Bear Center in Ely, MN

 Last Saturday I got to go with my dad and his girlfriend up north to Ely, Minnesota.  It was the weekend of the annual Blueberry Festival.  We walked around the huge arts fair and saw all kinds of interesting things for sale.  We had a picnic by a lake.  And then we went to the Bear Center and saw 4 black bears up close.

 The bears enjoyed being fed peanuts.  They took the whole peanut with shell into their mouth and then very quickly spit just the shell out while chewing up the peanuts.
There are 4 bears at the center.  They are there because they wouldn't be able to survive on their own in the wild for one reason or another.

The center is full of all kinds of interesting educational displays.  You can learn all about bears, but there is also information on other animals that live in this region.  There is a theater for films.  We watched a documentary done by the BBC that had been filmed in the area featuring a scientist who researched the bears by following them around and observed them up close.  I learned that it is incredibly unlikely for a bear to attack a person and so I don't need to be afraid if I go hiking or camping in the woods.

a visit to Kledu Ostrich Farm near Bamako

I had heard that there is a farm near Bamako with around 3,000 ostriches, and I wanted to see it for myself.
We went to the shop located near the 3rd bridge which sells products from the farm and is called "Les Douceurs de la Ferme."  There they gave us a card with phone numbers to call to arrange a visit/tour of the farm.  They said that they want people to call to set things up a day in advance, but they were very kind and allowed us to come right away the same day.  There was a ticket fee to pay at the shop of 3,000 cfa per person.
We headed east out of Bamako and a few kilometers after passing the Bagineda sign we turned left down a red dirt road.  There were no signs when we went, but once we were there we saw that they have a lot of signs ready to be placed, so that will be helpful for future visitors to find their way.  The road turned and twisted and we were able to ask a truck going the other way if we were still on the right track.  Finally we came to a gate.  The gatekeeper wouldn't let us in until his boss talked to him on the phone and gave permission to open the gate, so they have decent security out there.

Our guide was very nice and spent time showing us many things.  The farm has about 3,000 ostriches, but it has a lot more than that.

 There were a bunch of peacocks to see and hear; they make a lot of crazy noise!

We went to a field with cows, donkeys, and camels hanging out together.  Nearby were some very cute calves.

This is our guide in the hat and white shirt.  JP is petting a Chadian sheep.  It is a very large kind of sheep.  There were also some Chadian camels, but we didn't get so close to them.  I think JP was proud of being Chadian and having Malians appreciate the fine livestock coming from his country.

It was really hot and sweaty the day of our visit while we were there at midday.  The guide said it's better to come really early in the morning or in the late afternoon.

Here I am holding a fresh ostrich egg.  They sell these eggs in the shop for around 3.000 cfa (thats like $5) and they also have hollowed out decorated egg shells.

These eggs had been hollowed out and then filled with cement to be permanent decorations on the farm.

Here are some of the many many ostriches.  They are fed three times a day when a tractor with workers comes around delivering food.  So here they are gathered around to eat.
I learned that male ostriches are black and females are grey/brown.

 They aren't very smart, and they are super strong, so they're a bit dangerous.
Here this guy has a number tag, like what you'd see on a cow's ear.

You can also see the picture of some tortoises.  There is an enclosed area with lots of these.  They go underground where its all dug out and these ones were just peeking out.

They also do bee-keeping and have a honey production house.  The guide wanted to show us the honey stuff but he didn't have the key to that building.  So that's something to look forward to next time.
The farm is huge and has so many buildings.  And they are going to be even greater.  While we were there we saw a big Caterpillar backhoe and a bulldozer at work.  They were digging a hole for a swimming pool!

surgery in Bamako

I found out I needed polypectomy surgery and we went to a small private clinic in Bamako. Compared to a hospital in the states I guess my experience was not as comfortable or fancy, but for Mali the place is really nice.  It's clean and the doctor is well-qualified and recommended, so I felt pretty safe.
I found it amusing that before the surgery the doctor wrote up a list of the things we needed to go buy at a pharmacy and bring to the clinic for the surgery.  Things like gauze, gloves, IV fluid, needles... it seems strange to me that the clinic wouldn't have these on hand and just charge me for them, but that's not how it works here.  I don't know what a surgery would cost like this in the states, I suppose it would depend on what sort of insurance someone had. Probably a few thousand dollars. But here the total was about $350.  It was more expensive for us to pay the travel costs and lodging for coming and staying in the big city!

I was really scared about the anesthesia because I had never had it before.  They put some burning medicine in my hand IV and it put me to sleep.  I know that later they put some gas mask over my mouth and nose to breathe to keep me asleep, but I missed all of that.  I woke up in the recovery room throwing up.  I didn't even feel too bad, I was just throwing up (or trying to since my stomach was empty!)  I was sore for some days after but I'm feeling pretty good now.  We had the polyps analysed and they weren't cancerous, hooray!  Hopefully they don't come back.

So here's a picture that JP took while I was still waking up from the surgery and wearing the ugly hospital gown and funny cap.  I think I was kind of crying. He says I kept asking the same questions over and over again - like "what time is it?" and "did it go well?"  I guess I also asked how my dog was doing when I first woke up!
It's not my prettiest picture for sure, but I kind of like the raw honesty of it.

house building

some great progress has been happening with our house building project.  we have walls!
here are a couple recent photos:

village wedding

There was a big wedding that I attended in a village on April 29.  One of my colleagues got married with a woman who works at the hospital in town.

I was able to ride with some of the staff of the hospital.  I left the house at 6am and got home around 6pm - that's a long day!  It was a 3 hour drive each way; one hour of paved road and then 2 of bumpy, curvy, dusty dirt.
The wedding took place outside in the village under big tents.  First the legal mayor's office stuff was taken care of, and then the long musical ceremony began.  Several different choir groups sang and danced.  The speaking was mostly in Bomu and translated to Bambara, but the message was in French and translated.  It was pretty hot and sweaty.  After the ceremony there was food; the normal wedding meal is riz au gras, which is like greasy rice.  We gathered into small groups to sit around communal bowls and eat with hands.  Confession:  I brought my own spoon from home because I hate eating with my hand. 

 Our house-helper is the sister/cousin of the groom.  (she says he is her brother, but they don't have the same biological mother and father, so I'm not actually sure... anyway, he is her close relation)  It was really important to her that I go to the wedding which was held in the village she comes from.  She even talked me into getting the fabric that many wedding attendees would be wearing.

So here are a couple pictures:

another kids' lesson

I usually plan for 40 kids.  But in the last few weeks we've had up to 70!  Wow!
Most weeks I prepare a lesson and a coloring sheet to go along with it.  The coloring sheet has a verse (usually in French and Bambara) and a scene from the story.  We have been learning some songs and practicing them each week, too.  I try to make up some kind of actions to go with the words of the songs because that makes it easier to remember the words and most of the really little kids don't sing much but they have fun doing the actions.

 Sometimes you just need a nap!

Who knows why I received a bag of salt at the end of the church service last Sunday? 
It was given out because an engagement was announced.  I've been in Mali almost 8 years and I still haven't figured out if there is a great significance to this or if that's just the way it is because it's always been that way.  Well, now I don't need to buy cooking salt for a while!  This salt is big pieces, it looks like what you'd sprinkle on ice in the winter.  We use this in preparing food if it will dissolve.  Otherwise I buy regular, more expensive salt to sprinkle on food or for baking.

power company tour

One of the students of our adult English classes is the big boss in our town for the electric company.  He once said that he'd be glad to give me a tour of the place.  So I got that lined up and it happened last week.
This guy knows all about how everything works, and although he did a great job of explaining it I don't really understand much of what we saw.  I could try to blame that on the fact that he gave the tour in French, but I feel like I understood pretty much all of his words and even if it had been in English I still wouldn't understand that much.  He asked if I had taken physics.  Yes, I did take physics.  The name of my physics class was "Physics for non-science majors."  Everybody has different strengths and I am not strong in the area of understanding how a power place works.  I don't even know what to call the place!  The power isn't made there, it comes up from Cote d'Ivoire and goes out from this place into town and on to other towns.
So I can't really explain what the pictures are of, but they are some neat pictures and I'm glad I had the chance to go on this tour!

It was me and JP along with another English teacher and two of her kids on the tour.  The student who is the boss did the talking, but he had two of his workers there as well.  My husband said he found it really interesting, he understood a lot more than I did, and that if he hadn't gone into medicine maybe he would have enjoyed studying this kind of stuff in school.

 

I don't know what this thing is but it would be the perfect prop for some sci-fi movie.

 

When we went in the building I was amused to see this sign.  Of course everyone should be wearing proper gear at a place like this - boots, gloves, goggles, helmets... but everyone, including the workers, was just wearing normal clothes and that's all.  This sign is ridiculous in Mali.

Those are a lot of fancy buttons and lights.  Just a flip of a switch and you can cut power all over town!

dog and kitty playing

Our 5 year old dog Teddy and our new kitten are getting along great now and I enjoy watching them play together.

 The kitty, Scout, will help Teddy play with his toys by attacking them from the other side....

Ha, ha! In this picture the cat decided to attack and play with Teddy's face! 
It's all in fun, the only time Teddy ever gets upset and growls at the kitten is if food is involved.

our house project - the foundation

We own a piece of land and we're getting it built on little by little as funds become available.  So far we've had a wall built around it and a garage and outside toilet built.  There is a well dug, too.

Today we went to take a look at the progress on the foundation.  I am told that it will look better in another week!  For now it seems like a big mess!  But progress is good.  :)

African fabric

One of the joys of living in Africa is African fabric.  I have friends with bins full of fabric waiting to be sewn into something.  When you see a print you love it's hard to leave the shop without buying it.  Some prints are easy to find everywhere, but other seem to be one of a kind.  I've seen fabric I really liked and thought about buying but decided not to only to regret it later because I never found that print again.  Going into a fabric shop is a feast for the eyes and an exercise for the imagination.  What would these colors and this design look like on me as a shirt and skirt?  Or maybe it would make the cutest curtains or table cloth?

 The colors and patterns are interesting and often beautiful to look at, but I must admit that occasionally I'll see a fabric and think, "What in the world?!"  Here is a case in point:

It's like roller skates meets pizza cutters.  Very strange.  I don't think I want to wear this fabric!

But here is my latest outfit.  I found the cloth in a shop and I hadn't see the print before.  For whatever reason I just had to have the lantern fabric!  I took it to my tailor with a drawn picture of what sort of skirt and top I wanted.  He sent me next door to choose a matching piece of velvet to use for the trim. I was measured and I gave a down payment for the work.  About a week later I went back to the tailor shop and ta-da! here is what I got.  It fits well and I'm happy to wear my new lantern clothes.

new kitty and other critters

 We got a new kitty!  It's been over 2 years since the cat we used to have ran away.  All of our chickens with their food and eggs are mouse and rat (and shrew) magnets, so it seems like we could use some help with that.  We got this cute little boy kitten and I am calling him "Scout" but I'm not sure if the name is going to stick yet because JP keeps saying "Scoot."

Here is my boy, Teddy, my trusty dog.  He is pretty nice with the kitten so far unless the kitten comes near Teddy's food and then he growls.  He was good buddies with our last cat, so I hope they can develop a friendship.

 

We have a whole bunch of chickens.  There are 2 boxes for chicks and the bigger chickens are all over the yard during the day and in their coops at night.

 

 

teaching 7th grade English

I've completed (or managed to live through!) the first 4 weeks of the school year.  Last year I taught 9th grade English, so it is a bit of a change to teach 7th graders this year.  Last year there were 40 students in my class, this year there are 57.  Yikes!  So it is definately a challenge to try to learn their names.  My friend offered to print out a photo of each student.  You can see a sample of those here:

So now I have a little card of each student, and I had them hold their names in the pictures. These are kind of like mug shots!  The names are supposed to be put on their desk each time for English class.  I said that in December if they still have their name paper they can give it back to me in exchange for a piece of candy.  I hope I can learn the names by then!  At the end of the school year I will give each student their picture to keep.
Even though there are a lot more students in one class, so far I like 7th grade teaching better than 9th grade.  I enjoy teaching beginners the most.  Also, the 7th graders are more enthusiastic and responsive to some of my ideas, like singing or being dramatic in reading or acting out dialogues.  Sometimes it seemed like the 9th graders were just rolling their eyes and making fun of me behind my back.
So far they've learned a bit of beginning English, and they've learned not to all get up and run shouting and pushing to the door at the end of class to go out to their snack/recreation time. (Imagine 57 13 year olds doing that!)  They sit quietly in their desks and then I let one row go calmly at a time.
So I do see some progress already!  I hope it will be a good year.

duckies

Here is our duck family (and my favorite rooster behind them.)  We've had the mama and papa duck for over a year, but only had 3 babies hatch so far.  The duck that is standing in the picture is the one baby that survived.  I'm hoping that the mama duck will start laying eggs again soon. When I did some research online about ducks I learned that the kind of ducks we have, the kind that is mostly found here, is Muscovy ducks.

the car we bought

Here it is!  Our new car!  Our dog is still checking it out, but we're very happy with it. :)
It's a 2012 Toyota Highlander Limited, V6, 4WD, dark grey color, with good air conditioning and one of those cameras for backing up. Pretty great.

getting home from Togo

  It was a long trip for us to get home from Togo.  It took us 6 days, but it took the car 7 days!  The travel to get to Lome on the bus took 31 hours, and the driving time in the car was 28 hours, it was just split up over all those days.

 

We passed through some towns and villages, but mostly saw a lot of this (above) - crop fields and nothing.  It is still rainy season, so everything is beautifully green and there isn't so much dust, so that was a plus.

This is the "Pyramid" in BoboDioulasso, Burkina Faso, but I see a Christmas tree!

We waited in this lot for 11 hours, mostly sitting in the car.

Here is what it was like:

Day 1: We couldn't leave from Lome early in the morning as we had hoped.  We actually had to wait there an extra day before leaving for the paperwork to be done to get the car out of the port.  We finally left at 1:15 on Thursday afternoon.  We drove until 10pm, which wasn't great because that meant 4 hours of driving after the sun set, but we needed to get to a friend's house to spend the night.

Day 2:  JP took the car to our friend's mechanic to get a few things looked at in the morning, so we didn't leave until after lunch.  We got to the border at the top of Togo to enter Burkina, and the Burkina side said that we couldn't pass until the next day.  We had to leave the car in the customs parking lot, ride on motorcycle taxis with our suitcases to a crummy hotel, and spend the night there.

Day 3:  We sat in the car in the lot from 9-1 waiting for them to let us leave.  Then we drove until we got to Ouagadougou around sunset.  There we were able to stay overnight at a very nice mission guesthouse.

Day 4:  We drove from Ouaga to Bobo, only about 5 hours.  Then we stayed in another nice mission guesthouse for 2 nights because Monday was Tabaski, the biggest Muslim holiday of the year, so we couldn't cross the border to get home then. 

Day 5:  Just hanging out in Bobo waiting.  I bought some vegetables from a lady who brought them to the guesthouse.  I joked that I suddenly knew a new language because I talked with her in Bambara, but she speaks "Jula" which is very similar to Bambara but the Burkina Faso dialect of the trade language of the region.

Day 6:  We left Bobo and got to the border at 10:30.  We had to go through formalaties and pay some taxes to exit Burkina, that took about 45 minutes.  Then we had to go through formalaties to enter Mali.  At the Mali customs office they had us park the car in the lot and come in the office.  They looked at the papers we had and there was a guy who said we needed him to file papers there for us and he asked for $150.  I don't like that there aren't set prices for things, it's just whatever the guy can get out of us, but there is no choice but to have him file papers for us.
JP negotiated down to $100.  The guy left and said that he would get the stuff taken care of but that we'd have to wait until about 4pm because people go home for lunch break, so it would be done after that.  At 4 he told us that it would be done at 6.  At 6 he said that it'd be done the next afternoon.  Some guy in the capital hadn't showed up to work and so  his bit of the paperwork wasn't done. I was not impressed.  We were so close to home, and we'd already been waiting for a long time with nothing to do and nothing to eat.  JP had found some grilled meat to eat out in the street, but I don't eat meat, and there was nothing else.  Things weren't open and ladies weren't cooking because it was the day after the holiday and everyone was still in holiday mode and they probably had lots of leftover sheep meat from the day before.  We had some dried mangoes, so we ate those, but that wasn't really a meal.
There were no hotels to go to and we didn't want to sleep in the car in a parking lot with no bathroom.  And we didn't want to spend the whole next morning waiting and wonder if the paperwork would actually be done the next afternoon.  I went and had a chat with the customs office head man, but there was nothing to be done.
So we called some friends to try to get home.  It was already dark out.  I think we called them around 7.  They were to get the key to our house from our house helper and get our old car from the garage and drive to get us. Well, they got the car and started driving but on the other end of town realized that it wouldn't make it.  The poor old car needed a trip to the mechanic.  We called a friend with a car and asked if  we could borrow it to save us.  That friend agreed, so now our friends started on the road to come and get us after switching cars and getting some gas.  This all took a lot of time, and finally it was 11pm when they arrived to rescue us.  We had been in that parking lot for 11 hours.  We arrived home exhausted at 1am.

Day 7:  JP called and was told he could get the car, so he went and got a bus ticket and took a bus to the place where the car was.  He got back home at about 7pm.

Now we're glad to all be home!  We still have some taxes to finish paying and other paperwork to do to be done, but the hardest part is behind us.

my car thoughts and thankfulness

I got my driver’s license a few days after my 16^th birthday, and my first car a few weeks after that.  My first car was not very nice, but it was mine!  It meant independence and freedom and going places! 
Between ages 16 and 28 I owned 6 different cars, each one nicer than the last.  I seem to remember that my mom bought the first car; I think it cost $500.  But after that I paid for the cars myself with money from hard work.
And then I moved to Mali… and that meant making certain sacrifices. 

For my first year my means of transportation was my feet.  Sometimes I could borrow a motorbike from a friend.  For trips to the capital I took the bus.  All this was fine and I lived where I worked so it wasn’t really that difficult, but I missed the freedom and independence that owning a car gives.

Then JP and I were able to buy a motorcycle!  We were so excited and thankful to have a way to zoom around town.  Long trips were still on the bus.  For 4 years our motorcycle was our way of getting around.

Then for the past year or so we have had a car.  What a game changer!  It has belonged to 4 different expats in Mali and we were able to buy it inexpensively.  It is 20 years old and has to visit the mechanic pretty often, but we have been so glad to have a car.  We’ve been able to haul things around that would be pretty impossible with the motorcycle, and we’ve made several trips to Bamako without suffering on the bus.

Now we are so blessed to have our new car!  I think that because we went without a car for 5 years we are much more appreciative than if we had had a car all along. 
We are very conscious that this isn’t something that we deserve or have earned. We made a big effort to fundraise for a car last time we were in the states.  So many people were generous to give money for our car fund.  
We were able to get a car that is nicer and newer than we imagined we might be able to buy.  We will be able to drive on terrible rough roads with much more confidence now and not worry about breaking down in the middle of nowhere.  And the new car has good air conditioning!  It is only 5 years old, so hopefully we won’t see the mechanic on a regular basis anymore. I could ramble on some more, but suffice it to say that we are overjoyed and profoundly grateful.

buying a car in Togo

What an adventure! Today is our last day in Togo.  We thought we'd already be on the road by now, but paperwork takes longer than it seems like it should.  We are supposed to be able to get the car we bought out of the port tomorrow morning.  Then we'll have 3 days of driving to get home.  The sun sets at about 6pm, and it isn't safe to drive after dark, so we only have a limited amount of sunlight to drive in each day.  Which is fine with me, I think 10 or 12 hours a day in a car on African roads is plenty!

Here (above) you can seem some containers and cranes in the shipping port.  This is not where we looked at cars, the car lots are just next to here.

 

 There is every kind of car imaginable all crowed together and mixed up in the port lots.  We had a Togolese friend come to help us in the confusion, and he had 2 guys who work in the lots come with us, so we had a bit of an entourage as we went looking at cars.  Originally JP had said he thought I should stay at the hotel when he went out to look, but I was glad he changed his mind so I could come with.  We already knew what kind of car we were hoping to get, so the other guys had already scoped out what was available.  They had a list of the cars with thier prices and details, like V4 or V6, and colors.  So we only really looked at a few cars and we found the one we wanted pretty quickly. 

 Our car is front and center, there is a guy with a yellow "hat" doing something to the rear passenger door.  They had taken all the seats and everything out of the car when it arrived in port, so then they had to get it all put back together.

We fundraised for a car when we were in the states in 2014/15 and we are so blessed by the financial contributions of many people to our car fund.  We were able to get a better and newer car than we imagined we would be able to buy!  May it run well for many many years to come!

(Below) The seller is sitting at his desk and next to him is 3 stacks of money.  I think it's ridiculous that we would pay for a car in cash like this.  It's a car, not drugs or guns.  I don't think it's smart to go around town with a backpack containing thousands of dollars of cash! But that's how it's done.  I guess a bank transfer would take 5 days to process.  We already have to wait for other paperwork to process, we don't need more wait time!
It took several hours of running around to banks and waiting to get the cash out of our account. JP had already talked to the bank in Mali before we left saying that we'd want to get money from a branch in Togo.  But the first bank branch in Togo didn't know what they were doing, and JP had to call to Mali, and go back to the bank, and then get sent to the bank headquarters downtown.  Then there was a lot of sitting and waiting, like maybe they had to count all that cash several times.  The largest bill here is like a $20, so it takes a big stack to buy a car!

Anyway, we did buy a car! Hooray!  But we don't really have it yet.  Boo!
So, better pictures and more about the car are to come once we actually get the car off the port lot!