Ziguinchor Senegal- here we come!!

We are currently learning about the town in the far south of Senegal.  Ziguinchor (we call it "Zig") is the name of the town. It is really exciting to learn about when where we are going. Fishing is a major industry.. you will see painted  fishing boats all along the Casamont River. In the town, there is a peanut factory, so you can imagine there is a lot of peanut butter and some form of peanut products every day for us. They also use a lot of palm oil in their cooking, and fish of course. In church in Senegal, we will go and work with a few different churches there. They are small, dusty churches, with the only instruments being djembes. (wooden African drums). French is the first language for most of the them. They are generally taught the Koran in Arabic, and the muslim cultures there don't really help them, but they send the children out in the streets to beg. So, they aren't allowed to come back until they have gotten "enough". There is a center that someone started that we will be going to that clothes are provided so they can change their only pair of clothes and wash it while they are there. They have a half hour teaching for the kids (they can't stay long b.c they have to take their begging money back to the Maraboo (the muslims). Otherwise, they might get beaten or abused if they don't have enough money from begging. The center feeds them at noon, and for most of them, it's their only meal for the whole day.  They also get basic medical care, at the center in which we will be helping. These children don't have homes, they don't know where the children came from. The Maraboo are very rich and very powerful, they take all the money the boys make begging and they don't feed them or give them anything.  There is a clinic called "Le Bon Samaritan" (the good Samaritan) in which some people can get medical care, it is run by Christians.  We will be going in a large canoe and paddling to an island to visit the people there. Around 500 people live on the island, in which about 5 were Christian. Bourafaye, a small village we will also be going to, They have 2 buildings that are supposed to be a "Bible school" but it is currently not in operation, but the vision is to start training there and have people learning and becoming disciples. There is also a small orphanage and they have a large vision to get more children, grow them up, and also have a school for them some day. So, we need to buy our tickets soon. We don't know yet exactly when we will leave, but  it will be after Christmas. We still need 3,800 for the tickets and the stay in Africa, so if you have a heart for what we are doing, we would really appreciate your help. Thanks ! We actually need the money by tomorrow, so please do what you can now and not later!