Hello from Bamako, Mali!

We arrived safely on Friday night and have been busily unpacking and setting up house. When we checked in at Dulles on Thursday, almost every one of our checked bags was overweight – two that were intentionally 20 lb overweight. We had many homeschool books to bring! Despite our worry, we were only charged for planned extra pieces – not for any of the excess weight. Thank God for that! We also had an issue with our backpacks as “personal items” in addition to our carry-ons. After Chris almost “held the plane” to sort through and repack, we were able to convince them that the backpacks were not additional carry-ons. Lesson – you do not have to take “no” from the first cranky airline lady you see, even when she has tags in hand to check two of your items. Another score! The airport in Mali, to our surprise, was relatively calm and we were through it quite easily. By the time our passports were stamped, those picking us up had already collected our luggage – all 13 pieces. Once we fought our way through the x-ray machine (a very nice lady had to tell Chris to stop waiting in line with a small bag – silly American!), we were on our way “home.”

We are in a three bedroom, two bath house (think apartment and bath = shower in this house). We have a front and back courtyard, with a place inside to park our shared vehicle. As we were told, EVERYTHING takes effort here for now. (Think Little House on the Prarie, but in the middle of a bustling city). That includes getting back into the house after being out (many keys that all look the same – gate, two locking doors on front and back, each bedroom, gate for truck, and probably more). It also includes preparing meals, eating, and cleaning up afterwards. YOWZA – even cooking by scratch for that weekend in training was easy. We could use the water, didn’t have to soak vegetables, and knew the products we were using. Not so, here. We have made a couple of executive decisions already. The first is that we will be eating our “dinner” in the middle of the day. As we sit here in the dark, we have learned that cooking without power at night is rather tough. We also ended up with quite a few bugs in the house last night because we had to go in and out after dark. Live and learn!!! The market was also a bit overwhelming for the first time – and it was basically a grocery store with a department store above it. But, a different language, different weights, different currency, and different brands made it sort of a guessing game. We are grateful for our supervisors taking us to help!!

More to come soon. It will be a little while before we post many pics. We will try to get some of the house soon, but we need to establish ourselves as residents – not tourists. Keeping the camera away on trips out for a while should help with that.
Thanks to all for your prayers and encouragement, we have felt it! The kids are doing great. There are times that we have all been overwhelmed already, but we are all also eager to explore and learn. Hopefully we will learn a little language to get around with and start to meet some people soon. Please continue to pray for our settling in and getting ready to start school. You can also pray for our driving! Ron went once with supervision, but there is MUCH to get used to on the roads. Blessings from us to you!