Pictures: Can’t Rain on Our Parade

Ever since Mali’s coup nine days ago, traffic to our blog has increased as people seek to gain insider’s updates to recent events. But the truth is, we are constantly searching for updates ourselves, and otherwise have increasingly become impatient and… well… bored. We are completely safe; outside of Bamako and the Sahara, things have been and remain very peaceful. Rather, we have been waiting for the situation to develop - in the 110 degree heat - trying to analyze news as it comes, because we know that the outcome affects our Malian friends and the rest of our Peace Corps service. Therefore, we have had to find ways to distract our attention in between updates, so here’s what we’ve been up to:

Lately, we’ve kept busy by painting some health murals in the pediatric ward of a local Women’s and Children’s Hospital. One mural encourages pregnant and breastfeeding women to eat nutritious foods while the second emphasizes the importance of hand washing with soap before eating, before cooking, and when leaving the bathroom. 10 volunteers in our region worked for 2 days to brighten up the areas where families are often waiting while their loved ones get diagnosed.

     

On another note, we recently visited a Broccoli and Strawberry garden, discovered by Joye’s Mom during their visit. We were thrilled to have a few types of “American” produce that we haven’t found anywhere else in Mali. And yes, they tasted wonderful! :)

 

Finally, we’re  very excited because we are SOO close to getting our funded projects completed. This past month,  James and his work partner traveled to many villages throughout the commune promoting the PLASA improved tree-planting method and continuing to organize the planting of 2000 trees.  Because of James’ hard work, over 100 people have been thoroughly trained and equipped to plant trees in dry season.

  

 

In Kongodugu, villagers have been turning out every day to continue construction work on the school. So far, the roof has been put in place, doors and windows have been installed, and the cement plaster has been applied to the insides.  Very soon, the 1st-3rd grades will be able to move indoors to study in their new classrooms :)

 

 

Let's pray that the situation resolves itself quickly so we can get back to focusing on what's really important. Thanks for reading!

~Joye and James