Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #120 of Saturday, December 8, 2007, Bamako, Mali
Silly Saturday
Weeks ago, before we started our trip, Mark Weckesser suggested the topic for our weekly updates; to look for something silly. These past weeks of travel we have attempted to do that, some Saturdays being more silly than others depending which dictionary definition we followed.
This Saturday defied any definition of silly...but maybe in the following you will find some silliness and if not, then the following is simply a Saturday in Bamako.
"The soul never thinks without picture." ---Aristotle
Along the banks of the Niger River there are many pictures. Walk with us from the guesthouse where we are staying as we try to picture our world for you in your world.
Out the gate and along the dusty ground we turn the corner past the ladies seated on upturned buckets selling their bananas, oranges, papaya mounded in colorful display, their little ones playing in the dirt at their feet as cars whiz by throwing dust and dirt into the air to mingle with the fumes of their exhaust. All day these ladies and their children sit there earning money to buy their own food.
The man next to them has a wooden 'shed' with a wooden table on which he dumps sides of beef and goat taken from a burlap sack. If all goes well, he will finish his sales early in the day before the meat gets too ripe.
As we walk, our feet send clouds of dust swirling into the air, settling between our toes, on our feet, everywhere. Further down the street men sit with knives carving huge blocks of wood into drums later to be covered with skins to create the sounds and rhythm that bring smiles and dance.
We walk along always careful to watch where we step as holes, ditches, and unexpected openings in the ground are an ever present opportunity to catch the unwary.
In the shade of the walls surrounding the Central Bank of West Africa, (a number of West African countries share the same currency) men sleep on top of the bundles of goods which they are hoping to sell, a lady has spread her prayer mat and is kneeling and bowing in prayer toward Mecca, a child lies on the dirt sleeping under a tree.
In the sun on the other side of the dirt road, tiny sardine-like fish are laid out to dry on plastic mats creating their own distinct addition to the smells in the air.
Within 10 minutes from starting our walk we have reached the banks of the Niger River as it sluggishly flows through the city...a river on which fishermen balance precariously in their dugouts as they use nets to fish, a river along which are gardens of vegetables, a river from which life is eked by peoples for hundreds of miles.
Can you picture in a small way these people who are just like you living life, wanting to be loved, feeding and clothing their family, working day and night to provide the bare necessities? It doesn't exactly look like your neighborhood, but into each of our lives Jesus speaks love....a love that sees us not just as we are but as we can be. His eyes of love see beyond dust and dirt...his eyes see into our souls...and his picture is people created in the image of God whom he loved so much that he came to give them eternal life.