The Senegalese people are hard workers.
There are times when this doesn’t seem the case because the culture doesn’t emphasize (American-style) efficiency when it comes to formal processes and because (American-style) timeliness isn’t as highly regarded (ex. expecting a mason to come work at our house in the morning, but waiting for hours because when he said morning he actually meant late afternoon). This is more of a cultural adjustment on our end though as we come from a culture that emphasizes efficiency and timeliness, arguably to a fault.
In general though, the average person who works is working hard for long hours each day, often for very little pay and doing a job that, from my perspective, seems monotonous and lacking in reward for the effort required. We live across the street from a boutique, which is a little store selling all sorts of things from eggs to juice to brooms to flip flops (seriously, these stores are filled from floor to ceiling with quite the assortment of goods!). Two men run this boutique 7 days a week. Each morning between 7 and 8 am they are out there opening the doors, setting up the stands of potatoes, oil and beans that sit outside the store and sweeping the step leading into the store which is perpetually covered with sand from the dirt road we live on. All day they help hundreds of customers, using a wheelbarrow to transport goods from the storage unit around the block when things need to be restocked. Senegal has a strong night culture so they remain open until 11pm and sometimes as late as 1am (and yes, they are still hopping at these late hours!). They pack everything back up, lock the doors and prepare to come back the next day. We have lived here over a year now and I have never seen the boutique closed, nor seen someone other than these two men running it. Talk about long, repetitive work.
This has prompted some thinking lately on the work God has given me as a stay at home mom. And in this I have been learning a lot about taking joy in the repetitive tasks of each day which is a lot of what my job is. For example, much of my life revolves around mundane, everyday tasks: cooking meals, packing lunches, encouraging potty breaks, wiping children, changing diapers, nursing a baby, laying her down for naps, picking up toys, cleaning up messes, doing dishes, filling up our water pitcher to keep our filtered water supply up, putting laundry away, wiping things down, meal planning, ordering meat deliveries, giving baths and so on. Of course there are plenty of other things in my day as well, but just maintaining a home takes a lot of daily tasks done on repeat.*
It can be easy to feel like I’m stuck in a never ending loop of figuring out what to feed the family and cleaning things which will just become dirty again the next day (or later that day, or later that hour). Yet, isn’t this a reflection of God? Day in and day out He causes the sun to rise and set. He brings the rhythm of the sun’s passing and the seasons changing. There is an order to life, an ebb and a flow in nature and even the things and seasons we experience as humans. Even in the garden, before the fall, He had created plants and animals, day and night. He had given Adam tasks which were a delight to him and had invited man in to work alongside the Creator.
This is still true today, though sin has marred it. I’m made with purpose. I image God as I carry out my day to day tasks and rhythms. There is deep satisfaction and joy in taking part in ordering creation in the spheres God has put us in. For me that is creating a home and mealtimes which bring our family together and allow us to find a safe haven as well as a space to be hospitable and relational with others. Additionally, even if my work can feel unproductive at times, like weeks when the kids are sick or just needing extra one on one attention, I can find fulfillment knowing that God has called me to this work and there is immense purpose in that alone. So, whatever the Lord has called you to for this season, be it motherhood, an 8-5 job, caring for a sick family member, a time of waiting; know that there is purpose and that God can be glorified in it all, even the mundane.
– Selina
* I would be remiss not to mention that Adam plays just as big a part in many of these daily tasks to keep the home running and has lots of other roles on top of his regular ministry duties (ex. being the sole grocery shopper and our main dish washer). Additionally, our house help Fatou is an immense blessing as she washes almost all our laundry and cleans the house from top to bottom twice a week, a much needed aid given how quickly things develop a layer of dirt and dust – even when it’s not dusty season!