A Tree in Africa

During an internet search I stumbled across this video of our Costa Rican friend's Missionary project. At time 6:19 in the video there is a nice close-up of Ngone's older sister Aissatou's daughter.  Then at time 6:30 in the video you can see Ngone's uncle Housseini and Ngone's mother Fatou Diouf sitting with the Costa Rican missionary (with the beard) in front of our house under construction in Boukhou.  Apparently some of the families have removed their children from the Missionary home in Thies because of the Christian activities. But Ngone's mother has been a key local supporter of the Missionary, as has Jig Jum.

At that point in the video it makes it seem like the Missionary is saving the little boy on his lap from his grandmother (Ngone's mother) sending him to be a Talibe. That is true in a sense. But the boy shown in the video is not Ngone's mother's grandson. The Missionary is however taking care of one of Ngone's mother's grandsons and two of her granddaughters. (Girls are not allowed to be Talibes).  Ngone's mother did previously send one of her other grandsons to be a Talibe, our nephew Dao Pooy, but he's now back at home. He is doing fine and is the boy we took to the hospital to cast his sprained ankle. That trip to the hospital is a whole nother story:

Hospitals in Senegal are a very sad place. In the emergency room I talked with a mother consoling her son with his head broke open who had been to the hospital multiple times and they just gave her token prescriptions and her son was now obviously on the verge of death and she was fighting to get attention from the doctors who were busy caring for other people we could see and hear who were about to die. The condition of the hospital rooms and bathrooms is worse than some of the grungiest places in the country. There must be foreign aid money coming in from France and the USA for the hospital!? There must be national government money for the hospital!? Where is it falling through the cracks? We actually met a cousin of Ngone's from a nearby village who worked in or around the emergency room as a nurse or doctor and was very nice and helpful and took care of Dao Pooy. There are surely some other saints and angels there amongst the intense despair and hopelessness. They need help!