N'Torrosso Village

This week Joe Faust, Jordan Stull, Anco van Bergeijk and I had the opportunity to go to the village of N'Torrosso to work at a Clinic and Bible School. We all rode motorcycles and journeyed the more than 240 km down dirt, sand, and rock roads. In the picture of the river, there is a wood bridge that was used up until 2 years ago. They would cover the bridge with mud, sticks, and weeds to make a surface that even a truck could go over. The other picture is the new bridge with our motorycles on it. The health clinic that we went to had trouble with it's solar power system and also the SunFrost solar Fridge/freezer. Anco got the power system working after plugging in his laptop into the control panel and making some adjustments. Now, this is a clash in time zones. We have a village here without electric power and running water with Anco working on a computerized solar power system. The solar power gives them lighting and the ability to do ultra sounds on the pregnant ladies. What a real blessing. I was there to look at the SunFrost fridge. It has two 12 volt DC compressors that are powered by four solar panels and batteries. The fridge is for the medications that need refrigerated. Both compressors are bad and need replaced. Anco and I are thinking about changing it over to a 24 volt system to give it more flexibility in power fluctuations. The fridge is made in California but, I hope I can get parts in Bamako. While we were there, we went to the C&MA bible school. Classes are taught in the trade language Bambara. These men and women are the poor of the poor. When they graduate, they will make between 25 and 30 dollars a month to provide for an entire family. Check out the picture of the little girl with a baby on here back! An amazing feat for the age of this girl. The school itself is very poor. They grow all their own crops just to survive and have only a handful of working wells. The wells that work are 60 to 80 feet to the water level and the water is drawn up by a bucket and rope. That is a lot of work for the sixty students, profs, and families plus preparing all the food over fires. The bible school had a wind powered pump for the largest well but, it broke down over 20 years ago and they do not have the money to repair or replace it. To put in a new well with solar and or wind power would cost in the vicinity of 25,000 to 30,000 dollars. The pictures are from the bible school and these are the people that are attending it. This is also the accommodations they have to live it while there. It would be a blessing if some church or group would take this school on as a project and just pump some time and money into it for the sake of the gospel and better health. Let's keep praying together for these people and for the gospel of Christ reaching beyond cultural lines. God loves these people and is hard at work showing is love for them. I hope you have a blessed week and I will "blog" with you soon.