Today was another eventful day at Casa Cretin-Oliveira. After much mournful bleating, Paul settled Daniel into his new sheep shed. It’s right next to the bunny hutch, which is adjacent to the turtle palace. We also have the pleasure of enjoying the real wildlife, which is only apparent in the early morning…right at dawn…right after the mosque has let loose with the amplified call to prayers.
Oh yeah…back to the wildlife…that’s when I get up to watch the three resident grenouilles chase their breakfasts. They come in three hopper sizes—big, medium and tiny. They hop around the terrace, stopping only long enough to let their tongues flick out and grab a mouthful of mosquito or gnat or whatever makes a frog happy.
Or maybe they’re toads. I don’t know. They hop, they seem warty, and they ribit. I like them.
The frogs are much more amusing than the escargots, who could easily become somebody’s lunch. Big, fat, kind of luscious looking. Definitely slow. They are not going to win any race to the finish line. And lucky for them, Nathalie has zero interest in escargot. OK, she’s interested in looking but not eating, so I’m confident that they’re safe. For now.
Today, Nathalie and I met with Tostan, an amazing international NGO that was started 20-some years ago by Molly Melching, an Ohioan who has lived in Senegal since 1974. Started in 1991, Tostan—which means “breakthrough” in Wolof, has been honored repeatedly for its accomplishments, promoting health, literacy, women’s empowerment and democractic process. Before I came to Senegal, I was encouraged repeatedly to “be sure to meet with Tostan.” It was an enlightening and an enlightened meeting…not just because Cody Donahue and Katie Fair, both Americans, were welcoming gave us real contacts that have the potential to become working relationships that support the hospital. But it was meaningful because they validated that our thinking about how we would like to work with Tostan was a workable model.
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