The Last Month, Part 5: Tea in Tea Village

Here's the deal...Malian people are the most wonderful people you will ever meet.  Even our co-workers who have worked in other places will vouch for the fact that Malian people are just genuinely kinder, more hospitable, more welcoming, more generous...all in all the most wonderful...people.  I am biased, but it is true. :)  So don't get me wrong.  As anxious as we were, we knew they would be gracious.

But that doesn't even come close to touching what actually happened.  I can't even put it all into words, but basically the connection between those women and us was both immediate and intense.  I have not seen or spoken to one of these women in a year and a half and my eyes are full of tears right now just thinking about them.  I know this will sound both crazy and a little arrogant...but they loved us. (What's not to love, right? :))  

Shortly after we arrived, it was time for us to present the tea to the host.  It didn't take long before the tea was steeping and being poured back and forth, back and forth.  Little shot glasses of super sweet hot tea all around!

It was finally time for us to start.  We were told to set up on an indoor porch of the main house/hut and 2 women at a time would come in.  So we laid down a mat on the dirt floor and I sat behind Abby with the computer.  Abby sat toward the front, closer to the 2 chairs that were facing us, where the women would sit.  Max sat in a corner to watch over us.

The women began coming in and we played them a Story.  We started with the Story of Abraham's calling (the Stories up to that point had already been tested).  It was slow going at first and we got 2 Stories tested that morning.  This was far beyond our previous pace, BUT nowhere near what the pace needed to be in order to complete testing.  We had to leave at lunch time because Max's wife had prepared lunch for us in their village...even though when we got back to Tea Village we had to eat again!  We were able to test 2 more Stories that evening for a total of 4 on Day 1.

This is my view:  Abby has played the Story for the women and now they are re-telling it and answering questions about it.

And it's just that simple.  This is the recorder that has the Stories on it, plugged into our battery-operated speakers.  This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Abby waiting to do her thing.