July 25th

It rained all night and all morning. Incredible. It now feels like the rainy season has really begun...or has it?

So when I woke up, I out on my rain gear d hit the empty streets to try an find so!e food. I was hungry. I came back empty handed. Ramadan + non stop rain = forced fast. Lol unlucky me.

So I stayed home for a while, reading some comic books on my tablet, hoping for the rain to stop.

The benefit of the rain is that at least in the dorm, if we turn off the fan we don't suffocate. So I turned the fan off and decided to meditate a bit, at least an hour. These days I have really felt the need to do some intense vipassana meditation as it seems that my mind has put aside a lot of its principles which were making me feel so good. I need to get back on track...but the heat is not helping. Funny enough Angelina is having similar issues back in Sao Paulo but because of the cold. Though she is a much more disciplined meditator than I am. :-(

In the afternoon, once it finally stopped raining, street life picked up again. At last, food!!!

Abdoulaye called me to ask if I wanted to join him to visit this orphanage he is helping out. Yes! Absolutely! Something different and something I should have done much much earlier when I arrived in Bamako.

So he came to pick me up at the mission and drive me to the place on the other side of the river and into so poor neighborhood.

The place is tiny. 3 rooms, one small office and a small yard. Kids everywhere.

I was previously told that this place was mostly for new born babies from 0 to 2 years old of age. Older kids can come during the day for school and food bit cannot stay overnight.

Bibi the founder was super busy with all sorts of problems as well as some charity group who had come to make in kind donations. So we waited a while to talk to her. She seemed exhausted.

Later on, when the older kids were gone as well as the visitors, we were just her, one of her teachers and Abdoulaye and myself. Sitting around a small wooden table in the yard.

She had diner prepared for us so we could eat and chat. We barely started eating when one of the staff baby carer, a very young teenager, came by crying her eyes out. Apparently her father had just died. I felt very strange, not knowing how to react. I didn't know her. Bibi just looked at her and just told her to go home. She didn't even get up and give her a big hug to try and cheer her up a bit. A few seconds and she even started eating again. I was shocked. The teacher even laughed, saying that it was like that in Africa, people come and go.
That moment really shocked me a lot and made me think even more. Bibi's orphanage has grown so big and spread so thin that it perhaps has lots its passion and real dedication to each of the kids. Sure thing she welcomes every kid that drops by, but what's the point if it is to give them basic care and attention without being able to go deeper?

I talked to Bibi after and asked her if she thought that welcoming every kid in the street and struggling every day to put food in their mouth and try to give them a basic education was better than taking in a determined number of kids and then locking the door to whoever else drops by, but at least knowing that the ones taken in will have enough food every day and will have full attention everyday and superior education. She stopped for a minute and said my question was a very good one. She realized that all her troubles were probably due to her taking in to many kids and losing her focus. So we agreed that I would spend at least two days with her when I return to Bamako to work on redefining her problematic and her mission statement. If she wants her organization to sustain while making a real impact, she has to male changes, and be aware that she cannot save all the kids of the country.

Abdoulaye drove me back home.

I ate a not more and packed my bag for tomorrow's very long bit exciting day. Pays Dogon here I come!