Well, hot season or in our language, "jah-bah-ray" is officially upon us. We hit a high of 131 degrees!!!!!!! this week during the day in the village and we were ever so pleased to have a low one night of 93F. You wonder how you can survive, how anyone, can survive living every day in this but we do... they do.... for us... with our Father's help of course! We are averaging about 160-180 ounces of water a day, which is a crazy amount by our regular American mindset, but here it's really not that hard to do. We do water checks on each other and count how many 'Nalgene's' we've had to make sure we are staying hydrated. I am anxious to try a test when I get home and see if I can easily drink 160-180 oz of water there... if anyone wants to try it, let me know!
Another first experience this past week.... I went to a live music concert in our village! The singer Lakassa Hawa came to town and that's all everyone could talk about. Tickets were 1000CFA or $2 which is expensive for most people. Our family could not all afford it so 2 of us went to the concert and 2 of us stayed with our family. It was presented in a compound on the outer edge of the village and they had hung mats all around the fencing so no one could see/ get in without a ticket.
They performed on the front porch of the house. The whole thing had a feel like a musicians 'jam' session... he'd sing, then the drummers would play for a while and then they'd stop and talk to each other and then the guitarist might start playing and Lakassa would sing something again- very random! The speakers and microphone echoed feedback the whole time. The singer himself and his dancing girls (who were very scantily dressed with leggings and knee length skirts and crop tops) were all in matching baby blue satin outfits. There was one light (like painters use at home) as a spotlight. He even had 2 bodyguards with him that when he stepped down off the porch into the 'crowd' they came with him on each side (quite funny). We stayed for an hour and half but the concert went on until 1am.
He was singing in our people's language so we couldn't really understand except most of the time we were there people were bringing money up to him so he would sing their name and they'd cheer when he did. We could recognize the different last names but we don't know if he was making up other words about the name or if he was just inserting them into to a song. Either way, it was a great money maker for him because as I've said before, names here are a huge deal and to have yours said over a speaker in front of everyone is a huge, huge deal, I guess.
So 3 1/2 months into living in our village and we are still learning much... and relearning too. Turns out the word we learned for eggplant we found out this week is actually the Bambara (different language) word for it. They interchange languages here so often it's hard to figure out. Yesterday a man we were talking with, was using French and Bambara in the same sentences continually. I knew this because I could understand 1/2 of his sentences - crazy!
Another thing we learned last week. I thought this whole time I was named after the mayor's mother, turns out I was named after the village chief's mother! This is all the more interesting because we were told (or so we thought) that he was dead and no one had ever talked about us going to greet him so we didn't know he existed. So I set out to find him. Which wasn't all that hard, his compound was right on the other side of ours- again crazy! So Sarah and I greeted him and discovered he is about 75 or so but in poor health. They showed up the huge open wounds on the back of his neck, they said from the dry winds and asked if we could help. We prayed for him there with a witness of people and he prayed with us as well.
The other exciting part about that visit though, we asked then about my namesake, or in our language "toe-gore-rah". We again, understood she was dead but then they started leading us to another house. Sarah and I were a little nervous we didn't know if we were going to see a dead body, a grave or live person! Turns out, there sat a 90 year old woman, Toudo Diawara, my namesake. And for the first time, I got to have a "toe-gore-rah" dance. Again, here names are big so whenever you see your namesake it is a big deal and everyone kind of dances around and claps and sings. It was great fun really. We sat and greeted her for a bit before she seemed like she was getting tired from sitting up. Her legs were so frail and its obvious she hadn't walked in some time as her toenails were huge as well.
Saturday, with the translator and Alyson (or acting director) in town we went to the village that had given us the Ram back when the medical team was there. Alyson had come up to ask our village and several others what needs they have. We have gotten some money to use to put in a well from a church in the states that are great supporters of the work here in Mali. PRAISE THE LORD. We are trying to figure out the most need. We were welcomed with open arms again and fed an amazing lunch of butter noodles and actually real, meaty, good chicken (which is again also very expensive for them).
As we talked with the elders to find out needs, of course medical was the first, but the next was help with the garden. As we asked more we found out that the women will sleep by the well over night now so as to be the first ones to get water in the morning before the well is dry for that day. We went out to see the garden and just like in our village there is only a little bit of mint and greens left growing. The single well in the garden was 30m or about 100 feet they told us. Before leaving we prayed for the village again with them and told them that all things we do we do because Esa tells us to in the Word. Please pray for wisdom for Alyson and Nafi on how best to use our Father's resources.
Part of some recent training we got to act out for other workers what daily life looks like in our village. You would think that all of our villages would be the same but they were different in many ways. It was to be able to have a humorous look at ourselves and what we consider as 'normal' life here.
In praying and thinking this week about my time here is coming to a close and returning home... our Father gave me scripture this week: 1 Corinthians 2:9 - "what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him". I realize this is referring to heaven and life with him, which will be more than we can imagine. But perhaps its for life here on earth to. For me and my teammates, as well, we've talked about we have no idea what our Father has planned beyond this service but this scripture really spoke to me and I shared it with them as well, that I believe that He already has it planned and that it will be more than we can imagine.
As I write this my teammate Abby is on her way to Bamako. She continues to struggle with kidney stones. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors on how to help her and for healing
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