Hello, it's been a while!

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 to DA.  There are chapel services each day.  This week, he spoke on people in the Bible who were bold in their faith.  He emphasized being "all in" for Jesus.  He shared stories of Nehemiah and Paul from the Bible as examples of boldness.  He was also here to share devotions with the staff and pray for us as we minister to our students.

This weekend was a busy one!  Lindsay and I have been playing Intramural Team Handball, an annual DA tradition.  The advance PE students (11th and 12th graders) are team captains and draft their teams.  They also learn the game well and take turns refereeing.  Lindsay's team is undefeated in the girls division (her team captain is over 6 feet tall and can pretty much shoot over everyone).  Unfortunately, Tim's team hasn't won a game and has 1 tie.  All of our games have been close, but we can't seem to close them out.

Another fun tradition here is for the Junior Basketball team (Reid plays & Tim coaches) to play their first game against the parents in the Oven Mitt Challenge.  To make it fair (and fun) parents are required to wear oven mitts during the game and wear flip flops.  Here are a few pics of Lindsay and Reid during the game:

Last week, I (Lindsay), also got to travel with Daisy's soccer team for their first away game.  It was fun being soccer mom to many of the girls (some of whom live in the dorms); a lot of them needed some TLC as they battled ankle sprains and shin splints.  Several of her teammates are also in my health class.  Daisy is LOVING soccer and is really making her mark as a dependable defensive player.

This week, we visited the US Embassy to start the process of obtaining a residence card to remain in Senegal longer than the 3 months they give you when you initially enter the country.  It was pretty non-eventful (but evidently if you try to take photos it becomes eventful real quick).  We enjoyed some American TV (even if it was The Nut Job) and very cold air conditioning. 

I (Lindsay), also had my first experience with the medical care available here in Senegal as we had 2 staff members fall and sustain fractures 2 days in a row!  It was different...we arrived at the clinic at 10 am only to find out the doctor was due back at 1 pm.  So we waited several hours.  The radiologist had her on the table doing x-rays within minutes of walking in the room (before he even took her name!).  No lead apron.  A flat fee of $40.  Then across the hall to the orthopedist for a cast.  She saw a different doctor than the other staff member the day before, and was charged nearly twice as much for the cast!  Things are just a bit more unpredictable here...

It is hard to believe that we have been here 2 months already!  We both feel like we are connecting well and having opportunities to minister to our students.  Since it is the end of September, here is our 1 second from every day video:

I guess soon you will be enjoying the fall colors, raking leaves, watching football, and drinking pumpkin lattes.   We are entering the hottest time of the year, so we will be jealous of your lower humidity and cooling weather.

We love and miss you all!

-Tim & Lindsay