I woke up and it was pitch black. The kind of pitch black where you can’t see your hand right in front of you. I had no concept of what time it was, but I could hear some animals making noises in the distance (not that they weren’t making noises all night, but the roosters were crowing, so I figured the sun had to be up). During the night, I had heard either Drew or Sekou get up and find their way to the door, (The room that we were staying in was connected to the community center and about the size of 4 twin mattresses in a rectangle. There were three thin mats on the floor for us to sleep on, so we basically took up the whole space.) fumble around with the metal lock (which is not quiet) for a good 5 minutes, then either succeed or give up (I couldn’t tell, but the noise had stopped). I decided to lay there until someone tried again.

Eventually, we found our way out of the concrete box we slept in and had breakfast (hard boiled eggs) out in front of the community center (in the shade of course). After waiting for a little while for some others to show up, Scott, Yacouba, Sekou, and a couple others began experimenting with the brick making machine, which is an incredible device. Using local earth dug up from the ground (minus the top soil) and adding very, very small amounts of cement, the machine is able to compress the mixture into a stabilized block, which is significantly stronger than bricks or other typical earth blocks. These will be used to build the African Sky schools and much of the Ecodougu site as well. (This description really doesn’t do it justice – it’s amazing.)

Coming into Dissan

After spending the morning experimenting with different mixtures of earth from different areas and creating a few sample bricks, we packed up and headed for Dissan village, which was a short way down the road. The village itself, however, sits about 20 minutes away from the main highway (by motorbike), so when we got dropped off by the bus, we had to wait a little while for people from the village to come and fetch us. Soon enough, we were at Dissan, a fairly large village of nearly 900 people, sitting outside Brama’s (Yacouba’s brother) house, surrounded by dozens of children. This is where we spent about 75% of our time – sitting under the shade, drinking tea, and talking while anywhere from 5 to 50 kids would hang out in our company.

By choice, I’ve decided not to go into too much detail about the village of Dissan itself. Words cannot do justice to describe how special the village is, and it would not be possible for me to accurately portray what it was like to spend time there. Therefore, I will be focusing on the Little Eagles activities that happened and a few of the key interactions we had with people. After all, that is what this blog is about. (or is it?) 

After sitting with the kids for a little while, Sekou and I decided to take out one of the balls we brought for the tournament and pump it up – which is bound to cause excitement pretty much everywhere (except in US). We played 2 v 2 (Drew and Sekou against me and a village boy about 12 years old) in a small space under some trees next to two large stoves cooking up shea butter. A large group of about 50 kids followed us over from Brama’s to watch. One cool thing about Dissan that I will point out is that anywhere you go, you are always followed by a flock of kids. Sometimes it’s only a couple, and sometimes it’s a few dozen, but either way, it makes you feel really, really cool.

After working up a sweat, we went back to Brama’s for our bucket showers, which basically entails stooping over a bucket of water and splashing yourself  - a lot more satisfying than you might think. Then we went over to a different family compound (the village is broken up into sections where each family lives, and contain a number of huts for the members) to meet my new Malian family. We sat and talked with Scott and my two moms, Ba and Fatimata, who are awesome. The women in the villages are very strong and assertive (and, frankly, slightly scary), and yet are some of the most compassionate people I’ve ever met. I am honored to have been given my name and be a part of this family. But, again, that’s not what this blog will be focused on.

Family

Before going to sleep, we sat in front of Brama’s place (See? I told you there was going to be a lot sitting.) while 100’s of kids came by and stayed for varying lengths of time. Each night, the youth of the village go around visiting each household in a process called “yalla yalla” (not sure if that’s spelled right). Since we were visiting, we got tons of kids coming to greet us, which was a lot of fun.

Sitting

Without electricity, you tend to go to bed a lot earlier in the village (granted, you wake up a lot earlier too). It’s a different pace than anything I’ve experience before in my travels, and it was pretty nice. When you get tired, you go to bed. There’s no TV or computer (there was a radio that played some awesome African music) to distract you all hours of the night. Most nights we were probably in bed between 11pm and midnight. We slept in a small, empty hut with a thatched roof just big enough for our three mats to fit side by side.

Tomorrow – Day 1 of the Little Eagles tournament, or so I thought…

-S

Sunset