Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We have spent our second New Year's here in Niger and have had a quiet, cozy holiday season. We have spent a lot of time with our team over the holidays (which I have failed to document on camera, sorry!) and have also continued with visiting locals and spending time in the community here. I am not sure we will ever "arrive" here. There are so many cultural differences that we encounter and need to learn, and then re-learn. It is hard to be living constantly in "learn" mode but it is good to not get too comfortable (I suppose!)

Nathan and Jaelyn visiting friends with us. Rog trying to teach this 8 year old her numbers. This girl can say her numbers in French and Fulfulde (from one to ten) but when asked to recognize them, she cannot. Rog has so much patience. He kept going at it with her, but she was not getting it. This was her second lesson, as I had spent half an hour with her the week before doing the same thing. I believe she is just not used to this kind of learning. Such a stark contrast as our eight-year-old sitting there is learning multiplication and reading chapter books. We can contemplate on why we were so lucky as to have been raised in education and wealth...or we can do something to change the situation for those living here in a developing country. However, it is a discouraging thing to look at all the need and not know where to start!

Nathan playing with Moïse

Jaelyn playing with Jemimah

Our guard (Hamidou) digging up manioc (aka cassava) from our garden. We ended up eating some like french fries but gave the rest for Hamidou to take home. I think he appreciated it more than we did! 

much tastier than manioc...homemade dumplings!

Our village meeting this week...was supposed to start at 9am...this picture was taken a bit after 10am and there were only about 3 people there (hence Rog's oh-so-impressive pose)...we started about 45 minutes after this...so hard to bring our North American ideas of time into this culture! 

Our first Fulani wedding! The groom's family picked out this material for all who are on the groom's side to wear...lovely, I know...please do not covet, it is a sin! :) 

A picture with a teammate, the groom and a random woman (no idea who she is, just wanted to get into the picture). The bride will not have arrived until 10 or 11pm that night. We did not actually get to meet her! Groom was feeling a bit chilly in +30C weather so had to wear a turtle neck under his outfit. 

I had to get a close-up of the groom's shoes. Again, please do not covet these...pointy and pink! Such differences in culture!! How do we adapt to this culture, and then, how do we go from here back to Canada and adapt back?!

Rog got to hang out with some boys...

...while the kids and I got to hang out with auntie L. Weddings here are SO different from those back home...we basically sat around and visited for 3 hours or so...had a meal, and went home! Nathan here was in the middle of asking (by whispering) if there was a stage and whether we would see the couple kiss on the lips! We had to break the news to him that we would not even be meeting the bride!!

Have you ever seen such a huge pot of rice?! I have not. There were 3 cauldrons in total, 2 with rice and 1 with sauce (I think!). 

Rice dished out onto large platters...waiting for the sauce to be put on top and then a group of 8-10 people will gather around a platter and dig in (with their hands).

 The next series of pictures are dedicated to toys that kids play with here. This is in light of post-Christmas when many of the kids in the developed world will likely be busy playing with their new toys. These pictures were taken during this wedding, so just things I saw in one morning, but I have seen so many other crazy things here!

old paint roller on a string...this kid was pulling it along but saw me with the camera and dropped the string

deflated soccer ball with a massive hole in it

broken flip-flop on the end of stick

Thanks for keeping up with us. We hope to post more next month!