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.
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.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 