Wedding Day\

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

Micah Helps Make Tea

Lightning

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!

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

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

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…