Alive?

We returned home one day while the workers were in the process of raising our gate. As we started to walk into our yard, one of the workers said nonchalantly, "your guard dropped off this gate key for you. He also brought you a rooster." We replied, "a rooster? Alive?" "Yes," he said half laughing as he walked over to some bushes and ruffled them with his leg. The rooster started squawking behind the bushes and eventually hopped out with it's legs hobbled. We were now the proud owners of this very alive rooster. It was a good thing our dog, Oreo, was on a chain due to the work being done on our gate. While we were in the States on our Home Assignment, Oreo killed 12 chickens that lived near the family who was taking care of her for us. My mind started racing to figure out why our guard had brought us a live rooster. A month or two earlier we had a conversation about roosters. He asked me if we ate them and I said sure. He then said that his mom sometimes gets rooster when she visits her relatives in another town about an hour away. He'd have her bring us one the next time she went there. Of course I was thinking he meant he would bring us a rooster cooked up in some African dish like he's done before with other foods he wanted me to try. Apparently I was mistaken. Now what were we going to do with the rooster. It couldn't stay in the yard because eventually the dog needed to come off the chain, which would mean no more rooster. So, after the kids had a chance to watch the rooster for a while, we loaded it into the vehicle and took it to a friends' house who had an empty cage. The next day the friend got the rooster butchered and brought it to me. Krista wasn't too impressed when I walked in the house with what used to be the rooster in a plastic bag. We ate it a few days later. The meat was very tough, which is pretty common with the chickens and roosters that get to run freely on the street.

A river runs through it

This is the view down our street at our new house looking back toward the main road from in front of our gate, which is just out of view on the left side of the picture. Our street is called rue Château d'eau, which mean Water Tower Street. It's called that because we are just around the corner from the water tower for our neighborhood in the city. We're coming to the end of the rainy season. As I write, we're getting some rain which will probably be one of our last rains until next May/June. This rainy season, though, we discovered that our street at this house becomes a river when we get a heavy rain. Our street is lower that than the main road, so all the water from the main road runs into our street. The problem is that our street is a dead end, so there's no where for the water to go except into the yard of people's houses on the street whose gates are below the water level.


Here's a view of our street after a heavy rain. The water was 2 feet deep at some points.

Unfortunately, our gate was one of the gates that were lower than the water level, so the river on our street flowed into our yard. This happened twice this rainy season. The first time I was gone and the water in the yard was already almost up to the level of our porch. Then, the water from the street started flowing in the gate, which put our house in danger of being flooded. Krista took control and built a barricade in front of our gate. She grabbed cinder blocks from around our yard, an old shower curtain and shoveled sand from the street to stop the flow of water in the gate. A guard from the house across the street jumped in to help her. Our guard was pretty impressed that night when I told him what Krista had done.

Apparently this wasn't a new problem. Over the years people on the street have tried to solve the problem. Everyone build up the levels of their gates at one point. Then someone had the bright idea of filling in the street with more sand, which meant that the gate at our house was no longer above the street level. Later on, someone build a raised ramp at the end of the street by the main road with a small wall coming out from it on either side. That worked until owner of the house around the corner broke a hole through the wall to divert the street water from flowing in his yard and back onto our street.

After building a barricade at the gate during a second heavy rain, we decided to raise up the level of our gate again.
Here's the front of our gate from the street side. The level of the gate is now a foot higher than it was before. This won't solve the problem of the river on our street, but it should keep the river from flowing into our yard.
Here's our gate from inside our yard.

Only Here

Get them while they're hot! During one of our first trips to a store after arriving back here, we noticed a new brand of laundry detergent was available. After a while, we couldn't resist buying some Welcome Obama detergent so you could see it too.

Tricks of the Trade

The girls have been eagerly learning how to do new things around the house this summer. They each can now take their laundry bins of clean clothes to their rooms and put them away. They've also been "helping" Krista in the kitchen. Kira and Brynn are learning how to wash dishes and fill up ice cube trays, both of which need to be done often around here. As often as Krista will let them, they each take turns helping Krista cook and bake. Even Silas likes to get in on the action when there's food involved. Krista's sister, Aunt Boo (as our kids call her), made sure my ladies are always well dressed for their work in the kitchen. Here they are sporting their beautiful matching aprons from Aunt Boo.

First Day of School

Kira (1st grade) and Brynn (kindergarten) started school at Sahel Academy on August 12. They've been looking forward to this day for a long time. So far the excitement hasn't worn off. They come home each day happy as can be from their time at school.
A few days before school started, we had a "going to school" party. Kira and Brynn each got school supplies and lunch bags.
They also each got their own alarm clocks so they can wake up on their own at 6:15 am each weekday. School starts for them at 7:25 am.

A Party Niger style!

Last week we had the privilege of taking part in a party celebrating the engagement of one of our SIM Niger missionaries. After losing his wife to cancer, Chris recently met and fell in love with another lovely lady, who had lost her husband. Between them they have 5 delightful children. We are all so happy for them, and the Niamey area missionaries showed it! About 80 people showed up for the party. Most of us were really hoping to meet Nancy, as she was just on a short visit to Niger before the wedding!


As if to welcome Nancy and her sons to the joys of Nigerien weather, we started the evening here outside near the river at an outdoor restaurant. See the beautiful tables and the nice view?
About the time the food was ready to be served, in came a dust storm! Though typical of this time of year, we sure didn't plan on one that night! Ten minutes after the previous photo, below is another looking in the same direction, towards the river. Like all those flecks of dust? We all grabbed plates and food, and over 80 of us crowded into a little room. Unfortunately the power was out inside, so it was quite a dark little room! We could only laugh at how much this showed Niger's weather to Nancy- unpredictable and dusty. Thankfully they don't usually last long, and we were able to spread out again, though the tables never did get set. =) It was still a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed the time together, celebrating Chris and Nancy's joy at God bringing them together!

Tea Parties

One of the many things we love about our new house is our big front porch. This picture shows about half of it, with the other part being out past the SIMAIR van to the right. There is plenty of room for the kids to ride their bikes, and play. It's a nice shaded spot to sit and enjoy the rain, or watch the kids play. Another fun thing we did was set up a table and have a little tea party.

Sweet Brynnie always loves "girly" things.
Silas was enjoying drinking out of a big boy cup like his sisters!
Laney's favorite part was the cookies that went along with the tea. That and the sugar she was able to stir into her tea. =)
Even Daddy got in on the tea party, taking a break from the work you can see evidence of in the background.
Kira was around, but missed being in any of the tea party pictures. We'll show you her smiling face soon. It looks different every time we show it on here, as front teeth keep disappearing one by one.