Life Is Hard (by Thom)

Life is hard in Mali. You don’t need to look too hard to see this. Every day I drive a little over half a mile on my motorcycle to the office and everyday I see signs of the hard life: children wearing rags, middle-aged people who look like they’re in their late 60s, and women walking around trying to make a living by selling the fruit (mangos, bananas, etc) they carry. Most telling, I think, is the multitude of people I see sitting around doing nothing. For the most part, they aren’t not working for lack of motivation, but rather because opportunities are few and far between. After seeing this day-after-day you begin to be desensitized to it, though. Instead of thinking “Wow, life here is hard” I began to think “Life is hard, but they do a great job enjoying things in spite of the difficulties.” I’m not positive, but I think the second way is a better way of approaching life.

This week I was shown, in a new way, how difficult life here can be. We have a day guard at our house named Sam. He’s a wonderful, gentle man who loves the Lord and has a servant’s heart. He came to me Wednesday and told me he was going to have to stop working for me. He said he lived in the same building as a travel agency that was closed but would be re-opening in June. They’ve asked him to be their guard there. He said he thought he should do it because he would be close to his children and wouldn’t have the expense of commuting to my house. I understood this and, although I was sad, I understood. Today I told him that I was sad he was going to be leaving, but I was happy he had a good opportunity. He then told me the rest of his story: Since the travel agency owns the house, they’ll let him live there rent-free while he is the guard. He wanted to stay working for us, but if he stayed, he’d have to find a new house and he said he couldn’t afford the rent and he didn’t want to move his kids to a new school. He told me 10,000 cfa (about $20 USD) was just too expensive, and that’s what most homes cost for a monthly rent. Can you imagine having to quit a job you love because $20 is too much to pay for rent? (For the record, we pay our guards about $90 USD a month, which is a generous salary, and about three times the average income in Mali)

Life here is hard, but God is good. I’m sad to see Sam leave, but I believe God can use him better there. He is the sort of person who never hesitates to give glory to God in all circumstances. I pray the Lord will use him at the travel agency for His Glory. I think this verse is very appropriate for Sam’s life:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever. – Psalm 107:1 NASB

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God's Creation (by Amanda)

As many of you know we have a cat. When we got here I was missing my cats and we met this missionary couple who had kittens. In a moment of weakness Thom said "yes" and "voila"”, we have Tisike (the name is from II Timothy 4, by the way). Then of course when we moved the house owners offered to give us two rabbits and "voila"”, we now have Eomear and Eowyn (named after Lord of the Rings characters). When we went on our vacation to Dakar we met a family with a hedgehog and I thought it was cute and played with it a little. Recently Thom found out that you can find hedgehogs in the wild here and thought that I would like a pair of hedgehogs and "“voila"”, the other day he came home with four Hedgehogs. No, we are not planning to keep them all; in fact, two are supposed to be going to Koutiala for another family. We've named our two Jaalah and Darkon (from Ezra chapter 2). Yesterday I came home and "“voila"”, a chick had entered our courtyard and no one knows the owner. At this point I think it is becoming ridiculous. I am ready to put a sign on the door saying, "McMurray Petting Zoo - donate animals here".

Fortunately or unfortunately (I haven't decided yet), that is not the end of my story. This morning I got up, went to the office, and came home with a few grasshoppers for my hedgehogs to eat. I went up the stairs to the roof where we have put their cage and dumped the food in and"voila"”, we have baby hedgehogs. Yes, you read correctly. We have little rat-like creatures that were born between 9am and 10am this morning. I am reminded of a hymn - can anyone guess which one? In honor of our zoo I am going to put the first verse and chorus for all to read.

All Creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluia, Alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
Oh Praise him Oh praise him
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

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I'm An Uncle!! (by Thom)

Congratulations to my brother, Dan, and his wife, Jill, on their new baby, Corin David McMurray! Corin was born May 16th, 2006 weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches. It seems my brother has big league aspirations for his son. As long as he doesn't play for the Yankees, I'm fully behind the plan! Teach him to pitch left-handed, Dan, and he'll always have a job in the Bigs. This is my first time being an uncle and, although it's sad we have to be so far apart, Amanda and I are rejoicing with them.
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD - Psalm 127:3a

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Martial Law? (by Thom)

When was the last time an armed man got into your car and demanded you take him somewhere? Odd question; I know. It happened to me last week, though.
Travel in Mali is quite a bit different than it is in the US. When you travel town to town, you often have to stop at police checkpoints. 98% of the time they just wave you through; they’re mostly there to tax the commercial vehicles. However, they occasionally stop you and ask for things like a driver’s license or your car papers. As I was leaving Koutiala last week, I was pulled over at the police checkpoint. The officer asked me where I was going. “Bamako”, I replied. He said, “Good, this man will go with you.” At that point, a man dressed in military fatigues hopped in my back seat with a very large duffel bag. He also asked if I was going to Bamako, to which I replied: yes. He said he was going to go with me. I was very confused. I had never heard of this happening, although it didn’t really surprise me. I can honestly say I wasn’t afraid of the situation, but I was very uncomfortable with the uncertainty of it all.
We drove down the road a while, eventually arriving at another police checkpoint. Again, I was pulled over. This was already a personal record. Two stops in one day! The officer never once made eye contact with me. He came up to the car, saluted the officer in the back, and then started yelling at him that he had to wear a seat belt. I had never noticed, but he didn’t put it on. The checkpoint officer then waved me through. I drove a few kilometers and noticed the man in the back still didn’t have his belt on. I asked him and he said it wasn’t working. It turns out he was right. I had a flat tire a week ago, and the equipment to change a tire is located below the seat. The lower part of the seatbelt had fallen below, so I stopped the car and helped him get it right. Aside from the time he asked me where I was going, these were the only words he said to me the entire 4 ½ hour trip!
We continued down the road and after going through Segou (Mali’s second largest city, and about half-way between Koutiala and Bamako) I was stopped again at a checkpoint! The officer came up, asked where I was going, and then said, “I’m going with you.” At this point, I didn’t know what to do. My car was full of things I was bringing back for someone else, and there was only one seat free to start with and that was taken by the first military officer. The first officer said this to the new man, but the guy said, “Make room”. He then crawled over the first man and sat in the backseat – half of him on the seat and half of him on the first guy! They rode like that, in complete silence, the rest of the 2 ½ hour trip!
I’ve since found out that this isn’t unusual, but it made me appreciate our traveling freedoms in the US all the more. I’ve also learned that because I am the owner of the vehicle, they won’t speak to me unless I first speak to them. I didn’t know this beforehand, and I didn’t want to talk to them and be impolite. The next time, I’m looking forward to leaning about the men in my car!

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My Trip to Koutiala (by Thom)

Sometimes we don't post here as often as we'd like because not much is happening. Other times it's a result of too much going on. The last week has been the latter. I ended up making a rather eventful trip to Koutiala alone to do some bookkeeping work there this past week. Because Amanda has a new language teacher she felt she couldn't afford to skip her classes and come with, so I made the 4 1/2 hour trip alone. Getting there wasn't a big deal, except I was sick (flu or bad cold, I think). Upon arrival, I found the missionaries there a bit fatigued from all the week's goings-on. To back my story up, Monday saw the first birth at the mission's new hospital there. It was the new son of our friends Shawn and Becky McCabe, Aiden Kevin. After the birth, another missionary was in a very serious accident on her bike (details are still a little fuzzy). She is miraculously doing better now, but it was a day or so before we knew if she would make it. I arrived in Koutiala about 40 hours after all this happened. The new birth was certainly something to rejoice, and I believe the tragedy was something that the Lord used, and is continuing to use, to draw His people closer to Him. Betsy still has a long way to go on her recovery, but should be ok.
About my trip, the whole reason I went to Koutiala was, as I said, bookkeeping-related. It's hard to believe, but Amanda and I will be having our first furlough in the US next year. As it looks now, we should be coming home in about 9 months. This means I need to start planning things for our absence and this trip allowed me to start training my replacement bookkeeper during our three months home next year. I also had a lot of time to work with the bookkeeper for the hospital. He is a very nice Malian man named Jonathan. I was able to teach him a bit about our system we use, but mostly it was a nice time of bonding and fellowship. It was a bit challenging, too, because it was all in French.
My trip home was a different experience altogether. I think I'm going to save that for my next post. It was something else, and completely unexpected!

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I Haven’t The Heart (by Amanda)

I haven’t the heart to eat rabbits. If you’ve looked at our pictures recently you’ll know that we received two rabbits from the owners of the house we rent. They are just the cutest little things you ever saw. They have the great twitchy noses, the fluffy bunny tail and the wonderful ears. I often sit at the computer and look out the living room doors and see Eomear hop by. (His name is a play on words. "Eomer" is a character from "Lord of the Rings". The extra "a" is in honor of his rabbit-ness) He goes back and forth across the court yard, often as I come out with some vegetables he hops up to me ready to take it out of my hand. I am already attached to these rabbits as you can tell. I even looked up on the internet how to raise them. We are keeping them to raise more rabbits to eat and to give to our guards and house-help as gifts. Oh, my brain logically says that it is a way of life that it is a good thing: raising our own food, but my heart says they are just too cute. My house-help thinks they are cute too, but with a smile on her face she also says “rabbits make good stew”. Here people often survive on what they raise and I try to remember this when I look into their sweet bunny faces. I suppose for me if rabbit was all I had it would make it a whole lot easier, but it’s not. I have so much to be thankful for - including cute bunny faces. So I’ve learned I haven’t the heart to eat bunnies. Do you?

(By the way, it doesn't help that Thom is always joking - talking to the rabbits and telling them they'll "taste great.")

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557

557 -
- That's the number of visits we had here last month (April, 2006). By far, that sets a record here. Our previous month with the most visits was January '06, when 375 of you droped by. A lot of this has to do with our new, expanded website (www.mcmali.com), but it's impressive since we hadn't advertised the new site yet. Thanks for stoping by and reading about our missionary lives in Bamako, Mali. If you ever have a question about the things we do or see, please drop us an email at mcmali@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting!
~Thom and Amanda

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Almost a First (by Thom)

Yesterday morning we attended church in a section of Bamako called Sabalibougou. The pastor there is a friend of mine (we went there for Christmas services, as well as a few other times), but the real reason was to meet the members of a work team that had just arrived the previous night in Mali. These guys (and two ladies) are here to do “computer things” at the Koutiala Hospital. I’m thankful they’re computer guys, too. I was able to put in a request for an internet wi-fi router so we can use the internet at our new house. One of the guys, Mark, was gracious to bring me the router and a new battery for my laptop, to replace the one that recently died on me. (Thanks Mark!) One of the members of the work team is a pastor from Omaha, Nebraska who already spoke French. He preached the sermon at church yesterday. We’ve been going to duel language services for the most part (French and Bambara) so Amanda and I can both understand, and continue to get stronger in languages. I understand about 80-85% of what I hear now, which I think is good, but I’m not at a “translator-level” yet. At one point in the service yesterday another missionary turned to me and said, “Thom, I think I’m going to need you to translate the sermon for a guy or two.”

I froze. Then, I quickly said a brief prayer asking for quickness, strength, and clarity. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to get through this. Then I decided, “If I must, I must. We’ll get through this.” It turned out I wasn’t needed for translating, but I was ready. I tried translating to myself during the sermon and with only a couple of words I didn’t know, it went really well. I surprised myself. I think the next time I’m asked to translate French to English I’ll freeze again and I’ll pray for those things again, but I’ll be alright.

It might seem kind of silly to write something like this out for an event that never ended up happening, but I wanted you to get an idea of what living cross-culturally can be like. It’s never simple, but we get daily graces. I also can see the differences between different things (not just language but also comfort levels, problem solving, etc) over the periods of time. Amanda and I have been in Mali now for exactly 8 months today. It’s been a wonderful time so far and I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next!

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