Asalaa Malekum! This is Amy from the Senegal WILL team. That first phrase is a greeting in Wolof, the language of Senegal which we have been studying for the past two days and will continue the rest of the week.

The past two days have been quite the advernture as we try to get settled into the new places, sights, sounds etc of Senegal. Yesterday, Monday, we started with language study and then watched a lengthy video on religion in Senegal. We were able to better understand the what and why the people believe. We then headed over to Dan and Esther Penney's house, other WorldVenture missionaries in Dakar. There we watched even more movies, this time about the Penneys themselves and also basic info about WorldVenture and why it sends many missionaries to Senegal. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, until the Hamptons came over and told us about our ministry for tomorrow.

And then tomorrow came. We once again did language study and then headed over to the Hamptons' place to work with them at the Talibe ministry. The Talibe's are a large group of young boys whose parents send them to a school to study religion. During this time, they are forced to beg for money which works out nicely for the Senegalese people as giving is one of the religious cultural norms. The boys live in an environment that is not ideal for children. Some of the boys come to the Hampton's house to take a shower, eat, get basic medical attention and just play. God has done some amazing things through this ministry including reaching many religious teachers through watching the Jesus Video. Jeremiah, Sheila and Myself played with the kids while Ashley and Karlee helped with medical care. It was a good day to get out and play with the kids. It was neat to see how much these boys just wanted to play with us and the toys.

After we left, we ate our first real Senegalese meal. We went upstairs and ate on the floor out of a community bowl. We all would sort of section off a part of the food and eat it with our hands. When we were done, we licked our hands, excused ourselves and washed them. It was definately a new experience! The lady who ate with us then talked to us for a while about Senegalese culture. It was really interesting to see how it is so different from America culture and all we are used to.

Well...that has been our life for the past 2 days. Please pray for us as we continue to minister and be ministered to!