Wednesday, February 19, 2014 Today's guest speaker, Abdou Sarr, Executive Director of World Education, arrived at 9 AM. We convened in the private meeting room with the curtains closed as we were told Mr. Sarr preferred the room to be secluded in that way. Abdou Sarr has been the driving force behind World Education's work in Senegal to establish the Network of Community Radios for Peace and Development in Casamance which now has 17 radio stations. After warm gr...

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 After the hotel's buffet breakfast, we gathered in the private dining room to begin the day with the daily journal entry (mine from the horrific travel experience to Senegal) and then a short text reading. We had a short study session "Why We Are Here?" with some readings related to our reactions to and interactions with those who live in poverty. Our guest speaker, Senyabou Maie Cisse, the Founder and Coordinator of USOFORAL was the g...

February 17, 2014 After a solid fours hours of sleep in a lovely room at the Radisson Blu in Dakar, I awoke, took a shower and got dressed, and got down to the breakfast buffet just before it closed at 10:30 AM . It was one of those nice international hotel type buffets with granola, cereal, eggs to order, various cheeses, meats, smoked salmon, breads, croissants, yoghurt, fruit, and juice. I joined the cousins, Karen and Carole for breakfast. Once finished ba...

Saturday, February 15, 2014 All ready to go, packed the last minute toiletries, put the bag, jacket, and my African violets on the front porch. Packed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, apple, and carrot sticks for lunch in the backpack, put coffee in the travel mug for the drive to the airport, and sat down to eat breakfast. Jeanne arrived a few minutes early and put the items on the porch in the car. I quickly finished my cereal, grabbed my coffee, and got ...

May 20 Our last full day in St. Petersburg. After breakfast, we set out for the State Museum of Bread, one of St. Petersburg's newest museums and one in the general vicinity of our hotel. I checked the website before we left to be sure about the address and hours (open M-F 10 AM opening time). It took about 15 minutes to walk there, was a little hard to find. Addresses are very strange. First one side of the street is odd and one even which is good, but there is...