A Whirlwind of Action

 My husband, Robin and my brother, Mike had a plan. Maintenance and repairs would be their project for the week, in addition to teaching some key MDG members how to continue with the maintenance ongoing. There is no money in the budget available for hiring outside repair people, so maintenance self-sufficiency is a new objecticve. 

Mike arrived at the Maison de la Gare Centre just in advance of our departure from Canada. He toured the facility with Issa, the President of MDG, assessing the situation and tools on hand and making a list of priorities and required tools. It is astonishing how many things get broken and damaged at a centre designed to make hundreds of talibés feel safe and free to play and behave like children. Electrical covers get picked off walls, lights smashed by errant soccer balls, wires ripped out of sockets to be used as ties, screen picked through by little fingers, garbage buried in the sand, paint chipped at by tiny finger nails, toilets clogged and destroyed, tiles cracked by kids playing with rocks... the list of ongoing devastation is endless. Mike sent the list home to Robin who headed out to Canadian Tire just a few hours before our flight in order to fill the tool box with the right supplies, then the full tool box was packed at the last minute. As soon as we arrived at MDG the tool box came out and Mike and Robin hit the market with Elhage to assist them in search of the rest of the required materials: A few pick axes, rolls of wire mesh and screen, plumbing supplies, toilet seats, paint and thinner, buckets and brushes, a saw, and a step ladder. 

Robin set Robbie and Alicia up to sand and prepare and then paint the metal railing in the Dortoir d'Urgence. Then he worked on other chores, showing MDG members how to use various tools in the garden, and then began preparing the walls for painting.  Mike set to reparing the broken light fixtures, and in some cases just replacing light bulbs. Then he set to repairing the broken toilets. This afternoon Mike will begin to replace all the torn screens on the upper and classroom windows.

Now with the eight foot step ladder on hand, all kinds of chores are within reach- trimming back the bouganvillea, replacing burned out lights, repairing screen when it is torn, and cutting back the deadwood of the grape vines. Elhage and Mohamed soon joined in the work, using a sheet of screen to begin to filter the stones, bits of garbage and thorns from the sand. Issa joined in, shovelling scoop after scoop of sand through the makeshift filter. The sand is becoming as good as new. We will not need to buy another load of fresh sand afterall. Karate will be much more comfortable at MDG, with fewer worries about the Senegalese equivalent of stepping on a lego brick in bare feet. 

Lala, Ibrahima and others grabbed shovels and pick axes to remove roots and overgrown bushes from the flower beds. Fresh earth and plants will be brought in and planted from MDG's cultivation gardens at Bango. Canadian volunteer, Matt helped rake up and haul out the collected debris, whelebarrow losd after load. Others cut the dead branches off fruit trees and trimmed them back and limbed up the coconuts, creating more room for a shady garden retreat and for fruit to grow.

Did I mention this all happened on our first full day at the centre together?

I discussed with Lala the possibility of moving the regular Thursday soccer tournament offsite this week to allow Robin time to properly repair and paint the outer classroom wall, as it usually factors prominently as a target during soccer games (thus the broken light fixtures and windows, and pocked walls). Lala is a local Senegalese soccer player who volunteers with the talibés as a coach and organizer. Relocating the game will give Robin a few more days to properly patch' and repair the walls prior to painting. Knowing how big the paint job will be he did not return to the island for a break and late lunch with the rest of us, he decided instead to work right through, profiting from each available hour.

As Issa saw just how much can be accomplished in a short period of time when so many people pitch in with the help of just a bit of direction and the right tools, he was inspired to reconsider and lengthen his repair list for Mike, and expand the painting list for Robin. 

Everything should be freshly painted, repaired, planted, and the sand freshly groomed in time for the karate tournament to be held on Friday. The repair crew will make sure of it. Besides, they can rest later, on the flight home

a talibé who prefered to watch all the industry from his  lounge chair