I am amazed at how certain things in our American culture are engrained in us even before we realize it. One is that of prevention. We have sidewalks, we wear helmets, our kids are in car seats, we have crossing areas, we teach our kids to stop, look and listen before they cross the road as infants, most (should be all, but that’s just my opinion after seeing the illness we are trying to prevent in children here in Mali) people get vaccines. We get gas before we are stalled on the side of the road, we have inspections so our cars shouldn’t break down, etc, etc. We use a lot of preventative measures in the US.
Here there is basically none. Vaccines are about it. No car seats, no helmets, no sidewalks, kids on motorcycles, even babies attached by only cloth to the mom’s back are on motorcycles.
One day as we drove through the market Dawson asked why there were no sidewalks like in America. I told him that sidewalks were for prevention of accidents and to keep people safe. However, this costs money. I told him Malians didn’t have money for that.
A few days later he asked why no one wore helmets. Told him the same thing.
A few days after that he said, “I wish there were sidewalks and everyone wore helmets so that they would be safe. I think they should have sidewalks for people, a road for just the motorcycles and then a road for the cars so there would be no accidents.” I was amazed at how he came up with these things all by himself.
Today made me laugh when even Kenan recognized potential danger as we dropped his friend off from playing. He said, “Oh, I can’t watch this”
- “Watch what?”
-“I don’t want to see Jean-Marc on a motorcycle. I don’t like my friends riding on them. That’s not safe.”
So special that they think of their friends and other Malians.
ReplyDeleteWhew... I was worried you were going to say there wasn't a need for all our safety issues. It seems like all we've done this week is telling Eli why he should or should not do this. He's repeating it back to us but few moments he shows he truly understands. It's a lot to comprehend why you can't leave your mom and go look at the new Cars' Toys or just run down that long aisle in Wal-Mart because it would be FUN!!. What's wrong with just opening your own front door and walking outside to say hello to Jim or Debbie who are working in their yard. There might be some parts of the Mali culture that are actually safer
ReplyDeletethan here. It's unbelievable we are telling a 3 year old that people might pick him up and take him away and he'll never see his parents again. Glad to hear the boys care at such an early age.