what's up?

Here I am again. I'm in the process of changing things up a bit here. I'd like a new family photo but we don't have that many new ones of all of us together. I'll put some others here to update on what's going on here. They aren't in order. For some reason, I cannot move them where I want them to be. There are 2 from the first day of school (August), 3 of Spirit Week (October), 1 of our 20th anniversary (January) and 1 of the girls at banquet (February).  Oh well, at least there are photos. Enjoy!

The girls ready for the first day of school

20 years!

Girls at banquet (yes, Fi is tallest, but not that tall-check out the shoes)

The first day of Kindergarten

Freshman pirates for Spirit Week

Junior super heroes (there are mostly girls in this class, only 2 boys)

6th grade Snow White castle

back again

I've been looking back, reading old blog posts and am inspired to write another.  Somehow, life plods along and I feel I have nothing to write about, it's all so "normal" for us.  Then again, something big happens and I still don't seem to get round to writing about it.

Anyway, here we are in the middle of February.  Our Christmas was great.  Grandma came to visit us and we had a nice time. The weather was WONDERFUL and we got out of town to the game park for a few days. 

We had come to Niger to pick Elena and Fiona from school just before Christmas the year before and loved the cooler nights and bearable days.  Niger has seasons!  When we were moving here, we were happy that we could experience them once again.  Of course, with the nice season, comes the not-so-nice ones.  We are getting into the hot season.  It gets over 100* during the days by now, tho nights are still in the 70's.  I'm told it will only get hotter before it finally begins to rain.  It is also the season of power cuts, making it even more uncomfortable.  Africa!

Speaking of rain, it hasn't rained a drop, since October.  Man, it's dry here!  Each day as I walk across the dirt near the school, I wonder at how much grass there was and that it will come again in a few months. 

During our Christmas holiday, we went to the game park.  It was really nice.  A French lady has built a sort of tented camp thingy on an island in the Niger river, which forms a boundary to the park.  There are a number of these little huts on stilts and a common area for meals.  It was wonderful, and even so cold, we froze at night!!  Our huts were the two up in the rocks.  Poor Grandma had to hike up and down each day but she's a good sport and won't let anything get in her way of a good time.  We rode in a narrow, local-made boat to and from the mainland so we could go on safari each day.  getting in and out was another challenge for Grandma but she did it anyway. 

Well, I'll stop for now.  Maybe I'll be able to find some photos next time.  I don't remember which hard drive they are on and Roger isn't here.  Too lazy to try each one to figure it out.

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!!