The children all gathered at the garden to sing for us before a small ceremony was held, honoring Anna.
Typical of Malians, there were lots of impromptu "speeches" made -- everyone seems to like to speak!
We ate lunch in one of the schools' classrooms. Daniel, who runs the school, was our host. His brother is Timothy, who is Anna's main sponsor in Mali and where we'll be eating dinner this evening. We picked up their mother, Yamadjelema along the way. She's about 90 and she and her husband founded the church in the village of Konsango, where we'll be staying for 5 days later in the trip. Lunch was couscous with gravy with meat for a sauce. It was really good. Bissop juice was included with a tint of ginger flavoring.
After lunch we climbed up to see the village. We had a long line of children following us, who were shooed away by our guides, the elders of the village. We saw the elder's ancestral home. We also saw a couple locations where men settle differences -- open areas with low roofs. The idea is that everyone sits down to talk about problems and resolve them. Because of the low roofs, it's difficult to quickly stand up and leave if things get too heated! Only men are allowed....We ended up at Daniel's home where we met his family. Surprisingly, they keep bunnies there! On the way back to our vehicles, Yamadjelema was leading the way. She was walking slowly and joking that she was so busy talking that she was unable to walk faster -- this from a 90 year old woman in flip flops who is blind! At one point, she broke into song -- "Amazing Grace". Truly a lovely woman!
We drove onto Bandiagara where we'd spend the night. We'd be enjoying dinner at Timothy's house, which was certain to be a wonderful experience -- stay tuned!
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