By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Manager
Summer school break doesn’t look the same for children in Mali as it does for those in the United States. While kids in the U.S. might go to summer camp or ride bikes around their neighborhood, in Mali kids see summer as a time of hard work and school as a kind of rest break!
In Mali, we have a rainy and a dry season. The dry season lines up with the school year – generally October through May. The dry season is very hot and it almost never rains so everything gets dusty and dry. During this time, parents let their kids go to school hoping they will work hard and succeed in school. Many rural parents are proud of their kids when they graduate from middle school and start studying in bigger towns then start making good job connections. Parents would usually be hoping their children would become doctors, nurses, police officers, lawyers, etc in order to support their families and villages building nice houses or cars.
But from about May through September, all that changes! Rains come almost daily and the fields burst into green. Once school lets out in early June, most children are expected to spend every day helping their parents in the field.
During the day in the wet season, villages are almost all empty of people except elders who can no longer work the field. Women, men, and children all go to fields and work all day.
Once in fields, the smallest children become shepherds for the livestock since they are too small for the hard work in the crops. Older kids help adults to plough the fields, carry water from the well, plant seeds, and harvest. The kids work hard from about 7 am through 5pm every day and everyone gets back home exhausted after the hard work.
So, rural kids do not rest at all over the summer holidays in Mali because they are helpers for their parents. This may seem hard, but their help is critical in providing food for the family and keeping everyone healthy all year long.
Having great harvests makes families feel proud among other families in villages. It also makes those families respected in villages and being well-fed helps children study better.
