Most Memorable Moments

Here are some of the most memorable moments from our team:

What amazed me about life in Mali was how much of their life is consumed to just live.  I didn't see much entertainment.  Everything was work.  - Bill

My memory that most amazed me was the stepping back in time of the agricultural system.  The use of cows and one bottom plows was incredible, especially after listening to Anco talk about the improved production with tractors! - Jon

My favorite moment would be Erin's reaction to the "Bag-O-Dinner" that James brought to the house...PRICELESS MOMENT.  -Steve

The church service at Bethel was the most amazing to me.  I remember standing there, looking around at the simplicity of the church, listening to the beat of the music, which I loved, and looking out the windows and doors to see the green cornfields and trees.  I found that to be such a peaceful moment.

Life in the U.S. seems much more cluttered with things that really don't matter.  I love the simplicity in Mali and how happy people are. -Erin

One of the things that struck me was how matter-of-fact Jesue was about what people becoming Christians in Mali have to face.  He had to be questioned with multiple questions (thank you Larry!) to find out that accepting Christ in Mali meant possibly being sent out of town, losing your wife and kids, and losing your way of life.  He did not lead off with the hardships they face. Instead, he led with a message of hope for Malians. Also, in a land where information is secret and an advantage, the Christians there are sharing to try to make everybody's life better (and through that share the Lord).

Another fact that struck me was the work ethic in Mali.  The people do not struggle to survive due to lack of physical effort.  Even when the kids showed up at camp (a vacation of sorts), they looked for opportunities to help (shoveling with Rachel) and did not turn down the request for help (moving the stump).  In a place where vacation is not a reality, the kids helped us even when they had the chance to take a break, and they did it with smiles!
-Jason

My memorable moment has to be the cultural differences with regard to what we often consider "common sense." Specifically, I think of various matters of safety.  I never thought I would see 7-8 year old kids playing near and running across a highway with cars going up to 60+ mph.  Work site safety...what's that?? Basically, the Malians have a more casual approach to work and home life. We're very structured and rules driven/regulated in the U.S.
-Andy

Something extremely memorable to me was the experience we had at the market in Segou. I thought it was a really stressful environment, especially having them follow you through the entire market begging you to buy their items.  That is obviously a lot different than the way we do things in the U.S.-Rachel

The many flights home

We are home.  I woke up by 4am this morning because my body's time clock is very messed up!

After resting at the guest house in Bamako, Anco took us to the airport.  We were there too early (approximately 2 hours early), so they wouldn't let us in.  We asked what time they would let us in, and their response was that they didn't know.  We noticed several Muslim prayers inside the airport, so I think they were waiting until after prayer time to let us enter.  Going through security was pretty easy.  I did make a minor error (Andy might not say it was minor).  We bought some letter openers at the market, and I meant to put them in the checked luggage, but accidentally forgot.  They were in Andy's carry on, and he got pulled out of line for the security officer to go through the bag.  The security officer found the two letter openers and even made the motion of jabbing one at Andy.  Andy looked helpless, and the officer just threw them away and let Andy through.  I think Andy thought he was going to jail for sure. Oops!  Also, once again, our last name was spelled incorrectly on our boarding passes, and we still made it through all the checkpoints in Bamako.  Once we were back on Delta flights (starting with Dakar to NY), the spelling was correct.  Good thing -- pretty sure we wouldn't have gotten through security in the U.S. (or even Dakar) with our names not matching our passports.

We arrived in Dakar, and things got interesting.  I don't know what was going on, but there were thousands of people everywhere.  It was almost like going through a riot, but it wasn't a riot.  We stuck together, walked fast, and had death grips on our luggage.  We had to go outside, walk across the parking lot (among all the people), and re-enter a different building.  No one tried to take my luggage, but I know someone tried to take Steve's luggage, and I'm not sure about the others.  Our team put Rachel and me in the middle.  I was behind Adam, and I didn't let him get far from me!  We had to push our way through lots of people to get into the next building.  At one point, a person was shoving his baggage cart into Jason's ankles, and a child climbed over Jason's luggage and asked Jason to hand him his own luggage.  It was a mess!!  We made it inside the building, but couldn't check in for about 5 or 6 hours.  We found a large area near the check in counters and sat there.  Many people played cards to pass the time.  Adam watched The Proposal with me on my dvd player while he also played a game of cards (impressive).  There were a lot of mosquitos in the building, and they were swarming us.  We had to put on bug spray while in the airport.  Several of us also fell asleep on the nasty floor.  Those that didn't sleep were entertained by a lady who was trying to check in and was arguing with officials for hours!  Her three kids kept piling on each other and falling asleep.  The restrooms  in Dakar were disgusting, but I later realized that American restrooms really aren't much better! The difference was that a woman stayed in the Dakar restrooms and begged for money as you were leaving.  Annoying. 

Once we were able to check in at Dakar, I was actually impressed with security.  We had to go through several checkpoints.  First, we were questioned, then we checked our bags and went through security with carry ons (similar to the process in the U.S.), then, before we could enter the area for our gate, we had to go through a checkpoint where someone opened and went through all our carry-ons, and we were also patted down. Security in Dakar was actually tighter than in the U.S., but I think it was because we were going to the U.S.  It looked like other people didn't have to go through the final checkpoint that everyone on our flight had to go through.

We arrived in JFK, and everything was back to normal as we went to Minneapolis, and finally to Omaha.  I had a hard time feeling like we were in Africa when we arrived in Africa, but I definitely felt like we were in the U.S. on our return.

God was with us during our travels.  It seemed like we always would just beat the crowd before our security checkpoints. The line at the final checkpoint in Dakar was very long as we boarded the plane.  I know that after we made it through Customs in JFK, the line got so large that there was over a 2 hour wait, and a few people nearly missed their flights (some were on our flight to Minneapolis).  Our team made it through Customs within half an hour in JFK.  After we left JFK, the weather got very bad and flights out of JFK were delayed by at least 2 hours.  All of our flights were basically on time, and if we were delayed, we always seemed to make up time in the air. Plus, we miraculously received all our luggage both going to Mali and coming home.

Oh, one final note.  I mentioned that we might be able to visit Sababu on our trip.  When we were almost to Bamako on our trip home, I asked Ewien if we'd be able to go by Sababu, and she said they shut down.  Sababu would import material, and I guess they are having problems getting material from the Ivory Coast.  Eventually, Sababu had to shut down. Pray that the importing issues are resolved, and they are able to re-open. It seems Customs causes a lot of problems because the containers that are sent over from the U.S. often get held up for weeks/months as well.

I still wish I was in Africa, but I guess it's time to get back into my crazy routine.  Belle and Sophie (my dogs) were very happy to see us, and I was happy to see them.  I have nothing planned for this weekend, which is nice (and unusual).

Many of these pictures are a little blurry because Andy discreetly took them on his phone.  They are at the Dakar airport (not supposed to take pictures so none of us got an actual camera out). 

Rachel watching a movie. I fell asleep with my headphones on.

Adam falling asleep.  He couldn't understand how so many of us were sleeping on the nasty floor!

Chris fell asleep pretty quickly after we arrived in Dakar

You can kind of see the lady in the background that spent hours arguing with airport officials. She is lifting one of her kids in the picture.

Jon and Bill sleeping, Rachel watching a movie

Adam sleeping.  The airport was crowded all night long.  This is probaby the least crowded it ever was.

Jason changed into his Malian clothes at the Minneapolis airport

Stepping off the plane in Omaha after a long 2 days of traveling

Headed Home

We have made it to Bamako.  We stopped in Segou (2nd largest city in Mali, Bamako is largest) on our way and went to the market.  Their market is not nearly as crowded as the market in Koutiala.  There have been some rumors of terrorism in Segou, which drastically cut down their tourism.  Even though there were some really neat items for sale, I didn't like the market because they were very pushy. Groups of people would follow you around begging you to buy from them.  Steve saw them all huddle up when we arrived, so I think they were coming up with their game plan.  It seemed many of the "store owners" were related.  Anco spent a large amount of time negotiating with someone on some chairs that Jon, Jason and Adam wanted.  They were going between two shops and the Malian (shown in pics with white hat on) told him one store had better quality over another store.  Later, he said the guys could pick chairs from both stores because the owners were related.  Anco called him out on this discrepancy, and they laughed about it.  The Malian (who could speak English) also asked us at one point if we were from the U.S. or U.K. and Jon's response was "I'm from mother," which made the Malian laugh.  I'm not sure if he would have given a better deal depending on where we were from (we never told him). Many of the store owners could speak English, but would pretend they couldn't.  By doing this, they could listen to our conversations about the price we would pay without us knowing that they were listening and understanding.  It didn't take long for us to catch on.  The Malian with the white cap was talking to Andy in English, but when several of us approached, he switched to French (at which time Andy clued us in on the fact that he knew English). We did buy a lot from the market, so I think they had a good market day.

We took a patient from the Women and Children's Hospital with us when we left Koutiala and dropped them off (2 kids and their mother -- one of the kids was the patient) at their village on our way to Segou.  Doug said it would take 1 hr 15 minutes to get to the village, and Jason told him that Anco said it would take 45 minutes.  Doug laughed and said "Maybe for Anco."  Sure enough -- we arrived at their village in 44 minutes!  It was a pretty uneventful trip though.  Jon and Anco did briefly sing some Veggie Tales, and Anco scared us a few times when he was passing people.  There were many close calls, and we decided Anco was getting too much pleasure in scaring us.  A few times after a very close call, Ewien would look over at Anco, and he would have the largest grin on his face.

We will eat dinner at the guest house in Bamako and then head for the airport in about 2 hours.  Pray for an uneventful trip home for us!  The people who work in the African airports are very pushy about taking your stuff and then wanting money to give it back.  I hope we are able to avoid that annoyance as much as possible.  I'll be happy when we are sitting on the plane headed for JFK.

Below are several pictures from the Segou market.  Thanks to Anco and Ewien for negotiating for us.  I know it's not a fun thing to do, especially for 10 people!

Jon and his rhino purchase!  Unfortunately, the rhino lost a few horns on the way home.  I hope Jon can fix it!

Adam and his 2 chairs

These boys kept asking me to take their picture

Anco did a lot of negotiating for Jon, Jason and Adam to get the chairs they wanted at the price they wanted

We saw this truck on our road to Bamako --- oopsy!

Steve gave Moussa (on right) and Batuma (not sure on spelling) tips from all of us for their hard work on cleaning and preparing food for us.  Moussa is regularly assigned to Anco and Ewien and Batuma is regularly assigned to the guest house.  Anco and Doug are also shown in the picture.  Anco said the tip is a nice gesture.  Anco helped Moussa buy a house, and Moussa has been working very hard at paying back Anco.

Final Work Day

Today was the final work day for us.  How sad!!!  It is bittersweet I guess.  I woke up and heard that James brought Steve a gift.  James is a Christian carpenter (Malian man) that worked with Steve during his first trip to Mali.  He has the reputation as a very good carpenter.  Steve said that when he worked with him on his first trip, he asked James about his family, and James told him that he had just lost a child.  Steve asked him how he was coping so well, and James basically said it's God's will.  This is how many people handle death or misfortune in Mali. Many of the things that would cause us devastation are just part of everyday life for people in Mali.  I went to look in the bag that James brought Steve, and to my surprise (as in I jumped from being startled), I saw 4 live guineas. James told Steve that his house wasn't large enough to have us all for dinner, so he wanted to provide us dinner.  This didn't work so well for me....I really wanted to set them free!  However, apparently this is a huge honor/gesture. James also brought Chris a poncho made out of mud cloth, which was very nice. 

This morning the guys did a few final things on the water tower.  Adam worked on patching holes, Jason and Jon painted, Andy, Larry and Bill worked on building the brick wall to provide additional support, and Steve and Chris worked at the classrooms and trimmed shrubs.  As I'm sitting here asking Jason and Andy what the guys did today, I just found out that Jon sang all morning as well and even took requests.  Apparently he sang "Like a Surgeon...." (to the tune of a popular Madonna song).  Now I'm finding out that Anco even started singing Veggie Tales ("Oh where is my hairbrush...") while he was inside the water tank. I believe Jon got him started with the Veggie Tales.

Rachel, Ewien and I started a new project, and I think we all agreed that we would rather dig.  Doug took us down to one of the buildings at Bethel that is going to be converted into a chicken coup because they are going to increase their number of chickens by approximately 1000.  So, they needed some larger windows punched out of the building.  The three of us girls were given mallets, chisels and hammers to punch holes through a building.  This was hard!  Also, we had no goggles, so we wore sunglasses to protect our eyes, which didn't really work.  We got dirt in our eyes, ears, mouths, down our shirts, all over our arms, and dirt was embedded in my scalp when I showered.  We also breathed in quite a bit of dust.  I'm glad we only had this task for half a day!

Anco decided that we'd pick up all our work sites after lunch, and then he would take us to see a waterfall (at the pig farm, but there were no pigs).  The waterfall was about half an hour out of town.  Wow -- it was a bumpy ride.  We needed 4wd so we took Anco and Doug's trucks (instead of the usual van).  Rachel, Jon and I rode in the very back of Doug's truck (not official seats) and we bounced all over the place.  THANKFULLY, Steve was driving.  Anco drove ahead of us and left us multiple times. He's a crazy driver! Andy, Adam and Bill rode with Anco and Ewien, and I think they encouraged the craziness.  I was desperately wanting dramamine at the end of our trip, so I can't imagine how I would have felt in Anco's car.  The good news is our trip to Bamako will probably go fast tomorrow since Anco is taking us! Ha!

The waterfall was very pretty and was a nice treat on our final day of work.  Many of the guys climbed under it and a few people (Anco, Andy and Rachel) ended up drenched. I guess there are often monkeys in this area, but we didn't see any.  We only saw goats and donkeys.

We then arrived home for dinner.  I had a hard time eating guinea when I saw it breathing earlier in the day, so I ate leftovers from lunch.  Rachel and Larry were the same as me, but I took the most heat for it.  Anco said he just couldn't understand my logic.  He asked where I think other meat comes from, and I told him the freezer section of the store.  Angela walked in during lunch so Anco even asked her if she understood my logic.  Then, Anco, Jon and everyone else shared stories of how to kill chickens.  It was a great dinner conversation (can you sense the sarcasm by me?).  To top it off, Anco pulled the remaining guinea out of the freezer.  He showed me what part of the guinea it was, and in case I didn't fully understand, he also made the motion of the frozen guinea walking. They kept trying to get me to eat it, but after all of that, I refused....I can't imagine why!

We went to a prayer meeting with all the missionaries after dinner.  The missionaries asked our team to share some stories.  Then, we had prayer requests and broke into small groups to pray.

I'll tell you some of the prayer requests that came up tonight that you can also pray for:
-Pray for our safe trip home.
-Pray for Jon's wife, Lori, as she has to have surgery in early August.
-Pray that the hospital gets well-trained Christian nurses.
-Pray that Bethel receives more students.
-Pray that the containers that were sent from the US for Bethel and the hospital (some from CCC) arrive soon.
-Please pray for all the missionaries and all the work that they are doing out here -- it's truly amazing and they are all amazing people!

A few other things:

-Pray for Anco and Ewien.  They did an amazing job with us on this trip.  I love how much Anco helps the Malians who are open minded and willing to learn and accept new ideas.  Pray for Ewien's video ministry.  She makes videos about hygiene, health issues, etc.  Also, Ewien is an amazing photographer, and someone from CCC is going to help publish some of her photos.  Pray that this amazing opportunity works out for her.
-Pray for our team as we go back to our regular routines in Omaha.  Pray that we don't lose sight of what's important in life and that our faith continues to grow even stronger.

Punching holes through buildings Malian style

Ewien working on our hole for the chicken coup.  She and I started chiseling an outline so the holes would break off smoother, and Rachel used her muscles with the mallet.  Our second hole looked much better than the first once we figured out the best method.

Jon painting.  He ended up with red paint all over himself, and when he couldn't get it off, he tried using gasoline to get it off.  He didn't smell so great at lunch.

We successfully punched 2 holes through the building for the chicken coup -- someone else now has 8 more holes to go

New water pipe

Roof removed from classroom

Trimmed shrubs thanks to Steve and Chris

View from inside of classroom

Rachel loved the pickaxe

2nd tank successfully added

Anco and Ewien

Success!

Picture of Jon -- I think this is a great picture

The women on the team

Andy, Bill, Chris, Anco and Jason

Erin, Rachel and Jon

Drenched: Andy, Rachel and Anco

Ewien

Andy and Erin

Steve's gift

So sad!

Guinea made into a meal

Anco explaining to me what part of the guinea this was

We received our Mali clothes back from the tailor!

Doug and Angela

Craig and Marilyn