place2place

lions and antelopes and warthogs, oh my

We left Friday for Park W, driving on miles and miles of washboard and spent a couple of days in the park, one of Niger's world heritage sites. (It's fun to look at the unesco list and see how many you've seen.) The animals at Park W can be elusive and we've had friends who drove down and saw only gazelles and guineafowl. But we got lucky and saw an elephant in our first hour there! We found lots of bushbuck and antelope, Peter saw a lion, the monkey troops were running around and then we fell in love with warthogs. Check out our flickr set.

do they know it's christmas?

Three, two, one giraffes. We spent the longest time with this beautiful pair. We saw an abssynian roller bird, too: breathtaking.

tabaaaaaski

Elliott went out in the morning and saw some of the Tabaski festivites and came back in and said, "So. What else are we going to do today?" Like watching one thousand sheep slaughtered, butchered and spiked on sticks for roasting, on a street running with sheep blood isn't enough? Geesh, 14-year-olds are hard to entertain.

This is the "before" picture, for the after pictures, see my other post on Tabaski.

merry niger republic day

Our visitors are adapting quickly to life in Niger: new sandals from the Wadata market and a December afternoon in the pool.

Tis the season

I had a visit from my regional medical officer who was here for a whole week. During his stay, we had a candidate for the school director position who was also here. A cold and flu virus swept through and wrecked havoc but that seems to be pretty much over.

My sister Helen is coming today with my nephew, Elliott and niece, Ana! We are so excited! We hope to provide them with an education as well as memories to last a life time. I even pulled out the Christmas tree. You know, the one we bought last year. I looks okay but for what it makes up in appearance, it lacks in smell. Stefan tried to squirt it with a holiday scent (pepperminty) but that only lasted a few minutes. But Santa will appreciate the African Creche.

Oh! And speaking of Santa! On his way in to visit kids here, he took a rag doll roll off the camel and hit the ground. I got to treated his injury and no worry kids! He's alright. Just a sore shoulder. I told him to put ice on it.

merry christmas

Stefan said he asked Santa for a truck that shoots jello (huh?). Camille can't remember what she asked for. She is at a weird age where she wants both an ipod and an American girl doll.

new baby

A woman who works off and on for Unicef--sometimes she's in Niger, sometimes she's not--found this kitty as a stray a few months ago. Since she's headed back to the US and can't take her, she called me to put an ad giving away the kitty in the embassy newsletter. We've wanted to replace our kitty that got hit by a car while we were on homeleave, so we went over for a visit. The kitty is a little shy, but so cute, we coudn't resist. We brought her home and she hid under the bed for three days. Now she's not shy at all, in fact, she never stops expressing her opinion. Mademoiselle Crybaby is what we call her most of the time, so I think her name is Mademoiselle, although we've tried a few other things, they haven't stuck. Once we got her home we noticed that she is getting fat around the middle and I don't think it's because of the old can of liver pate that Peter fed her.

sunday afternoon

Complacencies of the pajamas, late coffee, and then chocolate cake for lunch.

Peter's writing a book. I did a few Christmas cards. Stefan is cleaning up the living room so we can walk and he can go to a birthday party. Camille is doing homework, her spelling list: bouquet, dangereusement, orphelin. I made the african fabric balls for baby gifts. The little one is for the cat, not that she looks interested.

out of the frying pan and into the freezer

Well, chill the vodka. Moscow it is.

At first we were shocked, in spite of it being number two on our bid list. "How did it end up as number two on our list?" Peter asks me. We can't stop talking about ballet and salmon and sturgeon and snow and mushrooms and palaces and walks in the forest. Camille is campaigning hard for the Anglo-American school, Stefan says he doesn't want to go to school at all.

garage/house

After I saw the doll house at Soulemama's website I started to have a problem. Luckily, Amina introduced me to someone who in a week whipped this out for me. I'm not sure who likes it more, me or Stefan. I love the wide doors in the back, I knew it would be more of a garage than a house. Stefan calls it the 24th house on Rainbow Street.