Not having our own vehicle to drive means we can't do all the sight-seeing trips that sound so interesting. Lindsay has been on spring break for 2 weeks now and so we decided to leave the city limits for a brief outing with our favorite taxi-man. The daily temps have been reaching 109-110 degrees in the shade so we left at 8:00am to drive about 20 km to visit the hippos. We had no idea what to expect--we were trusting our taxi-man completely.
Only one flat tire and a brief delay at the police stop at the edge of Niamey and we arrived. We knew we were close when fellas on motorcycles pulled up alongside our taxi to offer their guide services (for a price, of course). We hired one who was from the same tribe as our taxi-driver and he led us off the highway and down the path to the river where his pirogue (canoe) was tied up.
It was a beautiful leisurely ride up and down the Niger River. We saw one hippo. (We have seen some as we've crossed the bridge in town) They are awesome creatures. He opened his huge mouth just seconds after I snapped this picture.
There was a whole village built on a tiny island and a family obviously was going somewhere.
As we left the river, we drove through the Golf Club of Niamey. We thought of all our good friends who love to golf and hope when you come to visit, you can golf on this course!
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| The Clubhouse |
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| Sand greens |
Sunday morning we had a sunrise service with the large English speaking community. At noon, we had some friends over who teach at the school with Lindsay. It's been so hot lately so we moved our table into Tom's office and ran the air conditioner all afternoon! Our meal was a bit less than traditional--rice and sweet and sour chicken. We included red jello with bananas in honor of the Wiebe's and Lindsay made a wonderful apple dessert with homemade ice cream.
We cooled the room off to 86 degrees! The high in the shade was 109.7.
Aren't these fun spring colors? My friend, Meg, gave me melamine plates last summer and this week in one of the stores I found melamine bowls that matched perfectly. Amazing. The bowls were perfect for our "Donvier-made" ice cream. Thanks to Putnam's for that wonderful little gizmo.
Today is Easter Monday and a national holiday. Our National Director texted us this morning to say he would be bringing a meal over at 1:00! A final precious gift to end a great weekend.
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| Rice, vegetable sauce and guinea fowl. |
