Space to play, time to learn
The bags finally arrived! There was another race out to the airport in a borrowed car on Saturday morning, past tracts of shacks and drying grasses, through tight, crumbling neighbourhoods and flashing by huge Chinese construction projects.
It took a bit of hunting to track down the bags, which I found in a room at the back of the customs office. The officers on duty were lovely, happy to hear the bags were full of stuff to help a community here. So we rolled off, back through fields carpets in black bag flowers, scraps caught in the grass.
The beautiful national character of Mali has hit me full force again this trip. There is a genuine engagement with people around you, smiles spilling out from behind the fiercest scowls if you catch an eye, directness and honesty in the trades through bus windows, and babies passed to strangers and indulged as mums pile their stuff into battered minibus taxi.
And this isn’t pie-eyed innocence or naivety on my part – it’s something Malians are genuinely proud of. Many people you talk to have an explanation for it. And they often cite other African countries where differences are emphasised and conflicts agitated into violence as proof positive that their way is better. I can’t disagree.
The corruption is here: police are handed half the day’s takings with the taxi driver’s licence; ‘officials’ turn up at foreign businesses with eviction orders and city codes which vanish in return for a ‘gift’. That’s the way most of the world works. But it’s not the raison d’etre of entire bureaucracies and departments… unlike in some other countries.
And down at our project things are going well. I sat yesterday with the youngest kids – four, five and six year olds – as they shuffled and bounced on a pair of benches, chattering and laughing as the teacher chalked a lesson up.
The class was ‘repetition’ – chanting French words and sounds off the board and going up one at a time to read it to the class. My thoughts jumped to nurturing kids imaginations, modern educational theory and the power of creativity (and how to explain these ideas in Bambarra!)
But then I watched the kids. The power of just being together, squirming in a preschool class, colouring books ready for break, the joy of learning and being praised. It was amazing. And the ‘repetition’, chalk slates and old French-colonial style education is a national battle!
And the African Workshop is as much about creativity and play as education – both are vital.
‘What do kids do if they don’t have somewhere like this?’ I asked Amadou.
‘Nothing – eat, sleep, play with whatever they find lying around. They don’t have anything to do really,’ was the straight up reply.
Offering an alternative to that, creating space for kids to play and time for them to learn, is why me and Amadou are doing this. And with your help and support it’s making a lot of kids very happy!
Comments
Hooray! Well done Ben! It all sounds fascinating and a really wonderful part of the world and people to be involved with. Hope the rest of the trip goes really well, love from me, Martin and Molly xx
Great blog, Ben. Glad the bags finally turned up! Thanks for further educating me about Mali. Keep on rockin’ & makin’ a difference!
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