plumber's kit

 After a few days of trying to get the plumber to come to the house, he finally showed up.  I think he would have come a lot sooner if he knew there was a problem such as a broken pipe, but I had told him that it was mainly to help me hang pictures.  I know, that doesn't sound like a job for a plumber, but it is here.  Houses are built with cement block bricks and it is all but impossible to hammer nails into the walls.  There are these tiny nails that I've found that I can hammer in, but they are only good for hanging very small or light things.  Anything heavy requires a special drill (which we don't have) to make a hole so a plastic anchor can be put in to attach a screw.
For a few weeks I've had things sitting on the floor all around the house, on the floor just below where I wanted them attached to the wall.  I had already held the items up and marked spots with a pencil, Jean-Patrick helped me with that when he was home.  So I was very happy when the plumber finally came and the walls went from being bare to being decorated and functional.  It is really nice to have a few towel bars in the bathroom, for example! (and not just IN the bathroom, but actually attached to the wall!)
Since the plumber was already here, I asked him to take a look at the toilet as well.  Each time that it was flushed it made a ridiculous amount of noise, it sounded like it was groaning, and a bit of water would leak out.  In total, between the wall drilling and the toilet repair, the plumber was here for 4 hours.  The total price for labor was $8, and this was for the plumber and his assistant.

I took pictures of the plumber's kit which he kind of dumped out on the floor when he needed to find parts or tools.  I find this mess very amusing.  The plumber seemed to think that I was a bit odd to want to take pictures of it, but he then asked me to take a picture of him digging in the mess!

One other good thing that came out of this visit from the plumber is that we now own 2 very decent quality power-strips.  I think that's what you call them in English.  In French it's a "multi-prise."   I'm talking about the thing that you can plug in and then plug a bunch of stuff in to it.  These are essential here because when there is an outlet (and there are never enough) it only allows 1 thing to be plugged in, not 2 like in America.  It seems that China sends a lot of absolute junk to be sold in Mali.  A couple weeks ago I was at my friend's house and the power-strip that she had just bought burned up and the cord separated into 2 pieces because it got so hot.  We had a power-strip that the plumber accidentally knocked down from a table, and the cheap brittle plastic that it was made of shattered into pieces.  He apologized, and I said it was no big deal, it was clearly a cheap piece of junk if it would just break like that.  I mentioned that I wished I could find some better quality power-strips to buy, and the plumber said that he had some good ones for sale in his shop.  He sent his assistant off to go get a few models to show me while he kept working.  I bought 2 since the quality did seem better, and I checked online and found that they are a brand from Morocco.  So far so good.

$4 same day delivery

It is pretty common for things here to not get done in the time frame that I would like.
You ask the plumber if he can come this morning, and he says yes but never shows up.  You call back and he says he will come tomorrow at noon.  He shows up at 4pm just as you are leaving your house to go to a meeting. (true story, happened last week)  He says he got busy but will come tomorrow at 10am... you get the idea.
But, I was really impressed when we had a bit of an emergency and things worked out perfectly!
I am home and Jean-Patrick suddenly needed some important papers sent to him in Bamako. (this is due to an embassy/visa situation that I'll write about/vent about later)  He called me at around 10:30am and needed the papers to be in Bamako that night because he had to bring them for an appointment early the next morning.  Some of the papers had to be originals, so there wasn't a possibility of scanning and emailing or faxing them.   Bamako is 6-8 hours away (depending on mode of transportation) so the only hope I had was to get the papers together and to the bus station by 1pm so that they could hopefully make the trip on an afternoon bus.  I scrambled to find the original documents that JP needed and to print and copy off the other papers.  As long as I'd be sending something, JP asked me to include a school book and a notebook that he had left behind.  I wrapped it  all up in brown paper and taped it securely.  I wrote JP's name and number on the package.  I hurried to the bus station across town and talked with a man at a bus company ticket window.  He said the price would be 2,000 francs to send my package.  That's about $4.  He gave me a receipt and I took down the number of the bus apprentice (the young guy who works on the bus but doesn't drive, he helps with baggage and crossing checkpoints and dealing with passengers.)
JP went to the bus station in Bamako and as soon as the bus arrived he got his package.  I was relieved and thankful for this system.  How much would it cost to send a same day package in the states?

the conference

We had our group's West Africa Regional Conference from September 10-15

 in Segou, Mali.  People from Ebola-stricken countries were not able to attend, but those of us who could come had a great time.  There were something like 70 adults and 25 kids.

I helped with music.  Our region of West Africa uses 3 major languages: French, English, and Portuguese.  Our conference was tri-lingual!  It is neat to come together with others to hear about their projects and encourage one another.

Here is our conference room getting set up for the last night's "Love Feast" or "Agape."  It was the highlight of the whole conference for me.  When it started, we were all sitting at the tables eating some appetizers (popcorn and those styrofoam-like prawn crackers) and the power cut.  Dozens of people immediately illuminated their cell phones, so we had a bit of light to see by.  Not quite a candlelit dinner; we are much more modern with a cellphonelit dinner!  After a while the power came back on.

It was a great party!  The whole conference focused on the value of family.  The Family is value #15 of our group's 18 foundational values.  It was a fun evening to spend together as one big family, united together even though those of us there came from about 12 different countries and some could not speak the same language.

 Here are a few of our fearless leaders speaking and translating a teaching.

the varan

When I searched online, I learned that "Varan" is the name of both a fictional Godzilla-like monster and a village in Iran.  But I was looking for a lizard similar to what you see in these pictures. I learned that this "varan" is a kind of monitor lizard.  As there are 73 species of monitor lizards, I couldn't find an image of the exact one I was looking for, but you get the idea from these pictures.

My dog's great passion is lizard hunting.  And we have plenty of lizards in Mali!  In the house there are geckos, and outside there are the regular "dry" lizards that like to do push-ups while sunning on brick walls.  Though Teddy chases lizards incessantly, it is rare for him to catch one.

Yesterday I was outside and I noticed Teddy enthusiastically chasing something back and forth in this alley of dirt that is between the wall that encloses the yard and the wall of the house.  I went over to see and was disturbed to see a SNAKE!  It looked just like a snake!  It even had a long snake tongue that it was sticking in and out out at my dog!  Instead of running away or up the wall like a normal lizard, this snake was sticking it's tongue out at Teddy and staring at him like it was ready to attack.  Oh no, Teddy's going to get bit by a snake!  But then I remembered that snakes don't have legs and feet, and this thing did, so it must not be a snake after all.
Back when I first came to live in Mali, just about 5 years ago now, I lived on the base in community with other single folks.  One day I was horrified to look outside upon hearing shouting and see my now-husband and some friends stoning something to death (it was either a bush rat or a snake but I can't remember which.)  They killed it, and then if I remember right, they were laughing and giving high-fives.  I found this to be so brutal and it left me with a bad feeling.
Fast-forward 5 years and I was shooing my dog away from the snake-like-lizard so that I could hurl rocks and chunks of cement block that I had found nearby.  My rocks weren't that big and my aim wasn't that good, and after a few throws Teddy pounced in and grabbed the thing in his mouth and shook it to death.  "Yay, Teddy!  Good dog! You saved us from the scary snake-lizard!"
Teddy started chewing on the beast, but I didn't think it was a good idea to let him eat it.  I took the tree pruning tool I had been using and scooped up the limp creature with the blade end.  I carried it like that out of our front gate to where there are always a group of men either working (there is a metalsmith shop and a boutique next door) or sitting and drinking tea.  The fellows were there sitting, and they identified the dead snake-lizard as a "varan."  I carried it across the paved road across from the house and chucked it in the ditch.
Later I sent Jean-Patrick a text message saying that Teddy had killed a varan but I didn't let him eat it.  JP's response was "varans are good to eat."  I'm not sure if he meant that they are good for people to eat or for dogs to eat, maybe both. :)