Creating Project Japale Goune has been one of the greatest gifts that Senegal gave to me.  Working with two friends who are gifted in unique ways has helped this project remain a labor of love.  For the first time in five years, we got together to look at the past five years, determine what is working (and what is not), decide how to best create income-generating projects that make for a sustainable program that can support itself, and, finally, how to march strongly into the future.   It was a jam-packed weekend in Washington DC with two good friends that passed much too quickly.  Yet, at the end of it, I feel very accomplished and have a sense that something great is brewing just beyond our field of vision- something even greater than we could imagine.  Sort of like the clouds in this picture (that opened up and downpoured on me only 10 minutes after I snapped the shot.)  I am grateful for  Natalie and Ling Ling, two friends who are as different from me as they are alike, and who share a passion for service, Senegal, good food, French, and laughter.