One of the best things I’ve ever done in my life is being involved with the Days for Girls organization. It’s been 8 years now, since I first started teaching women at home and in Mali about Days for Girls feminine hygiene kits. These simple kits are a game changer for the girls and women here. I’m thrilled every time I see a kit placed into the hands of a girl here. These kits help keep these girls in school every day of the month.
Today we taught and distributed kits to more than 100 thrilled young ladies!
After Rose taught the girls about menstruation and menstrual hygiene, and before we gave each girl a kit, she asked me if I wanted to share anything with the girls. I said, “Yes!”
I told the girls that there is a God above who loves us. Being a women and having a period is a gift from God that allows us to have children. This gift is special and we need to manage it well and protect our bodies. I told them these kits will help them to do that. They are made and given with love.
I never tire of seeing the happy faces of girls when they realize what this gift will do for them. As I circulated through the room, helping them figure out how to put the shields into the underwear and snap them securely, one by one, girls quietly thanked me. You can see the joy in their eyes!
This morning we traveled to another village outside of Bamako about 1.5 hours away, through bad traffic and then bad roads. The bus was hot and full. The kids in the group are tired and dirty. The villagers were waiting and excited.
The bus pulled into the school and the children ran to greet us, cheering our arrival. The water tower and tank and the bore hole had been prepared this last week by the contractors here, so the villagers knew exciting things were coming.
These boys make their own drums and become part of the village’s celebration committees!
The village dancers also came to perform for us.
We were given kola nuts, a traditional Malian gift often used ceremonially, presented to chiefs or guests.
After all the dancing and greetings and speeches, we went to work. The school kids were probably too excited to stay in class the rest of the day, we were a bit of a disruption! Here is the school bell:
When Mike’s groups come, they use several of our Bamako Branch members to help with translating and the work here. It’s a great opportunity for these members to meet Americans and practice their English skills.
So everyone went to work for the rest of the day. Mike’s agenda included these things:
Install Water Purification System
Dig Trenches for water pipe to school and garden
Install garden drip system and plant garden
Water Education classes
Days for Girls Education and Distribution
Dental Hygiene Education
Distribute school kits
School Uniforms
Vision Screening
Ear Cleaning
These water projects include drilling a bore hole, adding a pump 18 meters down inside the bore hole to pump water up to the tank on the tower. The pump is powered by the solar panel up on top. This tank is then piped to some faucets, one near the tank, and another is piped to a garden that may be near by or across a field or two. The tank is also piped to handwashing sinks in the bathrooms at the school.
This gentleman was so interested in how everything worked. He said this source of clean pure water will be a great blessing to the villagers here.
This is what the new school bathrooms look like with their new sinks.
While some worked on assembling and installing the water filter, Aaron and others went to work in the women’s garden, helping to prepare the furrows and driplines for planting.
The women selected the seeds they wanted to plant.
Others were checking ears and eyesight. A group of eye doctors will be coming over in a few months to do follow-up work.
This little boy had a bad ear infection.
The team brought some reading glasses and did some eye screenings here:
Elsewhere in the village today, I enjoyed trying to communicate with the people I met. Here are some of the things I saw.
Beans harvested and drying:
The cattle wander where they will, while the herders keep an eye on them.
A pot for afternoon tea:
A typical home:
Doing her homework:
These men (in the very hot sun) were laying a foundation. This reminded me of the primary song I’ve been teaching the kids about the wise man who built his house upon the rock.
Here is a grinding machine. Sometimes these are owned by the village and sometimes by individuals. Women bring their grains to be milled or ground here–things like millet and corn.
Here are some of the beautiful school kids. We did a Days for Girls class and distribution here this afternoon (see the next post).
Mike’s group likes to give out school uniforms, school kits, toothbrushes and some toothpaste.
These are some of the basketball boys who came with us to help.
It was a good day. These expeditions give our kids a small taste of Africa. They will go home changed, hopefully more aware, more kind and more focused on others.
We ended our Sabbath day with a pleasant and relaxing Niger River cruise. This river trip started at the Badala Hotel near our Badalabougou neighborhood. The cost is about $12 each. There was seating up top and down below.
This is a slow-moving lazy river. I used to live in the Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria which is in the Nigeria River Delta. Here are a few interesting details about this river with its interesting path:
Niger River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Niger River is the principal river of West Africa, extending about 4,180 km (2,600 mi). Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km2 (817,600 sq mi) in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta (or the Oil Rivers), into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River (also known as the Zaïre River). Its main tributary is the Benue River.
Our river guide took us to a small island beyond the 1st Bamako bridge. We got off there to visit the small village of about 200 people living on the island. They support themselves by fishing, gardening and raising livestock.
There is a huge old Baobab tree on this small island. What a pleasant place to put roots down! Francois told us about the Baobab and how every part of this African tree blesses the people.
You can see the village gardens around the base of the tree.
We asked about the Baobab fruit. They sent for a young man who climbed up the second smaller (but still huge) tree. He took a long pole with a hook on the end and knocked several old dry fruits down for us to see.
The fruit inside is dry now, this time of year. It tasted a bit like a mild freeze-dried apple. They told us they soak this fruit in water to make a juice, sweetened with a bit of sugar.
The homes here were simple and self-constructed. It was interesting to be in a village that was surrounded by water. They are able to take care of lots of garden plots to provide for their families.
An outdoor bedroom!
A well and tank with drinking water.
Solar power for electricity!
There was so much haze in the air, it was hard to see the sun go down, but the minute it did, the security guards traveling with us on the boat got out their food to break their Ramadan fast and we got out our bottle of water to join them. Fasting is hard during Ramadan. We were also counting the minutes until 6:47 when the sun was scheduled to set.
After attending church in Bamako, we all loaded the bus to travel to the chicken farm (about 1 hour+ away). We have our small group of members there and Mike helps to oversee the work at the farm. Mike provided some money for the wives of the members there to prepare a meal for all the members and these visitors for lunch after their church meeting.
We enjoyed showing everyone the farm, where many of the first converts in Mali worked and attended church a few years ago.
This is the building where the first church services were held. This is the place Elder Bednar visited in in 2017. Now it’s another chicken coop with free-range chickens. the cages for laying eggs are under the black tarps around the edges of this large enclosed coop. Mike is hoping production will increase with this set up more than in the stacked cages in the other buildings. The chickens here are healthier and cleaner.
Pres Sekou is greeting our members here.
The women prepared rice, sauce and meat for the group. On this Fast Sunday, John, Aaron and I had determined to fast until sundown, like our friends observing Ramadan.
Traditionally, the women don’t always eat with the men. The women stayed near their outdoor kitchen across the way to eat by themselves.
The kitchen and the huge rice pot.
Feeding the group.
The Keita twins.
Ozzie, our bus driver.
We had such a nice afternoon here, under the mango tree. Several of the kids asked Pres Sekou to share his conversion story with them. He explained many of the differences between our LDS faith and Islam. It was fascinating and the kids were enthralled. They were also very interested to hear the story of how he met Dina, his wife.
Mike was able to spend some time with his chicken farm workers. The Keita boys help pick up the eggs every day.
What a great afternoon! It was peaceful and restful and interesting. I hope these dear women got some rest after feeding everyone! They are amazing women and we are grateful for their hard work.
What excellent church services we had today!! The building looked great and I think our visitors really enjoyed worshipping with us on this Fast Sunday here in Bamako.
Here is our church building from the street. We’ve been working for months on getting the signs approved by the mayor and then made. Things take a long time here. Hopefully we’ll have them soon. Right now we have to tell people that we’re behind the door next to the charcoal vendor!
This morning we met Eric Rands, a BYU graduate, who has moved to Bamako to work at the U. S. Embassy in the IT department. He’ll be here for the next 2 years!! We’re really happy to welcome him to our branch.
Here we all are before sacrament meeting began at 9:30.
We had a beautiful testimony meeting. A couple of our visitors speak French and they shared their testimonies too. Then everyone went to the Sunday School class. I taught the Primary kids–my French has improved enough to manage on my own now, which is great. Soon Dina, our Primary President will return from Accra.
Today I taught the kids 2 new songs–The Wise Man and the Foolish Man and the song about children all over the world kneeling down to pray every evening, each thanking Heavenly Father in his or her own language. I added Bambara to the languages in the song. I love this Primary song, especially over here.
Partout dans le monde
Partout dans le monde, la nuit tombée,
Les enfants de Dieu sont agenouillés.
Ils disent merci chacun à sa façon,
disent merci, merci chacun à sa façon.
«Iniche» «Mãlõ» «Wir danken dir»
De tendres accents le monde est rempli.
L’un dit «tak», l’autre «thank you»
«Kansha shimasu» merci beaucoup.
Du ciel notre Père entend;
Tout langage Dieu comprend.
Il connaît bien ses enfants,
Il chérit tant, oui, tant, chaque enfant.
Visiting after the meetings–
The members who wanted a COVID vaccination received one.
Desire, our newest deacon:
Elder Koffi and Elder BahOur visiting group
Aaron Lewis and DisereDesire, Judith and Esther with Elder Bah behindPres Sekou, Fr. Mbaya, Fr. BiggoMike Clayton and Francois Cissoko
About a week ago I wrote a post about the taxis here in Bamako. The taxi we took this morning deserves it’s own mention–it’s one of the best yet! I’m calling this one the “gorilla taxi,” a real treat!! I’ve never seen seat covers quite like this.
Covering the front dash board with fake fur is very popular here, but this one wins the prize! There was even fur coming out of the slot where a radio once lived! I hope there’s a good shampoo someday in the future!
Late this afternoon we had a little time to ourselves while some in the group planted orange trees and others had some down time. We took Aaron on a walk in our neighborhood to show him where we go to shop and run our errands. We bought coconuts from our favorite coco vender and we walked to the supermarche and produce stands for some groceries.
As we passed this hardware shop, I pointed out all the different things in this picture that make life work here–the cooking stoves, the pots, the pancake pan and more.
I’ve written recently about these cooking stoves and yesterday in the village we saw how the charcoal “carbon” is made here to fuel them.
This little boy was painting a pot stand. These stands are used to hold the clay water pots (Malian drinking fountains) for people passing by.
Tonight we took Aaron out to eat at a restaurant we’ve not visited before. It’s called Guido’s and they had great pizza and Italian food and we had some ice cream for dessert. Ice cream here is a rare treat! It was all delicious! We celebrated John’s birthday last week and Mother’s Day next week! It’s so good to be together again here in this place.
As we cleaned the church, I heard so much laughter coming from the street below. I looked out over the upstairs balcony and enjoyed watching these boys having some acrobatic contests! They drew lines in the dirt to see who could walk the farthest on their hands. So fun!
After a morning of basketball we took a taxi to go help clean the church for our visitors tomorrow. We were hot and tired before we even started. Pres Sekou was there, working hard. He wanted the entire building clean for our guests. It’s a lot of work to clean the ground floor, which we do each week. It’s double the work to clean upstairs too. We worked hard for about 3 hours, removing the dirt and dust from the last week so we could mop all the floors and make the shine.
Aaron asked me how I got chocolate on my teeth. Chocolate?? It’s dirt!
We also scrubbed the courtyard. We were exhausted and hot. The water felt good. When I think that no one coming will have any idea how hard we work to make this place clean and proper for them, I remember that Heavenly Father sees what happens and we are doing this to honor Him. No one works harder than our fearless leader, Sekou. Today we also had fantastic help from Ibrahima, Mbaya and the Elders.
During the last several years, Mike’s group has been cheering on a local basketball club here in Bamako. Several young boys have been recruited from here to play in Utah as they prepare to play collegiate ball. Some very good relationships have been formed.
This morning Mike and a few others came early to the school where they play to install some more exercise equipment for the boys here. They held a skills camp and then we had a game with a team of our boys playing a team of their boys (who are 15-18 years old). Several of the boys on our team played high school ball. It was a fun morning and we had a tent filled with spectators cheering the boys on.
Before the game started, the girls swept the court off. One of these girls played at Purdue for 4 years!
The game was very close and exciting. In the end, the white boys pulled off the win, but just barely.
I need to say something here about Ramadan. The temps today were high–way over 100 degrees. All of these local boys were observing Ramadan and fasting, that means NO WATER before, during, or after the game. Our boys were dying of heat and exhaustion and needed hydration all morning long. The local boys are tough and strong. I don’t know how they do it. But they do. I honor and respect their skills and perseverance.
I also need to mention that last night we had real RAIN. Our first rainstorm here in Bamako! It was loud enough to wake me up. I thought our air conditioner was broken and leaking, but it was the rain outside pounding against our windows. Oh happy day, cooler and wet days are coming. But not soon. We still have a month or more of very hot weather ahead.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 