Thank you!

Janet O., who has been living in Dakar for a few years and will soon be moving back to the United States, is one of the DWG members who visited the school in May. She was so touched by what has been accomplished there that she gave us a donation for the sponsoring fund in June.

Now Janet wanted to give special attention to the school's teachers for the end-of-year holidays (Tabaski and Christmas) and has donated a "Holiday bonus" for each of them. Thank you very much, Janet! (and I won't forget that you had tears in your eyes when you gave me the envelope - you saw for yourself, you know it's a worthy cause)

Christiane A. came back from her trip to Germany in October with a contribution to the sponsoring fund. Thanks!

Janet P. teaches ESL as a volunteer in her county and has decided to give the collection her students gave her to Ecole Ousmane Sembène: "for textbooks and fun reading". Mr Diatta is supposed to write up a list of books but he just has not got around to it yet. As soon as I have the list, I will go and buy the books, Janet, and put up pictures on the blog.

Guy W. knows the school personally and is particularly devoted to getting the school a better computer equipment. He sent the printer in the summer and he hopes to send a larger donation and/or some computer supplies in the near future. I'll keep my fingers crossed, Guy.

Thank you very much! You all are making a difference.

But - and I hate to say this, because it sounds like begging and I hate that - it's not enough. Please, please, if you want to do something, send a couple of euros or dollars - for books, for dictionaries or for the sponsoring fund. It is needed and it will be very appreciated.

Antoine Diatta, me, Mrs Diatta and baby Patricia Christine

On the rails again

School started a month ago and the school is now full.

Many parents wait until November to send their kids back to school, because that way they don't have to pay the tuition fee for October when school only starts on the 13th or so. Mr Diatta was expecting about 500 pupils, he had 556 last Tuesday. Honestly, I don't know where he puts them! But he says it's so difficult to refuse the kids. So they're just as crammed into the classrooms as they were last year.

The flooding has gone back, as it hasn't rained again. There's only the odd puddle left.

The 12th classroom has been installed in a part of the library and a wall has been built to seal it off.

Mr Diatta has been very, very busy with the start of the school year, with the school's anniversary on November 11, but also on a personal level: his wife gave birth to a baby girl on October 21. 

I had been told to expect what followed then...: I'm proud and honoured to announce that I am a godmother again! Little Patricia Christine is a happy, pretty baby and I'm only waiting for Elke to send me her photos to put one up here.

It has now been exactly a year since I got involved into this project. The first donations to the sponsoring fund are coming to an end (I always divide donations into 12 equal parts for the following 12 months), so if you aren't going to spend everything on Christmas presents - think of giving a poor family the opportuntiy to lighten their load by helping pay for their child's tuition fees.