Meet Me In St. Louis! (by Thom)

Earlier this week all four of us had the blessing to travel to the city of St. Louis, in Northern Senegal. This was the capital city of French West Africa back in colonial days and today is where all the new missionaries go when arriving in-country for their Wolof language study. We have a team up there of 4 families currently, including a new family that just arrived last month. This was our first trip up to see where they minister and how they live. It was a very interesting trip. I'm still trying to process everything I saw and felt but it was definitely a world-apart from Dakar. I felt the city was much more spiritually oppressed; I certainly admire the courage of those missionaries up there.

A few quick facts about St. Louis, Senegal:

• It also goes by the name Ndar, its Wolof name.
• The heart of the city is built on an island in the Senegal River, although most people live off the island. There is one bridge that connects the mainland to the island.
• The city was built up during the French occupation so there is a strong colonial influence to the architecture.
• Fishing is the dominant industry. It didn't look like it but the neighborhood where the fishermen lived is one of the wealthiest in the whole country.

Speaking about that bridge.... wow. I can't believe it holds as much traffic as it does. I took some pictures of it (like this one) and some while driving over it. There is a crew of welders who work all day welding back pieces that fall off.
We took several pictures during our trip up there and posted several of them to our picture page (here). As the picture above shows, we took a horse-cart ride around the island. Miriam & Hannah loved it!