kids program

I was so happy to have the opportunity to go to a village to observe a friend's children's work.  She works in quite a few villages near Bamako and visits each one once a month.  When she drives into a village, kids see her vehicle and start smiling and waving and running to greet her.  The village I went to was about an hour's drive south of Bamako.  There were 200-250 kids that came for the program.  My friend said that other villages have at least that many kids that come or more, up to 500.  I thought it was fairly chaotic and loud with the 200+, I think I would feel completely overwhelmed with 500.

In the first picture you can see the village church in the background and my friend is in front of some of the kids with some of the other leaders.  My friend plays her guitar and the kids sing and dance and clap.

Here are the kids raising their hands to answer a question about the story they've just heard.

At the end the kids got in lines according to their ages.  School aged children received a notebook and a pen or pencil.  The little ones not old enough for school got a piece of candy.