Saturdays seem to roll around every few days! It seems we are always going to clean the church for Sundays! I believe church cleaners will receive huge blessings in heaven. Period.
The trashman picked up the church trash today while we were working.
Elder Koffi is a great musician! What a blessing to have him here.
Today we had a special Leadership Training Meeting with our branch leaders (we missed Valerie and Dina, who are with their new babies). Sekou conducted the meeting and John did the training. For 2.5 hours we reviewed important principles from the Handbook of Instructions about branch and ward leadership and individual responsibilities. It was a great meeting with lots of questions and involvement. This is the first generation here, we are with the Pioneers.
After reviewing the responsibilities, we did this activity where they had to remember who was in charge of what.
Here is a reminder of what our Sunday schedule looks like:
And these are the callings as they stand now:
After the meeting we shared some of John’s ties with them and also some BYU t-shirts. This is a great team!!
This is the view from our back deck. We live next to this traditional compound. Here is a bit from my journal this evening:
It was interesting to go our on the decks tonight at sunset and watch the end of Ramadan here on our street. First I went to the back to look in on the compound down below. There were no men in sight. Before the sun actually set, I saw bowls of rice and sauce sitting out as if they’d already eaten. But no men anywhere.
Then I went to the front (north) deck and looked out over the streets below on our corner. It was like an Easter parade of mostly women and children walking as families, dressed in beautiful bright new clothes. I could tell the clothing was new and special–like Sunday best, like holiday best. Clean and bright. The little girls had bows in their hair and many had matching dresses. Young men and boys had clean crisp boubous (tunics with matching pants) on. Women carried new hand bags and had nice shoes on. It was really like watching a parade of newness. It was festive and fun. There were lots of cars out, and men were in cars, but I saw hardly any walking.
I think people are going to visit family and friends to break their fasting. Maybe the men are all roasting the slaughtered animals. I’m not sure where they were. Not long after sunset, there was a prayer call and a few men went to the mosque, but not that many. I think they are all eating now in family compounds. The women must be exhausted.
Ramadan is ending tomorrow night. We’ve had a full month of fasting during the days and eating during the dark hours. Life around us has slowed a bit, in the heat of the day. The vendors have thinned out, especially those selling food. Here is a bit that I recorded in my journal about our taxi ride to and from the church today:
Some of the big fruit stands along the main road were back today, but not all. Another interesting thing I noticed this morning was the movement of cattle and sheep through out the town. They were in the backs of trucks and bakkies and tied on motorcycles. They were tied to posts outside of compounds. These are big long-horned bulls with lonely eyes, some brown, some black and white. Maybe they know their doom is pending. They will be in the pot tomorrow when Ramadan ends. I saw two today actually being butchered as we passed by–one in a soccer field near the road had been killed and quartered. The white and black head was still attached to the carcass, but men were taking sections of the meat away–a leg and thigh, a rib cage, a chunk here, a chunk there. Another cow was being wrestled to the ground right off the street, and I’m sure his neck was slit after we passed by.
People are preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan with feasting and there will be lots of animals butchered today and tomorrow. It’s interesting that this cattle is delivered alive to the compounds and killed on site. I saw dozens of bulls and cows tied up today, waiting. I wonder if they’re given a final meal. Probably not.
We had a great meeting today with the Elders and Pres Sekou. We are thinking carefully about the best way to strengthen the church here. Our impressions are that we need to strengthen the core in Bamako, and not spread too thin. We talked today about the best ways to do that and still help those in the areas farther away.
I am so grateful for good leaders here and good missionaries and for this opportunity to serve with them here.
I recruited John to help me in Primary today by showing a French video about King Benjamin and what he taught. It was great and the kids loved seeing it and talking about the different things he talked about and the coming of Jesus Christ at some future day.
We helped the kids memorize some of King Benjamin’s words about serving others–how when we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God:
Mosiah 2:17
Lorsque vous êtes au service de vos semblables, vous êtes simplement au service de votre Dieu.
Then we took the kids into the adult Sunday School to recite that scripture. They were great.
I love these kids. It’s always a joy to be with them.
Here are our 2 Ex-Pats, Abram and Eric. Abram has been here teaching school the last 2 years and Eric has just arrived. He’ll be working at the US Embassy the next 2 years. They’re such a great help and support to our Branch.
I’m not going to mention cleaning the church today to prepare for the Sabbath tomorrow because something way more exciting happened! We’ve been trying to get some shelving units for the branch for more than 5 months. The red tape is unbelievable. We’ve needed permissions, approvals, accounts set up with vendors and who knows what else.
Today the 2 shelving units finally arrived. Only one of them was wrong, but within an hour or two they were able to bring the right one and assemble them with a real power tool.
It was a joyous event after a morning of cleaning and hosing off.
Oh how beautiful!! Now we can keep things more organized here.
The existing shelving was taken upstairs to our “library,” which was really an unused kitchen with piles of supplies getting dirty everywhere.
Now we can clean and organize and access these materials.
Ibrahima found a baby bird that fell from the mango tree.
Meetings with Pres Sekou and Fr Mbaya this afternoon.
And tonight John got a haircut! We are ready for church tomorrow. This evening we got news that the road to Binabougou will be closed tomorrow, because of some construction. That means we’ll be attending church here in Bamako. That will be a treat.
This was a bright spot in our day! The kids in this small pre-school were happily learning when we dropped in. Their teachers were lovely and welcomed us warmly.
Sometimes we’re called on to help provide some relief or aid to our members here. This week we did a bit of shopping with our Relief Society President to help some in need.
Staples here include rice, oil, tomato paste, dry milk, sugar and pasta.
These boys with their begging cans were waiting for us to come out of the store. They’re hungry too.
Another shop we visited in our neighborhood.
We also did some visiting this week in Bankoni. As MLS (Member Leader Support) missionaries, our main job is to work with the members and strengthen them in any way we can.
As we drive through neighborhoods and villages, I watch the world go by. It’s a tired, dirty world, that longs for relief, for aid, for opportunity. Oh, I wish we could do more.
There is also bounty here, the gift of fruit. A bright spot in a dusty world.
It’s been one week today since Aaron and the group arrived in Mali. Tonight at midnight they will fly away and we’ll carry on. This morning the group went to the Artisan’s Market and this afternoon we took Aaron so he could have that experience. It’s a wild and crazy place, but I love it there and we have many friends there we’ve known through the years.
Here’s a short clip from the taxi window as we approached the market areas. It’s congested and busy and colorful and crazy. Once you park and go into the Artisan’s Market, it’s a bit more calm, except for the vendors who are desperate to sell us something.
Today I found someone making the beautiful fabric fans we found in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. This is something new here.
Jewelry artists:
Here’s a look at one of the tables of traditional medicine in the parking lot of the market area. These tables smell as grizzly as they look.
Here are a few things we picked up today for the next Ouelessebougou Auction. I love these brass ladies.
We spent several hours today carefully packing these totes and bags to send home with this group. They are filled with wood carvings for friends at home and a few things we might not have room for when we return.
There are also about 65 lbs of medical supplies that have been at the Ouelessebougou compound for many years. They’ll be cleaned and repaired and returned next year when our daughter, Claire comes with an OBGYN expedition.
Tonight we had a final dinner with Mike’s group and many of our Malian friends at Amadine’s restaurant. After waiting patiently for all the food to come (for a couple of hours) it was time to say good bye to this group and to our son. What a gift it’s been to have him here, seeing what we see, doing what we do. Now all of our kids have experienced Mali and had a taste of doing humanitarian work here. This place has changed our family for good.
This evening we went to join the group for dinner and a movie at the English school where they’re staying. Francois Cisoko manages the school here and when Mike’s groups come they set up camp there.
The electricity in Bamako has been off and on a lot the last few weeks. When there’s no power, the fans stop and the rooms with AC get warm in about 3 minutes! Several of the kids moved their beds to the roof, hoping for a breeze to cool them in the night.
Here’s the kitchen where they’ve prepared their meals. These groups bring lots of freeze-dried foods that are quick and easy to prepare. Tonight we had rice, chicken and gravy and fresh mangos.
After dinner everyone had things to do. Some of the girls had henna designs painted on their hands or feet. Tomorrow is their last day here. John and I brought our hard drive with movies and we set things up to show “Sahara,” one of our family favorites about Mali. It’s a great movie! I think the kids enjoyed it.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 