I met these bright-eyed boys yesterday in Neguela. The 2 bikes were tied together with a rope. When I looked closely, I noticed the 2nd bike had no pedals. The older boy was pulling the younger boys on the broken bike, giving them rides. They were so happy and having so much fun.
The children here have taught me so much about finding joy with simple things and about working together to make good things happen.
And off they go!
Today on in my village wanderings, I took a step back in time. I found 2 young men planting corn, their mother overseeing their work. It was fascinating to watch them maneuvering the cattle pulling their primitive planting machine that seemed to do the job very well.
A simple plow cut the ground and seed was dropped and covered in the small furrow as the planter worked its way across last year’s furrows.
The younger brother led these long-horned cattle with a rope attached to a ring in their noses. They were docile and submissive to his guidance, but he kept a close rein.
The mother was in charge of the seeds. Today they were planting corn and peanuts.
Notice that these 2 boys are barefoot!
Here they are at work, back and forth, row after row:
As I left their field, I passed this man bringing home firewood for his wife’s cooking fires. Life here is simple, hard and earthy. I love being here.
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:
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.
Watching out my window is one of my favorite things to do here. Life is so interesting and colorful and full of such variety. Come join me.
Fresh fish for sale:
Waiting for an orange buyer:
It’s Moussa melon season!
These are shoe stores, with all their shoes spread out on tarps where you can see them.
Avocados for sale:
Local produce!
A gas station:
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.
The rejuvenating rains this month have brought life to Mali. They ruin the dirt roads, but they bring life to the fields, a trade off all can live with. Today we drove on donkey cart paths through the farm country and it was wonderful to see the new crops growing. Here is what I saw:
Corn is already being harvested from many of the fields. The people roast it and eat it, they also store or shell the dry cobs for later use. The corn is ground and used in porridges.
These are sweet potatoes:
This is okra:
These are peanuts:
Taking a lunch break by the side of the road:
The skies and the green around us today were so beautiful. Ahh, the blessing of “the rains down in Africa.” Water is a gift from God.
I love visiting Diatoula and playing with my friends there. These are such fun kids. They are so happy and full of life. They are always doing interesting things and today was no exception. I had a great time with them under these beautiful cloudy skies.
These kids have wheels and home made balls and old bikes and they do cartwheels and they play tag. They really enjoy playing together.
They also helped bring chairs to our meeting today.
This is the broken pump well we are going to fix.
These girls came along with an interesting thing in their cart. When I asked them what it was, they told me it was a peanut roaster.
They fill the barrel with shelled peanuts, then make a fire in the outer barrel and turn the handle so the peanuts don’t burn. After they are roasted, they’re taken to the village grinding machine where the peanuts are turned to paste used in soups and sauces. Yum.
As we were leaving, these boys passed by on their way home from the fields. They spent the morning weeding. They were pretty tired, ready for lunch.
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!
We’ve been watching the renovations on the home across the street from us for months. Slowly it’s taking shape. The last couple of weeks they’ve been adding some rooms on in the back that can be rented out to vendors. A sewing machine shop with tailors has already moved in on the ground floor and they let me take some of their fabric scraps.
Today we watched as they prepared to cement the roof. In this video you can see how the sand is moved from one place to the next. Yesterday the pile of sand was out front. Then, the men moved it with shovels and wheelbarrows to the back. This afternoon we watched them throw the sand up, shovelful by shovelful, first to the first floor, then to the second floor.
Everything here is Hard Work.
My newly washed fabric scraps!
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 