Our trip to Keur Soce

A couple weeks ago, we headed to Keur Soce with our friend, Boubou (in the gray and white striped shirt). We were going to do some research on a well project that our church, Dox, is involved in. We got to the bus stop early enough to stop by this restaurant to get some breakfast...yes this is actually a restaurant, serving great sandwhiches for the equivalent of $1 USD each.The bus ride was a grueling 8 hours. Every half hour or so the bus driver would stop to drop off people or pick up more and when he did these vendors would climb onto the bus to sell their goods to the passengers. I wish we had gotten some video so you could appreciate the speed and the amount of noise that this particular kind of selling could execute, amazing, they have made it an art.
Once in Keur Soce, we visted several outlying villages to see what their current water situation was and what their needs are. This is the first village we visited, the same village where we bought Chaco. After taking pictures, everyone would crowd around me and want to look at the picture I had just taken of them. They loved having their picture taken and then seeing what it looked like.After visting this village, we drove about 20 km in the bush to the next one. Sandro (our Swiss friend--also staying with Herma), Chaco and Crystal all rode in the back of the truck.
We drove through several villages on the way, each time a crowd of kids would appear and chase the truck through the village.

The drive to the next village was amazing. It looked like all the movies you see, open country with boubob trees. We experienced an overwhelming feeling of freedom and also just amazment of remembering that we are in Africa. We are so blessed.
The sun was setting before we reached the next village. Here is a pictureque boubob tree, they are amazing.
At the next village we walked with the elders to the proposed well cite. Here they told us their needs and after we all squatted in a circle and prayed for the well project. It was an interesting experience to here everyone praying at the same time, Muslim, Christian, all praying for the village.On our way back, it became too dark to visit any more villages that day. We drove past several villages, all of which were burning something(s) in the middle of the villages. We never really got a clear answer of what they were burning or why, but it was cool to see the light from the middle of the village from the fire lighting up all the huts in the darkness.
The next day, we looked at a couple more water needs, one in particular is not digging a well, but rather burrying a pipe from the existing waterline to an outlying "suburb" of Keur Soce. We marked out the distance from the water main and it will require a trench to be dug that is only about 350 meters.Here Boubou and Scotty marking the desired stopping point for the water line. It will be located in a central location and will ease the strain on families moving to the outskirts of Keur Soce.
We are working closely with the leaders of the community. They were the ones to indicate which areas are most in need and they are helping coordinate the project. They are the leaders of the area and with out their blessing the project could not go through.
Not everything in Keur Soce was work, we also had a chance to hang out with some of the villagers, especially the children. Once they saw the camera, they were all over Scotty.
When the kids got a little loud it scared Chaco. She would huddle up next to Crystal to hide, so sweet.