July 10, 2007

I have been in Mali something like 6 weeks. I am learning so much and my perspectives of the world and of myself are definitely different than they were. I am getting a much larger view of God and of his people. He is challenging me and working in me in ways and areas that would probably not be tested in the States.

We live in a missionary’s house and it has electricity and running water—it is pretty nice and pretty western, but right outside our compound are mud huts and kids peeing in the street, which in places, happens to be the sewer as well. Right outside are donkeys, goats, sheep; I can hear a rooster right now. Actually I killed a rooster on Saturday, plucked it, gutted it, and ate fried chicken. I do my laundry in a bucket with a washboard and I eat lunch out of a communal bowl with my hand—the right hand only because the left hand is considered gross (we have a Malian making us lunch after we have class in the morning and we eat out of a few bowls together with our hands. She cooks on the pastor’s family stove which is made of mud and sits outside their house.)
We go shopping in the market which isn’t a building, it’s an area. An area with “booths” on both sides, most of them made of wood. On the left might be a lady selling okra, cucumbers, and onions and on the right might be a lady selling garlic, tomatoes, and some other things. There might be a little structure in front of you with a few cow carcasses hanging in it—the meat market section. (It smells pretty bad around that area, especially later on in the day.) If you walk around the area long enough you will probably be able to find everything you need if it can be at all found in Bougouni. Some things you cannot buy, like carrots, brown sugar, spices, milk, cheese, etc.
There are, I think, 3 or 4 paved roads in Bougouni (it is 35,000 people.) They all are roads that lead you to another country. We live right next to the road that will take heads to the Ivory Coast. In the times I have ridden in Joseph’s car places or in a van or walked around, I have seen 1 stop sign and no street lights. We have driven on roads that in the States I would not feel comfortable taking my Envoy. They narrow and rocky with large dips and crevices and I am not sure how Joseph’s station wagon manages sometimes.
This week there is a big conference (not really conference but I don’t know what word to use) going on. The church is holding special type events in this soccer stadium every day this week. I went yesterday and we sang and a couple of us girls went down front with some Malians and danced to the music. There was a message and there were a few people that committed their lives to the Lord (these events are evangelistic for the most part.) There is a pastor coming tomorrow (Wednesday) which supposedly has the gift of healing. The church here in Mali has disputed a bit with this pastor about his practices but the latest from a pastor in Bougouni is that this man really does work by the Holy Spirit. I am excited to go tomorrow to see what happens. Yesterday there was probably, maybe 100 people in attendance at the stadium and maybe the seating was about 20% full (this is hard to describe.) Also, the whole area with the field and all was probably not even 5% full. But Joseph said when this man comes on Wednesday he wouldn’t be surprised if the whole area was packed with people!
The church is hosting this conference, in part, to get people prepared for a Muslim leader that is also coming to Bougouni this week. I guess he is known not only throughout Mali but all throughout West Africa. He is very prominent and popular and it will definitely stir the town for both of these men to be here at the same time. Joseph (the pastor we live with) is supposed to debate with this Muslim leader at the end of this week, if everything goes to plan. There is no doubt a spiritual battle going on in Mali. We are studying World’s Living Religions in class right now and this morning we had a guest speaker to talk with us about animism and fetishes. This guy was very into fetishes and animism before becoming a believer. He shared a lot of interesting things about fetishes and demons and satanic things that I had never been exposed to before. Mali is supposed to be like 90 or 95% Muslim, but a lot of them in actually (it is said) are syncretistic, holding a combination of Islamic and animistic beliefs. Joseph said he has heard the percentage of true Muslims might be lower at like 50% or some even say 20%. It is interesting and important to remember the influence of fetishes and the animistic religion for all Malians.
Definitely there is a lot going on in Bougouni right now. It is difficult to understand it all, since I don’t speak very much Bambara, but it is very neat to just be able to hear about it and to see how God has worked and he will prove himself faithful in his works to come.