Month: July 2021

This morning as we arrived in Diatoula, the small market place was full and busy.  The women were under their thatch-covered stalls at their tables selling their goods.   I was so excited to mingle with them and see what they were doing and selling.   As I visited with them they quickly welcomed me and enjoyed showing me their world.  These women speak Bambara, so my French wasn’t very helpful, but that didn’t stop us from becoming friends.

This market is a fascinating visual feast that gives us a look at day to day life in a Malian village.   As you look at what is sold here, you will see the ingredients that go into their cooking pots, the snacks they feed their kids, the things they use to clean their cooking utensils, and even what they use for body grooming and health care.   I love learning about my Malian sisters and how they get along in places that are difficult.  They make do and they are happy women.  I have great respect and admiration for them.

Come with me now on a walk through this marketplace.

This first lady was peeling yams with a large knife.  Then she cut them into wedges and fried them in hot oil on the little cooking stove at her feet.  She sold 5 or 6 of these slices wrapped in a piece of paper, or put into a piece of baguette.

I loved watching families working together at their little enterprises.  Someone always needs to fan the fire.

You’ll notice how the women here work close to the ground.  They sit on low stools or at low tables or they simply spread their goods on the ground.  It’s more mobile that way.  Most women sell what they can carry in a headpan unless they have help.

This lady was cutting greens and selling ingredients for soups or sauces.

These greens are grown in nearby gardens, fenced to keep the animals out.

This man came on his bike with a cooler strapped on the back.  He was selling fish that had been frozen.

I found it interesting that most of the quantities of food items were enough for making one meal.  Without electricity or refrigeration in most of their mudbrick homes, food is prepared every day for that day.

These items include dried herbs and spices, pasta, bullion, dried fish, red pepper and salt.

They also had large cans of tomato paste they dipped out of and sold in little sacks, enough for a pot of soup or fish stew.

Here are some grandmas selling dough balls.

These are some of the vegetables that go into the cooking pots:  onions, yams, a variety of eggplant, red and green hot peppers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage,squash, palm oil, and greens.

Here’s the fabric lady:

Here are some medications and things for what ails you.

This young boy was selling popsicles!  He had a cooler on the back of his bike with a sack of little frozen bags of juice.  The kids bite off a corner of the sack and suck on the cold sweet treat.

This lady had some beauty care products, including lotions, soaps and shampoo.

Here’s another little store with medicines and matches:

And another store in a basket:

These are some cleaning supplies.  The round balls are homemade soap.  The packets are laundry soap.  The dark gold bar soaps are also used for laundry.

This woman is selling jewelry:

This pretty lady was also frying yams and making little doughballs.

Here’s another doughnut maker:

Faces of the market:

As we approached lunch time, these market women needed to go home to feed their own families and the market started to pack up.  Within a 10 minutes or so, the market was empty.  The women carried their goods home.

During the rest of the afternoon, I visited several of the women in their own compounds, watching them work to feed and provide for their families.  It’s all hard hot work.  These women are amazing.

Here is my friend, the matron at the maternity clinic.  She was having her lunch–beans from her garden.

Eating mangoes!

These little boys had a pouch of USAID food, ready to eat.  They shared with their friends, squeezing a little dab on each palm to lick off.

These boys were having some porridge:

This young girl was bringing a pan of ground corn home.

I loved visiting Diatoula today.  My heart feels at home in places like this.  I long for the day when we are all able to understand each other completely and share the desires of our hearts.

There is a faint glimmer of green appearing in the fields around us.  We’ve had a few random days of rain, enough to water the land and give hope.  The rain has also filled the roads, often making them impassable.

Today we went to Diatoula, driving some of these impassable roads.  Most of the roads start out as donkey cart paths (there aren’t many cars who travel here).  When there’s a pothole in the road, a detour is made, and then another and another, until some of these roads are as wide as can be, and still full of water and ruts we were forced to go through or around.

It’s exciting to see some green popping up around us.  Today we saw people working in the fields, with plows pulled by cattle, women bending over the rows planting seeds.