We love being a part of the Bamako Branch. Sundays are such a delight. We are basking in these friendships while we can. We don’t want our time here to end.
Here are a few photos from today’s meetings.
Our Relief Society sisters:
Our beautiful Primary:
The Elders Quorum:
The Youth class with Pres Sekou teaching:
Kariadiatou was confirmed a member of the church today. The Elders completed her paperwork.
What a great day in Bamako!
Today was heavenly. Nourou’s wife, Kariadiatou was baptized! Nourou was baptized about 4 years ago and his sweet wife has quietly been watching the changes that have come to their beautiful little family. She decided to listen to the missionary discussions and enter the waters of baptism. Nourou and Kariadiatou have 2 beautiful little girls who will be blessed for their parents’ good choices. We are so thrilled for this beautiful family.
Here are some pictures from the baptismal service:
These children live across the street from the church. This afternoon (after this morning’s rain storm) they were building cities in the sand. This is my kind of play! I did this for hours as a child in the dirt on our family farm.
This morning we had another COVID test, to prepare for our trip to Accra in a few days. Our friend, Sidibe, who works with the Ministry of Health helps us with our tests every time we travel. He has also helped to connect us to others in the ministry. We are working on finding a way for LDS Charities to help with the Malian programs for helping with COVID here. Today’s meeting was excellent.
Mali has a plan with 4 strategies: Prevention, Surveillance, Diagnostics and Communications. The Church is always interesting in helping, especially with these national priorities and programs.
Covid in Mali is still a bit of a mystery. Some wear masks. Most don’t. Some vaccinations are becoming available, but most people aren’t interested. There seems to be a feeling that Mali (and much of West Africa) simply has not been affected by Covid. Having had Covid here, John and I know the virus can and will find you, even if you are very careful.
So far, there have only been 14,428 Covid cases reported in Mali, with 525 deaths. Those numbers are low. Surely many go unrecorded (like ours) and many people simply aren’t tested. We really have no idea how bad it is here. We worry that if it gets worse, it could be really bad, like in other parts of the world with similar living conditions.
Here are a few random photos from today’s drive across a very busy Bamako. The rains last night filled the streets with water. It’s a little tricky for all of the outdoor vendors, like these furniture stores:
The gutters, ditches and drains were full and overflowing after just one night of rain. What will happen during the raining season when it rains every day??
A shoe store:
Most of the vendors simply cover their shops (or carts) with tarp when it rains.
Grinding machines for sale:
Garbage dumpsters:
Banana vendors on a street where the traffic is too busy to stop.
Nice paint job:
This afternoon we stopped by the church where Sis Kariadiatou had her baptismal interview. We are so happy and excited for her!
Mali has hundreds of thousands of motorcycles, and most of them seem to be right here in Bamako! The most popular motorbike is a a Chinese-made bike the locals call Jakarta. The name on the bike is Power K. It’s not clear why the bike is called Jakarta. Some say the word is a variation of laharata, which means “on a path to death” in Bambara, the main language spoken here.
These Chinese-made bikes are relatively affordable (compared to used cars). They sell for about $650-$700 and parts and repairs are cheap. There are mechanic vendors on every street putting broken bikes back together again.
Today we went for Covid tests for our trip to Accra next week. Traffic was horrible and we were in our taxi for a very long time, navigating the poor roads of Bamako. I took these pictures of motorcycles around us today as we inched our way through the traffic.
They say that in Bamako there are more than twice as many motorbikes as cars. When you consider that traffic lights or stop signs are few and far between and there are basically no traffic laws, it’s pretty much a free for all on the roads. I’m not sure that anyone goes to driving school here or pays to have a legal license. The other challenge is that most roads here are not paved and are full of potholes and puddles during the rainy season.
Intersections are especially exciting and harrowing. Without traffic lights or any resemblance of order, cars and motorcycles compete to get through the spaces, no mater what. We’ve often commented that where we come from, we drive defensively. Drivers here drive aggressively. You simply can’t hesitate or you are lost. Sometimes the intersections become so congested with tightly packed cars and bikes, the traffic simply stops until drivers are forced to back out. It’s like a tetras puzzle that gets tighter and tighter with bikes and cars crammed in at all angles.
Safety here is a huge problem. The police aren’t really able to control the traffic or enforce the laws (are there any?). The other problem is that motorcycles are used to transport goods as well as people. It’s not uncommon to see 4 or 5 people on one bike. I’ve seen motorcycles hauling live goats with their feet tied or with their bodies in sacks.
A couple of weeks ago, we saw a man on a motorcycle with 4 two-by-four boards that were about 8 feet long strapped to his bike. There were chickens tied to the boards by their feet, hanging down. I counted about 50 birds sticking out on either side of that one bike.
Today I saw one small man who had 2 large tires around his body like over-sized hula hoops. His arms and neck were coming out of the top as he reached over to hold on to the handlebars!
Here is an ad for a safety campaign encouraging people to be more careful on motorcycles. It doesn’t seem to be doing much good here! We see examples like this every single day and pray for safety every time we go out–for us and for the people around us.
Here’s a look at a few of the motorcycles I watched today:
A World Bank study shows that motorcycles were China’s third-largest import to sub-Saharan Africa in the years 2002 to 2004. It’s only increased since then.
Oh dear, an accident!
A repair shop.
Out of gas and pushing:
One man said, “we keep safe because we all believe in God so much. We say a prayer before getting on the bike and believe that will keep us safe.”
This is a man delivering baguettes from a bakery to street vendors:
These motorbikes with a wagon on the back are also very popular in our crowded streets. The front looks like a motorcycle, but the wagon adapted to the back end is used to haul loads of every kind, including people. Some add the cover for shade to keep their customers out of the sun.
These are waiting, ready for hire.
Enjoy these Beautiful faces!
Playing dodgeball:
We spent our afternoon in Diatoula visiting the school there. We have about 22 members of the church living in this village, about a 45 minute walk on donkey cart paths from the chicken farm in Mountougoula.
The school in Diatoula serves 460 children in both primary and secondary grades. There are 3 classroom buildings. We came today to see the condition of the school and of those classroom buildings, to see if we might prepare a proposal to LDS Charities to give some aid to help.
It was a beautiful day after some rain in the night. The roads were terrible, but the sky was incredible. After turning off the main paved road, we traveled for about an hour on roads that were a bit challenging. At times we had to drive into fields to avoid the water.
Pres Sekou came with us. When we finally arrived in Diatoula, we were greeted by Julien Keita, one of our faithful members there. He’s a teacher at this school. Quickly, others gathered including the assistant village chief, the Director of the school, some of the teachers, and lots of the delightful children.
The first building holds the 3 youngest grades. These mudbrick classrooms were built by the village in 2001. The building needs to be repaired or replaced (a huge job). We probably won’t have enough funding to do all that needs to be done here, but we’ll see what parts we can help with.
The floors are also in pretty bad shape.
The schools here use chalkboards, inside and out, for teaching and learning.
The second primary building had 4th, 5th and 6th grades. It was built in 2007. It’s also quite old, but made of cement block, so it’s holding up better, although there were cracks in some of the walls and leaks in the roof.
Next we were shown the school well and pump. It hasn’t been working for some time now, so there is no water on the school grounds for the children.
The Director showed us his office. He has a small room to keep the school supplies in.
These are the supplies for the primary school children in this school. That’s it. It’s amazing to see how well the teachers do with so little.
The younger children were out of school early today, but the last building with the older children was full of students.
This school for 460 students plus teachers has one latrine with 2 sides, one with a hole.
The toilet drains out a hole in the back. The solid waste goes down the hole.
These women were under a tree near the school yard shelling peanuts.
And drying corn.
The maternity clinic is near the school. I’ll write more about that in my next post. There is a working well and pump at the clinic. This is where the school children must go to get water.
There is also a well (uncovered) by the clinic.
A herd of cattle wandered by while we were near the school.
There was a lot to talk about here, at this school. You can tell the villagers take good care of the school grounds and they are proud of their children. I will post picture of these beautiful children next.
We had a good long discussion with these school and village leaders about the needs and the resources and how we can work together to help.
The assistant village chief:
This is Julien Keita and his daughter, Eva Marie, faithful church members.
I LOVE the village of Diatoula. We hope that in the future we will have another pair of missionaries to teach the people here. There is such a peaceful good feeling in this village, so far away. I am feeling sad that we won’t be here to see how things unfold as goodness spreads.
Stopping for bananas on the way back to Bamako:
Navigating the roads was a little tricky in places, but we made it through.
Here are some interesting videos my friend Djiba Soumaoro sent to me this week showing workers at one of the gold mines in Folona.
Mali is the 3rd greatest gold-producing country in Africa. There are 13 main mines in the southwestern part of the country. Gold mining in Mali has a long history. In 1433, its renowned emperor Kanku Mussa brought 8 tons of gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca. Local population has exploited gold for a long long time.
Here are some interesting articles about the terrorists who would love to control the gold mining areas in Mali and about how hard it is to work the mines.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/how-western-mali-could-become-a-gold-mine-for-terrorists
Meanwhile, today our Ouelessebougou Days for Girls team taught more girls about how to manage their feminine hygiene. Teningnini is our Enterprise leader and she does a fantastic job.
These girls are so beautiful. And their lives have just changed for the better!
Thanks to Djiba Soumaoro for sending these photos.
This is the Enterprise in Ouelessebougou where the ladies sew the kits.
This morning our Bamako Elders were the first missionaries in our mission to receive COVID shots. Missionaries are encouraged to have the vaccinations. Next Monday the missionaries in Cote d’Ivoire will have a Vaccination P-day and Doctor Do and his helpers will administer shots to all who will receive them. I’m so happy these missionaries will be protected.
Here’s what the vaccination cards look like:
This afternoon John worked with Ibrahima on the ministering records. Slowly and surely, the parts and pieces of organizing the branch are happening. We have such great members here. Ibrahima is our Elders Quorum President, always ready to help.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 