Early Morning Walk

During the 6 weeks I was in Kansas this past summer,  one of the highlights was leaving the house before the sun came up and walking east on our quiet country roads while watching the sun edge up over the horizon.   Never any cars.  Fresh air.  An occasional deer.  A great time to sing and pray (and visit with my walking partner).

This morning I walked east on my road in Niamey.

We have a lovely, new, mile-long cement road in front of our house to walk on now (it's still being worked on so is closed to most traffic).  There were people wrapped  in sheets or mosquito nets sleeping on the sidewalks.  Long sticks stuck in the ground to hold up mosquito nets lined the road while people dozed in the cooler early morning breeze.  There were quite a few people up and about--even "Grandma" from next door was out getting her morning exercise.

Notice the lights!  I'm dreaming of  benches with flowering pots of petunias...

Earlier in the week I walked to our office which winds its way through the university campus.  I enjoy this section of the walk due to the sidewalk as pedestrians NEVER have the right away here.

I was amazed at the different look to the university grounds from what it looked like in June when we left.  What were huge empty fields of sand and scrub with the occasional university building in June are now planted to beans and spear-head millet.  Every where.  Around all the buildings.

I passed a motorcycle repairman who had set up shop on the side of the busy road.

At the edge of the university campus was the river made by the flooding.  All the homes in this area that were made of mud-brick melted away during the flood. Hundreds of them.  What used to be a road is now passable only by wading through the water or you can pay 10 cents for a canoe ride.

 When I arrived home this morning,  my neighbor was sweeping the area where she was heating the oil to fry and sell her "onion donuts" to hungry passers-by.