Poverty persists in MALI

Riding a taxi the  other day here in Bamako, MALI,  I  observed a number of young people working at odd jobs along the street.   But as  I reflected on the quality of the job or workplace, it  struck  me as examples of the deep poverty and underdevelopment persisting here.

A girl making french fries, waffles, or beans under the hot sun:

A man selling toothpaste and toothbrushes that he carries all day:

A girl selling bags of bissap drink, nice and cool, but a long day for her:

Just before we left Mali last  year I had visited the Moor village of Duduya with a friend to say goodbye for a time.   My friend wanted to see his cousin Souffi, so we stopped by their huts.  Like normal a young girl approached us with water to drink and we were offered seats and started chatting.  I noticed the girl, about four years old with a big smile, limped. As she went back to the water jar to place the big cup I saw that her legs were bowed and that she didn't let one leg touch ground.  Asking I learned that she had been run over by a moto or donkey cart at two years old, and they said the legs had "healed" like that.  

This village is only 10  miles from the local hospital.  Souffi  himself has suffered for years with a foot fungus or infection they call "gale" that causes deep cracks in the skin and hurts when he walks.  He's a farmer obliged to often be in his fields. A few times  I have  given him special creams, but with out good long term treatment,  maybe even closed shoes and socks, they will not heal in the extremely dry climate that cracks all our feet at  some point during the year.

I felt powerless.   In just two days I would be leaving MALI for a long term away.  To help her requires a visit of the  hospital for x-rays, probably a re-breaking of the legs to set them properly, and fixing the dislocated hip, a set of procedures taking months in the hospital and much money (tho not near the money it would cost in the western nations). I know how to follow-up such needs, but time was ended for me, and I was powerless.

There was even a new small mud-walled clinic being  built by the village folk, I even met the new nurse setting up shop. I asked  if  she was doing a health census and  if she had noticed  the little girl.   Yes, she replied.  Has something  been done?    I have no idea, and I have little contact with them from way off overseas.  I felt, feel, powerless, in the face of such poverty.  Ten miles to a village person is as far as Tombuctoo to us. They fear and hate going to the local hospitals as most they send there die.

What can be done?  Do  we care?  Often when confronted by a community problem such as bad roads, leaky bathrooms, muddy markets, etc, a Malian friend might say to me, "That's not my problem."   Well it is, in fact.  We live in community, whether we are in the streets of Baltimore, suburban Philly, or in a village of Mali.  Community defines and helps us.  We are all living together, for decades even, and we are responsible to each other, and each other's family.  Did my friend go to help, he had the means to do so, it's his cousin's family, but ... somehow I doubt it.

Now that I'm back in Mali, once I go visit Kayes, I will go see my little girl friend and see how she is.  She is in my community.  Can we help?  Of course.

What can be done?   Preaching of the gospel includes social dimensions of fighting for justice, helping the prisoners and widows, defending the babe in the womb, etc. as well as proclaiming the Shalom offer of Jesus the Christ to all peoples.  Our love must be seen in order to be heard.  We live in community, we are indeed responsible, it is our problem.

Friendly boys begging for food or coins to take back to their Muslim marabout teacher:

What can be  done?

prayer updates April 2011

I want to update pray-ers on how things are coming with previous requests.

1/  Digging at the well in Fulani nomad village of Duduya has progressed to 26 yrds deep, but blasting in the very hard rock is slow, and not much more water has been found.  We will stop in a few days and wait until after the coming rainy season. Pray for God's provision of funds to reach 30 yrds deep.  btw:  It is very hot and dry here now, it was over 120 degrees the other day (in shade) with promise that Easter will be celebrated on a very hot day.

2/ Our good friend Hasel Sow, an older Fulani nomad, is very sick with a cancer, and Jim hopes to visit him in Assoum soon with some other Fulani believers to encourage him and to be encouraged in the word and faith.

Hasel on left ready to pour his tea,
Oumar on right, one of the Bile school students

3/ The reconciliation process of the Malian church association, AGEMPEM, is moving, but slowly.  The next meeting, where we expect good progress, is not until June!  It is critical to achieve much more progress before assembly meets again in September.  Pray for wisdom for the reconciliation committee members:  Pastors Dondo and Kalan, Ruth, & Jim.

4/  Some missionary coworkers have been hit by severe challenges of health and culture adaption, pray especially for new workers Andrew, Sherry and Eva.  Andrew spent three months with us in Kayes and is now hosting as Chinese team from Hong Kong in Dakar.  He will return to Canada in June before Mary and he come back to Kayes in September.

5/ Two Fulani brothers are studying in Bible schools: Ousman in Cameroon is writing his final thesis, on polygamy in Senegal, and Oumar is back in Benin for his 2nd year of studies.  UWM is helping partly with their scholarships.

6/ The Malian Malinké pastors will be helping churches in the Nyagala and Bafing areas with evangelism campaigns.  Pray for hosting pastors Toma, Joel, & Yousouf, as they work with Pierre, Sekou, Eli, and Jacques.  Also, Pastors Founeké and Pierre will be conducting a dry season preparatory school for mountain village kids in Kenieba in May.

Another working visit

The Kayes bridge is open again, so at first opportunity I drove across and out to the Fulani village of Duduya again to see progress on the well.  I’m pleased to say they’ve deepened it by over 7 meters since restarting in late July, and, even better, there is ankle deep water each morning  :-)  The main diggers, Nyama Djonson and his apprentice, were deep down in the hole when I arrived around 11 am, and didn’t come up until about 1 pm, then went down again for an hour or so to set the charges, and we got to watch the explosion around 3pm.  We visited around homes while waiting for work progress.  Being the middle of the day most men were out in fields or out with their cattle, so we greeted mostly the women and I played with the kids.

I had brought out the local Malinké pastor, Marka Fofana, as he’s expressed interest in working among the Fulani and also seeing the village for some time.  I had Madu Aan, a local Fulani teacher, come along, too, to have more time with him and understand his growing faith.  We played a couple Way of Righteousness tapes while there to village friends.  I want him to learn a way of witness that comes naturally from the Bible using the stories in the Bible order.  Two other men were along, long time friends who have not yet heard the gospel in their hearts, Baba Dramera and Vieux Diarra.  Please pray for each one mentioned.  On the way out I picked one bad section of muddy road where trucks had made deep tracks, and got stuck, but having four men along to push backwards while I put it in low four-wheel drive, we were soon moving again.  There was deep water in two other places, but that’s not a problem for the Isuzu!

The chief, Hamet Diallo, was pleased to see us, but since this was in the midst of the daily fast during this month of Islam Ramadan, nothing was cooking.  They gave some of us milk to drink, and later some rice and peanut sauce came along anyway.  I had to hold up my hands and hold my nose; oh those peanuts they love to try to make me eat!  Some more sour milk came to stir into the rice, so I had a snack anyway.   Rain threatening, we headed back to Kayes by 4 pm.  Oh, it is so nice to just go and come back in one day now!

bloggin' & diggin'

Just been playing around this evening with blogging.  Google has created a pretty good one here on blogger/blogspot and there's a lot of things I can add or modify to make it my own.  I even added the countdown clock for our anniversary next month!  I'll add some more posts from my journal and even from my devotional notes.  Danielle's has some cute things like favorites .... or what if ... or I'm thankful for ..., so I can try that kind of writing, too.

We had a quiet day after last nite's big rain.  The well digging has made good progress this week, but the men are on their Friday day-off today.  Benjie took this shot two weeks ago when we first got the compressor to Duduya and tested the equipment.  They've deepened by 6m the hole of hard rock since then.

Today was also the beginning of Ramadan, so for the next 30 days people will be asking me daily "i sunnen be?"  or "adda hora?" in Bambara or Pulaar to find if I'm also fasting.  I gave a Wolof friend a cassette in his language about fasting; I might have some of the same lessons in Pulaar, too.  We want folk to understand that true fasting is in the heart, Isa 58 speaks of this, and that physical fasting is only good as a discipline and way to focus on God, not for any actual accrual of gold for the kingdom of God.

Big boom in Duduya

What a trip! It's not the mud, nor the rain, nor the African roads, but the ferry crossing of the river at Kayes. Sekou and I were all loaded up to visit the Fulani village of Duduya to see progress on the well and to bring in some supplies, fuel, and tools. On a good day I've made it from my house to the village, only 20 kms (15 miles) over the dirt road in less than 40 minutes. Monday it took three hours just to cross the river, and a further hour to navigate the mud and stream crossings. I had thot in the morning we'd get out there, stay for lunch, and come home by night fall ...... Well, when we finally got all organized and loaded and to the river at 2:30pm, I realized then I'd be staying the night in the village.

The bridge has been closed since May for rebuilding and resufacing, and now that the old ford is hidden under water, all vehicles, motos, people, and goods go by ferry or local pirogues (sail boats). Because one ferry couldn't handle the traffic the Malian military brought in a second larger one real fast recently. But, because the banks are steep the trucks keep getting stuck or even fall into water at the edge! At least five a week have break failures and crash into something as they slam downhill. At last we were permitted to load onto the wide military ferry, but then had to wait while the soldier's trucks hooked cables onto a tractor trailer in the water and righted it, to the cheers of hundreds of on-lookers! I picked up Ousman Diop at his aunt's home, finally connecting with him in spite of repeatedly missing each other, and got moving to Duduya.

The road was muddy, very muddy, but my four wheel drive made it, even at one stream over two feet deep, PTL. The village, especially Mr Hamet Diallo, their chief, and the well digging team were all very glad to see us and the supplies. We checked out the well, a whole five meters deeper than two weeks ago, and heard they've even had a bit of a trickle into it, PTL. The chief decided to butcher a goat for us; that takes a while to cook, so Ousman and I visited around to see friends. The first Brazilian team had come out here with me often, so the ladies especially were asking how is 'Fatimata', 'Kumbel', and 'Asiata'. They were ticked pink to hear that two of them have since married. Everyone also asks about 'Baril' the Malian Fulani evangelist, and about Solomon, the Beninese Pastor who was with us a while.

Back at the ranch, indeed for about three hundred cows sleep there at night in the village center, as well as innumerable goats and sheep, we chatted over tea and listened to the radio while many in the village dropped by to greet. I pulled out the Bible scarf with about 40 Bible story pictures on it and asked them if they knew the stories; many did. It was good way to get a some conversation going about the gospel. Ousman and Sekou were also both quite interested in the MegaVoice players with bible stories and chanted Psalms. The goat was finally served around 10 pm, and soon after we had mosquito nets up for a long rest. The diggers even gave some of their nets and mats as we hadn't been prepared to stay.

I was up by 6:30 and found that the diggers had already started the compressor at 6 am and two were down in the hole digging away for the next two hours! Then they spent an hour setting the nine charges and being sure the wires were all connecting. Finally about nine they came out, the men cleared away the pulley support, moved the compressor away and then touched the wires to a battery ... BOOM! Some pieces flew out as big as a soccer ball and one as big as a sewing machine box!
Got lots of pix :)  


I had expected to leave after the boom, but the chief told me another family had sent over a goat for lunch to honor us, so we had to stay, again .... it takes awhile: lots of tea, chatting, and resting. The diggers slept over an hour while the dust settled and air got back in the hole, afterward as they were to descend, clear the debris, and drill some more ... they wanted to do one more explosion by night fall. Ousman & I had ample time to chat about his theo studies in Cameroon and his upcoming marriage to a Cameroonian Fulani believer he's engaged to marry soon, etc. 
                                        The photo show Ousman helping skin our meal:

We headed out just after 3pm, made the river bank in Kayes Ndi just after 4 pm since the roads were a bit drier, and then waited and waited for a stalled truck to be pulled up hill, for another barge to unload, and for our ferry to load, problems in both directions for some vehicles. I noted that there was another truck in the water on the Kayes Ba side, another victim of bad breaks :( We cleared the Kayes side at 6:30 pm, and I left Sekou off at his home and returned home for a needed shower and Jenn's supper and an old TV movie to zone out.

It was a good trip overall, in spite of the ferry and mud, pleasing to the village to see us, and pleasing to me to see the progress, and a good time with Ousman and having some chances to witness a bit of our Savior and the Kingdom of God to the Fulanis.

May they have both well water soon as well as living water from above.

from Jim's Journal on July 7th, 2007 -Meetings and Visits

Last evening I put in ten hours of ministry! And that was after a morning of email, money, visitors, computer maintenance, and typing a bit! We held a further meeting about the radio possibility in the Kanyaga area, and so Klaus, Siggi, Levi, and I understand better what is possible and what is available in equipment and money. We might meet with Oumar and Mamadou Traoré this afternoon so that all actors will finally meet and know each other.

After that I went to chat with Houseni and a friend for a while and then attended the ministerium’s once a month Friday night prayer meeting. Only five were present, not even the hosting pastor, and with two from outside Kayes, so we were a bit disappointed at attendance. I feel it was a good time of payer and worship led by David Sogoba anyway. Houseni has an ongoing leg problem which hurts quite a bit and limits his walking a working. He’s already been to a guerisseur a couple years ago which probably did him more harm than good. One doc says there’s a crack in the femur bone that might need replacing. He’s getting cortisone shots regularly now, too. Perhaps a pin or screw would help? We prayed, but I want Him to know there’s no guarantee and also that he must obey the Lord and seek His face not just religion. I get very frustrated at these friends who turn to faith healers and not to the Lord first. May the Lord manifest His power and grace among my friends. His friend was Mamadou, Amadou Ba, who had helped me a couple years ago to translate the booklet ‘ElHadji’s Journey to Faith’ into Pulaar. He’s a teacher living in Atesan, near Duduya, so we might go see him soon.

Jim's Journal from Aug 4th, 2006 -Contacts with COMINAD

I’ve had some great contact this summer with several African-American pastors and churches. This is in regards to getting the Beninois pastors to come to MALI as missionaries. We stayed in Detroit with the director of COMINAD, Rev Brian Johnson and his wife Ruth. This is the partnership of churches that is seeking to effect reconciliation in Africa and to wake up the black churches of America for more involvement in missions. One of their key ideas is for a local American church to adopt a small village and to build a relationship with them. We are hoping that Duduya, near Kayes, and Assoum, further north, will be adopted in the near future.

We met with leaders from three churches in Detroit and another in Chicago. And just this week Bishop Robert Winn and his wife Mattie, of California, came and spent a couple days here in Baltimore with us talking about these ideas. It was wonderful to see several who have already been to Kayes, such as Ethelyn Taylor who came just last Oct ‘05, and to meet her pastor Everett Lindsay of Christ Temple in Chicago. We also met with Rev. Walter Godfrey, of St Paul Church in Detroit who also came last fall. It was neat to see a poster board displaying the pictures of every one in the village in Bénin that they have adopted. Each picture was displayed with the name of the church member who is daily paying for the person! Then I had the joy of seeing again Rev. Charles Oliver and Rev George Washington and the wives and congregations in Detroit. Both had come on the first COMINAD visit in 2001! In discussions with Rev Godfrey, Rev Johnson, and then later with Rev Winn we worked on the agreement between COMINAD, the Church of Christ Holiness, the UWM, and the UEEB churches in Benin. Brian Johnson is currently in Ghana and Benin and has met with the church leaders again to further plan this process. It looks like several will visit again in late October and probably work on the actual adoption in Duduya.

Jim's Journal from April 30th, 2006 -Visiting Fulani Villages

The Brazilians and I have been trying to visit all the surrounding Fulani villages so they can know what sort of ministry they can do near Kayes. On Tuesday this week we drove out to Pomiel, about 8 kms. I had hardly ever been there on my own so I missed it by a few kms and had to be directed back by a passing shepherd. We only spent less than a couple hours, not enuf for attaya even. At first they must have thot we were tourist for after greetings and water we were sort of ignored. The men were working on a hut, and the women were occupied with kids, but they slowly warmed up to us once one or two recognized me. It’s nice to have a team along for these visits, the girls handle the women, and we guys play tapes and read with some.

Recently we’ve gone out to Duduya, another week to Segué, another to Kerisiani, etc. We don’t necessarily know people in them, either Oumar or I seem to know someone, but it works out to friendly visits each time, PTL. All are within reach by bicycle. The youngest of the Brazilian women, Aliné, is the best among all four in languages and has even begun to teach reading & literacy, each nite at the Red Sea bookroom near the Daral.