Just some recent pictures!

My new Malian Outfit!

Tammi's Birthday Celebration!

Just for your information

I decided to start a twitter account.  This will help me be able to let people know what is going on at the moment things are happening.  Some of them will be very random but they will be fun!

I decided to add it onto my blog so you all can share in the fun!
Feel free to follow me on there if you have twitter!

Also I have been meaning to tell you to feel free to email me any questions you have, I would like that very much and would love to hear from you!

kaeli.mincey@gmail.com

February to March Update

End of February Update

I write this update listening to the artist: Mumford and Sons.

So today is February 28, 2011 and we are supposed to be arriving in Bougouni, Mali but instead I sit in Bamako in my same room that I have been in for the last month and a half.  The reason being for this is because we were offered an opportunity to join in on a class called Holistic Missions.  This class was an awesome opportunity and although it means no internet for another week, I would not change it for a thing.  I want to tell you more about this class so look for it later in my blog!

Today I write sitting up straight against a wall with some fabric tied around my shoulders, attempting to pull them back trying to help my posture.  I want to be honest with you, it is hot here and if I said I wasn’t struggling with it that would be a lie. I am really proud of our team, we hardly complain about it because, well let’s face it we are all hot and uncomfortable.  Usually us girls find ourselves spraying each other with water and fanning each other; it is the closest we get to a fan because there is no automatic fans here.  Correction, there was one but it broke after the first night…C’est l’Afrique!  I tell you all to say that I had a horrible time trying to sleep last night, as I do most nights with the heat, but this was especially bad.  Before falling asleep I had felt sick to my stomach so after praying with Samantha about this, I put a bucket next to my bed and went to bed.  I did not sleep most of the night and woke up very sore to the point where it was very hard for me to move.  I had to tell my team to let our host I would not be joining in the morning class because I was so exhausted due to lack of sleep and was very sore.  I still am very sore and very tired but find it hard to nap because I cannot get comfortable, so I will attempt an update. 

I want to put a “disclaimer”  ?   I put the wrong title to a song from my Dance Party story, typo: It was “Electric Feel” by MGMT.  okay, phew got that done!

So much has happened since I last updated you but before I move on with this past month I would like to remind you that I have been gone two months now.  We have officially been in Mali for 5 weeks but I was thinking about it and never really updated or informed you about my first three weeks of this trip!

On January 2 we set out for Florida to attend a school called the “H.E.A.R.T. Institute” where we would learn and attempt to crunch in someone’s life knowledge into such a little amount of time.  Although time was crunched we had an opportunity to learn and actually apply this in our daily lives there in Florida.  We learned about Animal Husbandry, Applied Technology, Gardening, Health Food, and Doctoring, and how to apply all of this to a missionary’s life. 

We fed the chickens, milked goats, and fed the rabbits.  We learned how to suture, look into someone’s eye and tell if they are healthy, as well as check someone’s pulse.  We learned and got to actually fix a leaking pipe, how to weld and braise, and also we fixed a solar panel. We learned how to compost and the importance of it, we actually got to compost, and plant potatoes, and check soil to know if it has enough nitrogen.  We learned firsthand that life as a missionary is an opportunity that the Lord has called us all to, we had an opportunity to learn from someone who was a missionary in Haiti for 20 years and still recognizes the fact that he does not know everything about Haiti.  He was very humble and willing to answer questions as well as tell us stories. 

During this time, as part of the program we went to another school that was about a 2 hour drive from where we were.  The night before I had been up sort of late just talking and felt the urge to, well, puke; and so I did.  The next morning I let the Prof know that I was feeling sick but desired still to go and that I thought it might have just been a fluke. Well needless to say, I was wrong.  Upon arriving and throughout the day I would puke 6 times, including making them stop the car on the side of the road.  (I personally want to thank Joel Oliver and Tamara Hunt for your laughter and comfort at this time J ).   We still are not sure what happened but are pretty sure that it was food poisoning from a restaurant we had attended the previous day.  From there the staff had a bug going around between them, so they decided to blame me for it! Haha.

On this 3 week adventure we had 6 students from Grace and 2 other students that had come.  Little did we know the 8 of our lives would be changed and affected by these 3 weeks forever. The first week we went through phase 1 where we had no power, no lights, nothing so we would sit on the porch talking, playing guitar, singing, playing games, and more.  (If you have facebook you may have seen a video where all you can see is a guy playing a guitar with a red light on his head – this is one of our nights on the porch and that is Joel Oliver playing guitar). This week we bonded quickly and soon after having the ability to leave the campus we decided to go bowling.  Wednesdays was $1 bowling so we all went and had a good time! We did this for 3 weeks straight and by the last week we were all comfortable enough with eachother and I am sure that we would all agree that it was one of the funnest, yes, funnest night of our lives!  We all had nick-names and on the last week mine would officially be changed to “pukey.”

One night we went to Walmart and stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts there, well we were all really excited and hyper and we made a new friend at the counter.  We talked to her and she put extra frosting on our donuts and found out her name was Kailey – same name as me but different spelling! This story may not seem very exciting but it was just a very fun night of joking and laughter and well, I don’t think any of us had laughed that hard in a while!

So there is probably tons more that I could say about this but I will stop here because there is also so much I want to say about the here and now, in Africa!

Where to begin?

New Malian Friend Story:

Okay so one Sunday after church we were standing waiting for “Uncle Sako,” he has told us we could call him, and a gentleman came up to us and introduced himself and told us that he was Uncle Sako’s cousin.  From there we would form an unforgettable friendship.  He sat and talked to us for over an hour because Uncle Sako had an errand to run before lunch and before parting with us asked for our numbers so that he could meet up with us.  We were told about this possibility of a Malian relationship and how they strive on relationships, so without a doubt if they ask for your number they will call you.  So he said he would call us “tomorrow” being Monday so we parted ways and honestly, thought nothing of it.  The next day, to our surprise, showed up at the house.  We were all very shocked and confused, especially because we had just sat down to eat.  He sat down and ate food with our host family and afterwards we sat down to have tea with him.  He made us the best tea that I have had in my life and before making it he told us, “you are about to have the best Malian tea of your life.”  I think I forgot to mention, he speaks English.  Paul then proceeded to come over every day that week hanging out and sometimes making us tea.  He asked us early in the week if we wanted to go to the Artisan Market and well, of course we did! That Saturday we went and it was a really exciting experience! We got to experience everyone in sight wanting to sell us what they had, following us around everywhere.  I had been telling myself since I got here that I wanted to buy some new flip flops, Malian style, so when I got there and saw walls full I was excited! So long story short I got a pair, after bargaining and telling him it was too expensive in my American/Malian accent and with having the help of our new friend Paul! What is really cool about my new flip flops is that they have shells on them.  (Previously in a class with our host he had just been telling us about these shells) These shells are what the Malians used here as their “spending” money! So you can say, I am literally walking with money on my feet when I am wearing them!

Market Woman:

In my high school choir we sang a song called Market Woman, I loved this song especially because of the feel of its beat and just knowing it reminded me of foreign lands that I wanted to go to.  I always sang this song out never thinking about the fact that I would eventually be just that, a Market Woman.  So after some discussion with our host and discussing the Market we decided to have one of our team go to the market with Suzane, our host’s wife, and I got to be that person! Daily I would go to the market with her, wishing that I could know more but taking advantage of the fact that I was there in the living, breathing Malian life. Looking around there are so many things that you see, not knowing the language and knowing that Suzane doesn’t know much English I decided to just observe and try to pick up on different things. I would watch to see if she went to certain woman in the market for certain ingredients or if it varied due to the “product” that day. The women there loved seeing me and would try to call me over to their tables, when Suzane was buying stuff I would greet the women around me and they would get really excited!  It is interesting to walk around here because you get this feeling of being intimidated by the older people here, but as soon as you greet them they are smiling and laughing with you.  

When walking in the market you see tin roofs cover up tables connected, they give you an attempted isle but no matter how hard you try you will probably run into the person coming from the other way.  If you remember from my blog before, personal space is not an option here in Mali.  If you suddenly feel a little hand holding onto the back of your skirt, the only thing you have to worry about is hoping that the kid is not mistaking you for his mother.  Other than that holding onto the person in front of you is actually the best way to guarantee you will keep moving through the market! When you walk around you will see children walking around or even standing hold trays of lettuce, tomatoes, or spices yelling out prices.  One thing that I have picked up on is that you always should go to the market having in mind everything that you need; You can make a list of what you want so that you can check it before you leave but having the list memorized will help when you see the children walking around because you can stop them and buy stuff off of their plate while standing in line for, let’s say, meat!  Speaking of meat, when standing in line waiting to buy meat the Malian asked me, in Bambara, what my name is so I replied, in Bambara and then asked him his name: David.  He proceeded to ask me how I was and I told him good, and then he asked how my family was so I replied good, then he asked me how my man was: I laughed and looked at my host’s wife and said “he is good.” Haha.  I decided that even though it may confuse my host making them think that I have a man it will stop the guy asking from proceeding to ask me questions about me.  

For those wondering: After some observation I picked up on the fact that Suzane had her woman that she goes to regularly yes, but not every day does she go to them.  It is definitely dependant on whether or not the product looks good or not.  I have not gone to the market in the last week because we had the Holistic Missions class and this morning I was not feeling well. 

So for the ones who saw my post about the AIDS school we visited:

We visited a school where there are children who are a part of a program.  This program is designed for those whose parents either have aids or have died of aids.  The kids were selected due to their parent’s situation.  If their parents can afford the public school, they must go there instead.  This means that only orphans and children whose parents are sick can go.  There is a “safe home” where the families stay. In most situations the guy will know that he carries aids, will marry the woman until she gets sick then kick her out.  Sometimes he will keep the kids sometimes he will make her take them.  In this situation the kids would usually end up living in the bush.  The lady that started this program, Adélaide Meguhue, has personal experience within her own family which is why she started the program.  Adélaide Meguhue’s sister was one of seven wives who died of AIDS. Adélaide Meguhue dedicated her life to saving woman and children who suffer from AIDS.  As of now they have the “safe home” where they keep the families, Adélaide Meguhue helps bring back their helth and has been successful in many cases.  The children receive an education and are fed by the school.  Adélaide Meguhue started this program wanting to feed over 60 children and help them with this situation but was only given so much money.  Instead, because of the lack of money, she came up with the brilliant idea to rent a building and have the school there. She was also able to find someone who helps cook food for all of the children so that they are able to eat daily and not become malnourished. 

This was an awesome opportunity to see what God is doing here in Mali and how he is stirring in the hearts of the people here.  I had so much fun here and got some pictures of the kids! They loved being able to see themselves afterwards! Haha.  Please be praying for this ministry, that the funds and medicines would keep coming in!

On a more serious note:

Fasting:

On Thursday February 25 I wrote this and had every intention of posting it but wasn’t able to:

---------Today I fast for the nations.  I don’t want to write to you guys and act like there is nothing wrong here and only share my “funny moments” with you.  I want you to know the desires of my heart and also the cry.  None of this is in means to scare you; thus is life but for anyone who is particularly worred for safety of my group – we are registered with the American Embassy here in Mali and are being taken care of with caution.  In truth though, it is not us they are targeting. 

Africa is in ruins, they are falling apart everywhere.  Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Ivory Coast and many more I am sure, have so much violence and anger and it is only seeming to get worse.  There is even stuff going on here in Mali. This is very heart breaking.  I ask you to be praying for the nations as well, our Father says that if we ask He will surely bless the nations.  This morning I was brought to Psalm 10 please do me a favor and go read this and declare the words of the Lord especially when you get to verse 12 and 16.  Isaiah 52 and 58 as well. 

One thing I ask of you is that you join me in crying out to our Heavenly Father! We are all children of God and we need to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ.  The Lord is here already, that is without a doubt but people need to hear, the people need to know! So whether you join me in fasting or just the praying I urge you and plead for you to be praying!  ---------

It is interesting to think that you here this on the news and then picture a nation so far away.  You can talk about it and say how horrible that is and sometimes you may even think – it’s a good thing I am so far away, but for me the reality is very different.  There is so much more I want to say about this but I will not because this is a public post.  So I will stop here, hoping I have not said too much already.

Now on a happier note:

So the girls were discussing how these tafe’s we wear are somewhat of a nuisance because we do not have any pockets to put our phones or money in.  I had learned in our Cultural Anthropology class that it is good to start or have a hobby of some sort to help ease your mind of culture shock: So I decided I was going to make pockets.  I started out with Samantha and did just a quick easy pocket and then moved onto Tamara’s and by then had been picturing more possibilities and chose to do a different pocket for Tamara’s pocket; I had started one similar to Samantha’s but then opened up an idea to her and she took it.  I finished the first half of this pocket and took a break from sewing because we had gotten busy with the Holistic Ministry class but I soon wanted to get back into sewing.  During the week we were in class I saw something that gave me an idea and flew with it! I decided to make a cover for my water bottle to try and help keep my water cool and it is, I must admit, pretty sweet! In order to get the fabric I had cut of some extra fabric from my new tafe because it was way too big anyways.  So this Saturday we had a day of just relaxing and sitting around so I decided that I was determined to finish Tamara’s tafe pocket! So I cut away at her tafe in her complete trust that I would make it look good and sure enough, it’s awesome!

So in the midst of all of that my host’s niece had saw me sewing pockets one day and brought out fabric to me and asked me to do the same thing to hers.  I asked her to wait until I was finished with the one that I was working on so that I could give her some choices and so now I am in the middle of working on her pocket! I was delayed in finishing today because of the pain I was in but I am super excited about this! I love having tasks like this, especially ones that you see the detail in and the care that went into it.  The girls say the one I am working on looks like a machine sewed it! (I haven’t sewed on a regular basis, well ever, just little fixes and with practice comes perfection!).

Okay Funny Story of the month:

Here in Mali, as you might have picked up on, we wear skirts all day everyday outside of our rooms, due to culture.  Well------where this is going you might ask, I will tell you.  So like I had stated earlier it gets very hot here and well, like in my dance story we were in shorts and umm.. a tank top, yeah, we’ll stick with that.  Okay so one day it was hot and I had been hanging out in the room for a little bit and Samantha was there as well; I had to use the restroom so I got up and put a tank top on; errr I mean I already had one on and then walked out the door.  Uncle Sako’s Mom and brother (the ones that were teaching me Bambara in the first blog) were sitting outside and I looked over at them smiled and looked down and thought, oh crap I forgot my shoes….  I turned around to grab my shoes from inside and realized I was lucky I hadn’t gone any further because I had my shorts on but had forgotten to put a skirt over it to run to the bathroom – so that no one saw my legs!  Bahahahahaha…. I immediately told Samantha what I had done and we were laughing so hard!

March Update: March 12, 2011

Bougouni Mali, Africa 

Listening to the artist:  Jason Upton

Wow. I cannot believe this is really happening.  Time is moving so quickly and you know, it is exciting to have change and have things moving but it is sad because time is going by too quickly.

Saturday March 5 we arrived in Bougouni after being informed we would arrive in our house with no power.  As of March 5 most of Bougouni had been without power for over 3 days. They said the power should be back on Sunday maybe Monday.  Sure, great, no problem, we had just gone by 6 weeks with no use of power except for lights at night and charging our things every once in a while so what was another night or two?

Side note: For those of you who are lost or confused when I say we arrived at our home à The way this program that I am apart of works is that every year a team is sent to study culture and missions and do it abroad, with more of a hands on feel, and the past 3 years they have been sent to Mali (and the future teams will be coming here as well) because of the connection we (as in Grace University) are building with the people here.  So in this time we have been given a designated place that our teams stay.  Thus is where “our house” comes in.  Each year the teams have bought things for the house or Grace has, not completely sure, but either way in this house we have a electric refrigerator and a propane oven that we are able to use when ever.  Although supplies are very limited we are able to buy and make meals for ourselves now. 

That being said the last 6 weeks was an amazing experience that none of the other “teams” has had the opportunity of doing.  Living with a family and seeing firsthand how they live and raise a family, eating foods that they prepare and having firsthand experience of the realization that as Americans we eat for taste and wants, and desires – we choose what sounds good to us, but in reality its all food and it is all going to do the same thing –well for the most part. Haha. Needless to say we ate a lot of potatoes and bread - - I may have put a few pounds on because of this….but I tried on my jean shorts out of curiosity and don’t worry! They still fit… when it comes time for the swim suit I’ll get back to ya! Haha…

Because we are able to cook for ourselves now we, well Andrew and I talked about this—we realized how effected our digestive system was from the Malian food!  Especially for me I usually eat 5 small meals but here we eat three large meals, which is where most of my problem was.  Since we have been in Bougouni I have made Peanut Butter chocolate chip cookies, made with chocolate from a plain chocolate bar I have that I cut up and put on top of the cookies. Also I made coffee cake made with brown sugar I brought from the US and cinnamon we had here and nuts that I got from the US and chopped up.   I mean nothing is the same as it would be if we were in the US making this stuff but we improvise and do what we can.  Especially because I have this amazing addiction to chocolate but sugar especially I have been dwindling the past few weeks without it.  I just couldn’t help myself we had to bake some sweets! We made meatloaf, hamburgers, egg salad sandwiches, I fried some plantines in attempt to make banana chips but towards the end we all lost our patience and ate them! Haha so some were softer than your typical chip…With food I mean… the ingredients are different depending on the Market and what you find but you use what you have, right?!

The electricity has been off and on for the whole week, some nights we are lucky enough to have power so that we can plug in our fans and some nights we are not.  Some nights we cooked in the dark and some nights we have not had to.

We are a little bit behind schedule seeing as we stayed an extra week in Bamako for the Holistic Ministries class.  We were supposed to start a class this week as well but not having power is also throwing this off as well.  But you know what they say to all of this?  C’est L’Afrique!

Two quotes from the new house:

Kaeli: – standing in the kitchen- literally sharing a corner with Tammi (Tamara) as she does dishes and I fry plantines in the dark. “I can’t tell if that is dishwater or sweat rolling down my leg!”

Samantha: while sitting outside eating dinner as a group. --- “You know, every time we sit out here I look at the house and realize, I live in a pink house.”

Anyways, this is about all that I have for the time being, this is long enough anyways so I hope this helps you get an idea of what has been going on. 

Just in: we are staying in Bamako one more week! We have an awesome opportunity to take a class (out of choice) called Holistic Missions. This is an amazing opportunity and I am so excited! Another blog is coming soon!

Oops!

Hey everyone just wanted to let you know i typed my number wrong!!
It is actually +01122377593135

Sooo sorry if you have texted me! Please try again!

February Update!

My dearest family and friends, 

I am sitting here in Bamako, Mali thanks to all of you and your support! The past month and a half has been super busy and very exciting and I want to take some time to share with you what exactly it is that I have seen.   The internet use is limited here in Bamako but we have been blessed to have the times to use it  when we have had them because most of the time they have been very sporadic. This is a long update due to lack of internet until now so I hope it serves you well!!

Things here are very different from what a typical westernized American is used to.  Daily I realize the idea that I take advantage of so many little things that help “ease” my life.  The idea of being able to microwave any type of meal is so foreign here, which is completely fine because the food here is amazing.  I do not want to give you the idea that this country is underdeveloped all around but I do not want to give you the idea that they are completely there either.  So I will do my best to explain to you just what I see, but please realize that I have only been here 3 weeks and am no expert, or will I ever be, on Mali. 

When arriving in Africa our plane landed at the airport where we had to get off the plane in the port and walk to a bus that would take us to the “gate” where our host would pick us up.  All of our bags arrived, and in one piece at that, which was a complete blessing!  Immediately in the next few days we would be forced to dive in and figure out how to communicate things to our host.  We are currently living with a family called the Sako’s. Mama Josias Sako is our host and his wife Suzane cooks for us every day.  Mama Sako works in the nearby church and has for almost 20 years in addition he has worked with the last few groups when they have come here to Mali.  He speaks English but the rest of his family speaks Bambara, so I took the initiative upon myself to sit down the second day with a notebook and speak to who I knew was Mama Sako’s mother and his brother.  I was pointing at things and they would attempt to tell me what they were and help me pronounce things, with the conversation ending in laughter and 2 full pages of words I immediately decided I loved the Bambara language. I am even more excited to have the ability to sit down and learn Bambara officially in a classroom setting, as well as French.  Our group is catching on to a lot of words and we all help each other remember when my notebook is not in my hands.  Also, we are grateful to have our team member Samantha who knows a bit of French to help with conversations at the stores! 

When in Africa you see dirt, everywhere.  There is no way around it so there really is no reason to complain you just brush it off and move on.  When I walk around with the team we are seen before we can even see anyone and we here children yelling Tu BaBu. They get so excited that they start dancing, some kids say “Bon soir” no matter what time of day it is and they really like it when you shake their hand. The women here sometimes will add on to the fact that the kids are saying this, or laugh; When you greet them, and especially when you do it in their language, they get really excited and respond very happily.

One idea that I refuse to accept is the fact that I know everything, because I am very far from this point.  Being in a class with Dr. Youssouf Dembele for Cultural Anthropology from a missions perspective was a very amazing opportunity that I will never forget.  It was very significant to be reminded that “A long stay in the water does change a log into a crocodile.” No matter how long you live somewhere you will never understand the true way of a society because you are already influenced by another culture.  

Funny stories of the month:

We drove to Kayes as one of our “city visit” on a bus for eight hours.  When we stopped half way and all got off of the bus to stretch out I whipped out my water bottle to take a swig.  A little boy came up to me holding out a can so I thought nothing of it and poured some water into his can.  I looked at my teammate Samantha, we shrugged, thought nothing of it, and headed back to the bus. While heading back to the bus I saw a little boy holding a can, but his had a lid on it. I thought about it after getting on the bus and could not stop laughing to myself at the thought of the fact that this boy I gave water was asking for money and instead I poured water into his cup!!! When mentioning this to my teammate Samantha she started busting up laughing and told me that she had noticed when I turned around he looked at his friend and laughed and drank the water and walked away.  Oh man.. 

Traffic Story:  I wrote this story at 6 AM after being awake on the bus since 3 AM.  So bare with me if it doesn’t make sense, I pretty much copied this to the T from my journal which was very sloppily written.

When you think about traffic in Africa you might actually be stunned at the idea of thinking about such a thought.  Most people have their assumptions of places based on rumor and not first hand experience, so here; let me share a thought with you.  When you picture yourself on the road in your car or SUV and you see someone coming up behind you in a quick manner and all of the sudden you here them honk their horn as they continue by cutting you off.  Usually in this situation you might feel your mouth forming words you do not usually say and you may even feel yourself having the urge to give the guy a thumbs up or another finger of your choosing, but you should know: this is your westernized idea of traffic.  Now, picture yourself in the opposite position, a perfect world where you are driving down the street, slightly in a hurry and you come upon a car driving very slowly, what would you do?  Typically you would get very frustrated, well here in Mali, no problem! Just honk your horn and he will move out of your way. Usually when someone honks their horn at you, you receive it with the idea that they are being rude but here in Mali it is like tapping someone on the shoulder and saying “Excuse me.” 

Now you want lanes? No problem, you got them! They are drawn, I swear but if you suddenly feel your driver swerve a little, no worries he is just moving out of the way of someone else.  If you suddenly see your driver driving straight towards someone, do not fret because in a moments notice he will honk and that person will move out of the way.  Also, when stopped at a stop sign, you may find yourself feeling like you have someone standing next to your car, but it is probably someone on a motto.  Motto’s can pretty much do what they want on the street, fitting through every nook and cranny and get exactly to where they need to go.

One thing to make sure of is that you drive as closely as possible to the car in front of you, for if you don’t you will surely lose your spot. Next we can talk about taking a taxi.  When you come out of the house do not worry for you will get top quality service.  He will load your bags for you and secure the trunk with a bungee cord.  When you get in the taxi with 6 people, there is unlimited space, so don’t worry if you find yourself sitting on some ones lap!  But please don’t get upset if you are the one sitting on someone’s lap and you hit your head on the window or ceiling because it is not the drivers fault, the roads are a little bumpy throughout the compounds. The End

Dance Story:

So one night Tamara, one of our team members, had decided that she was going to call her family so I decided I was going to put on my headphones so that I could write my paper.  I picked the song “Jai Ho” from the movie SlumDog Millionaire started movin and dancing a little  and then preceded to show Samantha what I had chosen.  She started dancing with me without being able to hear the music because that’s just what our group does, we dance all the time! Soooo, I remembered that I had brought my headphone connecter which allows two people to listen to the iPod at one time, so I busted it out and told her to plug in.  We then started dancing our lil’ hearts out and doing what we like to call a dance party! While dancing, because we had headphones on Samantha and I were standing fairly close but we didn’t mind (while in Africa you learn that personal space is not an option) so we continued by choosing MGMT “Electric Eel” and then onto Katy Perry “Firework” and  as we chose our fourth song we looked over and the both of us screamed at the sight of our host’s wife standing in the doorway watching and  clapping!  She had come in to thank us for the pizza we had bought for her and the family (from a restaurant we had gone to earlier that day) and then she left.  Samantha and I turned and laughed and then moved on continuing with our next song choice of “1901” by Pheonix.  When the song was through we started laughing and recognizing we were hot and sweaty and felt like we had just worked out and started to fan each other while talking.  We were laughing so hard at the thought of what we looked like dancing around in our shorts and tank tops standing no more than a foot away from eachother while jumping around to the sound of nothing (seeing as the music was in our headphones). We started wondering how long she was standing there so when Tamara got off of the phone we asked her and she said she was there for a whole minute.  We asked Tamara what she was doing out there and she said that she was dancing and clapping and that she thought Suzane was doing this because we had invited her to our dance party! Oh my goodness! So later I went outside and talked to Suzane about our dancing and she told me (speaking with very little English) that I know how to dance! And that she was standing there applauding us because she thought it was good! So I told her next time we would invite her and she could join in the fun!

Tooth Story:

So many of you may have heard about my tooth but might want to know more about it, so here you go!  One night we were eating a salad and my mouth was hurting really bad so I told my team about it. I thought and told them that maybe it was because I had just flossed earlier that day and I might have hit my gums hard.  After dinner I pulled out a mirror and a tooth pick and looked at my mouth to see what was going on and I realized that my tooth had broken!! The tooth was one of my molars and the piece that had broken off jiggled a little bit but was pretty much stuck where it was.  We went and told Mama Sako and so he made a few phone calls and said we would go to the “Emergency Dentist;” great, my first overseas experience of being completely vulnerable to the idea that I have to trust the people here, praying that they are able to understand me, seeing as my host is limited in detailed English. So we saw a guy who I thought was the doctor but actually turned out to be more like a physical’s assistant who told me that I would have to come back tomorrow. I had to pay for the fact that we were reserving a slot for the next day and I was told that it would be 1,500 CFCA ($3.00) so I preceded to get the money out.  The bills here are confusing if you are not paying attention to what you are doing and so the bills that I had were going by 10,000 and I was kind of nervous to be dealing with money.  I started counting the bills in my purse trying not to show all of the money that I had and started counting 10, 20, 30 … till I got 1,500 but what I had forgotten is that the 10’s on the bills were 10,000 not 10, like in America but even with that my logic still did not make sense! When I pulled out the money and handed it to Mama Sako to give him, he gasped and said “Ah, No!! 1,500! So I suddenly realized what I did!! Oh my word! As we were walking down the hall to leave I started laughing and said “I can’t believe I almost paid that guy a million CFCA and Mama Sako laughed innocently with me.  I cannot describe to you the significance of the moment in my life, I felt like he was my family and hearing his laugh made me feel like I was home, I was comfortable. Anyways, back to the story, luckily I had taken some pain medication and made it through the night.  The next day after class and after lunch we went to the Dentist again and with very limited communication, my doctor was only able to tell me to “spit” and “open” and there was, what smelled like, a pre-used towel laying across the front of me he started drilling my tooth. He slimmed down the piece of tooth and pulled it out and then put what I think may have been a numbing thing (don’t worry it was safe, I just don’t know what it was) and then filled in my tooth.  Everything he did seemed, for the most part, like anything I would have experienced in America and later I found out that the guy that had fixed my tooth was in the military! What a blessing! The total for my tooth fixing was 6,500 CFCA which is $13.40 and it feels good and has no pain! Thank you to those who were praying! PTL! (Praise the Lord). 

Here in Bamako we are lucky to have a toilet, because Suzane has arthritis they have installed one for her.  To shower, though, we use a bucket and at that we are outside no matter what.  Because there are no roofs on the bathroom and shower, when you go to the bathroom or take a shower during the day you feel like you are getting sun burnt!   When we visited Kayes this situation was very different, everything was indoors and there was no toilet so we used a hole in the ground!  Yes!  

Here I have a phone and am able to receive and make phone calls as well as text.  The only thing that is difficult with the texting is the fact that I can text your telephone but you have to buy Skype Credit and text my phone directly from there.  In most situations if you text from your cell phone directly I will not receive that text.  This type of text message will cost you about .09 cents which is less than what it cost me to text you!  And to be honest I love receiving texts because I am very homesick! +011(223)77593135 is my number the 011 is the country code and 223 is the area code and the next 8 digits are my phone number.  If your heart so desires, I would love to hear from you!!!

The food here is amazing and my favorite thing that they have made us in between Tombouctou Bread and the Salad!!! The salads here are amazing and way better than any American Salad: they range from having things like beets, eggs, fries, cooked carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and meat! Every time we have had one, we have never been dissatisfied!. Since we have been here I have eaten 4 of my chocolate bars that I brought and have had 8 cokes! These two things have been my biggest weekness seeing as in America I have these almost every day! 

 

 For now this is all,

 Until next time!!! 

I love and miss you all!!

Kaeli Mincey

Florida!!

So this is sooner than I thought it would be! This will definitely be short and sweet though!

I am in Florida for that 3 week training I told you guys about!
We are a week and a half in and thing are great! From chickens to goats to Fixing fences and solar panel showers, I am learning a lot and can't wait for more!

Despite the fact that we are in Florida it is actually pretty chilly here. Florida has been in and out of a cold freeze and they have to cover their pipes here on the campus because it gets too cold.  I am trying not to complain though because I know what it is like everywhere else and I feel so happy that I am not there! So I use that as an encouragement! ha

I love and miss you all and will make another update here soon!