Blessed by Pastor Turner

Today is Thursday, Nov 17 2011
 We are indeed blessed!  We have just made the acquaintence of Anthony Turner, a pastor from Colorado, who has come to be guest speaker for the 7th Annual Celebration here at CAM/Healing 2 the Nations base in Yirimadio.  Ray & I took him on a walk around the neighborhood this morning, to give him a taste of what it is like here. Along the way we spoke to children at play, ladies doing their laundry, shopkeepers tending their boutiques, and even a few men that greeted us as we walked by. We also got to show him the brick making process at 2 sites where houses will soon be raised, or added onto.
 We have known Pastor Anthony for less than 24 hours and are already feeling refreshed and encouraged by him.  We are looking forward to what else he will bring us, individually and as a church body this week. The theme for this time is Knowing the True Father (and the Father Heart of God),and he will teach and lead worship for us in special services on Friday and Saturday. Sunday will bring the culmination to the event, with a big fete and dinner on Sunday afternoon. 
 The main course for that dinner, biliba-daddy-sheep, has been in our enclosure for more than a week, and has helped himself to more of my garden plants than made me happy! He, with the able assistance of the much smaller young 'lion sheep' that was brought here in preparation for Paul's wedding in January, pretty well stripped the new stand of sweet corn that we had hoped to harvest in just a couple of weeks. (I get my revenge on Sunday!Um-m-m-! Mutton!) Seeing what was happening, and realizing that tying them was not working, I surrendered the patch after salvaging 1 small whole ear of sweet corn, plus 3 more nubbins that had the upper ends chewed off. We also dug what peanuts had grown (see picture of Ray & Adama)since the peanut plants went the same way as the corn. Ray & I ate the corn nubs for dinner last night before getting on our 'moto' to go to Handel's Messiah choir practice in town.  Actually, we got off our bike and got on Rokia's (thank you, Rokia) when we found we had no headlight. (We see many bikers running without lights, but we are not yet that adventurous!) Just a side note to the spirit of family care that she displayed; she returned the moto to us with the light fixed-- so we were especially glad that we had filled the gas tank for her:)) 
 The boys have filled several hundred small plastic bags with water, in preparation for thirsty attendees at the sevices, and will have a holiday from school on Friday. Shade will be provided in the open area that is just below our kitchen window, and stacks of metal chairs will be pulled out of storage for seating. There are also dozens of colorful plastic plates and plastic mugs that have been carefully hoarded from last years celebration to serve the meals. A neighbor has been hired to be an extra cook for the weekend, so that our regular cooks can participate in the services along with the rest of the base family. 
 As I write this, there is the sound of singing and music downstairs. The boys are in the middle of their weekly music lesson. They have a music teacher who comes and teaches about 10 boys, all together, for an hour.  Then they have the assignment of practice on the other days, each one taking a 15 min turn practicing on the instrument (piano, drums or guitar) that they are learning.  (American children should be so faithful at their practice!)
 Hope you are enjoying the adventure with us.  I promise to write again soon.
Take care to be a blessing this week, as you serve God and others.
Mim in Mali

October Heat

Another day that started out hot and dry, with even our white painted outside door radiating heat by 7 am. We have not had rain for more than a 10 days now. I know that may not seem like a lot in a temperate climate, but here, that means DRY and dusty as soon as the wind stirs, I can hear it gritting on our metal roof. The plants really need watered daily, and Adama has that job first thing in the morning. I am trying to get him to see the needs of the garden with his own eyes and not wait for me to tell him what to do. He also is responsible to empty the “dumuni kolo”(food wastes) bucket into the compost area and sprinkle a shovelful of dirt over it.

Both the Malian 'kaba' and the American sweet corn that we planted earlier are finished now, and he has removed those stalks and put them to rest as humus where we will be planting more bananas. We have replanted both kinds of corn, and some sweet-grass in an area near the water tower, knowing that it will need regular watering-- maybe even 2ce a day-- after the rains stop entirely. We still have a couple of eggplants bearing, and 5 tomato plants coming into their own.

It is hard to visualize what the landscape will look like after there is NO rain for 4-6 months. (Dec-Feb have an 'average' of “zero” rainfall, and the shoulder months of November and March-April only an inch or so each. We are hopeful that Ray will be able to rig a gray water tank to make use of the significant amount of hand, dish, and clothes washing water that currently just goes into the septic tank. That, along with the drip irrigation bucket kits that we have ordered should go a long way to watering the gardens during this next 6 months. We will see!

Adama, our main gardener and grounds worker, had a chance to show Claudia the gardens today, which have majorly grown while she was in the states this last trip. You should have seen his face light up when he told me that she was coming to look. He absolutely beamed! This summer we purchased and planted 5 or 6 banana plants, 5 citrus trees, 2 'sun-sun' bushes and 2 grafted mango trees that are about 5 ' tall. They are all doing well! Then there are the tomatoes, a patch of sweet grass, some mint tea, and a few melon vines under the shadow of the water tower. New corn plants are waist high, where before there was only a weeds and grasses area. Nearby we are babying about 2 dozen mango starts, a nursery bed of bouganvilla cuttings and some sun-sun that we started from seeds 2 months ago. Most recently we have started a nursery bed in the shade of the western wall near the water source. Some seed scatterings of goyo(bitter green tomato), foronton(chili peppers), and gan(okra) are coming up there, and we hope to replant them in the new drip irrigation garden in a couple of weeks. Now if we can just keep them alive and productive this winter thru the dry season, so that output gives some return on input. :)) At least it is a training school for fledgling gardeners, and will hopefully equip one or more of these young men to seek employment in the future as a tender of gardens and grounds.

Ray will be busy again working on the newest building- what will serve as main quarters for Claudias as well as guest quarters. The electricity needed some verification and review, and he did that work with Claudia this morning after the gardens tour. Tile for the floors and bath walls was delivered this week and will soon be started. Ray also showed Claudia where the ants(termites) had found a way up thru the soft, uncased concrete floor and started making dinner of her kitchen cabinets. They were moved and the hole sealed, but it just emphasizes the need for ALLthe steps to be finished during construction. Thanks to all of you who have given construction funds to keep this project moving along. It will be greatly appreciated when it is ready for occupancy. Ray has also picked up responsibility for driving this last couple of weeks, as our driver cannot drive while he is waiting for his new liscense to be issued. That has meant a lot of extra hours on Ray schedule, and he and Julie have had to adjust her pick-up time to accommodate all the school childrens schedule. (He has also used to moto to give Hama a little extra attention. Hama, a 10year old, is handicapped and the only one that does not go to school, so Ray has given him a ride around the yard on the motorcycle after bringing Julie home.)Julie is also helping with the kids at homework time.

Oh, Yes.  One more thing!  I celebrated my 60th birthday here in Mali! with a delicious chocolate cake with (real) peanut butter icing, which Julie made for us.  Paul 'distracted me' to the upstairs deck to play a game of Qwirkle while the gang prepared the party venue downstairs-- and then the game was forgotten, when they called me to come down on some pretext or another. :)) I have gotten a delighful assortment of gifts, the likes of which I never would have been given had I celebrated in the US.
We are doing well-- I think :))
It is plenty hot, to be sure, and dusty, but do-able with God's grace.

Being blessed in the heat of October in Mali.

Hope you too are being blessed and being a blessing.

<>

Our Apt Livingroom- no grass hut!

37 Degrees and Holding

37*Degrees and holding!

We heard that many of you on the east coast(US) had snow and temps in the 30's at the end of October-- Julie even got to see it snowing via skype. At the same time you were having 37* there, and a load of wet snow, we were having 37* and 38* temps here in Mali, too. The difference is that here that translates “HOT!!”, because we are talking 37* Celsius, not Farenfeit!  Our weather has been hot and dry for a month, with the prospect of more of the same until the rains come next May.  That is a LOT of hot and dry, and our heels and lips are already needing extra attention. Experienced persons have warned us that we will need to work to keep ourselves hydrated and moisturized thru this next few months. (Our Malian friends already knew that, by the way.  We have seen them regularly applying shea butter cream to the face and arms of their little ones after baths. I expect they apply the cream to adults too, we just don't see that)

Just now one of the boys called up to my window, “Mimi!”...” Mimi!”...“Ji suma?”(Cold water? -literally 'shaded water':))  One of the things that we have been able to do is to give the boys cold water,and even ice from time to time.  We wash and refill coke bottles half full of water, then freeze them in our apt refrigerator, before handing them out to be filled and filled again, til the ice is all gone. I've been training them to take care of and return the bottles so that they can have ice again.  (Most of them are getting it.) Cold water is a treat for them — and us!  Depending on the time of day, the water comes out of the faucet at 80-100*F/27-37*C,a nice temperature for washing dishes.  Its good clean water, and we are all thankful to have it so available, but having it chilled is also nice. YEAH for SOLAR POWER! Another thing for which to be thankful.

I could write a whole blog on what is in my fridge or freezer. The fridge freezer has a kilo bag of 'farine ble''(wheat flour) in it right now, some cubes of 'lembuurukumunin'(little-sour-lemon)juice as well as some whole limes,  some 'misi-sogo'(beef)patties, a baggie of chopped 'foronto'(suoer hot chili pepper)and the ice bottles. The flour needs to be kept in the freezer to keep it from getting buggy (not at all nice to discover when you are beginning to make pancakes in the morning). I have sifted out the bugs and used the flour anyway, but I have not yet reached the experienced missionary stage of just using it bugs and all--”extra protein”. :)) The limes are an experiment to see if they freeze well, since I have discovered that what is in plenteous supply at the market this week may disappear and no longer be available next week.  We love to put a little fresh lime juice in a bottle of water as a refresher, so I'll stockpile some if they freeze well.  

The beef was purchased off the freshly butchered hind quarter hanging in the market Friday morning, and then ground into hamburger at my kitchen table.  That way we know what goes in it (the ground meat I purchased at the supermarket tasted of liver), and that it is fresh. I purchased the foronto this summer for a lovely red sweet pepper.  I had only seen tiny little foronto, and smallish green sweet peppers at the market, so was excited to see some red sweet peppers(I thought).  I had already learned the 'if you see it today, buy it, because it may not be there tomorrow' rule, so I bought 2 nice big ones. When I got home I proceeded to clean my purchases, wash everything in clorox that we might pop into our mouths uncooked, and sliced up the peppers for a snack. Imaginge my surprise to bite into a sliver of 'sweet pepper' only to get bitten back by the heat.  My hands were a little slower to respond, but then burned for 2 days.  Hence, frozen, chopped foronto that we use a snippet at a time.  Thanks God, for good water to drink- we had no refrigerator yet at that point, so it was not chilled but still appreciated.
Remember your blessings, and bless thos earound you as well.