Well, I had an awesome 2 days!
I had to get up “very” early (6:00) on Tuesday, to finish getting readybefore we went off to be at the McIntire’s by 8. Darren and Ipiled all our stuff in the back of a taxi and set off. The driverwas very friendly that day, and we got to talk to him a bit about whatwe were going to do on this trip. Once we had arrived at theMcIntire’s, we met Maggie’s cousin Kaitlyn, and some other ladies whowere travelling down with us. There was also a ChristianSenegalese young man named Papa who came along. It was very coolto meet one of the few young Senegalese Christians 
Thetrip from there out to thevillage of Sendou, where we were going to work took about an hour and ahalf. We had some sweet wheels, a njagenjai, a white bus that canhold about 30 people pretty comfortably. There were only about 12of us, so we had plenty of room But the seats are prettyclose together, and I always run out of legroom 
On arriving at our destination, know as the village of Sendou, I foundthat it was slightly more advanced than a village, and might (if I wasfeeling generous) deserve the title of small town. Namingconventions aside, most of the buildings were made of cement, but thepeople were very poor, and most things were in a dire state ofdisrepair. Not exactly a surprise.
For the working hours of that day, Michael (another high-schooler), Mr.McIntire, Carla (one of the ladies who’d just arrived from the States),Darren and I all worked over at the village (small town?)school, fixing desks. There were 30 desks in the classroom, andabout 5 of them were in good shape. We had our work cut out forus.
We unbolted desktops that were loose, re-attached them with good NorthAmerican Phillips screws (which means no Senegalese will be able to getthem off without an American screwdriver 
), sanded them down andvarnished them. We had ordered about 12 new desktops, and usedthose to replace the “in worser shape” ones.
Mr. McIntire:
Darren:
Carla:
Enter complication 1:
The pipes used in the desks were too fat for the screws to go through. (a few too many hamburgers maybe )
Solution 1?
Do the only resourceful, manly thing to do, and beat those obese pipesinto submission and flatness. Or, as Mr. McIntire so concisely put it, “Beatthe snot out of them!”
Michael:
After we slimmed them down to size, the repairs went well, and we gotit all done by the end of the day We then headed back tothe Mission house for a delectable yet bony meal of Ceebu Jen (Rice andFish). The 6 teens/just-out-of-teens, Darren, Michael, Maggie,Katie, Kaitlyn and I walked down to the boutique and each got 1-litrebottles of coke! 
And we got Biskrem, which are onlythe best cookies on the face of this planet.
We sat up on the roof for about an hour just talking, until it was timefor the guys to go back to the clinic for the night. Michael,Darren and I fooled around with the clinic’s wheelchair for a while,and Mr. McIntire taught us to do wheelie’s with it 
twas a lot of fun. I took a shower, realizing that I hadneglected to bring a towel, and was required to dry myself off with myshirt We decided to sleep outside, and were out there fora while, talking, before it started to rain 
So we traipsed back in, but I basically didn’t get any sleep because ofthe combination of no padding between me and my buddy the floor, lotsof flies and mosquitoes, and Darren and Michael talking until2am. Thanks guys.
I was lying in bed at 5:30, when I decided that I wasn’t going tosleep, and what was the point staring at the ceiling? So I gotup, sat in the wheelchair (most comfortable piece of furniture )and had a long quiet time. I read this verse in Matthew 25:40
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
It seemed to really fit with what we were doing there, so I combinedsome of the verses into “The King will reply, ‘I was sick, and youpainted my clinic, I needed education and you fixed my desk, I washungry and you gave me part of your apple.’” Put a whole new spinon working there when I thought of it as doing these things for Jesus!
For breakfast we had attaya, which gave me enough energy to get throughthe day without a good night’s sleep We spent thatmorning painting the clinic.
Katie, Maggie, Michael and Darren:
Michael, Darren and Papa:
We even painted the
Once we had finished up we had lunch and set off for home!
The experience was a lot of fun, but it was also very satisfying towork hard, knowing that I was helping the Senegalese people, showingGod’s love in action, and pleasing Jesus! Definately a highlightof my summer.
Keep living for Him!
Trevor