Here we go again

Dear Friends and Family,

A new school year has started and we've already hit the ground running. We have been looking forward to several changes that were to take place at Dakar Academy this school year and so far we have not been disappointed.

To start, this is the school's 50th anniversary, so we have events and activities throughout the year geared towards celebrating the fact that this school has been here in Senegal helping advance the kingdom of God for 50 years.

There has been a lot of work done on the physical campus to tune it up for this grand occasion. Lots of new paint, a new playground, renovations... I, Mike, continue to work on ideas to bring ELECTRICITY to the campus when the city power cuts. I have more hope than ever that we will take positive steps this year in solving our problem. I'm very proud of the fact that last year we were able to hook the computer lab (one of my primary classrooms) to a generator along with outfitting Mindee's computer in the library with a battery that would allow her to work uninterrupted even when power cuts. These things hadn't been done before in those 49 years of operation. Now for the REST of the school!

I will also be looking into new ways of collecting water to irrigate our soccer field. During rainy season, shoots of grass blast through the sandy soil long enough to tease us and give us a brief glimpse of what COULD be. If you stand to the side of the field and crouch down low to look across it, it looks like it is covered in lush, green grass. But walking onto the field reveals that each blade stands alone, no less than 2-3 inches from its neighbor. This hint of green only lasts about 2 months, then dries up and leaves us with a dull, brown, dusty lot on which we play our sports.

LEFT: "Pretend" grass on our soccer field during rainy season.

RIGHT: Mindee playing Ultimate Frisbee last year on our usual playing surface. Note the dust at her feet.

When 50 years worth of DA alumni were asked what they would most like to see improved about DA, the number 1 answer was "grass on the soccer field." It's been a fantasy here for decades and it IS possible (our "rival" school, the American international school - ISD - across town has grass, which is why we SO love playing sports on their turf). The most likely option for now is to look into artificial turf, however, in my opinion that is TOO expensive and TOO HOT! (10-15 degrees hotter than the air temperature in Dakar = melting your shoes off!) I've been told that they've tried two times to get enough water for the fields, but both attempts failed. So I'm working on an idea that has not been tried, but likely WOULD provide the water we need. (If any of you reading this is "agriculturally inclined" and would like to offer some wisdom, please let me know.) For more details, check out the first issue of this year's DA student newspaper when it prints in October.

Speaking of newspaper, I have a whole new teaching schedule this year. They are keeping me very busy with teaching a math class, 3 middle school computer classes, Life Skills, Photography, Journalism, and Yearbook. So far it's a pretty exhausting schedule but I'm sure once I get used to it I'll really enjoy it.

Mindee continues to work in the library and has revolutionized it in regards to its organization, appearance, and development. She's even helped us join the technological age by joining us with an online research library called EBSCO which increases our resources exponentially.

We have also welcomed a new director to our school this year. His name is Joe Rosa. He and his wife Sharon worked in Central America for over 20 years before joining us here. They have already set a tone of encouragement and excitement for this school year.

So we are eagerly anticipating what is coming this year. As you can see, we have really fallen in love with Dakar Academy and we are invested in this school and its future. We continue to thank God for you, for your prayers and financial support. We are especially grateful to those who have loyally supported us from the beginning, especially when our two-year short term trip evolved into what it is now (this starting our 4th year and no real end in sight). We are just so excited to be a part of what God is doing here in Senegal, not only at Dakar Academy with these students, but with the Senegalese people as well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your partnership. May God bless you.

Mike and Mindee Evans-Maxson

PS-- For those who helped finance our inverter, we continue to wait for it to arrive on container. Most recent estimates have it in port on August 26. In the meantime, we continue to experience power cuts on a regular basis. (In fact, the power is out right now as I type this, but my laptop has a good battery and I've plugged our modem into a smaller inverter to temporarily access the internet.) Earlier in the summer was the worst it's been since I've been out here with cuts up to 10-12 hours per day. Recently it's been better, although it was out most of last night and now again this morning. All that to say, we still look forward to that purchase and even though we haven't seen it yet, we still thank God for you and your generosity in helping us get it.