Pink Lake and The Sand Dunes

Monday, March 5, 2007

Our hotel for the week is Hotel Keur Gainde (House of the Lion)
It is an imposing three story structure that is actually built like a lion.
The upper level is the lion’s head and the restaurant sits in the opening of its mouth.
The hotel has a gallery, fitness center and Internet café. Beverly and I share a room on the third level. There is no elevator.
Today the random acts will be performed on the road to Pink Lake.

Also called Lake Retba, the Pink Lake is a large lagoon near the ocean that is famous for its natural pink color. A Senegalese who is a friend of Fallou built a restaurant and resort there. This is where Juanita has arranged for us to have lunch.

Passing through Niaga village, Juanita spots a cluster of women seated on a large mat under a shade tree. They are tending to their children, braiding hair and sorting vegetables for the market. Juanita joins them under the tree and after a few moments of conversation she unceremoniously gives each of them money.
Back at the bus she gives Telvin another opportunity to disburse gifts to the village children. When they invite the children over it becomes chaotic. The children are beside themselves with excitement. Dozens of them rush the bus and attempts by us and the village adults to organize them are unsuccessful. There is pushing and shoving, fighting and crying. One little boy who was bathing jumped from his tub and runs naked toward the bus. The children who obeyed and organized themselves in a line a short distance from our bus became angry when they saw others go over and receive gifts ahead of them.
This scene was more unsettling to us than the brief shoving match that we witnessed between the two men at the airport when we first arrived.
Juanita finally instructed us to pack up and move out. We had an emotional on bus debate about whether we waited too long to disburse the gifts and whether our expectations of how the children should have behaved were realistic. We talked about ways to handle things better the next time around.

Telvin, who is the child ambassador of Juanita’s Random Acts project and with her help has formed a nonprofit called Kids In Africa Want to Color Too, shared how he was affected by the mini melee.
“I felt happy about doing this until all the commotion started,” Telvin said.
He said that he got upset about what happened when he gave a small child one of the school supplies.
“A boy who was about my age started taking it from him and started knocking him down. That’s when I had to stop.”
N’Dieye who attempted to film Telvin handing out coloring books, received an elbow to her jaw during the confusion.
But her painful experience was soon replaced by spiritual moment she had when we arrived at Pink Lake. This is where N’Dieye gets her wish to bathe in the waters of her ancestral homeland. Not long after we arrived N’Dieye rested her camera on one of the restaurant tables, walked over to the water where she waded for a few seconds before immersing herself fully clothed.

Several of our team joins her, but our immersion was only ankle-deep.

Before we leave the lake Juanita hires a truck to take us on a ride through the sand dunes.
We felt like kids on a hayride. But even in the midst of our adventure Juanita has the driver stop several times so she can perform random acts. She spots a woman balancing a bucket of cow’s milk on her head. When she gives her a gift of money, Fallou, our guide interprets her response. The woman thanks Juanita and asks God to give her good health. “You made her day,” Fallou said.
Fallou explains to Juanita how significant her gift was. “That full bucket of milk could not get $10,” he told her. Juanita’s gift was equivalent to sales of several buckets of milk.
A short distance ahead we are off the truck again when Juanita sees two women riding a cart pulled by a donkey.
Fallou goes ahead of us to ask them to stop for a moment.
They are Fulani women and “co-spouses,” married to the same man. Absa Fall, the senior wife or awo, has seven children. Magatte Njie, the niarel or second wife has six. They live in the nearby village of Keur Balla.
The cart they are riding is piled high with bags of carrots. They insist on giving Juanita a few bags in appreciation of her gift. Juanita later gives the carrots to Fallou.
The donkey is getting restless. The women wave goodbye and roll away.

Visit: http://www.randomactsfoundation.com/story.html

Watch: http://www.ibroadcast.com/randomacts.html