April 24

We have completed the standardized tests and I look forward to a normal four days of school next week. Giving the tests went fairly smooth for me. All the schedule changes and other problems of that type during the week was difficult for me. I like the status quo and I think the kids are happier when they have a set schedule.

There have evidently been some sandstorms in the Sahara Desert lately. The very fine sand gets drawn up high in the air and then the air flow from east to west brings it over us and out into the Atlantic. We have had dusty skies all of this past week. That also means that I have dusty floors, tables, counters, etc. in my apartment. My eyes are sore and tired from the dust too. I even made up an [Old Bamako Saying] for you. If you don't go to Timbuctu then Timbuctu will come to you! Since I chose not to go to Timbuctu I thought that was an appropriate saying.

Back to work

This was our first week back from spring break. We are into our last nine week period of school. Next week we have the Stanford Achievement tests. That kind of messes up the schedule. They are also something new for me to do. Pray that I won't mess up the kids to bad.

I have no new pictures for you this week. The traffic still amazes me. I don't see how they keep from having a mess of accidents. My drivers just tell me you always expect the other vehicles to do something idiotic and you are not disappointed. If you see someone signalling expect them to do something different. Motorbikes will always turn right in front of your car. I saw one motorbike that had rear view mirrors but they were folded down. I assume that it was to hard to squeeze between cars with those mirrors out.

I finally figured out why some of the dirt roads have all the big rocks on them. By putting one of those rocks in front of their dwelling the people effectively enlarge their front yard. Since vehicles can't drive over the rocks the people can use that space for play or washing clothes or something along that line. When you think of it that way it makes more sense.

Each week from now on you can insert the comment. It is getting hotter. You pour water in your mouth and it pours out of your skin.

branch conference

The past two weeks have been spent in branch conference for SIL and spring break for Bamako Christian Academy. Since spring break was rather dull I will try to let you peak into the branch conference a little bit. First imagine people from 6-10 language groups getting together to socialize and to plan. The first week involved local workers and cooperating pastors who mostly speak in their tribal language or in French. All meetings the first week were in French with some interpretation. Singing is definitely a talent that God did not think I needed. Singing in French was way out of my capabilities. The second week was mostly in English with other languages thrown in when the person needed to express something that they did not have the English words to express.

I got to meet the workers from other parts of Mali and from Ivory Coast (Cote D'Voire). Even with the language barrier I have enjoyed getting to know them.

spring break

The first picture is a tent church of the Assembly of God. It is about a block away from the SIL where I am staying. Since it is spring break I can walk in the morning when it is cool. I took my camera with me and walked out on to the new bridge. The donkey cart was on the way home. The last four pictures are the ones that I wanted to put in this blog. Three are pictures of gardens along the Niger river. These are irrigated one bucket at a time although I have seen some where they pump the water out of the river to their gardens. They get several crops each year. During the wet season they get to rest while the river floods their gardens. The fourth picture contains some mango trees. They have thick dark green foliage and most of the trees that I see are loaded with fruit.

I am also making some progress with my curriculum writing. I hope that I am doing them correctly.

The first picture was taken as we crossed the old River Bridge on our way to shop at the Artisinat. On the top of the hill directly in front of us is the Mali White House. It is white and it is the residence of the President of Mali. I can see it from the balcony by my apartment but I hoped that this would show up better as we were about four kilometers closer. The "Green Machine" in front of us is one of many buses that you see and dodge as you drive on Bamako streets. On either side of the bridge there is a lane for two wheeled and pedestrian traffic.

The second picture shows the traffic near the Artisinat when we decided that we did not really want to shop there. The parking lot was full and as you can easily see the streets were also full

21 March 2009

This is one of the weeks that I expected when nothing out of the ordinary happened. I was up early one morning and looked down at the street. A grandfather was carrying to buckets to the river for water. His grandson was running from behind to catch him and carry one of the buckets. Then they continued on. A donkey cart came down the street very quietly behind them. Early morning is about the only time that you can experience peace and quiet around here. People spend most of their day outside where it is cooler and their conversations are generally much louder than you would hear in the States.

Now a little recent history of Mali. In 1960 the Sudanese Republic gained it's independence from France. It joined with the Republic of Senegal to form the Mali Federation. Then Senegal seceded and Mali changed it's name to the Republic of Mali. The Army overthrew the government in 1968 and Mali was under military rule for 20 years. In 1991 dictator Moussa Faso was overthrown and Mali made a peaceful transition to democracy. There have been some rebellions along the northern border of Mali by some of the Tuareg tribes but most of Mali has been peaceful over the last 20 years. The economy has been steadily improving over that time. There is still a fairly large number of unemployed so I see more manual labor and less machine labor than I would see in the States.

I have commented on the traffic before and I may be repeating myself. Most of the vehicles on the road are motorbikes. They fit snugly in front , behind , and on both sides of any cars on the road. There are a few personal cars , a lot of taxis , and a lot of green machines (vans used as buses or for general hauling). Add to the above a fair number of bicycles , push carts , donkey carts and an odd horse or camel rider along with numerous pedestrians and you have an intriguing traffic problem. Anyone who drives must be expecting someone to do something unexpected at any time. Somehow it all works out.

We packed up our vehicles and headed out of Bamako. This was my first trip outside of Bamako since I flew in the first week of January. In the first picture we have the Africa Tower which is in a traffic circle near the airport. It has an outline of Africa at it's top. They tell me it has a pictoral tour of Africa that you can see as you climb up the interior of the tower. The next picture is from the village of Mana. The houses are built of mud bricks with thatched roofs.

I took two pictures of a mud wall that was put up around 300 years ago as a protection from slaver raiding parties. You can see that it has stood up well through the years. I have another picture of the village of Mana with some bushy trees in the foreground. These are Mango trees and they are covered with fruit. The big tree with the kids scattered in front of it? Well I don't know what kind it is so we will just call it Big Tree! The roots cover the ground all around it.

We stayed at a missionary compound at Mana where they teach pastors and their wives Bible stories and how to use them in witnessing. There is also a medical clinc at Mana which is sponsored by the church there.

Our retreat was sort of an extended field trip where the kids got to review their Mathematics, Biology and Earth Science materials and a spiritual retreat as we also had some Bible study. I came back pretty well tired out but I think that it was time well spent.