May 29

We have completed school for the month of May. We have school all of the first week of June and then have finals on tuesday and Wednesday of the following week. I did not realize that I would have to give my kids finals so I will start putting those tests together this weekend and finish them up next week. I have about finished the curriculums for the classes I was teaching. I hope they are reasonably close to what is needed.

Some of the people that are at the school or in missions here in Bamako have put together the musical "Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors" and will be presenting it Saturday (May 30). It should be pretty good. We have a lot of musical talent around. I volunteered to man the refreshment booth at intermission. I hope everyone has the correct change.

We have had some clouds this week and some wind but not much moisture. A good rain would cool us down some. They say that the Sahara continues to spread so I don't know whether I will see any wet season or not.

May 22

We have a four day week, a five day week and a three day week left. Yes. I am counting the days carefully now. It is not that I am in a hurry for them to pass. I need to plan my material left to the time left. Monday is Africa Day here and Memorial day in the States. At least we matched up on the holiday date this time.

The picture has an unfinished hotel on the North shore of the Niger. I have been living here almost six months now and that big crane on to has not been used in that length of time. I put the picture in to emphasize another difference I have observed in Mali. All over Bamako I have seen unfinished buildings. Usually part or all of the ground floor has been finished at least enough that it can be used. If someone is working on the building ; it will be one man or a small crew. Bricks or sand may be available even if no one is working.

This is how the reasoning goes I am told. If you have money and a relative has a need they will come to you to borrow the money you have. Of course it is never returned unless the situation is reversed. So if I buy bricks then I do not have money to loan. I have deposited the money in a bank that my relatives can not borrow from. They do not need bricks or buildings. They need cash. You have no cash so you do not have to loan them anything. So now you know the story of the unfinished buildings. This is sort of like Jesus chewing out some people for declaring their possessions "corban" dedicated to the Lord so they did not have to take care of their parents with those possessions.

The rains are still holding off. We have had one good rain this year. They tell me that the rains will cool down the temperatures. The rain we got gave us four days of cooler temperatures.

16 May

The tree in the center of the picture is a flamboyant tree. I was quite disappointed with them here in Mali. In Zambia, you would see a solid red top with no green from the leaves showing. They look really flamboyant. These look pretty but hardly something that you would go out of your way to see. The other flowers I have seen in Mali have been about the same. They are pretty but not anywhere near as lush as the ones in Zambia. I don't know if they are just not as nice this year because of the lack of rain or if this is normal.

We had teacher appreciation this week and the parents of the students really spoiled us with snacks each morning and a full meal on Friday noon. We have also been invited to a meal today (Saturday) and next Saturday the school board sponsors us to a nice meal with small gifts or mementos. Our God even favored us with rain and four days of cooler weather this week. The nights have been perfect for sleeping and I have gotten in some nice walks.

With four weeks left of school the students have already started their summer vacations and that is becoming a challenge for teaching. We will try our best to meet that challenge.

9 May

I went out for my walk early this morning. It was already getting uncomfortable. I am not carrying my camera with me so no pictures. We did take an all school picture and if I get a copy I will include it next week.

I have mentioned before that the people of Mali are friendly and happy. They like to joke with each other. There are disparaging jokes (all in fun) about each of the family groups in Mali. If you are not from Mali they will give you a Malian name. They did give me one but I never was sure what they said. This all leads into the one thing that they can get very combative about.
Politics and weddings may get noisy but if there is a soccor game you need to stay out of the streets. They really go wild with their soccor games. There was evidently one on tv this past week and when it was over we had an hour of screaming, hollering, horn honking, and firecrackers. I talked about that with one of the long term missionaries and he said that it was probably not even a Malian soccor match. He said that there was one game between Bamako and another town in Mali. The other town won. The man who owns the restaurant on the corner by my apartment was from the other town. He had to run to keep from being beat up and they trashed his restaurant. I don't understand how they could do that. If you look at past blogs you can see it in some of the pictures. It consists of a roof and part of a south wall of corrugated metal and a table. They bring their pots, pans, and dishes in each morning to set up for the day.

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!