Tad's Life

They are here for 10 days to help with work projects here at the Phare. Then 5 of them head back to California and the rest go for another 10 days to the interior of Senegal to work with José and France-Lise. They’ll be doing ministry in villages each evening for a week.

I just left Jane playing “speed scrabble” with a group of ladies. We went out for charwamas and hamburgers at a “fast food” place called Arc-en-Ciel. It’s Friday and folks are relaxing a bit. Jane started the day at 9 AM with an interview with a reporter from England. (He was looking into the talibé and various ministries to them.) But she spent much of the day taking one member of the team, Paul, a 50-something hospital chaplain, to see an orthopedic specialist downtown. Paul, despite warning from his teenage son, went out in the wave yesterday afternoon after a hard day of work. He just wanted to body-surf. He soon got somersaulted and collided hard with the sand. I empathize. I love body surfing, but I gave up on that beach after one too many mouths of sand. Poor Paul, on his first day in the water he re-injured a shoulder that has seen two surgeries.
Jane left in a taxi with Paul and two others (a nurse and a high schooler who wants to study medicine) at 10. Around 4:30 they walked back in. X-rays, lots of them, showed a broken clavicle and torn ligaments! Sounds awful to me. But, in fact, it isn’t that bad. The doctor taped him up and recommended 4 weeks of immobilization, so that’s not bad, really. All Paul is taking for pain is Tylenol.

Each day the 20 folks have split into 4 teams. One team is painting that new library-office I’ve been showing you photos of. Another has been installing fans and florescent lights in the dorm. A third has been clearing off brush and burning accumulated trash out front on the building site. The fourth has been digging ditches for electrical conduit. These last two have felt the heat of the tropical sun, but have done quite well. And we’ve only had one snake, a small cobra, to shake us up!

My job is to keep them all working and keep the projects progressing. And set up the Vonage phone for people who want to call home. And keep the books and distribute money. And give devotions, twice so far. And unclog a toilet after hours. And… What a week. But I confess. I love this, even if I’m exhausted.

So much is happening that I’ll just have to content myself with this post. It doesn’t do justice to the density of these last few days. Ah, well.