Down by the river/ In the Zoo

One of the places we like to go to get away from the city and relax is a little property by the river. We call it "mango camp" because it has about 25 mango trees on the property that provide some nice shade. We took Krista's parents out there one day. It's still amazing to us each time we see a bush taxi loaded up like the one in this picture. We passed this one on the way out of town. The pile of stuff on top is as tall as the bush taxi itself. Then, the inside of the van is loaded to overflowing with people... sometimes animals too.


It's also common to see camels roaming in the bush. Notice that it's front legs are hobbled preventing it from getting away very quickly.


Here's the view of the river from a plateau near it.


You can see the clumps of trees in the foreground in front of the river. Those are all mango trees. They are all sectioned off into little properties (mango camps) that people can rent.


The kids enjoyed showing Nana and Papa one of their favorite places - the mango camp.


We got a couple of guys to take Nana and Papa on the river in a pirogue. They got a taste for village life along the river. One village had two soccer games being played on the beach, while women and children were washing and bathing. There are a few villages that are on islands in the middle of the river.

The main goal was to see some hippos. This day we saw these three hippos, but they didn't want to show us much more than their heads. You can see the three blobs in the water... The two guys that took us in their boat had to work hard going back up the river. The river was at it's lowest point as rainy season was just beginning. A lot of large boulders are exposed making for fewer options of where to go and swifter currents through the rocky areas. They use long poles to push off the bottom of the river and move the pirogue upstream.


We also went to the little zoo here in the city. You can get the full view of a hippo there. Someone paid one of the zoo workers to feed this hippo and give everyone a show. I wouldn't want to be that guy.


Check out those chops!


Here's a baby hippo that they have there. We've seen a set of young twin hippos in the river near the mango camp over the past year.


The zoo has a representation of a lot of the different animals here in Niger... baboons, lions, hyenas, snakes, etc... They also have three complete dinosaurs that were found in the desert in the northern part of the country. This one is a huge crocodile type dinosaur. Of course, our kids are always quite the attraction at the zoo as well. We usually have about 20 kids closely following us around the zoo watching our kids as they look at the animals.

Giraffes

While Krista's parents were here, we tried to introduce them to some of the fun and unique sites we have here on the edge of the Sahara. Just a 45 minute drive outside of the city roams the last wild herd of giraffes in West Africa. There are currently a little over 200 giraffes remaining in the area. They are beautiful gentle creatures.


We drove out to the area where they are and picked up a guide. Here's the guide we had this time. He's one of the best. He's been doing it for over 20 years and loves telling people all about the giraffes. He climbs on top of the vehicle and then tells you which direction to drive by holding a stick down over the windshield. If he wants you to go to the right, he motions to the rights, etc...


All in all, we saw about 28 giraffes. Some were in groups of 2-4 and in some places we saw as many as 14 in a more open area. They have very long tongues (18 inches) for reaching out and grabbing those leaves.


You know it's hard bending down to get a drink like that! It can't be comfortable.


Several of the giraffes are pregnant right now like the one in this picture above. The herd has slowly been gaining in numbers in recent years. About 8 years ago, they numbered around 150. Our guide carefully had us walk close to the giraffes. This one walked right up to us, watched us and then moseyed on by.


These giraffes were getting close to the main road that goes east/west across the country. Our guide wanted to head them away from the road, so he put his shirt on a long stick and held it up in the air as he walked toward the group. That got them moving and they even broke into a jog.

Half the fun is just driving through the bush. There are other animals like cows, goats, sheep, donkeys and camels roaming around with shepherds nearby. You also see huge termite mounds like this one above. The kids like to climb on them.

Graduation

It's been a crazy past two months. At the beginning of June, my brother and his family left for vacation. Right at the same time, Krista's parents arrived for a 3 week visit. We also had Joy finishing up her senior year at Sahel. Between keeping up with the flying, maintenance and trying to spend time with family visiting there hasn't been much time for updating the blog. The reinforcements are arriving again, though. One of our pilots arrived two weeks ago and my brother returns soon as well. So, we'll try to bring you up to date on the happenings during the past two months.

Here's our family with Joy at her graduation. We're really proud of her and were sad to see her go. After spending the summer in the States, she'll be going to a one year Bible school in Europe. The kids talk about Joy all the time and still have her seat reserved at our table.