Women's Meeting

Each week the ladies from the church get together for worship, bible study, and prayer at the Mission.  It's a really fun time.  The ladies from University Christian Fellowship sent the ladies of the Evangelical Church of Oussouyee a big box full of shoes.  It arrived the week before school started for the year, when Senegalese parents buy their children new shoes for the year.  Very timely!   The ladies started singing a song of thanksgiving to God.  It was also a special time for the Assine family.  Their new boy, baby Barnabus, was born the week before and Marie Claire had just arrived home from the hospital earlier that week.

October Couples' Dinner in Kahinda

Each month the couples' get together to encourage each other at someone's house.  This month we went to the house of Gerard and Marie Claire in Kahinda.   We walked there together from Oussouyee.  We had worship, bible study, prayer and a delicious dinner made by Marie Claire. Then we walked back at night in the pouring rain.  Every path turned into a little stream. It was so much fun! We laughed like kids.

Fete du roi

Every year, the king (le roi) of Oussouye hosts a feast.  The main attraction at the feast is the Loot.  This is a traditional Senegalese wrestling event.  Young people from each village walk together to Oussouye to wrestle the young people from other villages in groups of people their own age and sex. All the wrestlers from one village arrive together and sit on one side of the wrestling field. Then, the loot begins with the king coming in dressed in red, along with a king from another village that he invited, followed by a procession of the king's officials and special guests, such as the mayor. A wrestler from one village will walk over to the place where the wrestlers from another village are sitting and challenge one of them to a match by pointing at them.

During the loot there are matches going on at the same time all over the field.  When a wrestler wins by a long shot, their village cheers for them.  We also saw plenty of guys pick up their opponent and slam them down on the ground, all to shouts and cheers from their village posse.