girls, but it definitely came easier for the boys.




Dale, with his unending energy, would run up and down the court dribbling with the kids.







After the drills, if there was time, Paul would form two teams of 5 and have them play a game. It was really exciting to watch them use the skills they had never done before that day.




The kids watching would get so excited and scream loudly when a basket was made.




Notice the man watching on the right, he is Elimane (el-lee-mon) Kaire (Kai-ray), the P.E. teacher at one of the schools. You can read more about him here.







After the drills and game, we'd shout "Grand Cercle! Grand Cercle!" and the kids would make a huge circle around the court. We're talking a few hundred kids some days!



Phillipe would then lead us all in a game similar to the Hokey Pokey. The song even had the words "hookie pookie" in there somewhere. It was so fun and silly, and the kids there are just like kids in America, they love to see adults make absolute fools of themselves. Hopefully we'll be able to post the video at SenegalTrip.com

Basketball stations

Each day we'd divide the kids into about 6 groups of 5-20 kids, depending on how many we had. Here Jason and Brandi are waiting with a group of kids as we get ready to start. Each group had one of us as a leader, we'd rotate about every 10-15 minutes at Paul's whistle. He did a great job of letting us know about how much time we had left and keeping us on our toes.






Aaron and Missy ran one of two shooting and lay-up stations, Diane is there helping with the group she led.






Here you can see how close the stations are. In the middle of the court (left side of the picture) Paul did ball handling with the kids in a circle. (some days we didn't have the ball handling and just worked it into other stations). To Paul's right, Eric led the dribbling station, he and Alyia are demonstrating a drill. Then to their right, Dale had a shooting station. Paul's left was just as crowded with another shooting station at the hoop, and passing and catching in between.





Here's Jaqueline, one of my girls, trying to dribble. That is probably one of the favorite stations for the kids, but also one of the most difficult. We really had to remind them to use their fingertips and not slap the ball, to not hunch over, and to use their wrists.





Eric had the kids dribble up and down the court, as well as weaving figure eights between the cones. He offered the kids an opportunity to race each other, but they usually just wanted to keep trying at their own pace.









Here Josiah and I are at a shooting station. We really had to stress form to start out, because a lot of them would chuck it overhand, or toss it underhand. But once they got it, it stuck!






Dale ran one of the shooting and lay-up stations. He had such a wonderful enthusiasm that was absolutely contagious. The kids got a big kick out of him! "Yeah Baby!"







Brian is leading the passing station where kids learn the chest pass, and the bounce pass. They practice both passes while standing and while running across the court.

Graduation!

We had often said only half joking that the Senegalese would probably end up using the basketball court as a soccer field. So we were so excited to show up for the graduation ceremony, and see that 10 boys were playing a 5 on 5 basketball game with a soccer ball! We let them borrow a basketball until the ceremony started.





On the left is Mary Anne who introduced our team to everyone, telling them how interesting it is that we were several couples. Then Brian shared about how excited we were to be there and thanked them for making us feel so welcome as Abel translated.





It was so great to hear the kids scream with excitement when they found out we were giving basketballs to their school. Here is a leader of one of the schools we taught kids from. One of the headmasters (a Muslim man) shared how thankful he was we were there, and that it was so neat to have Muslims and Christians gathered together. He also said he knows they cannot repay, and asks that our God repay us. It was really special.






Here is Elimane, the P.E. teacher at one of the schools. He came everyday to take notes and make sure the kids were working hard. Here Brian is handing us some play books for Basketball. It was so cool because he asked if he could just have two of our balls when we're done so he can continue a basketball program, we said we'd have to see. He was so thrilled when we gave him 10 balls and the play books! It was awesome.





Here's Aliou Niang keeping the mass of children back. It was definitely crazy as they all pressed in close from every direction.






They called the kids names by class, which was good since so many have the same names. Each kid came up and got a certificate and t-shirt.




It took a long time to call over 300 names. We probably only had 200 of those kids there for several different reasons, travel distance, a wedding, just didn't go to school that day.




We finally divied up the shirts by size, with someone doing child M, someone doing girls child L, someone else boys child L, etc. It was nice though that if one of the girls whose name I knew from a group I led came up, I was able to be the one to give her the shirt and congratulate her by name.





Here's Kathy giving a shirt out. One thing we have to be careful of was making sure we gave them the shirt with our right hand, as the left hand is the wiping hand and its extremely insulting to touch someone or hand them something with that hand.





Here's Eric with Elimane. Doesn't he just look like a P.E. teacher or coach? The kids really respected and listened to him, we're praying for him to know the Lord one day.






Some of the kids were thrilled to put their shirts on right away.





This Genevieve, one of my girls. She was quite a force when she played in a 5 on 5 girls game, very aggressive player.





This is Jaqueline, another girl I led. Her English was very good and she was teaching me some French during free times. She was so excited to find out Eric was going to be my husband, and actually chased one of the more aggressive local boys away from me by pointing at Eric and shouting "Husband! Husband!"

Church visits

Saturday after the basketball camps were all done, we got to visit 3 local churches to speak with the pastors, hear their prayer requests, and encourage them. Bill explained this was even more important than the basketball camps because the Senegalese people notice that the rich white Christians are coming to visit the Christian pastors in the villages, but no rich Arabs are coming to visit the Muslim leaders. It really raises the status of the pastors in the eyes of the people and gives them a new level of respect.





The first village we went to was Guilaye's, he continued on with us to translate at the other villages. (Even though Bill could translate, he likes to have to locals do it. Part of it is to strengthen their English, and build more community between local Christians). This little boy was so scared when 14 Toubabs got out of the can. He began screaming and crying and did not stop until some older kids took him away. Bill said it's possible he'd never seen white people, but more likely, some parents talk of toubabs like the boogeyman and say they'll eat you if you're not good.





These kids weren't as scared and were excited to take pictures with us.




This is the verse over the door of Guilaye's church. I don't know if it's in Wolof or what verse it is but I sent an e-mail to Mary Anne asking her. There were also a few more verses painted inside.




This is the church Guilaye attends. His brother is the senior pastor and he is the youth pastor. He was so great with the kids at the camps that we can definitely see him as a youth pastor. He asked for prayer as he tries to complete the last 3 of a 5 year training in Christian leadership. Also, that he feels called to serve God and not necessarily pursue some kind of career, and that is very difficult to do (even here in America, Eric and I struggle against opposition to that all the time, let alone in a Muslim country). He asked for prayer for faithfulness and to be able to support his wife (he's actually engaged but from what I understand it's similar to Biblical betrothals, where there already like husband and wife in many ways). Also for more supplies and such for the church, they'd love to be able to show the Jesus video, but don't have the resources to play it (projector, screen, etc).





In Soma, the Pastor is making an effort to end a huge problem that is stealing away the young people. Senegal has an enormous job scarcity, and young people are leaving the villages to go to the cities in hopes of finding a job. Unfortunately there are no jobs in the city either, and they end up involved in drugs, alcohol, gangs and other horrible things, or getting into tiny fishing boats to try and get to Europe. In Soma they're really working with MIS and other ministries to create jobs for people in the villages. Here's a millet pounder, so instead of women pounding millet by hand every day from sunrise to sunset, a young man (like the "conductor" here) can run this machine and the women can take care of their children. (Here's a promo video for MIS. It's not the best quality, but at one point they show millet being pounded by hand). They also have sewing machines, a medical clinic, an oven for bread, and several other things most villages don't to create jobs.




This is the church building in Soma, I believe they have a church body of about 500 believers, incredible! I don't remember if he said how many of them are children. 40% of the population in Senegal is under 14 (it's only 20% in the US). The Pastor had some great stories about how the Lord answered prayer for the building and the church body.






This is inside the church building in Soma. On the left is the Conductor (that's what they call him since he runs the millet grinder), in the center is Soma's pastor, and on the right is Guilaye translating. The pastor said their most difficult challenge that they need prayer for is resistance to the Muslim opposition. They try so hard to discredit the Christians and their faith and there is often persecution.





This horse was hanging out at Soma and absolutely beautiful.





It was really neat to go to these other villages and see kids wearing the shirts they got in last year's basketball camp!






Pastor Jugga was the Pastor from last year's basketball camp in the village of Mbadat. It was really neat to get to see him and hear of how he led his family members to Christ. Only his father is still Muslim, and his father said that he will allow Jugga to do whatever he feels is necessary for being a Christian. That's unheard of! Typically family members banish people who become Christian. (Pray for his father to know the Lord as he is in failing health) There is definitely a movement of the Lord there. Jugga thanked us for coming, and said he knows we could have just done our camp this year and been on our way, but it meant so much that we thought of him and came to visit. (We also brought more basketballs!) His family asked for lots of prayer because of Jugga's young age (early twenties) but huge responsibility as the spiritual leader for the area.