Sunday, March 10, 2019. After many months of hard work, we finally arrived in Bamako! We got through the airport checkpoints relatively easily, only the thermoses I carried in my suitcase caused some disruption during the screening of the luggage. As a farewell, I also showed my thumb to the passport control officer - but it soon became clear that he was not letting me go with an OK sign, but was asking for my fingerprint to be recorded. After all, who travels with such suspicious thermoses... At the airport, Andi and I missed the male passenger who was naked and frantical with the immigration officers. Only Jim had this experience. We left the airport building and felt the scent of Africa again.
We arrived. We got settled in our authentic and very international accommodation, planned the following day's program, and after a hearty dinner and a good shower, we passed out under the mosquito net. (Sleeping Camel continued to expand over the past 2 years, but unfortunately we received bad news: someone bought the frequented plot between the two embassies, so it was condemned for demolition and will reopen in a new location. I'm sorry, because I have many, many good memories here, I love its relaxed, its bubbly, cheerful atmosphere, the bunnies jumping in the garden, the atmosphere of weekend matches, concerts, contests...)
Monday, March 11, 2019 - Today we went to work (for the first time in 5 years, we managed to walk down to the banks of the river Niger at the end of the street and see one of the bridges in Bamako, on which we go to school every day). We spent the whole day at the school, where we had an incredible and touching welcome. All the students and teachers of the school came out to welcome us, amid loud cheers, molinos and huge smiles.
It was a pleasure to see that the students could use the drinking water introduced in the school with the help of the Foundation (hopefully this will remain a permanent condition...). We tried the newly renovated restrooms, they work great. (Finally I was able to try the striped teapot - here they flush the scalding toilet with the water stored in it... It's true that the door can't be closed either, but we won't give up. I've never ventured here before, but I already had more confidence in the water block renovated with the help of Xeless ). The school yard and classrooms were very clean and tidy (yes, this was a surprising experience for me too!). The playfulness also emerged from everyone: after a short demonstration lesson, the headmistress and I organized a couple of quick and spontaneous memory game parties, and with the owner of the school, we decided by drawing lots the allocation of the football match on Wednesday and the student Olympiad team on Friday. We visited all the classes, heard a multiplication table, a poem, an introduction in English (yes, Djigui Berke Traore, one of our prides, took it upon himself to save the honor of the class in English) and praised the best performing students one by one, thanking them for their work and telling them how proud we are of them.
(It was good to see the surprise on the faces when I recognized one or another of our beneficiaries: they grew up and changed a lot in 2 years: some of them I didn't even recognize... they turned from a small child into a small rascal, from a small rascal into a gloomy-looking teenager or a shyly giggling young lady.. . And we spent special time with the preschoolers, since ten of them will be our first year students next year! The 'kigajele', which means smile! - as always when a tuba, i.e. white person, says it - had its effect.)
Then serious work began in the recently completed, excellent, new, clean, airy and bright room, where we will furnish the library and IT room (based on the photos I saw 2 weeks ago, I wouldn't have given a penny that it would be completed on time... but it was proven , that if they want, they can do it here too! The windows and doors are glazed, even the pillar has a shiny mosaic covering, this will separate the IT room from the library; and the air conditioning will only come here with the trucks and computers...). We assessed among the teachers what kind of tools, auxiliary materials, etc. they would need for each subject to improve the quality of education and for activities outside school hours. Finally, it became clear what kind of sports, cultural and social activities work. We learned from the sports committee that students participate in inter-school football tournaments and train every Friday. The school has 4 teams and the best take part in the inter-school championship, they won the district cup last year (the district is called Cape Bozola).
The cultural committee told me that there is an acting group at the school, and a drawing group is also held. They also achieved outstanding results in national French language penmanship and mathematics competitions, there was one student who made it to the national finals, he is already a university student. As a social activity, based on the recommendation of the social committee, a collection is organized for the family of the student concerned at the time of births and deaths and they are helped in the framework of a personal visit. We asked the teachers and the committees to think about how we can help their work, to write a list.
We agreed on the busy work schedule for the week and organized the multitude of tasks. All that remains is for the trucks to arrive... As a result, another 33 children will be included in the support program, including 10 who are only in the preparatory group for school, but already have outstanding abilities and are eagerly waiting to go to school and learn.
After lunch (which we ate while playing the newly learned memory game), at the end of the day we met the high school students, who were gathered from all over the city. We found out that they use the scholarship themselves, and in addition to buying textbooks and school equipment, everyone was able to spend it themselves: some bought a bicycle because they ride 1.5 hours a day to and from school, some bought clothes, some who brings a backpack, textbook, other reading material. Several people are learning German, Spanish and, to our great surprise, one of them is learning Chinese! Of course, the conversation started off a bit difficult, but after a while, thank God, they settled down.
At the end of the day, the teaching staff appeared in the room and we were given a list of suggestions for what they think we can do to help them achieve better school results and make the children spend their free time usefully.
It was an intensive and highly effective day, and now we are preparing for the following: visiting family for 2 days.