Scholarship Frenzy

Hooray! The girls' scholarship process has finally kicked off. Last Friday I had a meeting with eight of the nine scholarship candidates (only one didn't show which I would consider to be a great success). The secretary at the middle school, Thiara, has been an absolute God send and helped me organize our first meeting as well as give recommendation sheets to professors for each of the candidates. Lord knows when I'll get those recommendations back, but hopefully it will be soon. During the meeting, I explained the scholarship program to the girls and they all wrote short essays about what they want to do in the future and why education is so important. We also chatted about the 2nd Annual Thies Region Girls' Camp to which they are all invited and I think they were all legitimately excited. Three of the nine candidates also participated in the program last year and have kept their grades up enough to be amongst top students again. It was great to see how proud they were while talking about their participation in the camp with the newbies. I'm personally disappointed that I won't be able to be a part of the camp again since it won't take place until September, but alas, my service needs to end at some point.

On Sunday I started with home interviews and visited two of the candidates. This process is definitely easier the second time around and I feel much more confident sitting down with parents to explain why some random white girl wants to give money to their daughter and invite her to a camp seemingly far away from home. It really is great to have conversations with the girls' families; so far they have all seemed extremely supportive of both the program and the continued education of their daughters. I only hope that this is not a show for my sake and that the girls truly do feel encouraged at home. Yesterday I had random interviews scheduled throughout the day and I'll be continuing on today. By this weekend I should be finished with all but one; the girl who was MIA at the first meeting is still mysteriously impossible to find.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Sine-Saloum delta to visit my friend Tamar for a couple days. I've been telling her I would visit her since she moved there at the beginning of our service, and time is growing short. She has a friend here from the States and they've been traveling all around Senegal for the last week. This past Saturday I spent the day with them in Thies, and then we all spent the night at mi casa in Pout. On Sunday morning we ventured out to the Keur Moussa monastery (quite possibly my favorite place in Senegal) for Catholic mass and a delicious goat cheese & grapefruit picnic. My friend Erin was also randomly there with her parents who are also visiting from the States, so we had a great time sitting outside, enjoying the weather, and talking about how crazy everyone's Senegal experiences has been. I'm really excited to finally get down to Tamar's little island; we're planning on wandering around the mangroves, kayaking, and enjoying a few days away from the hustle and bustle of "city" life. It should be a great time.

Peace only.