Land issues

As we wrote about earlier we are looking to move closer to the village in order to be closer to those we have been teaching and discipling.  Before we left Senegal in December I made a request of the government to allow us to use some land for when we return.  We would like to be live on the land and we would like to use it as a sort of agricultural project wherebe we can learn together with the Jalunga about different agricultural methods.  You will have to excuse me as I haven’t written much about obtaining the land because I don’t know very much.  When we left I was under the impression that with a few meetings it would be granted and it wasn't a big deal.  But of course it is never that easy.  I am literally learning as I go, day by day.  As soon as I learn what to do next and do it, I find there is something else.  But that is that way things go here.  I am learning a lot about how things are done in government circles here and meeting more people.  Up until now, I haven’t had to work closely with the local government, so this is good in many ways.  As for the land request, what I understand now is that the Président de la Communité Rurale (PCR) is to meet with the Président de la Commission Domicile (PCD) whereby the request can be granted.  The unfortunate thing is the PCR does not know where the PCD is and the phone number he has is disconnected.  So it is hard to have or even schedule a meeting.  Please pray that these guys would run into each other.   Apart from that, we have successfully navigated the rest of the process... we think.     

While we wait for the request to be granted we are living in Kedougou and I am commuting to Madina.  I usually go for 3 days at a time.  We are making all the preparations we can for when the request is granted to start building permanent structures.  We have been given informal permission to do what we would like but with the understanding that nothing is final yet.  So we have dug a well and built two small huts for storing things.  Some bricks have been made and when I go back later this week we'll use the ol'Landcruiser and trailer set up to haul the brick to the future building site. 

Thanks for praying with us.