A visit from Bryan

These last ten days we have been very excited here in Niamey to have Paul's brother Bryan visiting us. He came as part of a short term team from Calgary who encouraged and blessed our socks off with their presence. We loved spending time with them all, but the highlight was obviously Bryan. How awesome to be able to share our home, our city, our experiences, our crazy situations, bad smells, hot weather and deep thoughts all with someone who knows us and loves us. It was like cool water to our souls.

Bryan also was the bearer of good gifts and came loaded with chocolate chips, real cheddar, movies, books, a few things we had left behind, christmas gifts, peanut butter and other assorted wonderful things. Thank you to you others who sent things with him as well. We are so appreciative!

I wont write very much here, as you can look forward to a special blog guest in the next day or two with his stories, impressions and insights. I will post some of the pictures (some of which were taken by Bryan) with a little commentary and let the images speak for themselves.

One of the highlights was spending a day taking a camel ride across the tundra, then a piroque (long canoe) down the river to spot hippos (we saw them!), then wandering through a village before a big lunch.

The landscape from our camel eye view

Camel drivers



Bryan and his trusty (and ornery, difficult and stubborn) camel.

My camel driver

Paul and Bennett on their camel. Rather than being afraid, Bennett loved it and talked everyones ear off the entire time!

Riding in the camel train. Arielle was sitting in front of me, and she wasn't so thrilled with this whole idea.

As a team they had the priveledge of visiting several villages and seeing the bush life up close and personal.

We took Bryan to all our favorite markets, and he learned you can in fact eat what is sold off the ground and still stay healthy, and that there is so much color, life and variety in the markets. Here is Paul and him wandering around the building supplies market (our answer to Home Depot)

Guess who was the star of the show and centre of attention? One hint - the white guy.


Bennett hitching a ride.

We went to the sand dunes and got there too late for sunset pictures, but not too late to try sand-dune-crazy-carpeting! This sort of looks to me like he is going down the side of a planet!


While he was here, he also got to spend time with our workers, visit their homes, pray for people and see how the locals live.

Bennett carrying around his goat again

And one final shot of our expanded family for 10 days. We are so thankful for the time we had and can't wait to share our lives here again! Thanks so much Bryan. Sorry you had to go back home to snow and ice!

Seeing through new eyes

So it seems we have being doing a lot lately and i keep showing up in your inbox for those of you who are subscribed! I know, you may be getting sick of me, but there is always a lot to tell here!

On Wednesday we decided to go to the little local "zoo" with the kids, and to bring the youngest neighbor boy Boobay. I say "zoo" because it really is a pathetic attempt at a zoo and the animals are in pretty awful conditions. Gives us good opportunities to discuss stuff like that with the kids. But they also enjoy watching the hippos, crocs, boars, monkeys, etc. The lions are always the biggest hit and we watch them for a while. There is a small park in the centre with a huge tall slide that the kids love and swings. We always stop here for half an hour or so,eat our popcorn treat and burn off some energy.

I mentioned we brought boobay right? Well he speaks zarma, and just a little french. We speak no zarma at all. Zip. So it makes it a little interesting and I wasnt sure if he was having fun or just so nervous that he didnt know what to do. You see, they never leave the little community they live in, have never driven in a truck, he has never seen most of these animals, or had a whole pop to himself! He drank his Fanta so fast with a huge, orange pop grin on his face. By the time we were even half done the zoo his enthusiasm was obvious and he got over being nervous and him and Bennett had a wonderful time! It was a good lesson for us as well to see things new, with awe, through fresh eyes.

We are very aware how much even a little love and care and attention can go in their lives. We are wanting to take them on excursions, show them they are special, and teach them little things about health, school, etc along the way. They love it when we spend time with them each day and tonight they were all hollering for Bennett to come out and play soccer with them.

Anyhow, here are some of the pictures from the zoo outing.







Boobay taking a break and enjoying all the kids at the park, smiling.





Bennett and Boobay going down the big slide, side by side.



Arielle, sweet as ever.




We went up on the roof of our house today and were taking in the world below us. We are thinking of putting a little gazebo up there so we can sleep there in the hot season and get some air movement.


Here is the main view outside our house:

looking south


looking north


Over the north wall is also where our neighbor family lives. As i have mentioned before they are squatters in a yard where a house is slowly being built. they used to live in our yard when it looked like this too.





When it is warm they sleep here outside. The also do all their cooking here. There is no running water or proper latrine.


They have also taken over one of the rough bricked in rooms in the house. You can see the roof they have built with sticks and plastic and grass mats to keep the rain out.


Boobay and one of his brothers, Mouktar, fooling around.



Basheera.




We have somewhat adopted this little family. We are doing our best to share love with them,help them, teach them, and share with them. It seems so little to pay for school books, bring over fruit, play soccer,etc. But I know it is the little things that count in the end. Thank you for partnering with us. Thank you for praying for this family and for sharing your concern for them. We are extensions of you.

What is that SMELL!????

This morning we were outside talking with visitors and I realized there was a really disgusting smell in the hair. Sort of like what you smell if you burn human hair. Turns out the neighbors had purchased a "treat" of a goat head and were burning off all its hair before they cooked it. I seriously felt nauseous. Now all day that burning goat smell hangs in the air and has permeated the house, our clothes, our sheets, etc. Yuck.



Even better yet, there are garbage piles and weeds piled up everywhere that are being lit on fire too. Is this a national past-time that no one informed me of? Maybe they started burning everything since it is cooler now (mid 30s in the day and high 20s at night) and they can handle the extra heat from a fire.


When my laundry was drying on the line these last few days it came in smelling like smoke. Its not like I have the option of putting it in a dryer, so i think in smoky times I will have to drape it over all the furniture around the house, to make it a little less smoky I guess. So much for that wonderful fresh dried on the line smell from back home. Never smells very good here. Now it's even worse.


Anyhow, I am headed to bed,but i think ill need to spray perfume or something on my pillowcase to overpower the burning smell. Or maybe I should look around and make sure nothing in my house is on fire. Yes, the smell is that strong. Bad part about living in a hot country where your windows are always open - you smell like the outside smells.

Wish me luck.