The last post was almost a year ago!  Can't believe how long it's been.  Wow! So much has happened in this year. 

We have moved to Niamey, Niger, where Elena and Fiona went to school last year.  Then they were boarding students and lived in the dorm.  This year, Sydney is also a student and I (Kathy) am teaching Kindergarten.  Roger is still working at Mediafrique in Lome, Togo.  He goes back and forth to teach and direct things, tho right now is the time between school years. 

It is different living in Niger.  Here we are on the edge of the vast Sahara Desert.  It is the region called the Sahel and, tho we live on the Niger River, all around us is pretty desert-looking.  We arrived in July, rainy season. 

It was cool-ish and humid.  It got hotter but still rather humid, tho not as much as Lome.  It was kinda unpleasant at times.  Now we are in winter.  The nights get down into the mid 60's at night but up to around 100 during the day.  It is very dry and dusty as well as being cooler. 

I'm enjoying teaching, tho I realize I'm not as young as I used to be.  Those kiddos have SO much energy!  I have, right now, 6 boys and a girl.  It's certainly not boring.

I'll leave you with a few more photos.

The house we are living in right now.

The Niger River in the rainy season.

My Kindergarten class.

Internet

Well, I wanted to post more about my photo challenge, but, unfortunately, the internet won't cooperate.  I have to find a time when it works better--if it ever will--before I can post any others.

As a matter of fact, posting any photos is not easy right now.  Oh well.  I just keep reminding myself that when I first came to Africa, we had computers that we used as glorified typewriters, and we had never heard or even dreamed of anything like internet.  Therefore, it isn't absolutely necessary to have access to it ALL the time. 

On another note, I'm enjoying having Grandma here for a while.  It's nice to just have someone to "hang out" with, especially when Roger is gone. 

Photo challenge

I have some friends who did a photo challenge last November.  It looked kinda cool and since Roger tells me I should take more photos, I thought I'd also give it a go.  The first day was lost since it was Jan 1 and we all slept in.  The topic was "lunch" and since we hardly ate lunch that day, I forgot.  Not the best of beginnings, but since then, I've done better. 

Day 2  "Something beginning with G" (I have 3)

This was a little girl at the shop we went to with Grandma, who happens to be the next "G" photo.

Global Mamas is a self-help program in Ghana that helps local women market the cool things they make. Everything from clothing made from hand-dyed fabric to soap and lotion.

Day 3 "Words to live by"

Day 4 "Lost"

One of Grandma's missing pieces of luggage that was lost...and found

Day 5 "My town"

Shots of Lome near our house

Look who's king of the mountain!

We bought some more fertile soil (not just sand) to try and get some grass growing in our yard once again.  It was delivered last Friday and Eyram the gardener put in a pile in a corner until he can spread it around.  Mickey-the-dirt-lovin'-dog, who happened to be in the garage until all soil was put in the pile, came out and was instantly in love with her new playground.  Sydney wanted to play on it as well and Mickey chased her away.  I had to retrieve a piece of tubing from it the other day and she thought I had come to play and we ended up in a game of tug-of-war before she finally gave up.

Then, this Friday, we got these big sacks of manure delivered so we can hopefully have GOOD grass, gotta do something for it!  They arrived too late to be spread around so they are now stacked just behind the pile.  Mickey isn't sure of them.  At first she just stood in front of them and barked, letting them know she's in charge.  Silly little dog.

Great Big God

Since Elena is in high school, she has to collect community service points.  She and some others do this by going to an orphanage once a week.  The other day, she taught a lesson to the kids there.  This is particularly impressive for two main reasons.  The first is that if you know Elena, you’ll know she’s not really a little kid person.  I guess they just aren’t her “thing”.  (However, we’ve been impressed by the photos we see posted by her sponsor on facebook.)

The second reason it’s so remarkable is that it’s the fulfillment of a vision that God had given us before we even came to Togo.  In 2006, we were praying with our colleagues at Radio Worldwide and one of them, Chris Singh, was given a picture/vision from the Lord.  He saw Elena under a large tree, teaching African children.  Get a load of the picture we saw on facebook last week!  We had never told Elena of this so that she couldn’t “make it happen” on her own.  It’s just totally a God thing!!

Choosing to send them to boarding school was about the hardest thing we’ve had to do as parents.  Seeing this “fulfillment of a vision” has confirmed to us that they are exactly where they belong as part of God’s plan.  We truly serve a GREAT BIG GOD!!

Solar Eclipse

Sunday, we got to experience a solar eclipse.  Apparently, it was visible in many places, even the US, but was most visible in Africa.  Togo wasn't in the area of total eclipse but what we saw was pretty cool.

We didn't even know about it until we called a friend just after lunch about something and he said they were on their flat roof looking at the eclipse.  We then rushed around looking for ways to observe it.  I made a box with a hole in it and Roger got his camera and the ladder so we could go on our flat roof.

When we went outside, we saw the shadows from our trees.  To me, that was the coolest part.  Enjoy the photos.  (By the way, we don't have a photo, but after about an hour, the shadows coming thru the trees were back to normal.) Isn't God creative!!

Mickey

We had 2 dogs when we were here last time, Pip and April.  We "inherited" them from people who were leaving and couldn't take them along.  They were mother and daughter German Shepherds.  Pip died in 2009 (I think) of what we are pretty sure was cancer.  April was staying with friends of ours while we were gone, and she seems to have died of the same thing or at least something similar, as the symptoms were almost identical.

Sydney, in particular, was very upset by this and since she needed a friend and we needed a watchdog, we decided we should to find one as soon as possible.  We figured it was best to get a puppy so that we could start from the beginning.  Just after we moved into our house, Sydney and I went looking.  It was a cultural experience for me.  I asked the Vet and had looked at the supermarket for signs of puppies for sale.  I found one advertising a half German Shepherd/half Rottweiler, which I decided to have a look at.  My friend Shanon drove the car and we headed out.  That particular dog just wasn't what we were looking for.  Shanon had been in touch with a lady who sells imported (read expensive) dog food and supplies.  We decided to ask her if she knew of anyone selling puppies.  I told her we were looking for a Shepherd of some kind, preferably.  She gave us some numbers and we took off. What started out as an hours' job ended up taking the entire afternoon.  We saw at least two more puppies before we met Mickey.  

She was with her brother and had been brought to the office of the owner so we could meet her.  The two of them played and were quite comfortable with the owner/breeder.  Mickey and her brother are Belgium Shepherds, or Malinois.  They were 3 months old that day.  Mickey's brother had slightly longer hair--not what we were looking for--and was VERY playful.  Mickey was a bit more shy and reserved (a deception) and seemed quite intelligent.  She sat erect with her ears already straight up like an adult Shepherd.  We decided on Mickey.  She sat in the box we had brought along as if she were a statue.  She just looked around, taking everything in.

She liked Sydney right from the beginning, with me she took a bit of time.  I found that if I sat on the floor, she was less apt to be afraid.  We are now super friends.  For the first week or so, Mickey was rather calm and didn't bark a lot.  If someone came to our house, she just sort of stood back and watched.  NOW, however, she's all puppy.  She obviously feels completely at home.  She loves chewing on just about anything--even us--playing with us and going on walks outside the gate. (Tho she still hasn't figured out that in order to go on a walk, she has to wear that "annoying" harness.  It's a job to get it on her!)  Our yard looks is full of shredded toilet paper cylinders, plastic bottles and various other things she's found to play with.   When she's bored--which is basically anytime we aren't playing with her--she finds something to amuse herself with.  Lately, it has been the pineapple plants that had been planted in the flowerbed, or any plant in general, really.

Despite her "eccentricities", we love her.  She's amusing and cute and fun.  We can see how she's grown and will be a good-sized dog.

I said finding her was a cultural experience.  I think I had expected all puppies to be the cute, roly-poly things you see in photos in the States.  None of these were anywhere near roly-poly.  Since most of them were 3 or almost 3 months old, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.  However, their living conditions, etc. were quite different.  Most were in cages and had sores or fleas, they were afraid of their owners and afraid of most anything.  One was really friendly and fun but he had sores and I didn't want to pay good money for a dog I had to take straight to the vet, tho, just to get him out of those conditions was almost reason enough!  Anyway, Mickey and her brother seemed to be very happy with their owner and they, neither one, had sores, etc.

It was just nothing at all like what I expected.  Also, an African pure-bred is really not like a European or American pure-bred, tho they are pretty much "full-blood".  They just have not had the rigorous breeding and all that other pure-breds have.  That's ok by me.

Sydney and a calm Mickey on her 2nd day with us

Mickey and I, also in her calmer days when she first arrived