There are very few similarities between Mali and America.. The reason that I bring this up is that Jim Nichols one of my co instructors and a professor from Grace University brought up a starling difference.
One of the biggest differences between Mali and Americans is that Americans live in isolation and Malians live in community. Think about it we in America live in our air conditioned houses all day, when we get off work we go home and stay in our homes. Our houses no longer have huge porches like they did in the past. Air conditioning In Mali is for the upper middle class and not very common for vast Malians. Keep in mind that the weather here is like Phoenix. When they watch a soccer game they watch it outside on TV and one of the missionaries here said that when the Mali national teams scores you can here other people cheering all over Bamako because everyone is watching TV outside.
I am not sure what this all means, but I am sure the fact that Americans live in Isolation is possibly not good for us. Malians are not the only ones that live in community; many other countries are this way. I think that it is better to live in community. You know that you are not the only one going through something.
I meet and work for many investors. And I can tell you right now if you are experience some difficulty in your business, there are many others in the same situation. The problem is that since American live in Isolation we have no way to know this. Challenge of the day, stop living in isolation both personally and professionally.
