inside peeks

Looking Back & Looking Forward at Our Oldest School

Welcome to the village of N’Tentou, where Jackie Trujillo Middle School was opened in 2006. This school was Mali Rising Foundation’s very first school, so its construction was ground-breaking – both literally and figuratively.  This summer we've been doing some improvements at the school, and looking back at the history of the school and the village.

Book Review: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

Since joining Mali Rising's staff, I've tried to read as many books written by Malians and/or about Mali as I can. Frankly, one doesn't find scads of them here in the U.S.  But I'd been hearing about The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu for a while, and was excited to see a pretty main-stream book that was set in Mali getting some attention.

My Favorite Day

I want to take you all back to my favorite day on my trip to Mali. It was halfway through the week and we stopped in a small village for a meeting. I felt completely out of place among a large circle of people where I was undoubtedly the youngest one there, not to mention only one of two females. I remember digging my sneakers into the red sand to pass the time and eye-balling a few Malian students playing just a few yards away- dying to go say hello. I jumped at my first chance to sneak away from the meeting and cautiously approached two girls that curiously observed from afar.