June update

So I have found out that yes, we may have survived our first hot season here, but we are now in the hot and humid time...rainy season. The actual temperatures do not go up as high compared to hot season, but it is humid! With humidex, the temperature was up to 48 the other day...anyway, I will not go on about the weather, though much of our lives seem to revolve around it (will it rain, will it not rain, how hot is it, how much can an actual person sweat?! and on and on....). One more thing about the weather before I stop, Niger gets some CRAZY sandstorms. I have one picture but there have been a couple storms in the last month. During the worst one, the sky turned a brilliant red and moments later, it was pitch black. Then, a storm of dust...so thick outside that the INSIDE of our house was quite hazy with sand and there was a layer of fine sand on all surfaces after. As Rog said, we could be living in the worst place in the world to not have weatherstripping! Almost all the windows have large cracks that let in the dust, but I was thankful not to be OUTSIDE during the storms. So many of our friends do NOT live in buildings like we are so fortunate to be living in!

End of a school year...

Jaelyn is officially finished second grade. We are SO thankful for Sahel Academy and the AMAZING teachers (they are still hoping to get more, so if you are interested, please click here for more information!) Nathan also finishes up preschool at a French preschool (again, so thankful for his teacher, Joëlle) and was VERY proud of his “diplome” which he holds up proudly above. Nathan will be starting Kindergarten this August at Sahel and is really excited to be at the same school as his “noona”.

Other good news, I have found a language partner. Her name is Mariama (which is a very common female name in these parts!) and she is the mother of six children. I am not entirely sure but I think she may be 30 years old. Maybe not quite 30. 

Mariama...the Fulani do not like to smile in pictures (I did get some great pictures of her with smiles, but she is self-conscious of her bad teeth so I chose to post this picture instead)

I have only made it over to her place a few times, but the last time I went, I was amazed. Her oldest 2 go to school and were not around for most of the time I was visiting, but her oldest child at home, a 5 year old girl, was running around for her mother, doing just about anything and everything you would NOT imagine a 5-year-old doing! First, it started by doing the laundry. I kid you not, this 5 year old child took a large bucket and poured water into it from a larger bucket (they do not have running water) and proceeded to HAND launder a pile of clothes! They were still dripping wet after she had finished wringing them out, but they dried quickly as they hung up on the roof of the hut. Next, she bathed her 2 younger sisters. Again, poured some fresh water into a bucket and scrubbed them down with soap. (Unfortunately, they were completely covered in sand and dirt almost immediately after their bath!) Mariama had to go out to get more water (she fills buckets of water and brings them over from a neighbor) so leaves her 3 year old, 1.5 year old and 5 month old in the care of her 5 year old daughter and goes out!! At one point, the little 5 month old was crying and so 5 year old sister put him on her back to calm him down. It was such a cultural experience for me. This girl is only a year older than Nathan! (I can barely get him to go to the bathroom by himself!) It was great to see that the kids were happy though. They loved to goof around and play, and the best thing to see was that this family has enough food. They live in straw huts, but Mariama’s husband has a regularly paying job with another ex-pat family which allows him to feed his large family.

5 year old Furere (on left) eating lunch with her sisters, Khadija (3) and Amina (1.5)

bathtime

Furere holding down the "fort" while mum goes to get water.

Mariama is back but is busy so puts Nuhu on Furere's back to calm him down

Anyway, as usual, I will leave you with some pictures. We are not planning on travelling at all over the summer, but we are getting VERY excited to have my sister Esther and her husband Richard come visit us at the end of next month! 

Jaelyn with her friend (Youna) during a poetry reading at school 

Jaelyn and Nathan trying to learn to ride their bikes...we took them to the American Rec Centre where there is pavement so they can practice. They still have not gotten the hang of it, but it is hard to try to learn! (with the sand and the weather).It was close to 40C this day, they were sweating but happy to be on their bikes! 

Nathan gets to go to his first birthday party! He was so excited...here he is surrounded by the girls (he is the ONLY Asian kid at his preschool!) (For my Optometry friends, yes, the girl on the right has a severe constant esotropia. I have seen her wearing hyperopic specs at school but she was not wearing them at the party. Even with her specs though, her esotropia is still constant but probably not as pronounced)

Jaelyn and her friend/classmate/teammate, Iyla, on their last day of grade 2!!

We splurged and went to a restaurant for Father's Day. What a special treat!  Jaelyn wrote Rog a card with these words: "You're the most awesome dad I ever met! Given to my ever so loved Father for being with me for so long"

I decided to do something with some of the extra fabric I had lying around. I made a couple of dresses for Jaelyn (she is wearing one of them here) and they were fun projects! Quite simple, but I think I may be addicted. I want to try some other things but will have to venture out and see what kinds of materials they sell here. Jaelyn and I now have a few matching outfits. She is showing off our "new" table here. When the container arrived, we had everything except 4 table legs. Rog went and bought some wood and screws and managed to salvage the table top by adding new legs! I officially have a new worktable! (aka another surface to accumulate things on)

We will have been here exactly a year on the day of Esther and Richard's visit. We are starting to feel a bit homesick and their visit is perfect timing. Thank you to all of you who are allowing us to be here, for your prayers and financial support. We couldn't be here without you!