Every Tuesday morning for a while now I drop off the kids at school by 8:30 am and then head on over to the home of a Tuareg family. Their eldest daughter Miriama worked with me back in February and March when we were doing the baseline development survey. Now I head over once a week to visit with her and her family. Sometimes we head out to a cafe, but more often than not we stay and her house and visit with everyone as they wander in and out. It is great practice for my language skills to spend all morning there.
We sit out under their shelter made of wood beams and crossbeams, then covered with a quilt woven of scraps of fabrics, then covered with woven straw mats. It sure helps to keep the heat of the day away! Her mother speaks no french at all and always sits right close. I pull out my notebook and verb cards for help when I need it and we chatter away. She points out things and name them, we talk about her day, what people are cooking,etc. She seems to quite enjoy our time, even though she already asked me if I could give them money to rebuild their whole hut. Such is the life of their "token white person" !
Miriama and her mother.
Inevitably while I am there, the children show up. They have 2 little kids who live there and they invite their friends over. They show me things, we play little games of drawing animals in the ground with sticks and trying to guess what we drew, etc. They are a lot of fun. And everyday they want me to take their pictures. I have only brought my camera with me once, and they had a blast looking at themselves on my screen
Miriama is a special young lady. She is one of the very few Tuareg women who has become educated (she almost finished secondary school and speaks decent french). She is also the one volunteering with our literacy hut class to teach the women. As I spend lots of time with her and her family, I am slowly trying to find the best, culturally appropriate way to build her up and help her with her goals. She has spoken several times of her interest in attending a technology school. This school would teach her to type and work with computers and data and then after two years she could get a job working in an office, or a pharmacy or something like that. So please pray as we slowly consider the best way to help her and build relationships with her whole family. Miriama refused a family arranged marriage as a young teenager, and thus her mother pulled her out of school and now she doesn't know what she can do to make her life better. I want to walk alongside her and help her where I can without being offensive to the family in any way or being seen as "the Bank". So please pray for wisdom!
As for now, I sure enjoy my Tuesday mornings!
