Ow ni Sogoma!
At this moment, the whole team’s staying up late writing a paper for Saturday. Earlier today we bought some Milo (which is vaguely similar to hot chocolate), and we decided to take a midnight Milo break. Doctored up with instant coffee, sugar, powdered milk; it was glorious.
Hello all my friends, family, supporters, passers by, and communist government censorship programmes.
Welcome to the much anticipated genesis of my edge--Mali blog.
I had intended to be in contact with the world well before now, but I hadn’t realized I would have almost no internet access during my first month in Mali. I’ll give you a run down of everything that’s happened in the past 41 days.
HEART
On January 2, we flew to Florida to spend the three weeks of the trip at the HEART Institute. HEART stands for Hunger Education and Resources Training. They train missionaries. We knew it was supposed to prepare it somehow for Mali, but we had no clue what to expect there.
It turned out to be an extremely good experience.
The during the first week there we were to go without any electronics at all. That was refreshing. I tried to avoid technology for most of the trip. We took classes on Appropriate Technology, Health, Cross Cultural Communication, Sustainable Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Nutrition. Everything there revolved around living sustainably. I get excited about that.
Besides the Mali team, John and Rebecca and two non grace guys--both of whom were named Joel--were students with us. Then there were the interns, Sarah and Lindsay; Paul, the garden manager, and all the staff and teachers. Pretty much everyone was amazing. I was encouraged, challenged, affirmed and inspired by everyone. I was a fantastic community experience, and I was really glad to spend some time with other guys before being the only man in the team for 5 months.
There’s so much I could say about Heart. I don’t know where to begin. So I won’t say anything more about it today. Maybe later.
Travel
Early in the morning January 22nd, after staying up most of the night packing and savoring our last hours together at HEART, we packed into a van, drove to Tampa, and began our trek to Mali. After so much build up, we still couldn’t believe we were finally almost there. God was good to us. Every time we were overweight on bags, lacking clergy identification, and who knows what else, the airlines were patient and forgiving with us.
Tensions were running high, which is pretty normal when traveling, but we’re working through things. I learned one essential lesson through this experience: Always rest well before traveling. Being exhausted may help with jet lag, but it makes me irritable and introverted...and it’s just not fun.
We flew from Tampa, to New York, to Paris, to Bamako, Mali. We arrived at about 8 PM, made it through customs without a hitch, and were met by Uncle Joseph and Mama Sako.
Life in Bamako
For our first month in Mali, we are staying in Bamako (the capital of Mali) as guests in the house of Mama Sako. This has been a great opportunity for us as a team in many ways. As guests, they cook for us and care for pretty much all of our needs, giving us time to shift gradually into Malian culture, build relationships, and explore team dynamics in a safe environment. Susaan, Mama Sako’s wife, is a great cook.
At the same time, It has been really hard to live as guests in someone’s house for a whole month. In Malian culture, a host should care for his guest’s every want and need--to the extent that we can’t even draw our own bath water. And if we go out shopping on our, the neighbors will think that Sako is a bad host. This is frustrating since we really want to get out and explore the culture.
Once we get to Bougouni, we will be mostly on our own. I’m looking forward to that.
Cultural Anthropology
Yesterday we had our last session of Cultural Anthropology. It went too fast, but we learned a lot about culture, anthropology, and what exactly we should be doing while we’re in Mali. The class was taught by Dr. Ussef Dembele--head of the EEPM (Which is all the Protestant churches in Mali.) He’s also head translation and linguistics consultant in Mali. He is brilliant. We learned a lot about malian cultures, religions, languages, and everything else from him. Basically, we it was a really good class. Maybe I’ll post one of my papers for this class later. The only complain we have about Dr. Ussef is that he’s never been to Switzerland.
It’s crazy to think that I’ve already finished a class. Two classes counting HEART. And in a week we’ll be done with French/Bamana class!
Personal Growth and Reflection
Spending so many hours each day at Mama Sacko’s house has also given me a lot of time to reflect on conflicts, growth, and desires. I was talking to a Chinese missionary recently and one thing he really stressed to me was that “It’s when you’re truely alone that you have the opportunity to know yourself. He’s right. These are a few things I’ve been I’ve been searching out and discovering...
Being the only man on the team with three women sets me up as the automatic leader in many/most situations. The Malians always expect me to make decisions and speak for the group. I’m learning a lot about leadership. This also forces me to to explore what it means to be a man how how to interact with women--both from an American and Malian context.
Malian men will frequently ask me for permission to marry my teammates. ...I could use a few camels...
I’m also processing through loneliness. In the past, I typically have never felt homesickness and never acknowledged when I felt lonely. I would partly attribute this to the rugged individualist values of Americans are raised with, and the rest I blame on perfectionism. I have always thought feeling lonely or homesick is a flaw--so I choose never to feel that way. But the fact is that I have felt lonely since getting to Mali. The girls spend a lot of time in their room doing girl things, my communication with Malian men is very limited, and I am isolated from family and friends for lack of internet. Yeah, I feel kind of homesick. I’m learning to embrace it. Being homesick means that I do have people I’m close to and care about--it means I’m human.
I’m mostly out of time to write this, so I’ll wrap it up with some
Prayer Requests
Pray that we can use our time creatively and constructively.
Pray for introverts like my self. People scare me and sometimes I just want to avoid them. I can’t do this in Mali.
Pray for us to have humility. Most team conflicts are rooted in thinking oneself is better, wiser, more justified than others. One of the Proverbs says “Be not wise in your own eyes. Only fear the Lord and keep his commandments.” This is probably one of my life verses. I must decrease and Christ must increase--if that doesn’t happen, this trip will be a waste.
Pray that we would know and spread God’s Peace which passes all understanding.
Pray that our ears would be open to God’s still, small voice.
I have a cold.
Cambe,
André
