Village Trip page two

The village Mosque, it was one of the only really nice buildings in the town.

Some of the children that were following us right after the candy incident.

This is the cous cous grinder. It makes the work for the women just a little easier since that is one of their many jobs that they have.

A Canadian group was working with the village years ago and provided a cous cous grinder for the village but they say that it doesn't work very often. (I think it is because they never have money for fuel to run it).

Only a few people have enough money to own cows. Many of these are owned by one man and he uses them to sell the milk to the village people. If you are lucky enough to have a cow this man adds it to his herd and watches it with his.

One compound that we passed on the way out to the rice fields. It was actually quite nice and well taken care of, unlike many of the compounds within the village.

It is now rice harvesting season so this is how the women harvest the rice. The bundle it up really nice so that it can be stored properly until the next year. However, when the men help in the field and harvest they cut it and leave it in piles and it has to be used really quickly before it spoils. I am telling you African women do not have it easy.

This is looking out across the huge rice fields. I am not sure how they do it without markers but all of this landscape is divided up between the compounds and there are no visible markers to show whose patty is whose but the women know.

Sitting on the street side of our compound. The open door beside Tracy is to the little shop that is run out of the front of the compound. Can't really see it proper but infront of Tracy is the gear to make Ataya (the green tea I love)

This small little stream actually leads to the big river that is just behind the trees on the horizon. In the village is a group of Mali men that go out every afternoon and catch fish to sell to the market.

This was the winning team and their coach (boy in the blue shirt on the left). I put up the prize of 25 dalasi for the winners and 10 dalasi for the second place team. This was the equivelent to 1 dollar for first prize and 40 cents for second. These boys played hard for the win and were so excited to get their prize.

Since all the little boys were sitting and staring at us and it was quite annoying after a couple hours, we put up some money for the winner of a football game. This occupied everyone and gave us some breathing space. Only problem was that the ball had a huge hole in it and would deflate after being kicked. However, this did not slow these boys down at all.