Drama Team, Friday, Sept 9th, 2005

Friday, Sept 9th, 2005

Last Sunday in church during prayer request time, it was announced that the radio drama team had passed the regional level of competition for their theater piece and would be moving on to the national competition. It is a bi-annual Mali arts and culture competition, featuring eight categories including: traditional dance, choir, solo, orchestra, and an original theater piece. They would be performing in a town called Segou on Tuesday, representing the Sikasso area of which Kadiolo is a part.

Since most of the Youth leaders who we'll be working with have been gone at this competition since the day after we arrived, we haven't had the chance to greet them and get to know them at all. We decided that we should travel to Segou and see their performance and encourage them since they'd been gone away from their homes so long and were missing friendly faces. Siriki Sekongo, who is one of their script-writers, wanted to go as well, so we left Monday morning and spent two days in Segou, discovering a wonderful town along the Niger River, and seeing
the arts and crafts exhibition at the same time.

The evening performances were very interesting, and the team was indeed encouraged by our efforts to cheer them on. Their theater piece was not overtly Christian, but was an indictment of corruption on a personal level and a call to remember that no-one is above the law. They ran a little over their time and may lose some points for that, but the crowd was laughing and clapping at appropriate times as they related to the scenarios being portrayed. One funny scene showed this rich, difficult woman who mistreated her servants and was interested mostly in
beautiful clothes and a spotless house. Her corrupt husband was having a nap, when a visitor came to see him. The visitor asked her to wake him, and she refused, saying that her husband definitely didn't like to be awakened from his rest. After asking again and refusing again, the visitor pulled out some money to get a change of action, and she decided that she could indeed go wake her husband.

We also saw how the team's lifestyle and prayer times were a witness to other performers dorming in the same venue. It's a bit like a cultural olympics, with "villages" where participants reside. Many of the girls had been sick lately, so they were discouraged knowing the amount of energy they'd need to dance and sing, since some of them were in more than one event. They did have to call the doctor the last few days, and two of the girls collapsed on the stage at the right time when during their traditional dance number, the "story" being told was
about a fetisher expelling evil spirits from people. The buzz after the show was whether the girls were really possessed by a spirit, or were just exhausted from being sick and not eating and sleeping properly. Anyway, our "corrupt husband" in the theater piece is Pastor Ibrahim, who went to pray with the sickies when they went to see the doctor, so they've had God's intervention as well.

The team now waits for all the other regions to perform, two each evening, until the closing ceremony on the 11th, when the winning region is announced. Our team has been asked to perform their piece for the president after the competition along with selected other performances from each area, so they're really making a name for themselves. The prize for drama is 2,200,000 francs, about $4500. If they were to win, this money goes to the cultural centre in Sikasso, as the team was representing Sikasso. But there would probably be a gift of some of it to the team as well.

After our trip to Segou, we travelled on to Bamako for a couple of days to get the car and maybe computer repaired, buy some Bambara songbooks for the churches around Kadiolo, do a little shopping, run some other errands, and let Hilary and Ben attend the Bamako Christian Academy for a day as visitors. The Academy encourages home-schoolers who are in town to come as they wish, so we thought they'd enjoy that.
We did get the car repaired. The mechanical problem with the passenger's window wiper. It was fixed for $12. The computer store was in between stores as it is moving to a better facility. They said "we can't help you today! Come back in 10 days." I said we'd come back next trip. That may be end of Sept. So in West Africa, you win some, you lose some. :-)

Sorry about the last posts error where I posted twice somehow. I tried to fix it, but it didn't work.

Tom & Lisa

We're sorry we weren't allowed to take any pictures or video during the competition performance. So we don't have one to add here. But We do have a pic of Pirogue (Canoe) tours you can take on the Niger river in Segou.