This morning we took 3,000 N-95 masks to our friends at the INSP, a gift from LDS Charities. This project has been in the works for months. We are grateful these good masks are going to a place where they are really needed.
They will be used by the lab technicians and public health workers at the INSP who work with COVID testing. They wanted to start using them immediately!
Here is where people are tested for COVID:
Including us! This will be our last of dozens of COVID tests taken here, preparing us for our departure on Monday.
We traveled today to the Kati area, 2 hours north and west of Bamako, to visit the Neguela School where we launched our 2nd LDS Charities project this week. This school project will also include refurbishing a well that has not been working, attaching taps that will go to a new school garden, to the cooking area and to the latrines which will be repaired. We are so excited to get these projects started before we leave.
Today we met with the village chief and his helpers, the mayor, and with the school officials. We also had representatives from VIMASO, the local NGO that will be managing the project every day.
In our meeting we went over all parts of the project, who will be doing what, and we reviewed exactly what our expectations are. There were lots of questions and after discussing things, we spent about an hour walking through all of the project components with the contractors who will be helping. It was a great day. Everyone is excited and grateful for this humanitarian gift that has come to this school.
VIMASO first learned about the needs in Neguela about a year ago, when during the rainy season, many families lost their homes and belongings in floods. The village leaders posted a plea for help online and our friends from VIMASO went to investigate. They were able to provide emergency relief and food for 15 families in dire need.
During that visit, they also learned about the needs at the school. Now, almost a year later, we are back with VIMASO and LDS Charities to help.
Here are the village leaders, our contractors and our friends from VIMASO:
This is our VIMASO team:
Sis Lewis, Toure, the garden contractor, and Sekou Dembele from VIMASO
Here is the well and water tower that need to be refurbished:
A tap will run from the well to this cafeteria where the students eat.
The women prepare the food in this covered area in the back.
This is where the children eat. We hoped there might be enough funding to put a new cement floor down, but that may need to wait.
Next to the garden.
While we were meeting, this donkey cart came through the school yard with this load of fencing and new tools for the garden.
Toure, the agricultural specialist also brought seeds for planting.
Here are the watering cans that will bring the water from the taps to the garden plots.
The garden plot was outlined and the workers were already digging holes for the fence posts.
Assembling the tools:
This whole area will become the school garden!
Next we looked at all the latrines in the school yard. Some are functioning, some are not. The 9 needing the most repair will be refurbished.
After our productive meeting and walk through the school, we went to the mayor’s office before leaving. These are good men, trying hard to make things better in their village.
This is Amadou, the contractor who will be working on the water project and the latrines. He’s enjoying a bite of lunch–grilled maize.
We passed this motorcycle on our long drive home through the beautiful countryside. I can’t get over how green everything has become.
Our next job today was to visit the water project in Tabakoro. This project was installed last November when Mike Clayton’s group was here. Tabakoro is near Farako, where the chicken farm is. The children at the farm go to this school.
The road from Diatoula to Farako is rough. We had to hire some boys on a motorcycle to guide us on the right paths between the villages.
Here we had to ford the river.
Here is the water tower (chateau) that was built, with a well, a pump, solar panels and a water filter. The school proprietor build the structure around the filter to protect it.
These school children and villagers now have access to clean water.
These are the water filters that purify the water pumped from the ground. Sadly, one of the 3 filters isn’t working right now. It will need to be fixed.
The tap provides water for the school garden that has been created here.
Near the water project, these kids were selling Moussa melons and peanuts.
Onions and potatoes:
This group of handsome boys passed by on their way home from working in their family fields.
This morning we traveled 1.5 hours to Diatoula. The roads are bad, but the countryside is beautiful and green. The rains have changed this world into a farming paradise. People are in the fields working hard to plant and weed so they will have a good harvest.
Today was the day to officially start our project at the Diatoula School. We are working with LDS Charities to make improvements here. The project will include refurbishing a well and pump that no longer function, adding a water tower and tank with taps so the children have access to water for drinking and washing, and building 6 new latrines (4 for students and 2 for teachers). There will also be some improvements made to the classrooms that are leaking and cracking. This will be a great project.
T0day we met under a mango tree with the village leaders–the chief and his assistant, the school director, and members of different school committees. They are so happy and grateful for the help. These children brought chairs from neighboring compounds for us to sit on.
When it started to rain, we moved under cover near the classrooms.
The village chief and his assistant:
This is Konate, our contractor:
Pres Sekou is representing VIMASO, a local non-profit group that will be monitoring this project every day. We hope to have things finished before school starts again on October 18th.
This is exciting work. This is good work. We’ve been preparing to start this project for many weeks. Today was the day!
Today after church we had a special meeting for all the women and our 2 young women. With Valerie teaching, we introduced them to Days for Girls and the beautiful kits that will help them manage their feminine hygiene. It was fun and exciting for them to receive their own kits.
After that, I brought some of the clothing I’ll be leaving behind when we go to share with my friends here. We had so much fun together. I will really miss these friends.
I always had a hard time imagining Mali with fields of green. We were in Covid lock down in Abidjan last year during the rainy season. This year we are here and we are loving the cooling weather and the rains. This is a time for plowing and for planting. In the rural areas of Mali, villagers are hard at work in the fields planting. The main crops here are corn, millet, cotton, peanuts, okra, beans, and some garden vegetables.
The village of Sounsounkoro has warmly welcomed the Dogon refugees from the northern parts of Mali who have fled from the terrorists. These refugees (internally displaced persons, or IDP) have been given land on the north and the south sides of the village. These two camps are a couple of miles apart.
When the Ouelessebougou Alliance and LDS Charities made plans to help these IDP camps, they determined that both the north and the south camps needed wells. They also decided to put in a well for the women’s garden in the main village, to help sustain the host village there.
After visiting the first two wells we drove to the third one on the north side of the village. It was too far for most of the villagers from the south to join us, but a few were able to come by motorcycle. These villagers had been waiting for us all morning.
These are some of the first women we met months ago when we first visited these refugee camps and learned about their struggles to get water to their homes. They’ve been traveling a long ways to get water. Now they have a beautiful well in their own village. What a difference this has made!
These women also sang and danced for us. That is how they express their gratitude. We are so happy for them.
Again, we were presented with 2 chickens and also some kola nuts.
The beautiful gifts we received today:
These are our wonderful Ouelessebougou Alliance friends. We’ve been coming to Ouelessebougou since 2010. I’ve been associated with the Alliance since 1989 when I returned from Nigeria. I love these dear friends. Anounou has been directing the Alliance for 20 years now. Today was his last official day before his retirement. We are so grateful to him and to the others for the difference they are making in this corner of the world.
Back row from left: Djiba, John, Anounou;: Front row: Bouba, Teningnini, Ann, Segouba
After the main celebration in Sounsounkoro this morning, we went to the second pump well provided by LDS Charities and the Ouelessebougou Alliance. This well is situated in the women’s garden. The villagers have prepared a large area which will be planted after the rainy season ends. Women’s gardens provide work and produce for the women and their families. Without a water source near by, these gardens are impossible. This well will be a great blessing to all of the families here.
The garden is in an enclosed area to keep the animals out.
The village elders and the Mayor of Ouelessebougou, again expressed their thanks to LDS Charities and the Ouelessebougou Alliance for their kindness.
This is the area that will be cultivated for the garden after the rainy season.
Anounou visiting with village leaders.
I am happy thinking about these children growing up in a place where they now have access to water year-round.
Today was a big day. We traveled to the Ouelessebougou area for the closing ceremonies of our water project in Sounsounkoro with our friends in the refugee camps there. The Ouelessebougou Alliance and LDS Charities partnered to drill 3 wells with hand pumps for these good people who have left their homes in the north to find safety here.
Biggo, Francois and Nourou from our Bamako Branch joined us as representatives from the Church. We also celebrated with our Ouelessebougou Alliance friends. Today was Anounou’s last official day as the Project Director before he retires. Djiba will be taking his place there. It was great to be with these dear friends.
Nourou, Anounou, Biggo, John, Bouba, Djiba, Teningnini, FrancoisSis Lewis and Teningnini, the Program Coordinator for the Ouelessebougou Alliance
The women danced their thanks after we arrived in the village.
This village elder was the keeper of the chickens that were presented to us at the end of the ceremony.
I love these women–their dignity, their poise, their colors, their love.
This elderly man (on the left) was the first of the Dogon people to come to this place 31 years ago. When the terrorists in the north started harming the villagers there, he told his friends to come to Ouelessebougou to find peace and safety here.
The Mayor of Ouelessebougou greets Anounou
Nourou, the Mayor of Ouelessebougou, Anounou
This ceremony was held in a tent near the first of the 3 pump wells. We heard remarks from village officials, including the Mayor of Ouelessebougou, the assistant chief of the village (the chief was sick), Anounou, the Imam, Nourou representing the LDS Church, the first refugee who came here 31 years ago, and women from the women’s organization.
The Women’s Association LeadersVillage Elders
Anounou, Ouelessebougou Mayor, Elder Lewis, the first refugee to arrive here, a village elderWomen from the Women’s Association with Teningnini from the Ouelessebougou Alliance (far right)
After the celebrations and the speeches, we all walked together from the tent to the first well about 10 minutes away. The recent rains have watered the land and everything is green.
Once at the well, we had a few more speeches and expressions of gratitude from the village leaders. They pumped some water and drank from their cupped hands and gave thanks for this life-changing gift.
The women sang and danced again, telling the story of the well in their song.
What a happy celebration!
Then we started walking back to the central village where the next pump well was installed by the women’s garden.
This is the hope of this refugee camp–beautiful strong healthy children. Their eyes penetrate my heart. Our Father in Heaven knows them and He loves them. How can we not?
This morning the contract for the Diatoula school project was signed by our friend, Konate. We are trying hard to get everything in place and started before we go home in a few weeks. We Really want to get this project off the ground!
We helped to clean the church before and after that contract was signed. After that the Elders were doing some exercising!
Fr Mbaya’s home is still drying out from the flood. He’s moved his things into this storage room at the church to keep everything dry.
I love seeing traveling menders in our neighborhoods here. This is a job I would like to do if I lived here!
And our neighbor next to the church was busy bagging his charcoal to sell. Every little bit is part of a grander whole. All these things made me happy today!
There is an ophthalmology clinic and a eye glass shop here at the Bamako Blind School. We visited them next. The government helps to pay for the workers here who do a great service for the students.
This is the clinic.
Dr Kamara apologized that his equipment is from 2009, but he says he makes do.
In his register, Dr. Kamara showed us how he usually sees 25 to 30 students every day. I could tell he is proud of his office and the work he does here.
Next door is the shop for eye glasses. The optician had training in France and Germany and has been making glasses since 1983. As part of a non-profit, his prices are low.
Here is where they work on the glasses and grind lenses.
Once at the well, we had a few more speeches and expressions of gratitude from the village leaders. They pumped some water and drank from their cupped hands and gave thanks for this life-changing gift.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 