end of the school year

 We've just finished kids' club for the school year.  The shoebox gifts were finally given to the kids after all.  It seemed safe to give them out on the last day because we will have a break after this, so I don't need to fear having 50 rowdy kids from the neighborhood coming in looking for presents.  In the bottom photo you can see kids holding their shoeboxes in black plastic bags.  We thought it would be better to send the kids home with their boxes hidden like this.  They also didn't open them up at club, which I also think is a brilliant idea that prevented problems.  The only problem I did face was that once the kids left, women with babies came looking for me to ask if they could have a box for their babies.  The presents weren't meant for babies, and we only had a limited amount, so I had to say no.  I hate being the mean guy, but you can't make everyone happy all time.

English School update, Songs and Stories class

Last September I started English school here.  In September there was 1 Level 1 class.  In January I taught Level 1 again and 2 other teacher shared a Level 2 class.  Another teacher came in to help me with Level 1.  In April we started another Level 1 class and the other teacher, Tami, is really in charge of that but I've been there too.  In September we plan to have Levels 1, 2, and 3!

I just got finished with a special 6 week session of Songs and Stories class.
I wanted to offer something for the students who had finished Level 2 so they could keep practicing English between April and September.  I saw some facebook posts of a teacher in Bamako having fun and success using songs in teaching English, and I remembered enjoying some exercises with songs when I was in French class.  So I decided to go for it and I created "Songs + Stories" class. It is fun to make something up, to create the lessons from nothing, but it is a lot of work, too.
There were 15 students signed up but around 12 showed up for each class session.  They were just there for practice, not trying to earn a certificate, so maybe they had a little less motivation to be at each class.
I chose a different song and a story for each week.  Before the song I read a short biography of the musician and they answered comprehension questions.  The songs had blanks so they had to listen and try to fill in the blanks.  Sometimes there were conversation questions relating to the topic of the song.  We also had a story or article to look at each time with questions and activities relating to that.

Here are the songs and stories we learned from:
1. I just called to say I love you + interviewing and introducing partners
2. What a wonderful world + the Creation story
3. When I'm 64 + an article about old age
4. Three little birds + a funny cat story
5. Father and Son + the Prodigal Son story
6. Tom's Diner + Paul Bunyan

The final class had us listen to a recording and follow along with a story of Paul Bunyan.  The story talked about eating "hotcakes" so I made a big batch of pancakes and we ate them together to finish the class.

photo walk: pick 10

A photo walk is exactly what it sounds like, going on a walk and taking photos.  It feels a lot easier to walk around with a camera and take pictures with another person... then we can both look like tourists together! My photographer friend was in town and we went for a photo walk and here are my 10 favorite shots from that outing. 

I didn't take this first photo (obviously!) But the rest I did take.

There is graffiti everywhere, it is often the name of a "gang" of guys who sit to drink tea together.

This gate caught my eye.  It could probably use a new paint job. :)  The wall is made of "banco" mud bricks.

When there isn't indoor plumbing or even an indoor kitchen dishes are washed out in the street.  Pot bottoms need a lot of scrubbing because they are cooked over fire and get all sooty.

Typical neighborhood street scene.

A mini gas station.  Gas can be bought by the liter (in the glass bottles) to keep a motorbike going.

This guy saw me taking pictures and stopped and asked me to take his picture.

This woman was making and selling little fried rice pancake type food.

I love clothes on clothes lines.  When I took a picture of the clothes suddenly all these kids ran over and wanted to be in the picture.

This one is my favorite shot from the evening.  This lady was so happy.  The baby is wearing a homemade crocheted outfit.  This gate could also use some paint, but I think it looks pretty cool.

JP likes UNO

This picture was from the last day of school.  This is what the guys were doing while waiting for the meal to be ready.  JP (in the plaid shirt) and his friends are really into playing UNO and they even have taken to putting tape on the cards to laminate them so they'll last longer.

Last day of school: food

The school day here goes from 8:00 - 12:15 and then from 3:00 to 5:00.  The kids go home for lunch and a rest.  On the last day of school the kids stayed at school at noontime to have a special meal together.  Isn't that pot for cooking rice huge?!

 When the food was ready it was divided up into big bowls.  First the rice, then onion sauce, sweet potato fries, and some pieces of meat.

 Some kids came and carried the bowls into the school yard and they made groups around them to eat. I had been invited to the meal so I had some, too. Yum!

Last day of school: movie

Last Friday was the last day of the school year for our K-9 school.  The 9th graders actually finished a few weeks ago with their big end of the year tests that will determine if they can go on to high school next year, so they weren't there.  And the kindergarten is at a separate property across the road, so they stayed there and did their own thing.  But the rest of the kids were at school to hang out, have a fun day, eat a special meal, and get their grades and awards for the year.

I was asked if I could help out by making a movie showing happen.  I went early to get things set up.  In the past year I've learned how to hook up speakers with a sound system with the laptop and projector.  So I got all of that ready with the chairs and mats for places for lots of kids to sit.  The kids all excitedly came in the big room and found a place and we got them to settle down and I started the movie.  And because this is Mali and of course it did, the power cut out 5 minutes into the movie!  Everyone waited a few minutes because the power hasn't been cutting too much lately, and usually if it does it comes back on in a few minutes.  But it didn't come back on this time and all of the kids eventually left.  What a dissapointment!
About 45 minutes later when the power came back so did the kids, and I restarted the movie and they got to see it.
The movie was...(can you tell from the above photo?) The Lion King.  As it played I remembered that the first time I saw this movie was in the theater when it came out the summer I turned 14.  Then I did some math and realized that was 22 years ago.  It's almost my birthday and I'm trying to figure out how I have gotten this old.
Anyway, once the power was on to stay it was a success.  If we can get a big screen or get the wall patched and painted we could project a bigger picture next time.

washing clothes - an embarassing story

So first a history of my clothes washing experience in Mali. Then an embarrassing story...

When I came in 2009 I learned that most people here (and in fact most of the world) wash their clothes by hand, not in a modern machine.
For the first 6 months of my life in Mali I washed all of my clothes (plus towels, bedsheets...) myself.  This is exhausting work.  I was single then, so it was only my own clothes, but that was enough to take up several hours each week and leave me with an aching back.
Here's a quick summary of how washing clothes by hand works:  You pour water by bucketful into a tub basin.  You throw in a few dirty clothes and then either add powdered soap or rub the clothes with a bar of clothes washing soap.  You are supposed to rub the clothes against themselves in your two hands, or some people use a washing board.  Add soap as needed, and keep scrubbing.  Then you have to rinse, probably in 2 different buckets because the first rinsing water gets soapy quickly.  Then you try to wring as much water out as possible and hang each item on a clothes line to dry.  Don't forget your clothes on the line too long or they will get rained on, full of dust, or even stolen. (My clothes never went missing, but a friend lost most of his wardrobe one time!)
After 6 months of that I finally broke down and started paying a lady a few dollars each time to wash my clothes, and she left me with cleaner clothes, a few extra hours per week, and a less sore back.

After we got married a woman came to the house once a week to do laundry.  I was glad to pay the few dollars to not have to wash the clothes myself, but I never felt very good about the situation.  I felt bad to see the lady working so hard, I missed the way in which I used to be able to toss a load of clothes in a washer any day of the week, and I still washed all of my own underwear and delicate items myself.

After 4 years in Mali we were able to buy a small used washing machine at a low price.  I was so happy!  I could wash clothes whenever I wanted and the machine would do all of the scrubbing!  We used this machine for the last 2 years, and it still works, but it's a bit finicky.  It has lots of buttons, but only one cycle actually works.  If the power cut we would have to start the cycle over from the beginning; you couldn't just rinse or drain and spin or whatever. 

So when I saw an advertisement for a nicer newer used washer a few months ago I looked into it. We were able to buy the pictured washer for half the price of a new one.  When we went to pick it up, the folks who were preparing to leave the country for good gave me an unused bottle of "Soupline" to go along with it. Bonus!  The other machine was not a front loader, and I had always just thrown in some powered washing soap.  I think front loaders sometimes need a special kind of soap.

We eventually got the new machine hooked up and started using it.  The bottle of "Soupline" made me laugh and crave soup when I read it's  name.  On the bottle it says "Concentrated Format, 54 washes, lavender of the hills, A caress of freshness all day"  and then on the back of the bottle something about fresh and soft clothes and a picture showing a capful for each load of clothes.

I washed my clothes using "Soupline" for about 2 months, and it did leave a nice lavender smell.  And though I was happy about the new machine's choices of cycles, I didn't feel that the machine got the clothes particularly clean.

Then we went to Bamako and I wanted to find some more laundry soap at the grocery store.  At the grocery store I felt confused and overwhelmed by the selection of laundry products.  There was no "Tide" or anything I could recognize, I couldn't even find more "Soupline."  There were two sections of bottles of different sizes, smells, prices.  I examined them and couldn't find the word for "soap" anywhere.  Why were some in the left section and some in the right section?  I finally decided some of them might be fabric softener... but the labels were not helpful.  I got a store worker to help.  He said that the left section was softeners and the right section soaps. But why do none of them say "soap" and why are all of the labels so unclear?!
It was then that I suspected what is in fact true... that for 2 months I had been "washing" our laundry with fabric softener.  I bought some soap, but I also discovered that I can just use the cheaper powdered soap in the machine.  Live and learn!

I also learned that the word "lessive" (written on the Apta soap bottle) technically means "washing powder" or "detergent" or "washing," but I've always only heard the word used here in the third sense "washing" as in "I'm going to do the (clothes) washing."  So I've thought of it as  "washing" or "laundry" and of course all of the bottles are for doing laundry! Plus the softener bottle says "54 lavages" which is "54 washes" so that seems like it could be soap! 
JP asked me if I hadn't noticed that there never seemed to be any bubbly foamy suds in the washer (you can see through the glass door while the washer is washing) and I guess I just hadn't thought about it.  It's probably good for me to make stupid mistakes once in a while to stay humble, right?

invasion of the flying termites

Every year at the end of the dry season when we finally get a bit of rain there is this freaky phenomenon of swarms of winged termites crawling up out of the ground and filling the air.  If it happens at night they make clouds around lights.  But they showed up a few weeks ago in the middle of the day.  It's hard to get a good picture, but all of those white spots are flying termites!  The chickens were pretty excited about this and ran jumping around trying to catch them.  After a while it would be easier for the chickens because eventually the termites fall to the ground.  That's when kids collect them and fry them up to have a special treat.  I think I'll pass on that delicacy!