Last Tuesday, 28 of us flew North from Abidjan to Bamako, the capital of Mali on the river Niger. The Niger is a big river which runs all the way from Guinea through Mali, Niger and Nigeria. Bamako is much less developed than Abidjan in terms of infrastructure, but the SIL centre where most of us are staying is very nice and we’ve been made to feel very welcome by our colleagues and friends who usually live here. Today the three who made the long drive also arrived. There is just one member left in Abidjan. She is due to fly to Switzerland tomorrow.
Fortunately our flight on Tuesday left at 10am, so we went to the airport early. Things got rather ugly there later when some extremist protesters, angry at France for protecting the leader of an opposition party, tried to enter the French military base – next to the airport – and had to be dispersed with tear gas and water cannons! We are glad to be away for a while. I did speak to one of our employees at the office on Wednesday morning. All seems fairly calm there now and we hope and pray that the negotiations will lead to lasting peace.
We have been taking the opportunity to rest a bit from the stress of the last 6 weeks in Abidjan. Christopher and Emma however have even started at a new school. They and 6 others have joined a small missionary school just around the corner called Bamako Christian School. They will be following an American curriculum while there, their third different school system this year! Emma has to learn all the American States, the rest of the class had already learned 35 of the 50!
On Monday, we have some people coming from Germany and Nairobi to help us think through our options as individuals and as a group.