May 1 May Day

In Mali the first of May is Labor Day and of course no one can labor on Labor Day so we have no school today. We started to get back to normal at school this week. I felt much better about classes. Most of my classes will have more material than I can cover so I will need to do some picking and choosing. One class may not have enough to last out the year. That one really worries me.

We had a pretty good rain for about half an hour on Wednesday. It was enough to let some water run off. The Malian kids were having a good time in the rain. They peeled and were streaking down the street in the rain. Well I noticed that one still had his sandals on. Then they started damming up the water streams so they would have puddles to play in. They were not very successful though. A half hour after the rain the dirt was dry. The air was a lot more humid. Other than that you could not tell that it had rained.

Another traffic story. They are easy to come up with. Kim Nelson and I stopped for some groceries. Then we made a left turn across a lane of cars to head home. The cars let us through but then we had to stop in the street for a herd of cattle on our side of the road. After they had gone by we went on home. Last night coming from school I saw another amazing sight. A car signaled for a left turn. Then he turned left!