Building Respect
 On Thanksgiving Day 2002, Michael and Deborah Comer were installed in a village near the market town of Diaobe, a town nationally famous for its large Wednesday international markets, located in the Kolda region of southern Senegal between the cities of Velingara and Kolda. The very first week of service found Michael already busy with the manager of a local telecenter, Samba Balde, working on the implementation of an appropriate record keeping system for Mr. Balde’s telecenter. Months later, an accounting system was in place and functioning well. Much to his satisfaction, Mr. Balde was now organized with his credit, familiar with his cash flows, and capable of analyzing profits and savings. When Michael was then asked to help the management committee of a new health hut being constructed in Mr. Balde’s home village, many of the obstacles volunteers face when entering a new situation were non-existent. A mutual respect and understanding of the importance of accounting already existed, as the village was familiar with and interested in Samba’s accounting work. Thus, Michael was able to immediately step in and get the class rolling. Six months later, the health hut is ready to begin business, with the management committee very capable of managing the stock of medicine, cash flows, and continual savings that are so necessary for the project’s sustainability.
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Fifteen new SED trainees arrived on Thursday September 18th on the South African Airlines "red eye" from NYC. After a couple of days in Thies, trainees left for "Demystification", a four day trip in the field to see how Volunteers live and work at their sites. Upon their return, trainees met their homestay families and started pre-service training language, cross-cultural and technical classes. For more pictures of training in action click here: 
The Small Enterprise Development and Health sector Volunteers that swore in two years ago are getting ready to leave Senegal. After two years of hard work, the group got together in Dakar for their COS conference. The conference was facilitated by former Mauritania Country Director Carla Hunt. Following the conference, Volunteers and staff got together at Arlette Diop's (former Health APCD) restaurant for dinner. To see more group pictures, click on the following: 
