Christmas 2013 Has Begun!

Christmas for the Dorsches has begun as Melissa arrived on Saturday.  The others arrive in another week.  I won't be blogging much as suddenly I have to cook again, but Melissa is doing a great job of posting daily updates on her blog  melissadorsch.blogspot.com  .  Check it out!

This is a first...

For the first time since coming to Africa in 1987, we have another American couple on our staff team! Incredible. We love it.

Meet Kirk and Becca Tjaden from Clearwater, Kansas!

They arrived almost 2 weeks ago and we have LOVED getting to know them and helping them learn about our city.

There has been a pile of "Birky's" by the front door.  Fortunately we all wear different sizes so there is no confusion.

We had Thanksgiving dinner together.

We have been to the dorms on campus together and "just happened" to knock on the door of a group of students studying English. At one point we were 16 women crowded into one small dorm room.   We are excited about new friendships forming there.  (Tom and Kirk have been on campus as well but they don't take pictures like we do!)

 We've shopped for fabric a couple of times!

And then we sent them off in the "school bus" for their first day of school (French language learning).

We are so grateful for their safe arrival and the miraculous arrival of a lost suitcase.  Please pray for us as we search the neighborhoods for a house as well as for good French language acquisition for them.

Day 4 Photo a day: Table

Day 4 in the photo a day challenge:  Table

  

Everyday this little table is sitting on the sidewalk in front of our house.  Always with a little tablecloth. Our neighbor sells food she has made to neighbors or passers-by until it is gone.  Today the Harmattan winds were nastily blowing sand and dirt everywhere.

 As I was walking home from the office, I noticed lots of tables sitting on the sides of the roads.
Many were empty, waiting to be used later in the day.  This table, which is close by our office, is used by a meat seller.   He isn't there everyday, but the table sits on the side of the road, with rocks holding down paper, waiting for him.

Day 3 Photo a day ; Letter "P"

Day 3: Something the begins with the letter "P" 

Pole, pipe, promenade, pretty ladies ...I was desperate! 

Yesterday I saw all kinds of "p's" and today nothing showed up so I stood outside my gate until I saw this scene walk in front of me. 

House hunting in Niamey

Only those who have tried to find a rental house in Niamey can truly empathize.  We are not moving but we have a wonderful couple coming to join us in 3 short weeks so we are looking for a place for them.

How could I forget so soon the intricacies of the house hunting process? It was only 2 years ago that we spent a month looking at every kind of house or non-house available.  The process goes like this:

1.  Find a "démarcheur" ( the man who knows where the empty houses are since there are no signs, no ads, etc. )  Each area of town has one, they just have to be found.  It seems like they are all older men.

 2.  Go pick him up at his house and he joins us in the hunt for the first house:  "turn right here, left here, go straight... "

3.  Arrive at the gate of the first house.  Listen to our guide call and then wait for the neighbor to arrive who has the key to the house.

4.  The neighbor arrives with the key, but doesn't have the key to the gate to get into the yard.

5.  After more phone calls and discussions and speaking with other neighbors and waiting, we find out there is another gate that isn't locked on the other side of the yard.

6.  Enter yard and house.

7.  See bedroom, termites, bedroom, missing ceiling pieces, bedroom, bathroom...no kitchen.  Where does this door go?  Oh, that is the office for a lawyer!

8.  No thanks.

9.  We repeat to the man guiding us to the houses:  we want a house with a kitchen and bathroom INSIDE the house.  Non-negotiable.

 Next house.

9.  Beautiful 4 bedroom house with inside kitchen and several bathrooms.  But we notice as we walk in that the place next door is a mosque with a large loudspeaker about 10 feet from the master bedroom. No need for alarm clock, Kirk and Becca!!

We'll keep looking!

October is Over?

I can't believe I didn't post once during the entire month of October.

So, to get my mojo going, I decided to do the "photo a day" challenge again as I did once last year. I am using a list for November from fatmumslim.com.au.   Some of the photos will also be posted on facebook as I'm doing it will a group of other Niamey missionaries.  Hopefully, if you check back daily, there will be a new post about life in Niamey.

Day 1:  Fruit

The city is dotted with colorful outdoor fruit stands.  The variety depends on the time of year and the availability as much of our fruit is imported from neighboring countries.  Most of it is sold by the kilogram.  Bananas are 600 cfa for a kilo.  That would be about $1.50 for about 2 pounds of bananas.   The oranges are either orange, yellow or green even when ripe.

Take Out or Eat In

Cooking over a warm, crackling fire sounds like cozy fun when camping and it's a crisp 50 degrees outside. 

Cooking over a hot fire everyday when it's 110 degrees sounds anything but fun.  But everyday my neighbors start early in the morning preparing food for their restaurant at the nearby market.  And nothing except the tomato paste comes out of a can.  There are always mountains of onions and garlic and hot peppers to chop and various leaves for sauces to separate and sort.

I've been wanting to eat at their little restaurant for a while and the opportunity finally came.

Around 1pm they loaded up their pushcarts and moved all the food they'd prepared to the restaurant site.

Dishes and drinks went too.

My friend, Laura, and I arrived about 15 minutes after they had set up and the line was already long. The crowd at a restaurant usually means good food, right?  After snapping a few pictures, we got in line to make our choice as well.

There were several rice dishes with different sauces, couscous (my choice), beans and rice,  pate with okra sauce (Laura's choice) as well as pasta.  We chose our base and then our sauce and then piment (hot pepper sauce) was added on the side.

We brought our own containers, as did many others, since we were eating back home, but the restaurant also had plates for those dining in and a small eating area inside the lean-to where clients could eat.

A place to wash hands before and/or after eating.

Several hours later all that was left was the stack of dirty dishes to wash and then loading it all up and hauling it back home...and starting over again for the next day.  

Great food!  I'll treat you to lunch if you come over.

Flooding, AGAIN?

In the last couple of weeks we have often reminisced about the devastating flood waters of the Niger River which broke through the dikes August 22, 2012, destroying homes and damaging property. Our national director and his family were forced to evacuate their home and move into our national office when their neighborhood became a second river.  Sahel Academy, where our daughter Lindsay taught, as well as the adjoining SIM mission property were severely flooded and damaged.  Last Sunday evening during our English church service we praised God, and watched a DVD of last year's flood and how God has graciously provided for the restoration of the two campuses.

Little did we know that our 2-inch rain on Thursday, the 29th, would almost immediately set in motion more flooding!

Thursday late afternoon, after an awesome rainy, cool day, my "water-loving" husband and I strolled the mile from our house to the bridge over the Niger River.  We wanted to watch the big canoes from Benin unload their mountains of pumpkin-squash on the dike on the river bank. This was about 4 p.m.

The change in the river just 3 hours later, at 7 p.m., was astronomical!  The dike north of the bridge was no longer visible and the green rice fields had totally disappeared!  This is the scene that greeted our eyes as we walked along the bridge early Friday morning:

The water level on the measuring pole used by the Niger River Basin Authority kept going up and up.

On Thursday night already, we had begun getting texts from our national director, Akora, saying that a dike further upstream had been breached and that the road in front of their house had once again become a river.  They were sandbagging to keep the water out of their yard.

On Friday morning we went to see them.  Water was up to their front gate but the sandbags were keeping it at bay.  Numerous neighbors who lived closer to the river had already lost their mud-brick homes as the rising waters "melted" them away.

Those who didn't want to "swim" could pay for a ride in the taxi canoe who ferried them across the expanse of water. 

Even the "lumber yard" down the highway from our house, which we affectionately call "Menards" was underwater, and men were frantically trying to float the wood to higher ground.

Tom and I were amazed to see that in spite of the rising water and limited space, the washer-men were still hard at work and the concrete bridge supports and metal railings were filled with river-washed clothes, as if nothing had changed!

By 7 pm last night (Friday the 30th) the flood waters stopped rising, and this morning, very early, "Weatherman Tom," reported that the water level at the measuring pole was down significantly from Thursday night's high reading.  We are grateful for God's protection over our national staff and the Sahel Academy school property.

I used to LOVE rainy days...now I'm not so sure.

P.S.  The Niger River waters are steadily decreasing, but the breached/broken dike up river has caused continued huge problems for Sahel Academy. Please continue to pray for strength and wisdom for those working there.  

Throwing Up Cement

It was the perfect late afternoon for a stroll down our road.  A lonely, bawling cow thought so as well and accompanied us for most of the mile, weaving in and out of traffic until she realized that the safest place for pedestrians is the sidewalk.  We walked at the same pace so we had a hard time getting rid of her.  She had evidently lost her herder and the rest of the pack.  

Anyway,  the purpose of the blog isn't bovine related, but a fascinating look at some local construction. A block or two from our house is a building site for a two-story cement brick building.  They have been making concrete blocks for months and have have now put it together to create this 2 story complex.

The scaffolding is all in place.

Check this out!  The cement gets mixed by hand on the ground and then somehow, it has to get from the ground to the roof.  

No problem.  The two men on the ground throw scoopfuls of the newly mixed cement from the ground to the first level.  The two on the first level scoop it up and throw it above their heads to the men on the second level, who in turn throw it to the third level, and finally it arrives on the roof, after having been scooped and thrown 4 times.  Wow!  that's hard work.

We saw the same process happening as we were passing by another building project with a smaller crew.

Fascinating way to build.