On the Sands of the Sahara

His First Box of Crayolas

2011-08-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile...

2011-08-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

...since my last post. Four and a half months, actually. A fair bit has happened since then. When I last posted we were in Niamey and I had just found out that I was expecting our second child. The hot season was just starting to heat up and power and water cuts were becoming longer and more frequent. At that point we had two and a half months left in Niger. I spent a fair bit of that time in my house...between the extreme heat and morning sickness I didn't feel like getting out much. I was thankful when I started to feel better and could get out and see friends again.

Security always remained and issue and much of the time we had armed guards in our yard at night. And then, two weeks before we had planned on leaving we were asked to evacuate. There were heavily armed vehicles spotted heading in our direction. We had less than 24 hours to pack our bags and leave. (Some people have asked what we did with all of our stuff...well, the beauty of owning our own home over there is that we didn't do anything with it, we just packed up what we were planning on taking back to America with us and then locked up the house and the storage shed and were on our way.)

And then we sat in Niamey for two weeks while we waited for June 16th to arrive. The guest house where we were staying only had room for us for the first week so half way through our stay in Niamey we had to change guest houses.

The night that we moved there was a big rainstorm, the first one of the season in Niamey. During that rainstorm we were robbed. They took our computer (which had all of our email contacts and three months of photos from last year that never made it to the hard drive plus my memory card with my more recent shots...our Mother's Day Easter Egg Hunt among them), and wiped us out of all of our cash--CFA, euros, and dollars. The money was in a cash box under Donnie's side of the bed. They had come into our room while we were sleeping. They'd even grabbed Donnie's jeans and took what cash he had and his phone.

Needless to say, we were under a fair bit of stress having had to have left our home under the circumstances we did, then getting robbed, and then not knowing what awaited us when we finally made it back to California. We were pretty sure of our housing but had no jobs to pay rent yet and no vehicles.

We left Niger on June 16th. We then spent almost two weeks in Alabama and Georgia visiting Donnie's family and some supporters. We arrived in California at the end of June a few days later made it up to Humboldt. Thankfully, by the end of July we had both secured jobs (not quite sure how we'll survive after I quit, though). Donnie's back working at Ploletski's Appliance Center and I'm working at one of the nursing homes. I was able to take my car back from my mom (which leaves her carless) and we bought a $600 clunker that we hope won't be a money pit and will last us for the duration of our stay here.

Micah is doing great adjusting to life in the states. On July 25th we celebrated his 2nd birthday and then had a party the next weekend. Donnie's having a little bit of a hard time being gone all day long and just getting to see him for a few hours in the evening most days but I think overall we're adjusting back just fine too. Aside from gestational diabetes (which I knew was coming and will hopefully be as well controlled as last time), the pregnancy is going really well and our LITTLE GIRL should be arriving sometime around Thanksgiving.

Ok, so I think that about covers it.

PS: If you haven't heard from me in a long time via email send me an email (hebertnomads@gmail.com) and make sure still I have your email address!

Animal Loans

2011-03-30T03:21:00.001-07:00

So, as you may recall, last year was a very bad year in Niger. After two years of little to no rains, and the ever present problem of overgrazing in the zone, there was no pasture left and people's animals were dying as they desperately waited for rains and pasture to come.

Dead animals were everywhere and rotting stench was in the air.

Some NGOs would come through and collect all of the dead carcases and burn them so that other animals in their hunger wouldn't try to eat them.

Thankfully, rains came and in the end there was good pasture. Unfortunately the first rains up north were torrential and cause major flash flooding. Many lost whatever remaining animals that had managed to survive the drought.

After the rains came and the pasture began to grow the post-crisis work began. A large part of that work is helping people restock their herds. We do this through animal loans. The way the loans work is that the project (JEMED) buys the initial stock of animals for members of a community chosen by that community. They keep the animals for a number of years and when the time comes for them to reembourse those animals, instead of them paying it back to the project, the animals (not the same ones, but others of the same age and quality) are loaned back out to other members of their community. Around Christmastime our church raised some money to help buy animals. Here are a few pics...

Animals waiting to be branded after being purchased in market.

The branding fire.

Some of the beneficiaries. These are Wodaabe from the village of Tagalalt. Mallam on the far left is the president of the site, the others are two of his brothers.

Cows.

My little sheep herder.

Chez Hebert

2011-03-28T05:06:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago now we moved into our new house. You'd think I'd remember the date, but I don't. Not exactly Christmas like we had hoped, but we made it in just under a year after construction began and we are happy to be there just the same! It was a very long and arduous process, but worth it in the end.

Here's Micah helping Papa mix paint back in December. We spent far more time painting than we ever imagined that we would! And as you can guess, at times it was a bit of a challenge with a toddler running around. Playing in the piles of sand and gravel left over from construction. I think the yard is going to take a lot of work to get it looking nice.

Our spacious kitchen with more cupboard, drawer, and cabinet space than I know what to do with! I'm thrilled to have a place for everything and to not have to have stuff on top of cupboards and on counters collecting dust. I also love that I have an overhead fan in here!

The only drawback to this place is the water cuts. Now that the hot season is started we essentially have 12 hour water cuts everyday beginning around 8 or 9am. Kind of annoying when you would really love to take a shower at siesta, or there are dishes that need doing, but we make do. We have these 20 liter jugs that we fill up with water to get us through the day for cooking, cleaning, and bathing until the water comes back on late in the evening.

View of the living room from the kitchen, it's kind of a light sage green in color. (I mixed all the colors myself...it was quite an adventure.) We have an L-shaped open floor plan, the dining area is just to the left.

And here's the bathroom. It's the color of the sky at dusk. We put in a hot water heater so we can have hot showers in the cold season (or in the hot season, if there's water!). There's also an overhead fan in here too, which makes taking care of business in the hot season much more comfortable.

I didn't take pictures of the bedrooms as they're still in disarray. Micah's room is a nice sky blue and ours is a pretty shade of yellow.

We've heard that some people have asked, Why are Donnie and Allison building their own home? And can they even do that there? (Yes, we can!) Nothing in Niger is ever easy, very few things are up to Western standards, and "Renters Rights" do not exist here. We've heard stories over and over again of folks who have dumped money into fixing up a rental house here in Niger only to be evicted or to have the landlord come and double the rent. It costs a lot of money to fix up a place. Even though property values have sharply increased over the last 5-10 years, it was actually more cost effective for us to buy our own property and build our own place. We figured that in about six years or so, the money that we would have spent on fixing up another place and renting would have paid for our house. It's definitely been an investment on our part (all of our savings, basically, and then some), but the place is OURS. We will always have a house to come home to in Niger. We don't have to worry about landlords kicking us out or raising the rent. So, in a nutshell, that is why we bought property and built our own house.

Micah and Enoch

2011-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Enoch is the gardener for the neighbors across the street from the YWAM house/office in Niamey. He also fills in as night guard for us from time to time. He's almost always around, even when he's not working and he and Micah have become very good friends. Micah LOVES Enoch, and I think Enoch loves Micah, too.

Neem Flowers

2011-03-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

The Front Porch

2011-03-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

We've been very blessed with the return of our team mate, Stevie P. Not only has it been great to just have a team mate back here, but he has blessed us immensely by helping us finish the up the house and move in. Not only did he help Donnie finish up the painting and lay down the fake linoleum, but (with the help of Donnie) built us our beautiful front porch! This is quality workmanship, folks.

Steve hard at work.

The finished product! Thank you Donnie and Steve!!!

Oops!

2011-03-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Someone found a Sharpie!

He found it while emptying out the contents of my purse.

It washed off WAY easier than I thought it would :)

Bush Taxi

2011-03-25T06:42:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of a bush taxi we passed a couple of times on our way down to Niamey last week...

I think I need to make a book, "Things You See on Bush Taxis".

Micah's First Trip to the Zoo

2011-02-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

...And Mom's last day in Niger :(

It was a day for the baby book! I'd been thinking for months that it would be cool for mom to be in on his first trip to the zoo, so before we put her on the plane heading back to America we made a trip to the Zoo and National Museum. It's a bit of a sad looking zoo, but a zoo nontheless.

We got to see baboons.

And a civet cat.

And porcupines.

And hippos!

One of the zoo keepers was actually really cool. He was a younger guy. He was watching us watch the hippos and telling us a bit about them. He then directed us to move over a bit and he jumped down into the pen and with some bunches of grass enticed the bigger hippo to come out of the water.

Look at those teeth!

He then arranged for Micah to get up close and personal with the littlest hippo :)

This little guy is nine months old. He still doesn't have any teeth and won't have any until well after a year old. He drinks like 20 liters of milk a day. His mother attacked a fishing boat on the river and killed someone so then she was killed and her baby was brought to the zoo. Kind of sad.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the dinosaur bones!

Playing Ball with Grandma

2011-02-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

This kid's got a pretty good arm :)

Bush Trip

2011-02-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

We haven't been out to the bush in AGES...whenever we did that food distribution, I think it was sometime this summer, I can't remember. It seems like whenever we have a trip planned there is another "incident" just before our planned trip and then we're grounded in Abalak. Well, a few weeks had passed after the most recent kidnappings in Niamey and we were allowed to go out, but with armed guards, of course, and just for the day. Still, we were thrilled for the chance to go and to show my mom a bit of the bush.

It turned into a really windy day. This picture was taken shortly after our arrival, it was pretty windy already but the landscape had yet to be covered in dust.
About half-way through our visit one of the men brought in a baby goat for Micah to pet. And then he says, "It's for Micah." Oh my! He looks really young, I thought to myself. Turns out the baby's mother had died a week ago and sure enough, he was not yet weaned. And just days before we were leaving for Niamey. Luckily, I have a friend whose mom has some goats with babies so I sent it home with him until we get back and I can buy him a new mama.

As it was super windy, and there weren't actually too many people living at the actual site, we ended up spending much of the day in this little one room building drinking tea and eating dates. Later in the day the wind let up a little and we walked to the seasonal lake (rain runoff from the rainy season) where the people get their drinking water, water their animals, and...farm catfish. Crazy, I know, catfish in the middle of the desert. Donnie was very excited. He actually bought some and went home and fried them up. One happy cajun that night, he was.

Playing with Grandma's Glasses

2011-02-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Visiting

2011-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple pics of me and my mom visiting my friend Rokaya and her mom and some of her cousins.

Abalak Sunset

2011-02-04T09:22:00.001-08:00

Story Time with Grandma

2011-02-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

One of Micah's Christmas presents from folks back home was the Owl Babies book. It's a story about three baby owls--Sarah, Percy, and Bill, who wake up one night to find that their mother is gone. As they wait Sarah is pretty sure that she'll come back soon and bring them food to eat, but all Bill can say is, "I want my mommy!" Micah is my little Bill, he is very attached. Here he is reading the story with Grandma...after having some raviolis for lunch.

Pea Freely

2011-02-04T09:14:00.001-08:00

Fun with Water

2011-02-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, we live in the middle of the desert and there's sand everywhere, but once we move to the new house (more on that later) I want Micah to have a nice sand box to play in so for Christmas we got him a set of sand toys. Until we get the sandbox, though, they make nice water toys in the meantime.

Christmas Eve

2011-02-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve was pretty chill at our house this year. I was just overjoyed that my mom could be with us. Here's our pretty tree with all the presents (mostly Micah's) waiting to be opened.

Here's Micah waiting for dinner. He had found Grandma Linda's slippers and was traipsing about the house in them. This kid love shoes.

We had eggplant parmeseana with zucchini for dinner.

A rare family photo.

Micah's Second Christmas

2010-12-26T12:44:00.000-08:00

We are very thankful and blessed to have Grandma Linda with us this Christmas. Here are a few pics from our Christmas day and the day after...

Papa made us waffles for breakfast. Micah's getting good at giving back rubs :)

Auntie Jordan got him this wooden train.

He's quite good at opening presents now!

It's Pea Freely!

Reading his new “Owl Babies” book. “I want my Mommy!” Three baby owls wake in the night to find their mommy GONE! Will she come back soon? Quite appropriate as we are currently dealing with some severe attatchment issues :(

Micah greeting a Christmas evening visitor.

Day after Christmas visiting at a friend's house.

Bad Trip

2010-12-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

This is one of the posts I wrote while in Niamey before Christmas but didn't post because I couldn't retrieve the pictures to go with it, but I've decided to go ahead and post it anyways...hopefully one day I can add the pics!

This is a long one, folks…

Thursday morning we drove down to Niamey to pick up Grandma Linda who was coming in in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I think this was the worst Niamey trip ever to date, Donnie would not disagree. You see, he was (is) recovering from malaria. I think he may have had the flu on top of it. It was day three of three of his treatment and the meds really seemed to be tearing up his stomach. He had wrenching stomach pain and had been nauseous and vomiting for two days prior to our trip and not keeping anything down, food or liquids. Thankfully, though, when it came time to take meds he was able to keep those down! This particular morning he had only thrown up once but was still nauseous, having stomach pains, body aches, and occasional fever and chills. I was beginning to wonder if his treatment was really working.

Currently, with the way the roads are, the trip can be done in about nine hours if you don’t stop. This time it took us 15 1/2 (breaking our prior record in February of 2008 of 14 hours). An hour or so of that was spent in Tahoua checking the post (empty :( ), withdrawing money from the bank (only one check had cleared :( ), and starting an IV. Yep, I said starting an IV. My first one in two years…I never imagined it would be on the side of the road in Tahoua! Donnie was just too dehydrated already and needed fluids. Our driver was driving very slowly, partly because he didn’t want to jar Donnie too much, and partly because he didn’t think our truck could go much faster (it can)…he was only prolonging our misery. We broke down twice. The second time was at dusk, a belt had broken, the radiator overheated, and Donnie felt like he was getting worse! I was to the point of tears, overwhelmed with Donnie being sick, trying not to panic, and fearing we would never make it to Niamey. Normally we were just over two hours outside of Niamey, but with it getting dark we would be slowed down greatly as our headlights pretty much suck and every time there is oncoming traffic we have to slow WAY down because we can’t see a thing.

At this point I was at the end of my rope. One minute I’m thinking, why bother praying, I can’t pray anymore, what’s the point, my husband is still sicker than a dog and He doesn’t seem to be answering either of our prayers and I’ve been praying all day long. The next minute I’m thinking, I’ve been praying all day, I’m pretty sure Donnie’s been calling out in agony all day too, and I know others are praying for us…what would things be like if none of us were praying?

And I just have to say here, Micah was such a champ! He was so good all day long; he hardly fussed and was just chill. Such a blessing as I don’t think I could have dealt with both him not being pleasant and a still very sick Donnie.

Finally, at 10:30, we arrived! It seemed that the moment he got out of the truck Donnie was starting to feel better, he even wanted to eat. I gave him one more bottle of fluid and then took out the IV. It was such a relief and we were so thankful to finally be here.

Here are a few pics from that day… if I can ever retrieve those pics of the memory cards, this is what they will be...
6441:Bad road. This is what much of the first hour south of Abalak looks like.
6443: Dirt track to the side of the road that is better than driving on the actual road
6444: Getting fluids
6445: IV start...beautiful!
6450: Here’s the little guy. Our old team truck doesn’t have seatbelts, so a car seat is pointless.

My mom arrived the next night at 2AM…with all of her bags in tow! We all went to the airport to meet her. Normally they don’t let people in to the debarking and luggage claim area, but a nice policeman let Donnie through, good thing because Mom needed a little help. We’re so happy to have her here and we’re so thankful for everyone back home who helped her get here, we can’t thank you enough! And thank you to everyone else who sent us presents, we are much appreciative!

[Another pic here: 6452:] Grandma Linda is here!!! Cuddling with her sleeping grandbaby while we check out our loot. I think we got back to the house somewhere between 3:30 and 4:00.

Little Monkeys

2010-12-18T15:35:00.001-08:00

Mr. Bubbles

2010-12-18T15:34:00.002-08:00

A Garden Pot

2010-12-18T15:34:00.001-08:00

One of his favorite places.

Bon-Bon Glace

2010-12-18T15:33:00.001-08:00

One of his favorite things.

It's Christmastime!

2010-12-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

Time to bust out the Christmas music and decorations put up the tree!

Micah had fun playing with the decorations…

…and playing in the empty boxes!

Did Hannah label that tin?

Me and my boy

Micah helped with the decorating.

I have video of him last year sitting under the tree in his carseat, he couldn’t reach the ornaments with his hands so he scooted down and was kicking at them with his feet. I wonder if he remembers that?

Micah's First Thanksgiving

2010-12-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

This year for thanksgiving we were invited to spend it with some other M folks in Tahoua. Us, the Mannixes and Sarah’s friend April, and the two Southern Baptist couples that live there. Nine adults and three small children gathered ‘round the table made for a festive meal. We had most of the Thanksgiving essentials, excepts for cranberry sauce and my mama’s sweet potatoes—three small chickens stood in for the turkey, and of course there were mashed potatoes and gravy, Stovetop stuffing, and green bean casserole (onions and cream of mushroom sent from the states—great ideas for holdiday care packages!), plus yummy meatballs!

After lunch the kiddos played. Well, Caleb and Micah played, I think they were a little too much for the other little boy…those crazy bush kids! Then they watched a movie before settling in for their afternoon naps…

One of the few pictures I have where my son is actually wearing clothes!

Micah Playing Peek-A-Boo

2010-12-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

He does this almost every time I put a diaper on :)

Market Day

2010-09-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

Alkassoum and Aboubacar. The ‘grocery store’ where I buy most of my Abalak staples.

Someone bought a new bed. And a sack of rice. Donkey carts are one of the main modes of transport around here.

Sometimes I buy fabric from this guy.

Need a broom?

Meat Market. They leave the tail on so you can tell if you’re buying sheep or goat. This one’s a sheep.

This one is for Erica Brim...This is how bush people charge their phones.

Tuareg leather tents. Much cooler than a plastic tarp!

Haussa woman cooking for the market day crowd.

Peanuts, tomatoes, and peppers.

Wow, those are big horns!

People bring grass from places that have it and sell it for about 50 cents a bag.

I don’t know that people actually cook with these but they pound them up and use them in makeup and they also string them into necklaces. The smell of them reminds me of Christmas.

AFBC Food Distribution

2010-08-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

Anyone who gets our newsletter or regular updates has heard about what a bad year it is here. After two years of little to no rains and the severe lack of pasture that goes along with it, we knew that we were facing another food crisis, worse than that of 2005 which received international media attention. By the end of the hot season, cows that would normally sell for $500 in market were going for $10. Driving through the region you would see dead animals everywhere. Thankfully the rainy season did start (and is still going) although it seemed to come a little late farther up north. With the first big rain up north came flash floods which took many people’s remaining stock that had survived the hot season. Without their animals they have no means to buy food to feed their families. So now there is pasture, but many people don’t have animals to eat it. Environmentally speaking, it’s probably a good thing as the zone is over grazed, but for those individuals who have lost everything it is catastrophic.

In the midst of this catastrophe Arcata First Baptist Church gave $7,000 to help us feed the poorest of the poor. With that money we were able to buy a sack of millet, a sack of rice, and a 5 liter jug of oil each for 70 families. This will feed each family for approximately two months. The beneficiaries were from seven different sites, both Wodaabe and Tamasheq. Each one was more than grateful.

Some of the food waiting to be distributed.

Micah waiting to go out to the bush.

For security reasons, just to be on the safe side, we took armed guards out with us. They were quite taken with Micah

One of the grateful recipients.

“Signing” for their grain with their thumb prints

Micah helping with the distribution

There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of aid coming in and really the crisis is just beginning, or I guess you could say it continues. We call it post-crisis. We made it through the hot season and the rains and the pasture have come, but now many people are left with nothing. Next we will do what we can to help people re-stock their herds so that they can hopefully become once again self-sufficient.

Marcel

2010-08-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

One night while Donnie was in Niamey we were talking on the phone, “I have a surprise for Micah,” he says, “but I’m not telling you what it is.” Ok, whatever. The week continued and I forgot about Micah’s surprise. It wasn’t until after he had gotten home, the truck was almost unloaded and then out jumped this little guy…

And then I remembered the surprise.

Keep in mind this is the same man who wouldn’t let me keep a puppy I found in the street. Anyone else see the irony here?

He seems to really like us, especially Micah. Sometimes he gets really excited and jumps up and down when he sees him. I’m sure if Micah could, he would do the same thing. Rest assured we supervise these monkey/baby interactions very closely.

Marcel has made himself at home on our porch. I have mixed feelings about the little guy, he is rather cute and has grown on me but he poops everywhere and now I can’t just let Micah go out on the porch to play. We untied him thinking he might decide that freedom is a beautiful thing but now he just climbs trees and wants to come in the house. I guess he’s gotten a bit attached to us.

Wedding Day\

2010-08-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Bride getting her hair braided while guests hang out and drink tea. At the end of the afternoon an entourage from the groom’s side will come and take her away.

Lunchtime at Zoua's

2010-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Micah Helps Make Tea

2010-08-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Lightning

2010-08-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing lightning storm one night. Not much rain to speak of, but there was lightning for hours. The sky was lit up more than it was dark and I was walking around my house in the middle of the night without any lights on. Here are a few shots. I was a little scared to unlock my door and go outside and besides needed something to steady my camera on as I was shooting these with a shutter speed of 3 seconds, hence the screen.

Bright as day! This one looks like it struck the ground.

Happy Birthday Again!

2010-08-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Donnie came back from Tahoua last week with not one but two packages! The Sutters and the Fagundes’ had sent Micah some birthday presents (and a little love for us too!). The package from the Sutters was post-marked June 20th. On the front of that envelope was a little stamp that said…

So that’s why it took nine weeks to get here!

He got a shape sorter and a whole fleet of cute little Tonka trucks, some of them having been to Thailand!

Dear Kevin, Laura, Mike, Cortnee, and Madeline,
Thank you for my birthday presents!
Love,
Micah

Stuck Truck

2010-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

We were on our way back from doing a food distribution out in the bush. We’d made it safely back to town without incident (well, without incident on our truck, the other truck however, got stuck in sand, broke an axle, and blew a tire on the way back) and were driving through Abalak to take some Wodaabe to the maternity hospital. It seemed that all routes there were filled with water. Mike decided to chance it and cross. We made it about halfway through the muddy wet mess when we hit a hole with the left front tire. He put it in 4WD and tried to get out but that only got us stuck deeper. We called for the other truck to come help us but it was over an hour before they came as they were looking for a tow rope. They finally arrived, but this was the truck with the broken back axle, so even in 4WD it was really just 2WD. I decided to go home and feed and water my child and it was a good thing I did because it took them over three hours to get that truck un-stuck.

This was what I saw when I looked out my window.

Mike trying to dig us out while waiting for the other truck to come help.

Donnie supervising.

It was pretty stuck.

I Turned Around

2010-08-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

Micah was cruising around the table when I turned around to dig something out of my purse. When I turned back after just a moment, this is what I saw…

One Saturday in Niger

2010-08-01T02:41:00.001-07:00

This post is for Millie LaDow...thanks for the letter!

I recently received a birthday card with a letter in it in the mail. In the letter she was asking what daily life in Niger is like for us. Well, it’s not usually super exotic or super exciting. There are some things that maybe at first seemed strange or exciting to us, but after awhile become commonplace…eating on a mat on the floor with our hands, dust storms, seeing a nomad riding by on his camel, market day in Abalak, etc. Another thing you get used to living in Niger is nothing ever really going as planned…this Saturday was one of those days.

We’ve been spending much of the week in Tahoua (two hours away) doing an intensive Tamasheq language learning with some Southern Baptist folks and coming home for a couple of days so that Donnie can help supervise project activities. On this day we had planned to have class until 5:30 and then go straight home after that. Well, at breakfast we find out that one member of the class is sick so we come up with Plan B—we’ll skip language for today and just go home early. We call Mike who was coming to Tahoua to do some food shopping and planning on taking us home at 5:30 to see if he could come sooner (like now). He says he’ll leave in about an hour, we plan on leaving around 10:00.

We leave a little after 10:00 and on our way out of town go see the veggie guy to buy some produce. We were there until almost 11:00. Then we stop by CFAO (a small super market of sorts), then get gas, oh, and the back tire needs some air. Finally we’re off, home free, we think. It’s about 11:20 by this time. We get a few kilometers outside of town and the car starts to overheat. Mike rolls down the window and turns on the heater, like we’ve all been taught to do. But this isn’t enough. There is a boom so we pull over to check it out and find that the top of the radiator has exploded. We turn around to see if we can make it back to town (wishful thinking?), but quickly realize that it is not a good idea. We then call the Southern Baptist folks to see if they can tow us back to town. His wife has the truck, he says, but when she gets back he’ll come get us.

Another hour goes by. In the meantime we call back to Abalak to see if someone can hotwire our truck and come get us, assuming that the car is going to take at least all day to fix. If they leave now we can be home in four hours. Southern Baptist guy comes and we get towed back to town. It’s now after 1:00, we’re expecting our truck to arrive in the next 45 minutes. Micah and I go back to the Southern Baptists’ house while Mike and Donnie stay with the car to make sure it doesn’t get parted out.

The truck doesn’t arrive when expected…apparently he took his time getting going because he didn’t arrive until almost 4:00. The guys at the garage say the car will be ready at 5:00. We’re hoping to leave by 5:00 at the latest so that we can get back to Abalak before dark. The headlights on the truck are about worthless, even with the brights on. If there’s any oncoming traffic you cannot see in front of you. Of course the car is not done by 5:00, not even close. We decide to leave our mechanic with the car and we will go back to Abalak. It’s now 6:00, and because of nightfall approaching our two hour drive will probably be at least a three hour drive…so we think.

We get on the road again, thinking that in a few hours we will be back home again. Did I mention that it had rained all afternoon? Yes, great, we need it! However, sometimes when it rains there is so much runoff that has no where to go and sometimes it crosses the road. Well, we arrived at one such place about 45 out. We stop the truck and take a look—it’s moving but it’s not that deep so we figure we can cross it, and we do. We continue on…

And then we come to the raging river! There is not normally a river here, but tonight there are whitewater rapids. Donnie and Mike walk upstream thinking they’ll find a place to cross (wishful thinking again?). We weigh out our options…try to cross? Definitely not a good idea. Sleep here? I don’t think so. The only rational option seems to be to turn around and go back to Tahoua. And being the rational people that we are, this is what we do. Of course it’s dark by now, so the drive back takes a bit longer than the hour that it took to get to this point. We stop at the hotel on the outside of town to get some dinner (Finally! I was getting hungry when we left Tahoua!). By this time it’s almost 9:00. We eat dinner, go back to the house, and go back to bed. The next morning we hit the road at 6:00. Luckily by the time we reached the river it was no longer covering the road and we could safely pass and continue our voyage home.

Micah Turns One

2010-07-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

WOW I can’t believe our little boy is already one year old! As I look back throughout this year I see time and time again where Allison and I have been so thankful for our son. With this being our first child there have been times that have made us wonder how we were going to survive, but we are both amazed when we look at him.
In Niger it is sometimes a challenge to make birthdays fun. We bought a couple things for his birthday when we were on break and Grandma Linda also mailed some presents which made it here just before his birthday. We threw out a mat and let him have at his gifts.

Surprisingly enough he was into opening the presents……sometimes he would get distracted and thought the paper was more fun than the actual gift.

Happy to Be One!

Balloons Anyone?

He really likes this one Grandma.

What are you talking about? What Cake?

This is good stuff

More Please

Come on can’t we make a deal for more cake?

Little Turban Man

2010-06-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

Crocodile Meat

2010-06-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the the 60th anniversary celebration for the organization that Hubert works for. In fact, he was the one that organized the festivities. Anise came back from the dedication of the new building saying that they'd already eaten lunch and that there was really good food there and they even ate crocodile meat and that they brought some home for us...

Bissou Bissou

2010-06-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

For the last bit of our vacation time we're staying in Belfort, France with the French family that Donnie stayed with while he was learning French 10 years ago. They've stayed in contact over the years and consider Donnie to be like a son to them. It's been wonderful to get to meet them and they're taking such good care of us...Merci Famille Euvrard!

Here's Micah giving kisses to his Grandpapa Hubert...

Swans

2010-06-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

I'd never seen swans before in real life. Today we went for a walk around a water resevoir and as we began our walk we came across this sight...

I was a bit amazed at what large feet they have.

The papa swan was a bit agressive and would chase after runners and dogs if they got too close to the mama and the babes. It was amusing to watch. We continued down the path and soon crossed a doberman pinscer headed back in the direction of the swans and we wondered what that encounter might be like.

Here are a few other shots from our walk today...

Hard to imagine that in just a few short days we will be leaving this beautiful place and headed back to our "big sand box" as Donnie likes to call it. Unfortunately, though, we're still not cleared to go back up North and so we will be stuck in Niamey for a bit...hopefully not for too long as it gets expensive to stay there and as much as I hate to leave the western world behind, once we get back to Niger we will be anxious to be home again.

Operation Christmas Child: Jadiri

2010-06-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

What else can I say? The kids loved opening up their boxes. It was fun watching them go through them and look at all of the stuff inside. Here are a few pics from this site.

Here's the link to the rest of the Jadiri pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=66135&id=1248716064&l=b4a69c7428

Operation Christmas Child: Tagalalt

2010-06-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

In mid-May before we left we loaded up two trucks full of Christmas boxes and along with the Mannixes we made a day trip out to two of the Wodaabe sites. We went to Tagalalt first in the morning.
Here are some of the fathers having tea while the children are opening presents. The women were all over at Mallam's house.

Some people really put a lot of effort into these boxes. Some families and individuals put together multiple boxes. Many people included letters and addresses in hopes of corresponding with some of the children.

Imatane took care of Micah for us while we were otherwise occupied.

Some of the kids were scared and didn't know what to think of some of the stuffed animals that were in many of the boxes, but this little girl looks like she loves her dolly.

Micah had fun playing in the empty boxes while we waited for lunch.

We took loads of pics, way to many to post here. You can look at them here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=66122&id=1248716064&l=c1648c8fce

Operation Christmas Child: Ecole TANAT

2010-06-15T02:30:00.000-07:00

The first place where we distributed boxes was at Billou's school, Ecole Tanat. Tanat means "good decision" in Tamasheq.

Boxes being unloaded from the truck.

And here are a few of the kids who were told to sit in their seats but couldn't help but watch what was going on outside.

We started with the youngest of the four classes first. This little girl sang us a song before we began.

It was quite an occasion...all of the kids came to school on Sunday morning so that we wouldn't disrupt classes and all of the parents on the "school board" were there. We each took turns passing out the gifts.

Of course, the children were all very excited to receive their gifts.

Here is a link to my facebook album with all of the pictures from the day: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=66111&id=1248716064&l=781e84bfc5

And here is a link to the Association Tanat: www.associationtanat.fr. It tells a bit about the school and there is also a link to sponsor a child as well.

[Well, I tried to make them links, but apparently it didn't work, so you'll just have to cut and paste the addresses :(]

Operation Christmas Child: Part I

2010-06-15T01:35:00.000-07:00

Christmas in...May!
I'm sure many of you have heard of Operation Christmas Child, a program through an organization called Samaritan's purse. Every year around Christmas time they gather shoe boxes of gifts put together by people in the states and then they distribute them to children around the world. Ever put together one of those boxes yourself and wondered where it ended up? Well, this year, a large number of those boxes ended up in the Abalak region of Niger! We received boxes from Wisconsin, Minesota, Iowa, South Dakota, and Missouri. So far, before we left on vacation (and would have otherwise been evacuated for security reasons) we were able to do five distributions, one at the private school in town, other families around Abalak, and then one each at three different Wodaabe sites. We still have more boxes at home and are hoping that we can go home soon and that someday our ban on bush travel will be lifted so we will be able to take more gifts out to more children in the bush.

Here are the boxes on just one more leg of their journey from the states to Niger. They're coming from the distribution center to the office in Niamey while they await transport up to Abalak.

Little Boy Blue and His Mama

2010-04-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to a naming ceremony. The baby is a little girl and her name is Mariam. Like most all other Tuareg fetes, we get dressed up in our best clothes and indidgo headscarves, gather together and eat good food and drink tea.

Here are a few pictures of us after the affair when the indigo from my headscarf has managed to cover just about every inch of exposed skin. Micah's skin is the same color as his eyes :)

I wonder if indigo does anything for heat rash?

The Hot Season II

2010-04-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

My poor baby has heat rash like you wouldn't believe. This photo doesn't do it justice. This is just one of the reasons why we need to go on vacation.

Micah's New Haircut

2010-04-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

It takes a little getting used to :)

The Hot Season

2010-04-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

What is one to do when there's no electricty and it's 104F INSIDE the house?

Why, set up the pool, of course!

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-03-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

*Micah Jude—his once toothless grin, his laugh, the way he wiggles when he’s excited, his blue eyes, his baby babbles and serious conversations

*The color purple
*Cold season mornings
*Cold season in general
*The smell of fresh cut grass
*Drinking from the garden hose
*The ocean

*Pretty flowers

*Christmas lights and candles
*My 0 degree sleeping bag (it’s heavenly!)
*My down jacket
*New clothes
*Sparkly things

*Spring mornings
*Summer evenings
*Fall afternoons

*Winter storms in Humboldt
*Crepes from Renatas
*Kyoto sushi
*A sunny afternoon on the Plaza
*Family celebrations with my sisters
*Camel rides at sunset
*Sleeping out in the bush (or in the mountains back home) under the stars
*Yarn
*Market Day in Abalak
*Fresh cow and camel’s milk
*Chloe
*Massages
*Ben and Jerry’s
*Dessert in general
*Jeff Stanley’s paintings
*A day at the river
*The smell of jasmine
*Taking a dip in a lake after a long day of backpacking
*Creating
*My Ergo (Thank you, Sherry!!!)
*Long bike rides

March 18 2010

2010-03-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Not to make you all pity me, but I post this just to give you a bit of a glimpse of the reality of my life in Niger. Some days during the cold season it gets super windy and dusty. The dust just fills the air. The sky looks overcast, but it’s just the dust in the air. This cold season we didn’t see too many of those days…we’ve actually had more now that the hot season has started. Usually, on those days I sweep my house twice a day. Here’s what I swept up one morning in just the living room:

I’d just swept the night before.

Today was another one of those days. The upside to all this wind, dirt, and dust—the temperature is much, much cooler. Today, for example, it only got up to 89F in house. Last week we had a high in the house of 98F…not sure what it was outside.

And because it was so cool today, this little dude got to wear his jeans that my mom got for him before we left. It may be the only day he gets to wear them. Normally, I don’t put pants on him, especially now that it’s getting hot, but I thought his knees might feel better…

…because this little dude is crawling!
Motherhood just recently got a whole lot harder.

Here’s a close-up of his belly…Grandpa Jeff stamped him and then tried to sign him while we were in the office this afternoon. Kind of reminds me of a Cabbage Patch Kid except for that it’s in the wrong spot

Baby Car II

2010-03-20T08:23:00.001-07:00

Now he can sit on the Baby Car all by himself!

Second bush trip

2010-03-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Made it out to the bush again last week for another quick overnight trip. This time it was out to a newer site for some grain bank follow-up. It was our first time out to this site. We arrived just after sunset. I was escorted over to where the women were while the men were getting ready to meet. The meetings started a while later. In the meantime we had tea, and dinner, and second dinner, and second tea. The moon was about half full and I think Micah enjoyed looking up at it. The women were suprised that I knew any Tamasheq at all. When I first arrived and asked how their children were they giggled and said, "she knows 'children'". So even though I still can't speak much, it was an enjoyable time. The kids loved Micah. The meeting with the men lasted until midnight (and so did Micah!). After we crawled into bed Donnie recounted (is that an English word?) to me a conversation that went on in the meeting between one of the men and his little boy--Apparently this little boy, about four years old, had taken a liking to Micah. He told his father that Micah could stay here in the bush with them (we could come visit him there) and he could drink cow's milk. Then his father said, well, why don't you go back to Abalak with them and you can have cow's milk there and go to school. The boy quickly responded with a no. His reason--"I do not believe that they have a cow!"

Property Update

2010-03-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

Just last week we began construction on the new wall of our property. We moved the wall out, added some height all the way around, and put in a front gate.

So now we have some land with a tree and a wall. It's going to go in that little cleared out space along the back wall.

If anyone would like to contribute to our building fund, we are in need of and are accepting donations. Checks made out to us can be sent to 5249 Creekside Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243. Or, for a tax deduction, checks can be sent to Arcata First Baptist Church, 1700 Union Street, Arcata, CA 95521 with a separate note attatched designating it to "Hebert's House".

Bathtime

2010-03-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

Micah loves taking a bath. It's so much more fun since he's been sitting up on his own. He just got his first rubber duckies in the mail [Thank you, Meghan!] and he thoroughly enjoys spashing around in his bucket.

He has recently discovered his belly and since most of his life is spent in just a diaper, he has plenty of opportunity to check it out.

And tonight, for the first time, he pulled himself up to standing all by himself.

Don't you just love those chunky little thighs?

First Teeth

2010-03-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

I'd heard about what a nightmare teething could be, but Micah came through it like a champ! I know babies get teeth everyday, but I couldn't help but be so proud of him! And now he's got two teeth to show for it...or in Tamasheq-- eshin eshinen :)

Clean Baby

2010-03-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

Isn't he just handsome in his little bathrobe?

My Little Laundry Boy

2010-03-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

Here's Micah helping Mama bring in the laundry.

Sunset in the bush

2010-03-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

Finally, after more than three months in country, we made it out to the bush. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Six Months Old

2010-01-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

Six months ago today Micah Jude came into the world. I feel so blessed to be this little boy's mama and I love him so much!

He brings me great joy.

Tonight we went out with some friends to a place overlooking the Niger River. Micah seemed to enjoy himself.

View of the river.

Sunset.

Baby's First Haircut

2010-01-25T14:05:00.000-08:00

He had some patches that were just getting way too long. It was starting to look like he had a comb-over in the back. I just had to do something about it.

He did so well, just sat there and played with his toy while I cut away.

And here's the end result...mighty handsome, I say!

Need a Nanny?

2010-01-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

The other night we went out to eat at L'Exotic. We all had pizza. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, a lady that worked there came and took Micah. This is not an unusual occurence. Near the end of the meal, one of the waiters came over to me and said, "Madame, pardon, but my sister over there who was holding your baby..." I thought he was going to say she wanted some money for taking him while I ate or something, but he continued, "She wants to know if you need help taking care of your baby, she would like to come work for you." Oh! I smiled and explained to him that we didn't live here but were just visitng and that we live up North. He said okay and went and relayed the message. He came back just a few minutes later, "She says that she doesn't care and that she would even go to Agadez to come work for you." And then I explained that oh, we don't live in Agadez, we live out in the bush, and I didn't think that she would want to come work for us where we live. And off he went. Then, just as we were getting ready to leave he brings me a piece of paper with Juliette's name and her phone number...just in case I decide that I need a nanny after all.

Babies in a Box

2010-01-24T13:35:00.000-08:00

They went up to Abalak and back.

“FIRE-TRUCK”

2010-01-24T00:29:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago Donnie goes to pick up the doors to our front gate so we can begin rebuilding the front wall of our new property. I was working in the office so he came to tell that he should be back in 15 minutes, but reminded me that our son was sleeping in the house so that if he wasn’t back by then to make sure I checked on him. He comes back a little later telling me that he is indeed going to be longer than 15 minutes, that he almost had a very bad accident (almost?!?) but he’s ok and he’ll tell me what happened when he gets back. Okay.

He comes back and explains to me that just as he was arriving at the door place he heard a loud pop and then all of a sudden there was a bunch of smoke billowing out from under the hood. The next thing he knows someone is running up to him yelling at him to get out of the truck. Upon exiting the truck he notices the flames coming from out of the front end. All the people who were there came running up and immediately started throwing sand at the truck. They were throwing it everywhere at the windows, in the back, in the interior…..maybe they were trying to bury the truck before it burned up. Fortunately their was someone with a water hose close by. It was thought that the fire was started by a short. We are just glad Donnie made it out safely.

Care Package Ideas

2010-01-16T10:30:00.000-08:00

Show us you care! Here are some ideas of things you could send us to let us know you’re thinking about us:
~Personal letter, card, or email (<--practically free, almost instantaneous! For that matter, so is a comment on our blog :)…we would love to hear how you are doing and what’s going on in your corner of the world.
~Birthday cards:
Donnie: February 24 (Better get on this…it’s coming up soon!)
Allison: May 30
Micah Jude: July 25
~Music CD’s (these fit nicely in a greeting card)
~DVD’s (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency was recommended to us.)
~Kool-Aid packets (Cherry and Fruit Punch are faves)
~Mother’s Milk Tea
~Candy (Original Skittles, Original Starbursts, M&M’s, Reese’s Pieces are favorites)
~Sauce packets (Pad Thai, Pasta sauces are ones we currently don’t have many of)
~Hot chocolate packets (Nice cold season treat!)
~Guitar strings (I prefer lights)
~Toys for Micah (He’s starting to enjoy bathtime!)

Our mailing address is BP 202, Tahoua, Republic of Niger and any packages or letters should be sent via air mail, if it goes surface it has a tendency to never arrive.

Do babies see angels?

2010-01-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

I think they do. I haven't seen him do this in awhile, but this morning as I was nursing I noticed him looking past me, gazing at nothing in particular, and smiling as if he were smiling at someone. Sweet baby boy!

Photo Shoot

2010-01-11T03:09:00.000-08:00

Last time I went and visited my friend Mina, we had lunch with her sister-in-law Fat (short for Fatimatou). Fat has a baby who is just two months older than Micah. Some how we got on the subject of photographs and she was saying how she doesn’t have a camera, but wishes that she could have pictures of her children as souvenirs for them when they are older. I told her that the next time I came over I would bring my camera and we could take pictures.
Mina has since moved to France to be with her husband, but I went to visit and wish them all a Happy New Year on New Year’s Day. I told Fat that I’d brought my camera. She then told me that she was going to go back to her house and change her clothes and find some clothes for Ahmed as well. She came back wearing one of her best outfits and an indigo headscarf, and also brought back a couple of other wraps explaining that they were for me to put on to take pictures in as well. Here are a few shots from the day…

Fat and Ahmed

Cousins

Two of Fat’s kids

Us with some of the kids and Mina’s mom Zoua

Me and Fat

Little Visitors

2010-01-11T02:56:00.001-08:00

Some friend’s kids came over to visit the other day. The moment they walked in it was a flurry of activity. Feeding time was over and away Micah went. Well, they stayed for quite awhile. I fed them some rice and peanut sauce for lunch. They each ate like one bite and said they were done. Then they told me in Tamasheq that is was really good and better than their food at home……I am not sure I believed them. After Micah went down for a nap I think they got a little bored, but didn’t want to go home, either. That’s when I got the great idea to pull out some paper and water colors.

And the almost finished product…

Sitting Up

2010-01-11T02:51:00.001-08:00

My baby boy can now sit without support!

Goat on the Roof

2010-01-11T02:49:00.000-08:00

December 26th

2010-01-11T02:32:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas the Mannixes hosted a sheep dinner at their house for all of our Nigerien friends, Christian and Muslim alike.

The moment we arrived, Micah was taken out of my arms. He was only returned to me when he needed to eat.

Imatane

Donnie, in his new Christmas clothes.

Me and Micah in our new clothes.

And there’s the little bug after dinner.

Baby’s First Christmas

2010-01-11T02:26:00.000-08:00

His ornament was on Auntie Jordan’s tree, I’m told.

Christmas morning the Mannixes came over for breakfast and presents. We’d found an old waffle maker in our junk room a few days prior and thought it would make a great Christmas breakfast.

Donnie made the waffles and Mike made the syrup.

Micah and Sarah

Micah and Mama opening presents

I scream, You scream, We all scream for ICE CREAM!!!

2010-01-11T02:21:00.001-08:00

That’s right folks…ice cream in Abalak! Don’t know who to thank of all the people that have lived in our house before us, but someone left behind a small ice cream maker that I found in our kitchen and put to good use. Donnie brought home some cream from his last trip to Niamey so we had a nice Christmas treat, topped with my botched attempt at fudge which turned out to make a great sauce.

Good Morning, Micah!

2010-01-11T02:19:00.000-08:00

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

2010-01-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

I really hadn’t given much thought to the coming of Christmas this year, but one day in early December Donnie pulled out the Christmas tree and all of the Christmas decorations and got busy making our living room look festive. I was quite impressed with the finished product and enjoyed it thoroughly. Especially in the evening, after all the clutter of the day was cleared away and we would sit in the living room by the lights of the tree and listening to Christmas music…I could almost imagine that it was winter somewhere and that Christmas was coming soon.

Hebert’s Christmas Wishlist

2010-01-11T02:14:00.000-08:00

Here’s how it works—You choose the gift you would like to give us, send a check made out to us to 5249 Creekside Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243 and then send us a little note either via email or snail mail wishing us Merry Christmas and letting us know which gift you gave us
~Yogurt for breakfast for a year: $365
~Rice and beans for lunch for a year: $182.50
~Stock our freezer for three months:
Cheese: $100
Butter: $25
Meat: $75
~Breakfast for Micah for a year: $200
~Clothes (Allison loves clothes!):
Everyday outfit: $20
Fancy outfit: $40
Turban for Donnie: $6
Head scarf for Allison: $6
~Health/Medivac Insurance: $1,800/yr or $150/mo
~Rec Center Membership (for R+R in Niamey): $450/yr
~Guest house accommodations in Niamey: $175/wk
~USB Modem to do email from Abalak: $175
~Email from Abalak for a year: $70 (Chatting on Skype is extra!)
~Help us pay for our land: $5,000 or $2/sq. meter
~Help us build our house: $13,000
~Help us build our tafalat (traditional outside hangar): $300
~Milk cow: $400
~Cell phone credits: any amount
~Calls to the states: $.25/minute
~And, especially for Allison and Micah…I would really like and Ergo baby carrier, I think they’re around $80-$100. [FULFILLED]

Bread Making

2010-01-11T01:43:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to Tracy and Hannah.

This was my first attempt at making bread a few months back. At home, I never felt the need to make fresh bread, if I wanted a nice loaf to go with dinner I’d just hop on my bike, ride to the store, and pick up a loaf of Brio. But alas, no Brio bread in Abalak.

Here’s a picture of my loaves after the second rising.

And the final product!

It’s no Brio bread, but it sure was good. Steve and Donnie raved over it. It looks like Micah enjoyed it as well

I served it with potato soup made with fresh basil off of the plants that I have almost killed countless times. Lucky for me they keep coming back.

"This Land Is My Land..."

2009-11-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

On Friday we closed the deal on our new property! It was exactly what we were praying for…something in a good neighborhood, with trees, close to water and electricity, and no house so we could just build from scratch, and for around 2 million (cfa, that is). We didn’t think it would fall into our laps so quickly, and once we got here, we realized that it would be pretty hard finding something in that price range, especially with water and electricity nearby. And the whole process went incredibly smooth, especially for Niger. Zeinou, our guard, found it for us and began negotiations. He showed it to us on Sunday and by Friday we handed over money and signed the papers. Now we just have to save up to build our house!

Market Day

2009-11-18T14:41:00.002-08:00

Every Thursday is Market Day in Abalak. It’s the highlight of the week for the nomads here and every week tons of people come in from the bush to buy and sell animals, to buy other staples (like millet), and to see what else they just can’t live without. Abalak has the best livestock market in the area. I was in a hurry to get home before Micah woke up from his nap, so I didn’t make it to the animal section, but here are a few shots of Abalak on Market Day.

November 13, 2009

2009-11-18T14:41:00.001-08:00

This one’s for the grandma’s…

He just rolled over!

Baby Car

2009-11-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

Here’s Micah’s new potty chair I just scored at market the other day for 650 cfa (about $1.50). They had just a plain little seat, but then I saw the super cute Baby Car and had to get it for my baby. He’s been pooping a lot, like every time I feed him, so I thought I’d go diaper free during feedings. It’s been an adventure. But I have to admit, there’s just something so satisfying about your kid pooping on a potty! Plus, it’s one less poopy diaper I have to rinse out.

Poop Lake

2009-11-18T14:21:00.002-08:00

This is the street just outside of the concession where we live, dubbed “Poop Lake” by previous team members here because after a rainstorm it fills with water and resembles a stagnate lake and there’s poop in it, among other things. This is one of the reasons why we want to buy our own place elsewhere…would you want you kid playing out there?

PS~Accepting donations for our building fund!

Story Time

2009-11-18T14:21:00.001-08:00

Tea at Zeinou's

2009-11-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we went over to Zeinou’s house for tea so that everyone could see the baby. Zeinou is the day guard for the concession where our house is located. He’s been working here for years, probably almost 20 by now, and he can tell you stories of everyone that’s ever lived here and probably many visitors as well.

Micah spent the morning being passed around from person to person, and occaisonlly back to Mama for a feeding.

Micah with the twins—Zeinabou and Moussa. Zeinou’s youngest children, they were born when I was here in 2002. I attended their baptism. I can’t believe how big they are now!

Zeinou and Moussa.

Zeinabou.

Zeinou’s wife Fatimatou.

October Rain

2009-11-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

This was really written a few weeks ago...wish I'd dated everything.

Last Monday, as we were approaching Abalak and our long 14 hour drive was coming to a close, we saw lots of clouds to the north and lightening. Quite bizarre for this time of year. One place near Abalak got 100mm that evening. In the next three days it rained two more times, one night it rained for about six hours and by 2 AM we had to come inside as our tafalat was leaking. These pictures are from the last rain storm. Thursday afternoon I went to market to buy some buckets and some fabric and while I was out it began to get a bit blustery so I cut my trip short and went home. I wasn’t home long when it started to pour. Lucky for us, we got the diapers off the line just in time! Rain is good, during the rainy season, but if it comes too early and then doesn’t come in season, the grass will shoot up and then die and if it comes too late it will rot the already dry pasture, which this year wasn’t a lot to begin with.

Asakansako

2009-11-18T13:46:00.001-08:00

Ok, so, normally when I put micah down to sleep he cries a little. Usually 10 minutes max, sometimes less than a minute. One night our night guard heard him crying and was concerned because he thought that he was sick. And during the day, the Project workers would hear him. They told me I needed an asakansaka—the traditional Tuareg bed for infants. You hang it from your tafalat (hangar) and then, whoever is sitting nearby can swing the baby to sleep. Grandpa Jeff gave us one the other day. I think Micah enjoyed it thoroughly. I put him in it and even though he was tired he lifted his head up and was looking at everything as he was swinging.

Micah Jude and his Papa

2009-11-18T13:45:00.002-08:00

Sleeping Arrangements

2009-11-18T13:45:00.001-08:00

Even when the electicity is on and we can use the ceiling fans, it’s still pretty hot inside and is much cooler outside, so for most of the year this is where we sleep. October was the Mini Hot Season and now in November, we are just starting to come into the cold season. It’s still pretty warm during the day, but comfortable at night and I’m finding that I am waking up and needing to pull a sheet over me. I can’t wait until it’s time to bring out the blankets!

Here’s Micah, just waking up!

Long Trip to Niamey

2009-11-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

The voyage between Niamey and Abalak is very long and very hot. When the roads are good it can be done in 8 hours, if your vehicle doesn’t break down. They’ve been working on fixing the roads since we were here last at the beginning of the year, so now the drive is down to nine hours. But it’s taken us as long as 14. Usually the first half of the trip is not so bad, it’s the second half during the heat of the day that’s the killer. Our team vehicle doesn’t have A/C, and it breaks down about every other trip to Niamey. None of the other project vehicles have A/C either. Micah gets dehydrated. I could nurse him the whole way there and it still wouldn’t be enough. Last time he stopped peeing after noon and didn’t pee until well into the evening. This time, though, I was a little more prepared and had about six ounces pumped off that I could give him. Still not enough, but it helped. What we ended up doing was to wet down his cotton swaddle blanket and wrap him up in that.

Niamey Sunset

2009-11-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

This shot was taken through a screen on the back porch of the SIL guesthouse in Niamey overlooking the Niger River.

2009-10-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

SLEEPING BABES AFTER A REFRESHING DAY AT THE POOL

(Teammates Sarah and Caleb Mannix with Donnie and Micah)

After arriving in Niger we decided to spend Saturday afternoon cooling off in the pool at the recreation center here in Niamey. The plan is to get our bag that didn’t make it here on our flight then head up to Abalak on Monday. We are thankful that we made it here despite all the issues with Micah’s ticket. Micah is really taking it all in. He has all sorts of new things to take in here. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to adjust to life here as a family with a newborn.

More Pumpin Patch

2009-10-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

We went inside to pay for our pumpkins they had a bunch of other squash they were selling...looked like fall!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

Last family outing before we left...Mom and all of her kids. We went to the one in Blue Lake last year, so decided to check out the one in the Arcata Bottoms this year. It was nice that by the time we finally made it out there, it had stopped drizzling. Still quite muddy, though! Way too many pictures to post, but here are a few...

Lil Hot Dog

2009-10-22T13:58:00.001-07:00

Auntie Jordan got him this costume for Halloween.

Business Class

2009-10-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

My doctor called him a "premium baby". Here's my "premium baby" livin' it up in Business Class. This time he gets to experience it from outside the womb.

And We're Off

2009-10-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Humboldt. Niger here we come. It was an emotional morning for me on Wednesday, saying goodbye to my mom at SFO. Currently we're stuck in Paris for the night due to problems with Micah's tickets...thanks alot Northwest. Hopefully tomorrow we will be in Niger, Inchallah. Here's Micah, sleeping soundly in Grandma's arms while we hung out in the business class lounge before we went through security.

Shots

2009-10-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

Micah got his first shots yesterday. Here is my blue-eyed babe earlier that morning, completely oblivious as to what's to come. And here he is afterwards, just a mere 90 minutes before all hell breaks loose.
Ok, I see it, he really does look like Donnie in this picture.