Fire in the Toilet, Broken Arm, Big Snake, and R2D2

Some Highlights of the Trip

We did a lot of work on buildings, and when we arrived at the Job Site one day, this bad boy critter was waiting for us.  The Africans don't like snakes (who does?) and they immediately beat it to death with a shovel, and we got a picture of the corpse.  

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Among our many activities in the last couple weeks in Senegal Africa, we spent a fair amount of time focusing on Medical and health needs.  There are several Health Posts we have built, and we brought numerous supplies and equipment (a couple items came in handy for our team!).

One of the events included a demonstration of an Autoclave which is a device used to sanitize medical instruments.  The challenge with this device is that it requires high heat to work, and in this case, a fire is built in the bottom of the unit. 

It was donated for use in remote places, like the village we were currently in.  It was rather complicated, as you can see by the picture.  When it was all assembled, it looked like R2D2 from Star Wars.  

Frankly, I think the local women found it rather intimidating.  Our team member Amy, a professional nurse, actually burned her arm in the demo. 


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And in another medical update, I mentioned in an earlier blog post that Fiona had taken a tumble and hurt her arm.  Fortunately, we had a splint among the medical equipment we brought.  

When we got home yesterday, we first thing we did was go to Urgent Care and confirmed, yep - the arm is broken.  

It's not a real bad break, and will heal with use of the splint.  This was the first known broken bone on one of our trips to Africa.  


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The Andando Foundation is a registered 501C3 non-profit organization that my wife and I started over twelve years ago.  The word Andando means "walking together" in the African language of Wolof.  Our son Lewis is now the Director. 

We have been very active in Senegal, West Africa for all these years, and the pace of activities seems to be picking up.  This past couple weeks we took a team of eight to visit, work, teach, distribute supplies, and interact with our different projects in remote villages. 

It was a great trip and we got a lot done.  There are too many programs and projects to mention, but I will list a few of the things we have done over the years. 

• Community fresh water Wells provided = 30 
• Health Posts structures built/equipped = 4
• Schools and classrooms built/rehabbed = 28
• Microloans made = 506
• Feeding programs (students fed) = 914
• Major Market Gardens established = 7 
• Medical supplies/equipment (cases)  = 31 
• Training provided for (attendees) = 276
• Solar Water pump systems installed = 7
• Buildings built or rehabilitated = 4
• Desks, school books, backpacks, and supplies provided for (students) = 899

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On the job, doing plumbing, we again encountered the challenge of assembling pipes that had no male or female end.  The way they tackle this is to build a fire and heat the end of the pipe until it expands.  

Unfortunately, the conditions are very hot and dry, not conducive to open flame.  What better way to build a fire than in the old toilet that we had to replace.  Makes for an interesting picture Ha!Ha!

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 It wouldn't be a complete post without another airline story, this one not quite so scary as some of the others.   

We were leaving Dakar on Sunday morning, or we were supposed to.   Got checked in and everything went smoothly.  They were telling us we would be 30 minutes late in taking off.   Okay, no big deal.

Everyone boarded the plane and got seated.  Then we waited as the plane sat on the hot tarmac.  After what seemed like a long time, they made an announcement that there were some "electrical issues" that would require some repair.  

This took a very long time, and when it was finally resolved, we were told that the mechanic had to go back to his office to file some paperwork.  Hunh?  Can't they do this electronically?  Oh, wait ...  

And since we were sitting so long (already almost two hours late) they said they would have to take on more fuel to top up the tank for the long flight to New York. 

After this was done, we taxied out to the runway. we sat there for a few minutes and they revved up the engines for take off and then ... the engines slowed down.  They said the "electrical issues" had resurfaced. 

People were getting irritated.  We taxied back to the tarmac and waited some more.  There are no jet ways to roll up to plane in Dakar, you just sit out on the asphalt.  It was very hot.  

As time went on, people began to lose confidence.  Several passengers even got off the flight, refusing to fly on a plane with repeated problems.  

We finally left over three hours late and flew to New York.  By that time we were late for our next flight to Portland.  We hustled through passport control and customs and raced to our gate, only to find that this flight was also delayed.  

So we waited for a long time, then boarded and waited some more.  There was a "big storm" in the Northeast, and we had to de-ice the plane.  It took forever, and we finally left almost two hours late.   

We arrived home at 1:30 am in the morning.  After getting our car and dropping off a few team members, we got to be at 3:30 AM.  Ain't travel fun?


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Okay, one last picture.  The side-by-side existence of old and new in Senegal is striking.  We were at a gas station one evening, and as I emerged from the shop, I couldn't resist capturing the image of a horse cart waiting with the gas pumps behind. Would make for a good caption contest, don't you think?