From last June -Comings and Goings and 'Settlers'

(I decided to publish this draft that I wrote last summer.  It'll be here for me to remember, if no one else :))
Ray and Julie are playing a quiet game of "Settlers" with Eva Durst this afternoon-- the first that we have had that favorite game out here in Mali, after a full week of celebrations of hellos and goodbyes. This the season of comings and goings in the missionary community. School is finished for the year, so it is a good time for transitions. We are thankful to be well settled in at this point, rather than just arriving.
Eva Durst arrived at the Bamako Airport on Monday evening on Tunis Air--minus her main suitcase, unfortunately, which has not yet been found! She is returning to give us another summer of service just as Christian Spindler, who has served here for a year, prepared to leave to return home to Austria. Then Claudia arrived back at the base from the United States--also missing a suitcase,just in time to participate in the goodbye festivities for Christian.
All that and more.  Julie had a goodbye brunch with several new found friends who are leaving and not expecting to return to Mali anytime soon.  Several families of the missionary community we have met in the greater Bamako area have also left this week, some for summer committments and others who are not planning to return.
We have been into Bamako several times,  and also out the other side to the Village of Goro. We have also traveled, several times, the shorter distance to the Village of Dara-pronounced "d'ra", where we have received some of the best mangoes I have ever eaten!  Nothing is quite as good as fruit picked ripe from the tree.
This week the trip back was a bit different.  Christian needed to stop at the livestock market along the way to purchase a sheep.  He is planning to prepare a feast as a parting gift to the boys here. A small goat can be purchased for maybe 12,000-18,000 cfa, but a sheep large enought for this family's feast costs 35,000-50,000 cfa(about $70-100 USD). A large ram was selected and given a ride back to our base in the back of the bus, then tied up and fed some fresh pulled grasses and millet overnight, before the butchering that took place the next morning. Quite an event!