Robbie's service project of bringing his sport of karate to the talibes is off to a great start. Team Douvris responded to his call in an overwhelming manner, and we are transporting many dozens of karate gis and white belts to Saint Louis. Pledges of sponsorship for memberships to local dojos are just waiting for Robbie to identify and prepare interested talibes. Robbie's training gear is in his bag, and his training plan is ready to go. Master John Douvris promoted Robbie to Sensei for this special mission, where he will transform from student to teacher.
At Maison de la Gare, the Foyer de Transition was built last year to house runaway street kids temporarily, as a way is found to send them home. Older talibes who are able to leave the daaras and their exploitative marabouts, but who have not yet gained the necessary tools to successfully live an independent life also live there. I helped organize and furnish the newly built Foyer on my last visit. I look forward to seeing friends who have too long lived in daaras not suitable for human habitation living in the first home they will have known in many long years of forced begging. Living in the Foyer means more than just a bed, a quiet place to study, electricity to extend the day, food, and security. It means a place to truly belong as they take the final steps to finding their own ways.
Rowan is looking forward to revisiting the project she established two years ago, when she taught talibe children to use email and set up gmail accounts. Since that initial introduction many talibes have become proficient navigating the internet. Their preferred mode of communication has become facebook chat, which they use to keep in touch with us, and international Maison de la Gare volunteers who have become friends and ongoing advocates, even having returned home. I have been impressed as the French language and typing skills of these kids improved exponentially since the time we first set up computers at the Maison de la Gare library and established an internet connection to facilitate the email project. The "email" talibes truly have developed a connection to the broader world, and a sense of being supported and cared about by friends abroad that surely lends them strength to navigate their challenging lives as talibes.
The improving education levels of many talibes has led to another initiative established during our last visit: the identification and preparation of talibes children to enter the public school system. One of the Maison de la Gare teachers has been charged with preparing 20 talibes for the public school system within the next year. I look forward to helping her with this task by identifying interim objectives and timelines, as well as a system for measuring progress, so that we can more effectively support this important effort.
Words engraved on the wall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial reverberate in my soul when I think of the talibe children, forced to beg for hours everyday, living in squalor, far from family and home, exploited and abused, overlooked by a society that seems otherwise just and gentle: "The audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.". Maison de la Gare's vision is to deliver this.
As we make our way first toward Brussels, then Dakar, then finally, by road, to the seaside northern Senegalese city of Saint Louis, our excitement and anticipation continues to build. I am filled with happiness at the prospect of introducing Robbie and Robin to the beautiful, astonishingly resilient talibe boys of Maison de la Gare. They will soon understand for themselves what continues to draw Rowan and I back to Senegal.
"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
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