It's a new year!

It's mid-February and the temperatures are starting to slowly creep up. How hot is it do you say? Well...according to Nalgene, their bottles should tolerate up to 100 degrees Celsius. I guess they are talking about with liquid? Rog found this bottle in our storage room. It was in with his camping equipment and he was able to crack it broken. Yep. It gets hot here. 

Anyway, you will likely hear more about how hot it is in later posts, but I will try not to complain too much. 

During one of the trips out to the village recently, the kids were playing this game. My friend that came out with me told me she had seen it before and it was called "Mancala". I thought it was amazing to see the kids playing with seeds/rocks and holes that they dug into the sand. The little boy in the background is playing with a bunch of old batteries and using his shoe as a car. I need to show this picture to my kids every time they want another toy or electronic gadget! 

And we continue with drilling!  As of today, Rog has successfully drilled a few holes in our yard. :) We will be going out to put to practice all that Rog is learning. We are not quite ready yet, but there is a need for water out in the village where our co-worker does ministry and so we will be headed out in a couple of weeks. There are so many challenges as we don't really know what the land is made of, how deep we will have to dig, and the biggest thing...there is no water! We need water in order to drill with the techniques Rog has been developing, and it is easy when we are in our yard with a hose, but it will be a different story when we are out in the bush and the nearest water is from a well a couple of kilometers away!

Rog is doing what he loves to do...teaching! He held a pump making workshop for some teammates and they did a great job making a pump!

And below is the reason we continue to try to provide affordable water to our friends. I went out again last week to help get water for the family I visit. One of the matriarchs of the family, who is likely only in her 50s but a great-grandmother already, goes out to draw water from a very deep well at least 5 times a day. This is the job of the women in the Fulani culture. All of the ladies in the family I visit go out to get water. One of the ladies is 9 months pregnant and doing it! The work is hard and it is tedious, but who am I to say that they shouldn't do it? Maybe it is their way of working out. But it is the quality of water that they are getting from this well that is disturbing. It is dirty (even to the naked eye!) but it is what they drink. Hopefully we can provide easier access to cleaner drinking water once we get some holes drilled and pumps in place!




Our family went to a village wedding and were asked to walk out to the bride's house while we were there...about a kilometer and through a river bed later...we arrived...only to sit for a few minutes and then head back! We didn't even meet the bride! Still learning so much about the culture here!

Our kids were bombarded by the other kids (as usual) and I still struggle with it. What do I do when the village kids surround us and all they want is some love and attention? When my children look up at me with pleading eyes, desperate for me to ask the other kids to stop touching them and invading their space? Part of me thinks our kids need to come out more and get "more exposed"...then both the village kids AND our kids would get more used to each other...but it can be so hard. Hard to force my kids to be a part of this ministry that they have not asked for, and hard to not keep them protected where they are comfortable. I pray that as Rog and I try to love the people of Niger as God has asked us to, both our kids and the people of Niger would see that indeed, God loves them.

And lastly...a trip to the zoo! This is actually only a statue of a giraffe, but I had the privilege of accompanying the 2nd and 3rd grade class on their field trip to the zoo/museum. There are no words to describe this zoo. Don't get me wrong...you get to see hippos, lions, monkeys, etc., but it was very sad to see the animals caged up in their very small spaces. Nonetheless, it was a trip out of the school. These 5 boys were under my care...let's just say...I have always had much appreciation for the teachers of this class! 

The 2nd grade class is made up of about 5 girls and TWELVE boys!!