Recent Happenings

Another great trip to Manatali. This time I saw a family of hippos. They were there everyday. They would be standing in the middle of the river about 100 yards where we would go in on the rocks. Sometimes when we floated down the river they would get a little disturbed and grunt. But most of the time they paid no attention to us. We also went to the top of the dam and swam in the lake. Jon the volunteer there bought a boat. It is a wooden canoe that the locals made. It holds three people two rowing and one in the middle bailing water constantly. They also have inner tubes. So the three people in the boat started to head to an island and they were towing three of us on tubes. It was too hard for them to paddle with us in tow so we let go and had to swim. The island was easily reachable with the boat but only two of us on tubes made it. It took about 1 and a half hours to swim there. When we got there they had already scoped out the island and found a good cliff to jump off of. It was about 15 feet up and the water was really deep. On the way back the two of us who swam took the boat and the rowers swam. The middle man who was bailing kept his job because he doesn’t know how to swim.
UNICEF came to Konna one day and dropped off a lot of school supplies. They gave the children bright blue backpacks that you can see all over Mali. They also brought rulers and other teaching supplies. I understand that this is a good thing so the school has supplies but once again it plants the idea in their heads that white people will give them things. Later that day kids were asking me to give them things and when I said no they said UNICEF gave them things and so should I. Also the teachers at the school started asking me for things. I know I am here to help them but the best way isn’t to just give them things. So I ordered books on how to teach English as a second language. I will give these to the English teachers so they can improve their methodology. So even though I am giving them things they still have to do some work on their own to reap the benefits. Along the same lines there is a literacy center in Konna now. They also received books that will help them learn to read and write Fulfulde.
Today there was a wedding in Konna. I was sitting at my friends store and we hear horns and the sounds of cars and motos coming. Soon they are upon us and about 50 motos with at least two people on them show up with their horns blaring. Following them is a convoy of cars with the groom and bride. After the cars 4 public transport vans show up with 20 people on top of each and 20 more people inside. They stop by the mayors office and then they depart, but that isn’t the last I would see of them. For the next 2 hours every 30 mins or so the convoy of motos and cars would come by. Everyone was trying to show off on their motos and driving as fast as they could and doing wheelies. One of my friends is in a Malian wheel chair, which is a three wheeled chair with two large wheels in the back and a smaller one in the front connected to a hand crank with a chain. He was in the entourage and had his chair up on one of the back wheels. The whole this was loud and dusty but very entertaining. The commotion was done on the street so I went to lunch. After lunch I was at my dads house drinking tea and the wedding party came to his house to take pictures. His concession is extremely nice with trees and nicely plastered. Before the wedding party left them asked if I would take a picture with the bride. My family got a huge kick out of this. I agreed and we took a couple pictures. My family was laughing the whole time.
The teachers are on strike again. They strike because their latest paychecks haven’t arrived. Once the checks arrive they will get back to teaching. This is about a month before the end of the year tests for the 9th graders. This test will determine if they will be allowed to continue onto high school. If they don’t pass they can retake the 9th grade again but if they don’t pass on their second try then they are done with school.