Tourists!

Ok so it has been way too long since I updated this so here goes...
There isn't too much to say about general life on base, it has been going well, I am enjoying living here and the people are great. I am still SLOWLY learning French and it continues to be a struggle.

I had a visit from a friend from New Zealand last month and we had a great time. We spent a few days in the capital city then came to the base here for a couple of weeks and the we went to my old home town and saw the boys there, I still miss them, and then we became real tourists in Dogon country. It is a very beautiful part of Mali that I hadn't visited before and it was even more spectacular because it is rainy season and everything is green.

Here are a few photos, it was so hard to narrow it down to these ones and even still there are a lot so I will just give brief explanations about each... enjoy...


Me with Yero (the little boy we looked after) and his family. He remembered me which totally made my day!


Charlotte and Yerro's sister who was named after me (my Fulani name that is).


A big sand storm, it came in so fast we got caught in it but some really nice lady invited us in till it passed, great Malian hospitality!


Charlotte being quite impressed with the fish market in Mopti


Car wash, and I'm not kidding, just drive your car into the Niger and give it a clean.


A Dogon village at sunset

Village meeting house, only men allowed

This day we walked from one village to another, amazing scenery, see what I mean about the green.

There was some climbing involved, this was just the beginning of it

Our tour guide (a WAYMer from my base in Koutiala) and a great view

That trip was fun!


Slowed down by some cows


Pigmy houses from the 9th Century built into the side of a cliff, quite impressive really, they are my new 'most impressive people group'


The very famous mosque at Djenne. It is the biggest one in the whole of ---- somewhere, can you tell I'm really good with details! But anyway this is a big tourist attraction, although I wasn't very impressed.


The inner city streets in Djenne, and you don't want to know what that little 'stream' consists of.


They love America here and especially Barack, I guess he can fix anything even the windscreen on our taxi.

Koutiala

It’s been awhile but anyway, here I am in Koutiala. I have settled into the base here fairly well and I am enjoying my time here. The people are very welcoming and friendly and I am enjoying living in community again. There are six of us living on base, 4 African guys, an American girl and myself. There are normally a few more but they have all gone home for the summer. There are many cultural things to deal with and learn but I am really enjoying living with these people. There are always people popping into the base for work, meetings or just to visit and because the culture is so relationship based everyone who comes greets everyone and it’s not just a hi & bye thing either. This gives me plenty of opportunity to practice my French.



The dorm and kitchen (teh red door on the right) at the base.


Our yard and office right down the back where the steps are.


My own playground on base! God knows what I like.

I am still trying to decide if in moving to the base my living conditions have improved or not. I am very blessed to have my own room and my own shower and toilet (and it flushes!), and I haven’t had to cook on charcoal yet. But on the other hand at the base we pound our own grain or at least the first part, and then take it to the mill, everything we make is from scratch, and I am eating rice, spaghetti or tou (an African dish I can’t explain) with either tomato or peanut sauce every day, and we eat lunch leftovers for dinner most days. The reason for this is pretty much finances, the African’s here can’t afford to eat any differently and in order for me to really be a part of the team I need to eat with them. But I am making up for the lack of variety by making yogurt and hopefully soon ice-cream, and buying vegetables for everyone so we can have salad.

Since being in Koutiala I have ticked off two more missionary check boxes; I cut my own hair and I now iron with a coal iron! The hair cutting went well, it was just a trim but it looks much better than before although it is clear it wasn’t a professional job (photos in next post). Strangely enough I am kind of enjoying the ironing, if I can just get the coals hot enough.


The iron.


Me and the iron, or should it me the iron and I?

There have been many end-of-year functions held at the base and they always include a good meal. Luckily for us when you prepare food at someones place it is cultural to give food to the people living there. So we have had some good meals and that has been one of our main sources of meat over the past weeks. Speaking of meat, you are pretty much guaranteed it is fresh here, here’s an example: the other night someone brought a cow into our yard and tied it up, the next morning it was being cut into pieces and then we ate it for lunch, another end-of-year function. Not many people have fridges so killed the same day meat is pretty much what you get.


The cow alive in my yard.


The cow not so alive in my yard.


The cow definitely not alive (sorry if this one was a big gruesome but that is everyday life for me here, maybe not in my yard but around town at least).


The cow being cooked.


The cow being eaten, it was quite tasty too.

Ok well now it looks like I have written quite a bit so I will stop, I hope you come back in a week or two for some more stories and photos. Ok well it is me that needs to make sure I come back in a week or two.


My French teacher and I. He is very patient and puts up with all my mistakes and problems pronouncing the French 'r.'

Good bye boys

This post is mostly dedicated to the home I just left and the boys I left behind. It was very hard to leave and I miss the boys a lot but I want to focus on the good times I had there so here are some photos from the last weeks...



I went with my base leader from Norway and another missionary to Timbuktu, Leif quite enjoyed the off road driving he got a chance to do. It was nice to get away for a bit but that trip proved to be quite a turning point in my decision to leave.



Sandra and I decided to go on a picnic on our motos, so we went for a drive down the road out of town until we found a nice shady spot to stop...



As you can see there was plenty of shade to choose from!



But we did manage to find a good spot, off the road a bit and under a tree. We had a great time and I wish we had done it more often. It was so nice to get out of 'town' for a bit and into the stillness of the bush (well here they call it the bush, I guess we would call it the desert!).



Unfortunately there is a down side to motos, this burn was quite nasty and very painful for quite some time. Of course it is all a design fault and nothing to do with the rider, although in my defense someone else was driving and I was a passenger and I got off on uneven ground.



This is me at the local market, just thought I would give you a bit more of an idea of where I was living, as you can see I really stand out like a sore thumb, even wearing African clothes wouldn't help!



It is amazing the things women will carry on their heads, I mean don't they see the case has wheels! Granted they wouldn't do too well on the sand.



This is little Yero asking for a bath, he literally brings me the bucket and soap, very cute and it is too hard to refuse him when he does this.



One of the boys getting a hair cut from one of the older boys. They just use a razor blade and yes there is often a few extra bumps on the head by the end of it.



We have had a pile of mud out the front of our house for repairs to the mud roof, and the boys make the most of it to make cars, trucks and motor bikes.



They have talent and get quite creative. It is quite amusing to see the bigger boys, 15/16 years, running around the yard towing a mud car on a string but I am happy they get a chance to play.



They also make clay animals, these obviously are camels, they also make dogs, donkeys, cows... almost anything.



This is Boura, he has just gone home to his family in a village, I am happy he will now have quite a different lifestyle but it was sad saying good bye to him as I don't think I will ever see him again :(


And so ends my time there, well maybe it hasn't ended, it may just be on hold - time will tell.

The biggest thing that has happened this month is this.....

My scooter (Moto as they are called here).



As you can see the boys are almost more excited about this than I am. They wash it for me and they are constantly touching it, sitting on it and looking at themselves in the mirrors. I am still getting used to riding but it is fabulous, and I have already used it to take a sick kid to the hospital saving the poor kid a 35 minute walk and a few other things like that. I got my moto especially to help out with getting sick kids to the doctor and other ministry related things but is also so great now that temperature had been hitting the high 40’s IN THE SHADE and it is almost impossible to walk.

I feel so blessed not only with the moto but in how I got it. Firstly as I was praying about whether or not to buy one I got an unexpected donation for almost the exact amount so I took that as a ‘go for it.’ But now that I had the money I had no idea how to go about buying one, so I went to the Norwegian missionaries who have been here for years and they bought it for me in another town and brought it here. Then I had to get up the nerve to get on it the first time and learn to ride it, luckily my friend Sandra, an experienced moto rider, FORCED me to do it but then there were some mechanical problems but our night guardian just happens to have another job as a mechanic so he helped me out with that. God is good, He has provided everything I need and I am so grateful for my moto every single day!

And now I even have a nice seat cooler ...

Thanks Sandra. I love the colour! And it really is practical because without it the seat really gets too hot.

Ok so enough about my fabulous moto. What else has happened... hmm, not a lot. I was on my own for a whole week as my co-worker was away, which left me to do all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, first aid etc. that comes with the now large group of 27-30 boys. I was a little nervous about it given my still limited language, but thankfully all went well. I even managed to buy the bulk rice and other ingredients and charcoal and even to cook food the boys liked!

One other bit of news, we now have a kitten! The rats and mice that are ever present around our house, thankfully not in the house, got a bit much for us, so now we have a mobile mouse trap! He is still quite little we hope he will grow into the job, he certainly has the character for it, he even scares our dog who is by no means small!

New Places

Look what they did to my little Yero!
Actually I quite like the new hair cut and it suits his personality, the little punk!

This past week I have been in Koutiala, to the South of my home, for 3 days of meetings. It is nice to see new cities in Mali and check out the markets and stores. I can see that here they have A LOT more variety of fresh fruit and veggies in the market and the quality is better too. But I guess the further north you go the less variety there is and I do live in a small town so...

Here are some photos from the meetings and the base:


There are lots of Mango trees on the base and many had ripe ones, yummm.


This is how you get the mangoes down from the top of the trees.


but sometimes you just can't wait for them to fall down or be pulled down.



One of our meetings.


This is a Dutch couple I met at the meetings, it turns out they are from a small town in The Netherlands, Nunspeet (spelling?,) where I have visited and they know Lenneke!! What a small world ay?

Catch up...

Well it has been quite a while since I last did an update and quite a lot has changed. I was in Bamako for 10 days in January and it was sooo nice to have some sense of civilisation with a flushing toilet and ceiling fans. It was also a good opportunity to stock up on a few items that I can't get here. The DTS team from my base in Norway visited and were here for 5 weeks and it was great to have them and the boys loved it too.

I went on a little drive with my friend when she borrowed a car, here are some photos of the scenery in the surrounding area - and some of the local wild life (camels) although I am not sure if anyone owns them or if they are wild. Apparently there is also an elephant roaming these parts but I haven't seen it yet.

And here are some other random photos from the past few months:



Mud bricks drying, you find these rows of drying bricks everywhere as people build new houses and prepare the old ones for rainy season.



A photo taken from the roof of our property.



A house under construction behind our house, this is where the little boy we feed lives, his family are the guardians of the property.



Our guardian making tea.



A BIG herd of camels on the way to a meeting one day.



Some of my boys and Bradley from the DTS walking home.



The boys are quite helpful around the house, watering the garden, sweeping etc.



Some of the boys, Annika and I.



There were lots of serious moments when the DTS was here.



Some people from my team at a potluck dinner.



Me being all African and carrying stuff on my hear - I was quite surprised at how well I did, nothing like the locals but I am getting better. I am only game to do that at night when people can't see me and laugh.



Boys having fun playing some hopping game that I don't really understand.

It is now the hot season (at least the beginning of) and that has meant a few changes in daily life here:
- I hardly ever have to dry dishes anymore, they dry by themselves in minutes.
- When I fan my hair dry (with a hand held fan) after a shower it is smells like when you’ve had the hair dryer too close to your hair and it got too hot.
- I have to buy an umbrella because I can’t use sunscreen anymore, I am sweating too much that the sun screen doesn’t soak in, even in the mornings.
- I am now sleeping outside under the stars, protected from all the bugs and critters by a thin mosquito net. It is way too hot to sleep inside now.
- The water coming out of the garden hose is so hot during the day it literally burns you.
- I keep going to turn down the hot water in the shower but then I remember we don’t have any hot water! That is just how warm the water in the pipes is.
- We are now drawing water from our well to water some of the plants at night because everyone in the town gets water at the same time and the pressure is really bad.
- I just laugh at all the bottles of pills, creams, food stuff and other things that say store in a ‘cool dry place’ as there is no cool place anymore and as the wet season approaches the humidity gets into everything.

Holiday season in Mali

Hmm Christmas ... well yes it happened. It really didn’t feel much like Christmas as I was alone and the boys weren’t coming for meals, but I did have a really nice Christmas dinner with my Norwegian friend. I went to church Christmas Eve and Christmas day; both services started with all the women cleaning rice and peeling onions (the men sat around talking) for the meal after church. There was no one to translate for me so I got very well acquainted with the grass mats on the walls and ceiling.

A Christmas movie night with Sandra, we had a projector and big screen set up on the roof at her place and we slept there after the movie - a very nice night but it as you can see the night air affected me and left me a little strange in the morning.

Christmas day at church peeling onions with Sandra and then Christmas dinner prepared by Sandra, it was VERY tasty too!

New Years was also interesting as I went to a combined church meeting, I was the ONLY white person there and I felt it, especially when one of the locals came up and took a photo of me during worship!

As you probably know I quite like chocolate but that is one of the vital foods you just can’t get in this town... but I had heard this new shop in the bigger town nearby has Snickers and Twix bars. So I got all excited and at the first chance to go to that town I bought some but when I took the first bite of Twix I was severely disappointed, it tasted exactly like mothballs – no exaggeration, and going by the taste of the Snickers the main ingredient in it is washing powder! They were so bad I couldn’t eat them; I can’t even lick the chocolate off them (I tried) because that has the same taste. So I am back to my only source of chocolate being Nutella which is ok but nothing like the real stuff. Life is tough in Mali!

On another note, I had my first trip to the market without my colleague the other week. I went with my friend who is a teacher for the Norwegian missionary kids, and neither of us speak French or Fulani. It is truly chaotic on Sundays (the main market day) but I knew where to go for what and with both of our limited French and Fulani we managed to get what we needed, and the best part is that we weren’t too ripped off!!

The following week I went to the market all by myself, I had been dreading the day when that would happen but it went very well, I got almost all that I needed and again got reasonable prices. So now I feel more competent in the community, all I have to do now is buy some material and get clothes made by myself.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks...

Me and Little Yero the African way (it is actually really comfortable), we've also got him sweeping now, soon he will be washing our clothes

Me and some of the boys hanging out and drwaing/writing - Mez do you recognise those materials??? Thanks!

The Malians are very creative and resourceful.