The president of our association, his wife and 83 year old mother in law, undertook the adventurous trip to Senegal - a trip to an entierly different kind of world. After almost 24 hours, the small group finally reached the airport of Ziguinchor in good spirits, where they were eagerly awaited and greeted by Marielle Furter and her friends. After a rather short night, the whole group drove to Niaguisse for the grand opening of the first kindergarten which got founded through kindergartens4senegal.

It was a big event and lots of representatives from other villages, as well as the authorities were there. Of course even the television was present. There was singing, music and dancing, actually exactly as Europeans would expect Africa to be like. Naturally the speeches from the local authorities were a very important part of the ceremony also. Finally the cutting of the tri-color ribbon officially opened the kindergarten and the inspection of building could begin. There was much praise for the very successful construction, a jewel of a building, and it got a lot of attention.

After the grand opening, all of the roughly estimated 500 guests got a delicious meal, that the women of the town had lovingly prepared (it tasted wonderful). Later balloons were passed out to the children. It was such a big deal among the kids, to get their very own balloon, that the crowd got too big too quickly. For safety reasons the balloons got given away later, in smaller circles. 

After much shaking of hands, the delegation of kindergardens4senegal finally said their goodbyes with a somewhat heavy heart to the many officials, the helpers and most of all to the children, who waved goodbye bright eyed and cheerfully. It was a very impressive event, with lots of happy and satisfied faces, it was successful and well organized, colorful and very touching.

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