In the bush

As you will see from our schedule, we will have a number of days of ministry in the Senegalese bush. Having never been to Africa, let alone been to the African bush, I had no idea what to expect. Thankfully Will and Sharon Radford have fleshed out this portion of the trip some more for us.

Here's what they said...

In the bush, sunset will be around 7:15. The difference between here and Canada is that from sunset till it is really dark is only about 15 minutes.

We will take an air conditioned bus from Dakar to the village we will be based in. During the 4 days in the bush, we will use a more “rugged” form of transport called a “ndiaga ndiaye” which you will come to love! The air conditioned bus will return to take us back to Dakar.

We will be set up in tents on a property with a concrete wall around it where there is a church and pastor’s house.

For the main noon meal each day we will eat Senegalese meals, in Senegalese style.

The terrain where we will be working is very dry and dusty.

Overall schedule for “bush time”:

Sunday – leave from Dakar around 3 pm. Arrive at site around 5 pm. Introduce pastors we will work with, unpack bus, eat supper. After dark, around 7:30, we will have a devotional time with one of the pastors, a debrief time, then head to bed!

Monday – 8 am up and breakfast. We will take some students to do children’s ministry in a village while other students stay on the property and work on the pastor’s house. The work will not be terribly difficult – just scraping and painting. One of the pastors who speaks good English will go with the students to do children’s ministry, and will translate directly from English to Serere, the language in this area.

Noon – everyone back on site for lunch

Afternoon – rest time. it will be hot and we will need to rest.

5 pm – kids get out of the school near the site. They will probably come to investigate the “toubabs” (white people). We can do some soccer or some other stuff with them

6:30 – supper

After supper – go to set up and do evangelism in a village about 20 minutes or less away. This is a time to be flexible. Even if we are set up and ready to go at 8 pm…it is possible that people will not gather until around 9 pm.

10:30 or so – back to site and sleep!

Tuesday and Wednesday the same. Thursday we will play by ear depending on what needs to be done, etc. Then we will head back to Dakar, to a pizza supper, showers and bed!