twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?"

Category: Niger life

  • club equestre

    Club_equest

    Sunday was an “international” riding event, meaning people came from Burkina for a jumping competition. Camille and her friends are happiest at the equestrian center. Also she has so much freedom, I wonder if she will miss it after we leave Niger? Now she goes to the equestrian center twice a week for lessons, she goes an hour early, just to get the horses ready, and on Saturday she goes all afternoon for games. The birds in the trees, the smell of the horses, her nice riding instructor, Hassan who says ça va, ça va a million times; sweet moments.

  • african easter

    Easter_eggs_africa

    Last year we found white eggs to dye, but this year we had to go with what the local chickens lay. I think they turned out so pretty. And tomorrow is a holiday. I love it that Easter Monday is a holiday in a country that’s 97% muslim. How’s that for a tolerance?

  • mouloud holiday

    Dsc_0733

    Tomorrow is Mouloud, the prophet Mohammad’s birthday. We are suppose to stay up all night tonight praying. Then tomorrow we get a day off work to sleep.

  • after-marshmallow soup

    Marshmallow_face

    Marshmallow_squares

    Marshmallow_fin

    During the break Camille made wool mice for the kittens and Stefan flew 100 paper airplanes. They blew bubbles, played on the swings, swam, went to riding camp, played checkers, knocked down miles of dominos, read books and we made marshmallows.

    After_marshmallow_soup

    As soon as the marshmallows are cooling in the pan, you make the antidote: carrot cabbage spinach soup.

  • drink a bottle of wine and tell me this isn’t hilarious

    Tyler_2I don’t know how people lived overseas before and survived without the internets. I mean, I’ve got the worst internet service in the world, and still I can stay in touch with friends and I get to see pictures of my new nephew playing poker at age four months. Staying in touch is the best thing, but being able to order stuff is way up there. We can have just about anything sent (and we’ll get it two weeks to two months later), as long as it’s not a liquid or a firearm (they are especially strict about the liquids, once in a while we can sneak in a firearm.) So just today I ordered vacuum cleaner bags, the game of Life (Camille’s request) and a teddy bear for Stefan’s Easter basket. But sometimes we have faux pas. Peter recently ordered five pounds of decaf instead of the real deal. How is that going to help him get going in the morning? When he made that order, he must have already been drinking decaf. I’m trying to figure out how to blame it on Netgrocer, but I recieved a weird package today. I ordered some baking supplies, including baking soda. Sixteen pounds of it. I’m going to have to read the side of the HUGE box to learn about all the things I can do with sixteen pounds of baking soda.

  • making my week this week

    OrangeStefan and Camille are on vacation this week, so we went swimming and sat outside in the covered terrace by the pool. I felt like we were at a resort! We had lunch–whole wheat pizza bagels and oranges– and tea.

    Julia_child_2My Life in France, the Julia Child book, is so charming, I am utterly enchanted by Julia’s wonderfulness–I love reading about her beurre blanc research but more interesting is her process of becoming more deeply who she always was. Her husband’s photos are dreamy.

    I’m so inspired by the great pictures my friend Norma took at the Cure Salé that I asked permission to gather photos people have taken here in Niger and put together a small photo exhibit at the Embassy. I think it could be very theraputic for those of us leaving, and hopefully interesting and inspiring for those staying. And everything looks good on black background, right?

    08aspr_wg289_cor_3My dad is out of the hospital. That’s always a good thing. Alaska2africa: Peter’s sister Nina bought her plane ticket and is coming to visit. And something good is coming from Boden.

    Camille can bake cookies all by herself now.

    Swingset

    Peter’s back from Ouaga, and he took some amazing photos on the road. His photo of the girl with honey–yes, that is honey, the black stuff in the plastic bottle–is over at the photo-a-day blog today. Of the 500 Daily City Photo Blogs the Niger photo-a-day blog is the 10th most popular. I’m happy people like it, and I’m happy for Niger to be 10th in something positive.

  • song lyric here

    Moon
    Total eclipse of the moon tonight! Go here to see what time it happens where you are. If I’m up at 4:30am and can figure out where the moon is, I’ll have a look. This is what it looks like here tonight in the dusty sky of Niger.

  • jazzi

    Jazzi_2

    Stefan is now riding Camille’s old bike, a light blue one with white tires and blue streamers on the handles, pink stars and “jazzi” painted on the side. At home I would have to teach him that he can’t ride that bike in public, it’s too girly. He rides it every day and is looked upon with envy, even by teenage boys.

  • les chausseurs

    Shoes
    Sometimes I find Zoure washing our shoes.

  • afriki

    Music_habib_afriki_cover

    Last night, under the stars and moon, we ventured out to the Centre Cultural Franco Nigerien–otherwise known as the Say Say Eff En–to hear some music. All the French people were there, shocking me a little bit: Stefan’s teacher smoking a cigarette, Camille’s normally demure tutor in a sexy t-shirt.

    Soothing, acoustic, listenable african music: thy name is Habib Koite. He was so charming, sang with a rich lovely voice and his band backed him up on all kinds instuments, new and ancient. He’s been on David Letterman (why not on one of the nights I watch?) played at Bumbershoot in Seattle and Rolling Stone magazine calls him "Mali’s biggest pop star." Peter pointed out that the band had so many different sounds, sometimes latin, sometimes reggae, but always with the talking drum and Koite’s beautiful guitar. Go listen to a little bit of Africa over at Amazon.

    Imagine you are sitting under the little dipper and as the music goes on, the moon sets. It was a moment.