Musser Party of Five

Bonjour amis et famille! For those of you who read our blog to see how we are doing, I apologize for not posting for the past few weeks.  It has been pretty busy, so we'll try to play catch up this week! Here is a quick recap of October: A Trip to the local Saturday Market: We took a trip to the Saturday market with some friends.  It was such an adventure.  Clothes, shoes, toys, I even saw a minor league baseball hat from near my hometown (Carolina Mudcats)!  The market is near our house and stretches for about a mile. International Appreciation week! There are 34 countries represented on DAs campus.  During the week, we had different days of dress from around the world and one afternoon got to sample yummy food from many different countries.  Here is a video to give you an idea of what is was like: International Appreciation Week Video  (Look for a cameo by Daisy!) Harvest Fest (even thought it was hot!): Harvest Fest is a fun...

Bonjour Amis et famille! We hope you are all doing well.  We did not post an update last week because we were on our way back from a restful staff retreat to Saly, a coastal resort town about an hour south of Dakar.  The kids stayed back with friends, so Lindsay and I were blessed with some time just the two of us to rest and have fellowship with other DA staff.  We had a pool and the beach was a short walk away.  It is a popular destination and many people from France own houses there.  We unfortunately did not take many pictures (too busy relaxing I guess), but here are a few: A view from the beach. There were also a few monitor lizards that made their home at the resort. Our villa It was a great weekend away from Dakar, connecting with co-workers & friends, and preparing for "Spiritual Emphasis Week" at DA. Spiritual Emphasis Week is a week where a speaker from the US is invited to come t...

Bonjour!  I hope this posting finds you safe and dry following hurricane Florence.  We must apologize for that!  If you look at the map of its path, you will see that it started just off the coast of Senegal.  I (Tim) became a bit of a weather geek tracking Florence.  I think how it works is that storms work their way across Africa and sometimes turn into tropical depressions when they hit the Atlantic.  It has inspired some funny facebook postings like this one: In talking to friends and family, we were reminded of how quickly an event like Hurricane Florence can disrupt our lives and our sense of being in control.  That is something that, we too, have come up against A LOT since being in Senegal.  We frequently deal with power outages at school and at home.  Internet works most of the time at both places, but isn't as reliable as what we were used to.  I find myself often trying to enter grades or plan my lessons on Google Docs,...

Our Fruit Guy and a trip to the beach! Bonjour amis et famille! We hope this post finds you doing well!  This week, we have finally gotten some rain.  Unfortunately, the streets of Dakar are not well equipped for drainage, so when it does rain, there tends to be some flooding.  It does make for an adventurous walk to school as the roads near our house flood a bit, so you have to strategically choose which sidewalk on which side of the street carefully or you may find yourself with no way to go but in deep water!  This is a funny post that has been going around on FB around here from a local restaurant called Willy's: Now, some places in Dakar do flood like this most times when it rains, but not really near where we live.  I had to be at school early Friday morning for a staff meeting and had to run there in the rain.  I was pretty wet when I arrived, but dried pretty quickly once I got into my air conditioned classroom. Let me introduce you...

Hello family and friends! We are beginning to get in a routine here.  One of the biggest challenges we have faced is grocery shopping for 5 (without a car) and dinner planning.  We have 3 small grocery stores in our neighborhood, 2 within pretty close walking distance, and the other is almost a mile away.  Each has things we like, so we tend to hit them all during the week.  There is a larger store in the city, but it is a drive from where we live and I can't check out a car yet, so we rely on friends to take us when they are going.  It is kind of like a 3 story Super Walmart or Target, where we can do all our grocery shopping.  This may sound boring to you, but it has been a struggle to figure out the most efficient way to do it in a country where there isn't much efficiency.  We are definitely learning patience here...nothing happens quickly! One thing we are thankful for is rain!  We are in the rainy season, but there hasn't been much ra...

Our first week of school was a success!  Here is a breakdown of each person and what their week looked like: Daisy had a great start to 7th grade!  She is one of 5 girls in her class of 20 students.  Needless to say, she has had an instant group of friends (the girls gotta stick together).  She has a great class with sweet students.  She is taking the usual, Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science.  Her electives are Bible & French 1.  She rotates through PE, Art, Music, & Computers.  She will begin girls intermediate soccer in a few weeks. Reid had a great start to the year as well!  He is in 4th grade and he really likes his teacher.  Reid is also taking French.  He has made friends with a few kids from his class and he loves staying on campus long after school playing soccer and playing with friends.  His favorite part of the day is recess.  He will begin Junior Basketball in a few weeks. Sam had...

Bonjour Nos Amis! (Hello Our Friends!) We have arrived to Dakar and are doing great!  Thank you for all your prayers and support of us.  Our travel and entrance into Dakar could not have gone more smoothly.  All 9 or our checked bags arrived, and before we left DC, we connected with a fellow Dakar Academy teacher who was on our flight.  After arriving, at our house, unloading our bags, and a quick tour of the school, we all took cold showers and had a nap!  Our house is on a busy street and only about a 5 minute family walk to the school.  On day 1 we spent some time walking around the neighborhood and managed to order a pizza for dinner!  Our bodies are definitely adjusting to a 4 hour time difference as we are not very sleepy at 11:00 PM here (7:00 PM) EST.  We are discovering new things here all the time, like trash collection!  Apparently the procedure here is for the garbage truck to drive through the neighborhood beeping it's horn ale...

Hello Friends and Family, What a whirlwind this summer has been thus far!  We are amazed and a bit dizzy by all that has taken place over the past few months, but here we are, more or less ready to fly out to Dakar tomorrow. Here's a brief timeline of the past couple months and what is to come- TeachBeyond Orientation, 6/17-6/23:  In Wheaton, Illinois near Chicago.  It was a GREAT week of connecting with other families and individuals that will be working at different schools all over the world (we even met the PE teacher from our school, Dakar Academy...he will be Reid and Sam's teacher).  We gained a better sense of TeachBeyond's mission to use education worldwide to share the love of Jesus.  We received great teaching as well as practical instruction from people with a vast experience working overseas.  There was even a kid's program that helped our kids prepare as well! End of June-mid-July:  Packing, packing, packing! Ya...

Bonjour!  The attached letter below explains the details, but we are headed to Dakar, Senegal on August 3rd to serve the community of Dakar Academy!  I hope this blog will serve to keep you connected to us and to share the adventures that God will lead us through.  Musser's Support Letter Our hope is that through this experience, we will grow in our faith, grow closer as a family, and gain a more global understanding of what the world is like outside the United States.