Another picture of some children in Saint Louis. You'll probably recognize the boy that's jumping.

During our stay we visited several projects working with poor children. Charlotte's mother has organized a concert in Belgium and the money will be used to donate to some good projects. All the children were lovely, but sadly enough most of the projects are as corrupt as the rest of society. Until now Charlotte has not yet found two honest projects that are worth the money.

wow

This is a group of talibés. On this pic they're having one of their coranlessons. The room you see in the background is the sleeping room of 30 boys.



In between and after their lesson they go out in these streets to beg for food and money.



Some marabouts beat the children if they weren't able to gather 1000 cfa (about two dollars) in one day. Most people in Senegal only have about 65 dollars each month, which is the cost for a month's water and electricity.

Awesome pics and insightful observations. Thank you for sharing these.

wow.... beautiful pictures... and makes one realize how things really are, what things really matter.


thank you marie for sharing.

MarieLouise said:

That picture is so beautiful

Beautiful pictures, Marie, thank you for sharing them along with all the informations about the country and the people living there . That must have been an incredible experience!!!

Thanks so much for sharing.

This one is my absolute favorite...the dark skin of the villagers, the clouds and the roofs on the right, the different textures and colors of the grains/fish(?)--it's absolutely beautiful. If I saw this at a gallery I would buy it and hang it in my apartment! It's wonderful.


Thanks for sharing your experiences and pics with us! So did you also do volunteer work or you just went to visit your friend? What kind of volunteer work?

jone70 said:

Charlotte started working for a Belgian woman who has a backpack-hotel in Yoff, and also started a project to help Talibés, make sure they didn't have to beg, provide them with food and clothes, give them French courses etc...

After a while Charlotte discovered the project was not koosjer at all, and much money simply disappeared... That's when she found a job at the Belgian embassy.

I didn't do any volunteer work. My boyfriend and I took the children to the beach, he gave them capoeiralessons, we played in the sea together and we made a fruitsalad for all of them, things like that. But you can not call that volunteer work. It was simply enjoying being in the company of the local children.

Next to that we checked out this project in Saint Louis. But I didn't do volunteer work. We've stayed in Dakar most of the time and have made a few trips to Saint Louis, a national animalpark, the Casamance-region etc.
[Edited 8/27/06 6:56am]

beautiful