The weather continues to cool here in Kankan and we even had two consecutive cloudy days! Which actually isn’t great news because we depend on the sun for all our electricity.
We’ve been playing the role of chauffeur this past week, running the road between Kankan and Bamako with other WorldVenture missionaries. We took advantage of the chance to sit on on some WorldVenture West Africa Field Leader meetings- decades of experience doing ministry in West Africa. We visited a newly renovated park in Bamako and toured the new zoo.
Bamako has some pretty classy restaurants so we treated ourselves to salads, nems, burgers, pizza, ravioli, ice cream and chocolate. We also got to visit with the Ellenbergers (CMA missionaries that Brandon grew up with). We also got to enjoy the big grocery store available in Bamako and the purchase of lots of foods (meats, cheeses, chocolates, canned goods) that we cannot buy in Kankan.
On the medical front, we took advantage of the Bamako health care to get Hannah’s lump checked out and the consensus is that it’s nothing to be worried about, which is a relief. Also, Brandon’s dad is recovering well from his quadruple bypass surgery in Maine. Today we were supposed to arrive in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (the Paris of Africa- as it used to be known) on our vacation and would be heading to the beach even now…
Instead we have agreed to host a Peace Corps girl and her family who is coming to visit for Christmas.
Upon our return to Kankan, Hannah had a new experience: urban gunfire. For several months there has a apparently been a midnight curfew in Kankan. A well known, local soccer player was out late and when we he was questioned, things escalated and got out of hand. He died later that night, apparently at the hospital. This news led to some protesting, destruction of the police building, burning of cars, yard-trashing, brick-throwing, etc. The police countered trying to keep the peace and some guns were fired, presumable into the air as an intimidation tactic. The reports are conflicting with up to 54 injured and up to 5 dead. The city was pretty closed up. No one opened their shops, schools were closed, the market was closed, everyone just sat around in groups discussing the events of the past few hours.
We are supposed to begin training a paint crew to help paint the Center on Thursday. After Christmas Vacation the place should look really nice to get the new semester going.
Lastly, over the next month we will be applying for a $5000 grant from a church near Indianapolis to help develop the Driver’s Ed Program, Business Training Program and Business Incubation Fund at the Center. This is a pretty big deal and would be a huge asset. In the next few weeks we’ll share some of our dreams for these programs and the Center.
-Brandon
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