Kansas Days

The six weeks (four weeks for Tom) we spent in Kansas were filled with awesome times that made for great memories:

• The joy of early morning walks.  My goal was to see the sunrise each morning.  

• Family walks in the cool evenings.  We always loved to walk down to one of my brothers' farms.

...and then coming home to our own special place. 

• Eating rice and peanut butter sauce with cokes that once again traveled in Tom's socks all the way from Niger.  Andrew was able to come home for a few days and we were all together as a family for 2.5 days before he had to go back to MN and Melissa back to France. 

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•  We played a competitive game of croquet.  The Dorsch rules and the Wiebe rules just don't always coincide.  Tom always wins.  Maybe if he'd play by the Wiebe rules...

A great game of bowling...how many strikes did you get, Andrew?

•   Anytime spent with the farmer uncles and cousins was treasured. 

• We moved Lindsay into her apartment and got to see her high school French classroom. It's hard to believe my girl is a high school French teacher. 

•  It was wonderful to spend time with the Dorsch family in Bird City.  A weekend with most of the family and then a few days later with Mom.  We even had time for coffee at the cafe.

• Our last weekend in Kansas was spent with my siblings.  Marvelous times of sharing and praying together, culminated with most of the nieces and nephews coming for Sunday night supper. 

• Hot summers always remind me of the many nights we children slept outside on a hayrack to escape the heat of our upstairs bedrooms.  Two nights before we left Kansas, Casey pulled up with the hayrack and after dragging our mattresses outside, we spent a glorious night under the stars.  I think I smiled all night.     

                                                   A perfect end to our visit to Kansas.

Water, water everywhere

After a loooonnnng blogging absence due to a 6 week visit to the USA, we are back in Niamey, Niger and the blogging is resuming.

We are glad to be back in our house and the new road in front is progressing nicely.  The neighborhood continues to enjoy our driveway to sell their wares and visit.  The heavy rain this month has steadily been washing away our driveway.

Our national director met us at the airport and within minutes of arriving at our home, his incredible wife arrived with enough food to last us for days.  It served us well for the next three days as the stores were closed due to the celebration of Ramadan. 

Now for some good news and bad news.

The good news is that Melissa met us in the waiting room of the airport in Paris and has joined us here for 12 days. We are enjoying her cheery laugh and willingness to experience our life here with us.

 We have been doing some craft projects together and this afternoon we shopped at the market near our home.  Gorgeous fabrics.

And we stocked up on onions, of course.  

Then Melissa entertained the neighborhood children with a new box of crayons.  Her picture of a tree and a river was a huge hit!

 The bad news is that Niamey is experiencing serious flooding.  Very serious.  After a super dry summer in Kansas, we arrived back in Niamey to rain and more rain.  Our house is high enough that we are not having problems, but Sahel Academy where Lindsay taught last year is flooding.  Our national staff are also experiencing difficulties and one of the families moved to our office as the water was getting too high at their home.  We'd certainly appreciate your prayers.  Rain is normally the heaviest in August and continues into September, so we have a long time to go yet.

 People are trying to move their belongings to higher ground. 

**Highlights of our time on the other side of the ocean coming soon.

Street Entertainment

We've watched the progress on the new road in front of our house since we moved in last November.  It's been fascinating.  Today the excitement was building in the neighborhood!  After all these months of digging out truckloads of sand, building sidewalks, making curbs and drainage ditches-- the word on the street was that tonight they would start pouring the final layer-- the cement.

Sure enough, the crowd was big and the lights were up to pour the concrete in the cooler night temps.  We white folk mosied down to be a part of the excitement as well.  The Chinese, who are building the road, issued rubber boots and gloves to the workers as the cement trucks rolled in. The yelling and cheering began.

They worked all night.  Tom estimated that they got 50 yards completed. Two cement trucks.

When I was walking up to catch a taxi into town this morning I visited with one of the Chinese supervisors who spoke some English.  I asked him if I couldn't put my initials in the cement in front of our house!  He just laughed at me and said, "Madame, this isn't a wall that you can write all over it!"  After all these years in Africa,  I've learned that it never hurts to ask.  (I'll ask again when they are right in front of our house and someone else is in charge!!)

Rainy Day and Yatzee with the Staff Kids

Around 6:30 this morning I heard our night guard calling from the front door saying that another dust storm was quickly approaching.  Since looking out of the windows of our house  means we only see cement walls, we can't see the changes in the weather, so we are thankful for Weatherman Rabiou!  With windows closed we awaited the smell of dust and the sound of the wind.  Instead, after a very minor dusting, we heard the wonderful sound of raindrops on the tin roof.  It poured and poured and we found all the leaks around the windows and doors and kept busy "squeage-ing" out the water from the living room.  After an hour or so the hard rain let up and it rained gently for a couple of more hours.  Wonderful.

We definitely needed our bridge across the raging water in our drainage ditch!  The rain started to wash away our driveway.  

The neighbors were having a high time playing in the water. 

What could be a better activity on a rainy day than playing yatzee with some of our staff kids.  Our director and his wife have 4 boys.  We invited the 3 older boys to come over and play games.   The peanut butter cookies were a big hit and we had many laughs playing together.  Great boys.

The sandstorm is coming!

The churning sky was amazing to watch.  The shades of brown, orange and in the center, a very black core.  

We had invited supper guests and, as they arrived, so did an uninvited guest: a huge wall of dust and sand.  I made sure every window was closed as tightly as possible (not very tight!) and the foam strips were pushed under the huge gaps in the doors.  I quickly turned all the plates upside down on the table, covered the food, grabbed my camera and went outside with the rest to watch this phenomena.  

The wall of clouds came from the north, which according to some, meant no rain would come with it, since the rain comes from the south.  That ended up being true, sad to say.  The clouds  were huge-miles high- and stretched as far as we could see from north to south.  It was a real "doozie".  It moved soooo quickly and people were running to get home in time.  "Grandma" was out trying to corral the family goats, trying to get them home before the blackness arrived.  

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The sky turned yellow, then eerily orange and then, as the full force of the wind and sand hit, the sky went pitch black like midnight.  Crazy.  The electricity went out at the same moment.  I realized it was more than just dust, it was sand!  I had plenty of grit in my mouth and felt the pelting on my face as I ran for cover.  

The electricity was off for hours and the wind blew hard.  Even with our windows and doors closed we could make dust pictures on the floor after a couple of hours.  We waited for the sound of raindrops on the roof, but they never came.  

This morning we awakened to complete stillness but a white hazy dust hanging in the air.  Too much dust in the air to warrant washing the floors today!  I swept but will wait until the dust disappears to wash. 

 I took a picture of our street yesterday morning when all was clear.  

This is what it has looked like all day today: no breeze, just heavy dust.  

P.S.  Lindsay blogged about her experience, just two days ago, as she and a friend walked the mile home from school in a storm like this one.  I can't imagine what that was like.  Five seconds of being stung with that sand was enough facial exfoliation for me!  You can read her blog and see some crazy pictures here:  http://lindsaydorsch.blogspot.com.  

New Bovine Next door

We met our next door neighbor/night guard as we were walking up to get a taxi.  He was carrying a small bundle of hay that he said he had just purchased for 20 cents.  We assumed it was for the many goats he has in his courtyard, but he informed us that he'd bought a cow.  And his mother, "Grandma" had also bought one.  So they were the proud owners of two cows.  When we returned this afternoon we stopped in to see/admire the new purchases.  He paid $160 for the 2 year old and Grandma paid $140 for hers.
Voila!

Remember the kitchen pictures I blogged about several weeks ago?  This is right next to the open, outdoor kitchen.  Goats run in and out as they please.  It was evening time and the goats had all come "home to roost".  Amazing. 

 This cow is a 2 year old purchased by "Grandma".  It couldn't get up no matter how many times it was kicked, yelled at and pulled by the tail.  Our neighbor said it was too tired from the trip from the village.  

 The other one is also a 2 year old and had a bit more spunk. 

One never knows what is living next door.  They suggested we buy one also and party together!

Day 28 Photo a day: the weather today

Monday

Partly cloudy. High of 38C. Breezy. Winds from the SW at 15 to 25 km/h.

Monday Night

Mostly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and rain in the evening, then overcast. Low of 27C. Breezy. Winds from the SW at 5 to 30 km/h. Chance of rain 20%.

Hourly Forecast	6AM	12 Noon	6PM	12 Midnight
Temp. | Dew Point	29 | 21	35 | 17	37 | 17	32 | 21
Wind	19 km/h SSW	18 km/h SSW	9 km/h SW	15 km/h SSW
Humidity	63%	36%	30%	49%
Chance of Precip.	0%	0%	0%	20%
Cloud Cover	54%	53%	62%	86%
Conditions	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Chance of a Thunderstorm
Sunrise & Sunset	6:23 AM 7:14 PM

Source: Weather Underground BestForecastView Detailed Hourly Forecast

The quality of the forecasted high temperature for this day is fair. MaxT RMSE [2.97], Average RMSE [2.22] : Use BestForecast

 

Here is the official weather forecast for today!  It's looking like a good week.  I don't know how well it will turn out but this is the first week under 40 degrees that we've had since the beginning of March.

For those who don't understand the Celsius numbers, here's the translation to Farenheit:

                                                               C.      F.

                                                              38=100.4
                                                              39=102.2
                                                              40=104
                                                              41=105.8
                                                              42=107.6
                                                              43=109.4
                                                              44=111.2
                                                              45=113

I'm waiting to hear the deafening sound of raindrops on the tin roof of our house and the fresh smell that comes with the rain.  Rain would mean no dust for a couple of days!  Yea! for the floor-washing.