Healing 2 The Nations International ~ Mim Heisey ~ Blog July 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Living Without.......(and surviving)

Week without Internet! And we survived!! This will get posted when we have internet again.:)) It is interesting to note what we get used to, and then take for granted. We so often do not give thanks for, or even recognize, the many luxuries that we enjoy until they are taken away for a time. This last few days we have not had access to internet service, and it feels like an imposition. (Well actually, Julie did get a chance to go down and log on via Claudia's ethernet cable on Saturday, and connect for a few minutes, but the wireless access is down.) We were reminded that just a few years ago we did not even have such a thing! ! ...and wonder of wonders, we survived!! Then and now! Claudia tells us that this lapse of wi-fi happens about once a year, but usually is quickly attended to by 'Orange', the Malian phone and internet provider. She still has service to her main computer But there is no wi-fi. I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either!) In any case, Paul went to the Orange office in person and reported the problem on Friday, and we have called every day since then, but have received no service yet. Sunday we were told that we were not even 'on the list', and yesterday morning they said they would so everything in their power to come out and get it going for us “today”. As of 10pm last night (their quitting time, we are told) they had not come. It got me thinking about some of the other things that we have gotten used to not having here in Mali that we used to take for granted. Here's a list to start you thinking as well.

-No hot water from the faucet. We heat a pan of water on the stove for washing dishes (at least when we have meat or eggs and want to do a more thorough cleansing.) And we have learned to take our showers in the afternoon, when the sun has warmed the wall and therefore the water in the pipes. (that works for one shower at a time...when the sun shines!) --

No reliable refrigeration. We are doing better with electricity right now, thanks to additional solar panels having been installed by Anco and crew, but our little counter-top refrigerator barely chills food to 60*F and food does not keep long. so daily shopping is necessary.

--No spare tire. It is really more about living in a city than about Western & 3rd world differences, but it is not safe to leave an unlocked spare tire in the back of your pick-up truck downtown! This truth we proved last Sunday when we were relieved of our spare tire while we were in the English speaking Worship Service downtown. Live and learn!

--No air-conditioners. Not even a swamp cooler! Swamp coolers are basically big boxes with a fan that pulls air in thru water saturated filter panels, and blows it into your house. The evaporative cooling that takes place reduces the incoming air temperature by 20 or 30 degrees, and is especially effective in the driest months-- which are also the hottest. One of those is a possibility for next January perhaps. We will see!

--No internet. (or S..L....O......W & spor...a..dic In...t.er...n...e....t........)!! Usually we have to go downstairs to the Boys' family room to get online via the wifi that we have here at H2tNI base, but it is slow, especially during the business workday, and often goes off entirely for a few minutes or a few hours. Sometimes the “off”” cycle is a few days, like this week.

--No language skills! We are slowly learning Bambara—at least it seems slow to us when we are trying to communicate with the boys or our cooks and the neighbors. Fortunately, they are patient with us, and try very hard to understand our halting sentences.

--NO family nearby. We do miss our families, both our blood related family (read “grandchildren!”:-)), and our friends and church family. It is hard to be away from them as they are celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and holidays. Ginn and Garrick are celebrating 14 years of marriage TODAY! (Happy Anniversary you two, Im not sure if this will get posted today, but we are thinking about you.) And Heather and Stuart are at the big 10 this year,(Thanks for the fb chronicle of the weekly gifting, Heather. It helps us to celebrate with you. and makes us proud to have such a son and daughter, I might add) We love seeing pictures and the occasional skype date we set up with them but it is not the same as getting hugs from tiny arms and hearing “I love you, Mimi”.

There are more things that we have gotten “used to” here, like eating from community dishes while flies are buzzing around you, Running to shut doors and windows when the wind suddenly picks up and a storm pours over the horizon, walking on gritty floors (Cause there is no way to keep the grit out—you notice when the floor is clean and no grit!), trying to converse and not being able to because we speak different languages, living with one bathroom (and counting ourselves lucky to have one all to ourselves), remembering to bite down gently on the rice, because there are sometimes pieces of grit or small stones in it,(they do sort and clean it as thoroughly as they can, but there are still little pieces that get thru.).

Tomorrow I want to post the other side-- stay tuned. And meanwhile, ponder and go back and consider the many things that you have that you can be thankful for. Be blessed and count your blessings! Mim in MAli

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tuesday as a Holiday-Swimming, Dinner out...

Tuesday Holiday! Tuesday was a special day all around. For starters, we had invited 5 'young men' to the Heisey apartment for an American pancake breakfast. Though really, the only thing American were the pancakes. We served them with Malian honey, mango syrup, and fresh (made the day before) mango-orange jam/marmalade. We also had fresh mango and bananas, of course. :)) Paul, Tierno, Adama, Matthias, and Yakou (Ray) sat at the table while Julie and I kept the pancakes coming. I started the first platter of pancakes with Ray, so that he could show them how we top them with butter and syrup, etc, considering Paul was the only other one who'd eaten pancakes before. The platter got the whole way around, and everyone had two or three to start. The last one to get them was Tierno (our night guard here), and he hardly touched them for a while. I was getting worried that maybe he didn't like them, and what else did I have to feed him?! My fears were short lived however. Towards the end of breakfast, Paul and Adama were teasing him about eating 7 pancakes already...Paul was really counting... and then he took two more. I told them a mom or gramma likes to see boys enjoying her cooking, so that was a good thing! (I found out later that Tierno had gone to bed at 6 o'clock and had just been wakened to come over for breakfast—he was still ½ asleep at the beginning! I think 4 satisfied young men left our house that morning, and I'm hoping to be able to do this for them again soon.

The next part of our day was also special. Eva Durst, the young Austrian lady who came to work with the children this summer, returns home July 25th. She gave the children a special treat as her going-away gift, a day of swimming in the pool at Kangaba Campment. That is a rare treat for our kids. The pool at Kangaba is a lovely L-shaped jewel of refreshingly cool, sapphire blue water wrapped around a restaurant pavillion. It is shaded on 3 sides, including the shallow end, but the foot of the “L” was in full sun, and that ell was deep enough to dive into, much to the boys' delight. One adventurous 15-year-old did a back-flip that earned him a serious scrape and bruise on his lower back. (Whereby the lesson to be careful was learned much better than any lecture from Mimi. LOL) Eva also brought some oranges and a packet of cookies for a snack much to everyone's delight. It was a wonderful 3+ hours of enjoyment for the children, not to mention it was refreshing for us as well.

Kangaba is a lovely African safari style resort camp set at the base of a small rocky ridge, and just 20 minutes away from where we live. There are cabins available to rent (think rustic cabins like at Cowans Gap State park--ask the Reynolds or Hance families, if you've not been there). They offer horse riding (at least we saw the small corral:)), an observation tower, open air restaurant, drinks bar and a gift shop. They also have lovely grounds with quite a selection of botanicals; many of the trees and shrubs were nicely labeled for us. I doubt if the boys gave much thought to the setting, but we appreciated its beauty. When we need a get-away, we think that we might plan to make a night or two there a mini vacation.

We finished off the day as guests at the home of another missionary family here. When Julie invited us for dinner, she asked if we had any foods allergies or foods we dislike. We said “no, but we would appreciate not having rice and sauce”. She readily understood and chuckled, promising that she could arrange something else. (How much we have learned to appreciate the variety of foods that have been our daily rations in the States. Variety is available here, but not on the budget that we operate under to feed 25 or 26 people everyday. More on that in a later post.) So we had delicious lasagna dinner with chocolate fondue as a finishing touch, accompanied by thought provoking (English) conversation. Wonderful! It was a weekday that felt like a Sunday. Be a blessing to someone today. Mim in Mali

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Up & Gardening at 5:00 am

Up and Gardening by 5AM! This week has been interesting, to say the least. On the third try at getting someone to train as gardener and general all-around worker here, we have a young man who is working well.. Adama is a former street boy who knows what it is like on the street and seems to understand that a paying job requires a full day's work-- tho in truth, I don't think we have done a full 8 hours any day yet. Part of that is the reality that the rain interrupts, or the ground is too wet to work, or we don't have the supplies that are needed to do more fencing, or..... whatever. Partly it is because, at this point, either Ray or I have had to be with him to assign a task and then work with him to show him how we want that task to be completed. He has been a willing learner and we are working on getting a list of the repetitive jobs that he can do each day when we are not available. He understands little English and so we communicate slowly, using hand motions and a mixture of Bambara and English, but that is improving as well. We also have a group of almost-young-men who are full of energy and fueled by testosterone. These guys need useful work to do that will allow them to show their strength and expend some of that energy. I had talked with them about helping to plant some more sweet corn in the upper area of the base, where weeds and grasses coexisted with a bumper crop of rocks. We began the process of clearing the ground one evening but had to quit at dark. Flexing their muscles and flapping their shirts over bare chests, they announced that they would get up at 6am (remember that they usually have to be called to get up at 7) to complete the work the following day. So I agreed to get up also and have the tools available. Because of many little hands that are used to taking whatever knife or tool they see and using it to dig in the ground, or cut a piece of wood they have picked up, or chop against the rocks that litter the area, we have kept the gardening tools in our apartment so that they don't walk off on the little feet attached to those little hands. We are also working on the concept of respect for property, and proper use of things. That is not a cultural issue so much as it is an issue of lack of training. I dare say you have had to do similar training with your little ones. It just happened at a younger age with yours, perhaps. Crawling out of bed at 6am (I am NOT an early riser myself, and my bed is still a mattress on the floor) we got the tools out to be available for these 3 teenage boys. I glanced out the kitchen window and wondered if I just hadn't noticed how huge the weed pile was last night. And had we made that big of a wall of rocks along th edge? The area looked much better by morning light. Maybe there was hope for a garden there after all! In just a few minutes Ray came back and announced that they had already finished the job!! Turns out that the 3 of them had gotten up at 4:30, washed and dressed, and were attacking the garden plot before 5 o'clock. What good bragging rights they had that day! Surprising Mimi and Yakou, showing off that they were strong and macho workers, and gaining attention for completing a job well ahead of expectations. We soon hoed and raked an area and planted three 50foot long rows of corn, and in front, a row of green beans. Now to get some more “misi-bo” to boost the rocky ground's nutrient level and we should have a good stand of vegetables for this summer and fall. Thanks again to our MOST TEAM for sending the seeds to us. God reminded us of the principle that a provision of more than enough means He has supplied some to share with others when we asked Anco and Ewien (Dutch missionaries who were putting in the solar panels for us) if they could use some. Anco received it with gratitude, commenting that they had actually been looking for some. God reminded me that He supplies for all of us, His children. What a neat thing to be a part of that chain of provision. So today, look around at your “more-than-enough”s and see whose need God may be intending to supply thru you. I know you are richly blessed! Be a blessing as well! Mim in Mali

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Monday, July 18, 2011

Adding solar panels to Children's home

(Still learning how to post- with apologies to commenters. I don't know how to reply. So Sorry!!--also, here is a late post--this was in drafts and I just realized it hadn't been posted.:(()............Earlier this month a Dutch missionary couple came and completed the installation of additional solar panels for our system here. While Ray worked with Anco and his assistant on the installation, Anco's wife, Ewien, and I took a walk up to the top of the little ridge behind us and did some photo shoots. (Her camera makes me a little jealous, I have to tell you.;)) We again met a man named Ibrahim who lives up there with his family. (picture in front of his house with his children Anco & Ewein have been working in W Africa for severl years, and like Brendon Shank in Liberia, have been working to see the promise of solar power brought to various applications. We are thankful to be on the receiving end of their expertise. Here is a link to the video Ewien shot to chronicle this installation process.

I have posted a few photos on FB and will try to copy them here for you, as well. ....Thankfully, we have now had 24/7 electricity for several days. That means that we have fans and lights at any time of the day or night, and our little refrigerator now keeps food at below 60*-- there is even a little skim of ice on the frezer section at times!! YIPPEEE! (24/ 7 electricity is another blessing that we have so long taken for granted, is it not?).... We are indeed blessed at the hand of a loving God. But we are also blessed to be a blessing-- not to spend it all on ourselves.....** Hoping that you will find new ways to acknowledge your blessings and to be a blessing today. Mim in Mali

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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Julie's version of the Carwarshed Restaurant

Thought that you would enjoy this version as well. And she had a picture on her camera! July 11, 2011 - Carwashed Restaurant by Julie Heisey on Friday, July 15, 2011 at 3:44pm Yesterday (Sunday) has kinda become our day off. We're getting involved with the Christian Fellowship circle that meets every Sunday evening for a 6:00 service, and we make it a day by going to the American Club for the afternoon. This time I swam in the pool for a while, got a little exercise, and then layed in the sun for a while too (: Anyways, we were planning to get a little something to eat at the small restaurant there, but it closed when we thought it opened lol. Soo... we decided to be a little adventurous and try a Malian restaurant we'd passed on our way there. We pulled up, and walked into what we were pretty sure was the restaurant... but it had not chairs or tables. Before we could walk out and leave, the owner came running from across the street and was talking to us in Bambara, and the only word we could understand was 'sandwich'. We couldn't just walk in and walk out, so we agreed to get a sandwich, and a minute later, he had his helpers bringing chairs and a table from across the street. We were thinking, why in the world were the chairs and table across the street? Not till we left and took a look, did we see that across the street was the local carwash. Of course!!! Take the furniture over to the carwash to get a sunday cleaning! lol. We tried to ask for a menu when we sat down, but couldn't communicate (which is still as frustrating as ever!). We managed to get drinks, Fanta for mom , Coke for dad, and a Sprite for me (I really wanted to take my cool glass bottle home, but they charge you more if you take the bottle, oh well) Because there wasn't much else we could do, we agreed to just try the only thing we could communicate to the guy, a sandwich. When he brought it in to us, it actually wasn't that bad. It had meat, sliced veggies, and mayo on it. We're pretty sure the meat was ground beef, and it has some good seasoning in it. It was warm, and the veggies were cold from being in the fridge, but we still prayed that God would protect us from anything harmful. Soooo, interesting experience, but I think we'll go to a familiar restaurant next time lol.

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Monday, July 11, 2011

Restaurant Seats in a Car Wash??

Restaurant seats in the Car wash:)) People here at Healing2TheNations are all used to seeing me in a long skirt, or with a “pagne” (simple length of material) wrapped around my waist, so when I came home from an excursion to Bamako in blue jeans and a nice tee-shirt, Fanta made a comment in Bambara that made Paul chuckle before translating for me. “Tonight Mimi is a lady. She is not a gramma.” What a nice compliment to be given! (We had also noticed that Fanta dressed differently when her husband came home after being away for several months. LOL) All in all it was another “experience” day. We have been having some discipline issues with several of the boys--(Yes, boys are boys in Yirimadio as well as in Shippensburg!) so we're looking forward to a little time away to just relax. Our trip to town was our Sunday holiday, of sorts. We spent some time at the American Club in the afternoon before going to the Worship Service that is held (in English!) in a church downtown on Sunday evenings. We have enjoyed getting to know other missionaries who are here in Mali thru this English speaking group, and look forward to that time together when we can get there. It was thru this group that we discovered the American Club here in Bamako. The American Club is a nice place to relax, with a pool, sand volleyball and tennis courts, a nice pavilion, and a small restaurant. We found we were able to join it as Americans in Mali for about the cost of 2 nights in a hotel, so we have afforded ourselves that luxury. Ray and Julie spent time in the pool and I relaxed in the lounge with my computer. I had intended to catch up on my blog, and send it out with pictures before joining them in the warm pool water—Florida warm, not PA swimming pool warm! It was a good plan, except for the fact that there was no internet service. When we got home we discovered that the lack of service was not a problem of the Club's wireless connection but apparently of the whole server for Bamako, as they had no service here at the base, either. Also, Ray had come back from the bathhouse to tell me that there was no water on in the bathroom. That meant there would be no showering to wash off after a swim, and the little plastic kettle with a spout, which we have come to recognize as part of an outdoor latrine's sanitary facilities, was in place beside the commode. Such is life in Mali! :) Our intent was to get a snack or salad at the Club restaurant, but rather than opening at 4pm, we found that 4 pm is the CLOSING time for the kitchen on Sundays. Julie was hungry after having swum 20 laps (it is a small pool!) and the 3 oranges and a handful of peanuts that we had brought with us didn't satisfy her. OK! We did see a little Malian Restaurant just a block or so away as we came in, so we thought maybe we would be brave enough to try it, or at least look at it as we drove by. That too was an experience! Arriving in front of the building that proclaimed itself a Restaurant, we parked along the street, being careful as we got out of the car to stay on the curbing and not step down into the open sewer that runs beside most streets here. (With the rainy season in full swing,there is a good quantity of water flowing, so its not too odorous.) The music was blaring, and the lights were on in the little building that housed the eatery. Inside the doorway was an open tilefloored space, where we saw various pots and pans stacked on a bench to one side. Before we had time to make a decision to leave, the proprietor came from across the street and greeted us. With the limited vocabulary that we have in Bambara or French, and his equally “small, small” English, we agreed that a sandwich would be what we would like to eat. He exited and crossed the street to the small car-wash establishment, quickly gathered up 6 plastic deck chairs and headed back toward us. Meanwhile, we stepped into the interior room and looked around in surprise. Yes, the music was on, and a small TV was also playing from a shelf mounted high on the end wall, but except for a single corner counter and a small refrigerator that seemed to be unplugged, there was no furniture in the room. It was clean, but empty! Before we could process all this, he was back with the chairs and a matching plastic table, wiped them off with a rag and offered us a seat. Thru the window Ray saw a young lady bring a baguette from next door and come back into the courtyard out front. We asked for a Coke, Fanta (the soft drink, not our cook LOL), and a Sprite (usually a safe bet for something to drink- sanitary, if not cold) and began to wonder if we should just drink our sodas and do without supper. The sodas, which he selected from the bottles stacked in the freezer compartment of the small refrigerator, were pleasantly cold. The young lady came in and took a pan of something from the refrigerator and I (wondering what in the world we were getting into) followed her outside. She had split the baguette, spread something onto one side of it, and was spooning fresh vegetables from the refrigerated pan on top of that. We decide it was too late to back out and sat drinking our sodas while we waited. The proprietor soon returned with a platter of the 3 sandwiches, each on its own piece of tin foil. What we had was a very acceptable, hoagie type sandwich, seasoned ground beef (we think!) with wedges of fresh tomatoes, onions and green peppers, on fresh french bread.) We left there, marvelling, and drove downtown to enjoy a worship service.

Beside the regular crew, there were 3 missionary families from out of country who were on holiday in Bamako. We also had a few minutes to shop at their small Christian bookstore where we selected 5 or 6 books, which are in the Bambara language, to bring back here with us. God has already used one of those books this morning-- but that is another story. By the way, we get more fish to eat here than I usually worked into the menu at home in PA. However, as you can see from the picture of Julie at our kitchen table, it is a little different than Mrs Paul's fishsticks of fish fillets.lol Usually we are eating it out of the community dish with 5 or other hands dipping in. This day we decided to take some rice up to our apartment and add a salad. This whole fish was the piece we were given. Count your many blessings and don't forget to thank God for all His many provisions for you. Be blessed and be a blessing! Mim in Mali

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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Life with a house full of boys!

We continue to experience life with the boys (and Sarata, our one little resident girl. Fanta is her mother, and the family lives in the 2 rooms just below us, adjacent to the kitchen area.) If you have grown up in a family of more than 3 or 4, you will realize some of the interactions that we face. Big boys teasing little boys, little boys trying to mimic their elders, big boys testing each other, and all of them vying for attention one way and another. There is the normal struggle to see who will be in charge, but in addition there is the reality that many of these boys have already on their own, on the street, which is not always a friendly environment. They are wise in the ways of manipulation and coercion. But they have also acknowledged their need of a saviour and all have made a verbal commitment to follow God, however that translates into everyday life. They also are looking for love and affirmation, as we all are. It is a delicate balance to supply what they need-- room to grow and mature, while still enough boundaries to give some structure. We need to remember to laugh and play as well as do correcting.

We also welcomed another "boy" into our family group here. Matthias is a young man who comes from Austria, and plans to be here about 3 months. The picture of me holding a tray of banana men with mustaches is a treat I made in honor of his coming. Banana 1/2s with a squiggly pretzel mustache and peanut eyes. It was fun! Sunday is a day with very little on the schedule. The boys need to do their own laundry sometime during the day, but otherwise they have a day to rest and play. Julie and I played a game of Quirkle with Paul and Saloum- 2 games actually. Then I went to check on a couple of new plantings that we did this week, and spread some “misibo” (well rotted cow marure) that Paul had gotten for me. On the way to spread it I got distracted by 3 little ones doing their laundry on the top of the concrete septic tank. (Sounds a little bizarre, but it is a solid concrete platform to stand on or alongside for that chore.. I stayed to work alongside 4 of the boys as they were did their washing. This weekly chore that they are responsible for, is done in rather primitive surroundings, compared to what you probably have to work with, but it is enough!. Each one is given a cup or so of soap powder and it is up to them to get the job done sometime on Sunday. There is a garden hose with a good supply of water, a large metal tub, a laundry scrubboard, as well as a (new) clothes line and various railings and concrete places to hang the washed clothes on to dry. The sun does the solar drying work. As you might imagine, some do better than others, and so I was trying to show them ways that I have found that work to get the clothes clean. I try to use the washboard as little as possible because it is terribly rough on the clothes, but Karim showed me that it does enable him to get his pants cleaner than my hand work did. Live and learn! Another of the boys seemed to leave me to do his laundry when I had offered to help. Not so! He had gone to take a clean garment to put on and bring back the dirty pair of pants that he was wearing, so that both sets could get clean today. Another set of blessings to count: Automatic washing machines and dryers: can you conceive of it?? Machines that leave your clothing clean, dry and fluffy! Also, plenty of clothes, so that you do not need to wash one thing and then go and change so you can wash the clothes that you have on. Count your many blessings today. And be a blessing to others as you go. Mim in Mali

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Friday, July 8, 2011

Julie's African Braids

Julie's African Braids by Julie Heisey on Friday, July 8, 2011 at 9:06pm OH. MY. LANTA! I have a whOLe new respect for all of the girls that I see walking around everywhere with these crazyily (new word) designed braids. It hurts a LOT! I didn't think it was really going to be such intense pain, but when she takes a little section of your hair and braids it right on your head, it's definitely intense. I actually cried on the third or fourth braid, and was thinking, 'oh my gosh, why in the world would anyone pay someone to do this!' lol. And, I have, and probably will have, a headache for a while. Bebe, the name of the lady that did my braids for me, did one half of my head, then the other half, then did the whole back/bottom from left to right. She did it so that it pulls up into a pony tail, with those colored plastic bands to hold them in place at the end of the braid and also right where it starts away from my head. It took 2 hours and 12 minutes for her to do it all, with a few short breaks (like 2 or 3 minutes). But, my experience wasn't completely filled with pain lol. They served me some millet drink that one of the girls made as an afternoon snack. Later, when we'd moved outside of their yard to do the 2nd half of my hair, a lady came by selling what I think were frufrus (it's basically fried dough, sometimes with stuff in it, this one had chopped up onions and boiled eggs) and Bebe gave me one. (: It was really really good, besides giving me a break because Bebe had to take time to eat hers lol. Just after that, another lady finished making her tea that she'd started when I'd gotten there, and served me a little cup. They serve them in little 'shot' glasses, and you're supposed to slurp it as loudly as you can lol. It was good and sweet, and a little distraction from the pain... for a few seconds. I've gotta say though, despite how painful it was, I'm glad I went through with it and got it all done. I don't think I'm gonna do it again, maybe, maybe not, but I'm certainly glad for the experience.

There you have it, right from the mouth of the one who is hurting!! Do any of you ladies remember “curlers”??-those plastic cylinders that we used to wrap our hair around at night, attach with bobby pins or little plastic picks, and (try to)sleep on to have big curls? Ouch!!—that gives me a headache just remembering. Oh, the things we do for fashion!! It was a lovely way to make a onnection with a neighbor though, I discovered that 2 of my near neighbors are named Miriam (or a variation thereof), which I told them is my given name. Now when I pass their stand in the local market, I am greeted with cries of “Meriam, Meriam!” and we greet one another. We know each other – and that is good. Again on Saturday I went with Fanta, our cook, to that open air market down at the main road. Always before we have walked down the hill the kilometer or so that it is, purchase our supplies and trudge back up the hill , I with my big, red, HALE REAL ESTATE shopping bag slung over my shoulder, and Fanta with her bucket full of food balanced on her head. This time we drove down in the little pick-up truck with Eva Durst and Matthias, the 2 short-termers at H2TNI. I wanted to get a large quantity of mangoes, as I know that their season is coming to an end, and carrying that extra load back up hill, in the morning heat was more than I wanted to tackle.

Another reason for taking the truck was to get Fanta going a little earlier. I wanted to be early at the meat merchant to see if I could get the tenderloin. The Malian people seem to prefer the combination of meat, bone and fatty pieces instead of just the leaner cuts that we prefer. I have watched as a thick sirloin chop disappeared under the machete type knife the butcher wields, whacked into bite sized pieces, bone and all, then accompanied by a select handful of other pieces that we would probably disdain to use. He had to be convinced that I wanted only that fat-less meat; the lean piece is not asking for anything special in their eyes. It is much better in my eyes however, so hopefully it is a win-win situation. If the merchant realizes that I will be a regular customer for that piece, maybe I can get him to save it for me in the future. We will see! Blessing for today's counting?? More than enough! Food, family, friends and neighbors. Be blessed and be a blessing! Mim in Mali

A few Pictures

Here are a few more pictures for you to taste a bit of what we are tasting and seeing. Fanta making supper, Julie hangin up our clothes on the line Ray put up-- a real upgrade from trees and bushes or the concrete rooftop as a drying rack, to be sure. It is midnight here now-- I must turn in and get some sleep. I am planning to get up early to go to market,(with one of our cooks, Fanta, who you see making onion sauce for our rice,) I hope to catch the butcher before he sells the loin from his piece of hanging meat, and purchase that "skinny piece of meat". Be blessed and count your many blessings..

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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Gardening in Soil and Soul - Mali style

The rains have continued to come, often with fierce sweeping winds, but they have also come gently a few times. Today we got a gentle rain, and not a great amount. Two nights ago we had deluge! It rained long and hard for several hours and in the morning there were 5 inches in the bucket that I had left sitting on the porch. That is a LOT of RAIN!!--and no one seemed to think it at all remarkable. Does that tell you anything about what we are in for in the coming months??!?!? --they do call it the rainy season.

Gardeners are at work all around us. I can look to the west in the early morning and see a neighbor tending a large garden plot on that side, or lean over the wall at the other side of our base and see the soil outside our wall being tilled and planted. Up the hill we are beginning to see neat rows emerging from the ground as the maize comes up in those gardens. Seven year old Bakary had shown me several days ago where the “kaba”(ears of maize) was hanging in the protection of our truck shelter's roof peak. (We think that he is about seven-- they often do not know their age or birth date, so Claudia has assigned a birthday based on when they came into the family here.) It was still a surprise to see him out with Daouda planting a little patch of maize. They had carefully weeded and tilled the soil by hand, then planted their little handful of seed and placed a protective ring of stones and concrete pieces around it.

Joseph, one of our “not-yet-a-man-18-year-olds” (that's another story, lol), had planted a stretch of maize about 2 weeks ago, and I wondered about it, but didn't give it too much thought. He had not removed any of the stones or trash that littered the ground, merely planting seed between them But here are 7 and 11 year old street boys who know how to save and plant life-giving seed, and they go DO it, all on their own initiative!. I was awed again by this demonstration of the sharp reality for these children. Theirs has been a subsistence existence. I am even more anxious to be blessing them and to be able to share with them what I have learned about gardening and growing things over the years, as well as the soul lessons gleaned from that gardening knowledge. Doris Foust, Connie McCarty, Gerry Matre & I did a series several years ago that we called “Lessons in Soil & Soul”- (do you remember them, ladies?) They will be applied here for sure, better as I learn the language.

I have gotten my fingers dirty, too. With the help of one and another of the older boys, we have prepared 2 plots and planted corn, green beans, cucumbers, squash and eggplant. We planted. God has watered abundantly!! Now we need to prepare a place that will not get too wet, and I will hope to soon get some tomatoes in the ground. My attempts to start tomatoes in tin cans on our concrete roof deck were not successful, although we have gotten a sprouting mango seed to push upright and grow!! I also took the initial plot that I was planning for a garden and have converted it into a compost bed for this year. The soil there was the equivalent of hard, red Georgia clay over bedrock lol, and needs some improving, so we are teaching about compost—(NO plastic, aii yi-yiii!.) :))

We saw what looked like mint tea being sold at the market, so I bought a bundle and have tried to start a patch. It is slow going and only 1 piece has grown--(if you know mint, that is hard to believe, isn't it?) I will get some more, and maybe another kind, and make several patches. When the boys start using it for tea, I want to make sure it does not all get ripped out.

The boys are growing wonderfully. We have had some confrontations, to be sure-- but that is not unusual or unexpected for a house full of boys. We are encouraged by the response to firm but loving discipline. Just like in your home, set boundaries will be tested...and tested...and tested. When the fence does not move they can lean against it with confidence that it will hold them securely. So it is everywhere. Some of the “fences” that Claudia had built here had fallen into disrepair in the last little while and are being re-established and strengthened. And it is good.

Wherever you are, in your family, in your soul garden! Be blessed and be a consistent blessing.

Mim in Mali

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Friday, July 1, 2011

Bambara Braids, Babies and (green) Beans

IYesterday Ray had his “7/20 Prayer for our Valley” tee shirt on, and one of the boys wanted to know about it. We were able to read it in English, “7pm ('that's tan ni kononton,) Ju-ly--don't have that one down yet --twenty('mugan') to 7am-('wolonfila'). A b-i-g gathering('bon', 'many people'--with arms spread wide). All churches, prayer for our valley, (our 'Yirimadio',) in America” and make enough of an interpretation that they understood what it was about—I think :)) Then I reminded them that it was much like the prayer and worship event that most of them had attended about 3 weeks ago here in Bamako, on the International Day of Prayer. And since Paul walked in at that point he was able to translate for me, so I'm pretty sure they got that part. We are beginning to be able to really communicate. We get our little notebooks out and try to say it in Bambara; they smile and nod, and rattle off a response that we try to decipher. We have learned that just because someone smiles and says 'yes', there is absolutely no assurance that they really have understood you at all! They are being polite according to their cultural guidelines, to make you happy, and however frustrating that may be to us, we have to understand and try to honor that cultural difference. We feel we are really lucky if someone will be bold enough to make the correction to our halting question or statement, and say it back to us in a full sentence so that we can learn more about the Bambara grammar pieces that don't match up to our American English. Any of you who have tried to learn another language will understand that part, I am sure. Several of our close circle have learned to do that service for us. Ray told us where Eva Durst, the young Austrian who is here with us for the summer, had gone to have her hair done, so Julie and I went with our cameras to chronicle the event. There Eva was in the courtyard, sitting on a rug on the hard packed ground, while our neighbor was tightly braiding each section into neat 'corn-rows'. They asked Julie when she is going to get her hair done, and she is considering it, tho' Eva says (in English, to us) that it HURTS!! A LOT!!. But she does look adorable, and she won't have to mess with her hair for a couple of weeks if she chooses to let the braids in that long. Makes for a simple shampooing job! When we were leaving our base to go find Eva, another neighbor called hello, so I thought that I would walk back that way and greet them. I was immediately handed the roly-poly little baby, Adama, who delighted us all by laughing and cooing as I held him. What a great ice breaker God has provided us when He made babies and mothers. Everybody can speak that language! I must go and talk to them again-- and soon.

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