Palm trees, banana trees and a pool

I’m sitting by the pool at Sylvaine and Axel Von Mende’s villa in Bamako, Mali. It is 4pm in the afternoon, I’m sipping my coffee and writing my blog. I am in the shade of huge palm trees and I’ve eaten a few bananas right off the banana tree. Can life get any better? Muddy the family cat, flicks her tail, brushing away a fly as she takes in the afternoon sun, squinting her brown eyes. She still hasn’t figured me out but I keep talking to her and attempting to pet her. At least now she actually sits close to me. She is slowly taming me. She does not let anyone got close to her…she’s had a traumatic childhood, or is it kittyhood?! Sylvaine picked her up one evening, after she had been used as a soccer ball by the neighbourhood teens. Axel and Sylvaine nursed the kitty back to health, with drops of milk and medicine. Now Muddy is a healthy 9 month cat who walks around with attitude (don’t all female cats?) and is the princess of this little place in paradise.

I am so grateful for Sylvaine and Axel for their invitation to their tropical paradise here in Bamako. I too like Muddy have nursed myself back to health, rested well and gained a fresh perspective on our situation in Conakry. Discovering another African country was also interesting as Bamako is quite charming and dare I say “liveable”. My sense of Mali is that it is organized, peaceful and clean. This is after 6 days of observing daily life. Of course I only saw Bamako and not the surrounding areas, so I got a narrow window of life in Mali . There is still poverty but you can’t get away from that in Africa. Africa equals poverty.

I’ve been impressed with Sylvaine who works 10-12 hour days at this humongous literacy project that involves thousands of people. This one woman source of energy is taking on the immense task of reforming the public educational system of Mali. What an undertaking! She is a catalyst to change. She has shown us the several offices where she works---there were posters, photocopies everywhere, radio programs being revised and piled outside over 8,000 fabric kits ready to be assembled with cassettes, books, pre-tests and post-tests ready to be used by the teachers everywhere in Mali. Sylvaine is the master mind behind this immense project. She has written songs, fables, radio scripts and created wooden alphabet to help support the new curriculum geared for elementary students in the public system. The goal: teaching children to read and write.

As for Axel, he is the Good Samaritan. He is a retired metal worker and he is enjoying his new Malian lifestyle. For Axel, every day brings something new: new friends, new experiences and new ways to support people. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows Axel. He pays prescriptions for the young man just struck with malaria, brings cold water to families, helps pay school fees for a child and takes time to have tea with the toothless widow down the street. He brings leftover food to the divorced woman struggling to feed her 3 kids. Axel does these daily acts of kindness throughout the day unassumingly and humbly. He knows the sad life stories of many of his friends. One of them we met. Her name is Mea and her mother died in childbirth when Mea was a young 16 year old. She had to quit school and help her father raise all her siblings. Now at age 30, she works in a real estate/notary office barely making ends meet as she continues to provide for her siblings. Axel helps Mea financially when he sees that she is struggling. Axel was also our driver, tour guide and an amazing chef during our visit here. He was constantly at our service. Every supper he prepared with tender loving care and we could not even offer help. The four of us sat at the table, enjoying a warm meal every evening and the lively discussions. Their house had revolving doors either of students from Simon Fraser University here for a 5 week practicum, some neighbours, the gardener, the pool attendant and the house helper. At times, it was busy as a bee hive and Sylvaine and Axel opened their hearts and their home to whomever would drop in.

Together Axel and Sylvaine are a power couple both giving and contributing to African people in need. Sylvaine helps teachers, principals and children in the education sector. Axel helps his neighbours on a daily basis providing food, friendship, laughter and a few francs. These two humanitarians extend love and goodness to everyone around them. This is Love at work. How awesome to be witness to this! How awesome to have them as friends.