In The News (by Thom)

It's not too often that stories from West Africa make the news in the United States. However, with the catastrophic flooding we've been experiencing I've been seeing several stories from here showing up on US-based news sites.
If you haven't heard, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Senegal have been hit hard by flooding this rainy season. In the region over 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes and an estimated 160 people have been killed by the flooding. Here in Dakar, Senegal the rains have kept coming with no place to go. Many people have had their homes flooded or completely washed away. Even in our neighborhood I've heard reports of places where the water is knee high on the roads.
Our home has remained dry. Dakar is a very flat peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean but our house is on a slightly elevated piece of land. Still, rainy season is not over yet and we may get another full month of rain or so. Please keep us, our colleagues, and the everyone else in Dakar in your prayers during this time. The risk of tropical disease is especially high at these times.

(photo from VOA site)