And of course there’s much to do for fun and much to do for tradition. I’ll be posting slides of my travels to Northern Europe in September. And perhaps I can round up my pictures from two trips to Hawaii — one last year and one in about 2014? Plus the new dog, outings with Will, and the ever present involvement with Eastrose UU. You can see their website at eastrose.org and enjoy the fruits of my labors there. Yes, Amateur with a capital A, I know.
Yep, a long time.
So much has happened. The biggest is the arrival of a guy named Will in my life, and then the dog Lucy. Combining households, camping, traveling to Africa again, and working as a volunteer at my church implementing the PowerChurch accounting system and entering 2015 and 2016 data.
Goals *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
1: make a market link on this website so you can see and buy the jewelry and art that I’ve got in my collection.
2: To make links to the groups I am part of now — Oregon Power and Light, Lyceum of Trees, Eastrose, and Nadaka Park.
3: To become adept at word press while I assist Eastrose in updating and keeping their website current.
4: CAMPING in my new Tin Tent! 
We have so much: public schools financed by tax money, roads with bike lanes, clean air, extremely clean and tasty water out of the tap and electricity at the flip of a switch.Sewer systems and flushing toilets.Hot water from the tap and hot showers. Neighbors we can trust. Relatively smooth highways without bandits or land mines.How about air conditioning? So try to understand a city school that uses unexpected money to buy chalk. Just chalk.
The original plan was to send some money to Timbuktu to help the school buy books — whatever books the professors thought would best serve what they need to teach. Buy the books locally, keep them in the library for long-term benefit.
In no way could I imagine a school so poor that the most urgent need was for chalk.
UPDATE June 23: I’m still processing the chalk instead of books feelings. Part of our sales pitch was that the books would be in the library for long term use, and chalk is a consumable supply item. I struggle with how my own ego was tied to the long term use of our gifts, yet I remain committed to local control and freely given gifts.
As I understand it, Mali has public schools but they are locally financed — in good times a system that pretty much works. Parents have to pay for their children to attend public school with a monthly or weekly tuition. So far so good. Until there are no jobs, no government support, and no tourist spending.
Timbuktu continues to struggle from the unrest in northern Mali. It means that people flee the town for safety. One estimate is that an additional 50,000 people fled the economic and political threats in northern Mali — just in May, 2015.The tourist trade, a decades-long pipeline of money into the region, has tanked.
Another report explains that the local village markets only have the village’s own goods for sale. It is too dangerous for merchants to travel to the next larger town for supplies that only come from the city. Then local farmers and artisans are too frightened to bring even their local goods to the market.
Talk about a cultural and economic death spiral.
So as I go about my blessed life I try not to forget the difficulty and suffering of others who, through no fault of their own, find themselves caught in a web of terrorism and fear. Thankfully, even in the face of those threats, good people continue to educate children and find creative ways to buy chalk for the local school.
the bedroom . . .
The glow of new adventures is fading, but not gone. There’s been a paper bag floor at the house the church owns, the chart of accounts for the church finances, church personnel contracts, and getting ready to be church treasurer with a fully implemented finance program still about a month off.
The living room with the fireplace . . .
The paper bag floor —
it turned out B – E – A – U – T – I – F – U – L – !
It’s a tough project, that finance stuff. I hope by the next budget cycle (October, 2015) that the software will be smoothly functioning. I didn’t realize that membership, contributions, and a bunch of other data besides the money part will have to be set up in tandem. It is lots more fun to do other stuff than focus on the chart of accounts, but I DID promise to do it!
The hardest part is that this finance project feels just like my old job . . . I’m SUPPOSED to be retired, eh? And yet, I can work on it at my own pace and not worry so much about getting fired!
The great mosque in Djenne — the largest mud building in the world gets a new coat of mud this month. It takes the whole city to get it done!
Vieux at dinner.
We did our Timbuktu and Back worship service at the end of March. It was so well received that we’re doing a West African dinner and the show — in October — a fundraiser for the church. Talked to Mamadou today and they are spending the second Sunday in a row putting mud on the mosque in Djenne. It is great to keep in touch with the new friends from Mali. I got to meet Vieux Farka Toure on Monday night — he played a concert at the Melody Ballroom after he visited at the Ko-Falen dinner at the Queen of Sheba restaurant. Such an exciting evening.