And the Bikers Part 3 of the Travelling Salesmen Series

The biker salesmen are not as prevalent, but they can move their supply of goods from one place to another with greater speed.   They often have so much piled behind them and so much on their handlebars that handling the bike safely in traffic is challenging.  I like the little stand on the back tire to keep their bike standing straight while they take care of their clients.  The sachets of soap and other household supplies are loaded and ready to go.  

The plastic bag man is a popular salesman.  All the fruit and vegetable vendors need them when they make sales and I use many different sizes and shapes at my own house:.  My favorites are ones for freezing ice and one that is a perfect size for the cards I make.  

I followed this man across the bridge.  He had just picked the lettuce from his garden and was taking it to sell. 

This peddler was making a sale to one of our neighbors as we walked home from church yesterday morning.  He had a huge variety of items for sale including "kold" medicine.  The skill of attaching it all is just amazing.  

Brigades, Pushers, Bikers and Headers Part 2

One of the reasons that there was such a looooonnnng gap in my blogging is that I haven't been able to capture everything that I wanted in photos to pass on to you.  The number of items we see daily that are peddled from one side of town to the other is astounding.  Some are just so fun and we chuckle and say, "wow, I can't believe he's selling that!"   The majority of the vendors are men.

Closely related to the wheelbarrow brigade are the 2 wheeled carts, and I will include a few of the 4-wheelers, that are used for the heavy loads.  They are bigger than a wheelbarrow and whereas the wheelbarrows are usually carrying produce, the carts are full of other kinds of merchandise.  Of. all. kinds.  And my, oh, my can they stack them.  There is an artistry in the arrangement of the goods to keep them from falling and so that the customers can see it all with one glance.  What marketing!

Our neighbors daily load their cart with 5 or 6 huge restaurant sized pots of food they have prepared and cart it down to the "round point" to sell at noon.  Portable restaurant.  I often see them coming home around 4pm with empty pots.  A successful day. 

The Hardware store on wheels.

 

I stepped out my gate yesterday and saw this fella strolling by.
 Every kind of large plastic container you could ever need:
 washtubs, buckets, tea kettles used to wash before praying, prayer mats and more.
 All so neatly arranged that I could have shopped from across the street! 

 

At times the loads get a bit heavy for a two-wheeler and sometimes they need some help pushing.  

Walmart on wheels.

The water man:  he delivers water to those without water in their courtyards.  

Clothes of all shapes and sizes.  Undergarments as well.  

Carts full of dirty laundry heading for the river to be washed.  

Lightbulbs,  and who knows what else.  

The Men's Shoe Saleman.  

It says it's ice cream.  I'm not sure. 

It's so handy.  We needed to buy a gift  for a student one morning and there he was,
our friendly Walgreens on Wheels
with so many choices of cologne and after shave. 

Cookies and candy, too.
 All tied on cleverly with strips of inner tube rubber. 

Brigades, Pushers, Bikers and Headers Part 1

The Niamey Travelling Salesmen fascinate me.
The amount of merchandise that travels around the city in wheelbarrows, attached to push carts, piled on bikes and balanced on heads is amazing.  The variety is incredible.  There have been days when I've walked the 2.5 miles from my house to downtown just to see and photograph the Niamey Traveling Salesmen.  I love it.

Wheelbarrows are extremely efficient when it comes to selling produce.  

Watermelon.

Oranges.  Peeled for the customer right on the spot.  There is certainly an art to peeling these with a sharp knife, shaving off only the finest of the peeling.  Within seconds, the whole air is perfumed deliciously with the aroma of the sweet oranges. 

White sweet potatoes.  They are already cooked and ready to eat.

Sugar cane is a popular snack.  They peel it, cut it in small pieces and bag it for the customer as they wait.

It is peak tomato season right now and the "tomato depot" is close to our house.  Everyday around 4pm brigades of empty wheelbarrows are headed to the depot to load up and take them around town to sell.  

Coconut whole or cut up for a snack.

Downtown is wheelbarrow heaven.  It works great to load up with vegetables or fruit and park it along side the road to sell.  When it's time to go home there is no packing up to be done.  

 

Keep watching for Part II in The Niamey Travelling Salesmen series.

Day 8: Final day with the Nephews

The boys' flight has been pushed back 3+ hours so they don't leave until 3:05 in the morning!  That's in the middle of the night!  (Actually, it's almost morning for their Uncle Tom!)  They will head to the airport at 11:30ish.  The challenge will be to keep their dear Uncle Tom up until then.

We ran some errands this morning, changed some money into Euros, and then went to our campus meeting at noon.  It's always fun to be with the students.  After a late lunch and a short rest, the boys and Tom headed out for the soapstone artist area for a few more purchases.  The Tauregs do such beautiful work.  I always find something there that I just love, which is why I stayed home today and let Tom go.  I took the boys the other day and  I  came home with the purchases!

They made a stop at Lindsay's school from last year.  Lots of digging going on and work to restore the campus after the flood.

We've played several games of Racko in the evenings and we each won one game.

The run that cinched the game for me!

The house will be soon be very quiet again.  We have loved having our nephews here with us  There is something very, very special that happens when someone we know and love comes and shares the dailies of our lives:  laughing at funny sights, walking to and from...everywhere, squeezing into Moussa's taxi, watching in wonder and amazement at cows grazing on plastic and cardboard,  enjoying the uniqueness of the camels, the hippos, the giraffes, meeting our friends and so many other things we have now experienced together.  Such memories we have built together!

They will travel back to their homes now and struggle with how to explain the sights and smells that pictures can't begin to show.  And we will recall details of their time here with us and smile at the memories.

Day 7 in Eight Days with the Nephews

The days are getting warmer, boo-hoo.   I could handle these early January temperatures all year around.

 We had to take our "Sunday clothes" pose before taking the 20 minute walk to church. We are a good looking bunch, aren't we?

We enjoyed worshiping with our little church.   

As usual, we were served rice and beans after the service.

It went down easier for one than for the other!!

I

After church we went to check out "strange noises in the night" in the ceiling/roof chez our missionary friends who live down the street from us.  Nothing found but an all around effort was made.

Day 6 in Eight Days with the Nephews

Today was a quiet day:  sleeping in, taking naps, hangin' out at the house.  Of course, one of us has to cook so that person didn't nap nor sleep in!  

In the afternoon we went to the National Museum, something that our African friends have encouraged us to do for a long time.  We enjoyed it thoroughly.  It is mostly zoo animals, but also includes a large artist market and an open shed with dinosaur skeletons.  Quite impressive.  We bought a ticket for Matthew to take pictures so these are a couple of his photos:

The guys have had 2 evenings spent in dorm rooms at the University accompanied by Tom.  They both say that it has been a highlight of their time here.  Lots of laughing and story-telling.  They had a chance to be with some students who spoke some English so they could share stories of their lives and cultures. Lots of laughter and hand-slapping.

Here are some of  the nephews impressions:  

• Troy's name has been a difficult name to pronounce.  
• We always take our shoes off before going into a dorm room.  
• They all laugh when we say that it's hot here.   
• The dorms are really basic, small rooms for the number of students that sleep there. 
•  No posters, no family pictures on the walls.
• The rooms we visited consisted of 2 single beds with 6-7 guys sleeping in the room.  
•  The students were happy and seemed content, in spite of their meager surroundings. 

Quote of the day, said at the supper table: 

                                       "I can speak French pretty well now."

Any guesses on who said this?

Day 5 of Eight Days with the Nephews

 Day five is drawing to a close.  Tonight is quiet with everyone crunching on popcorn and reading. A game of Farkle is around the corner.

But the day has been anything but quiet.  Today was giraffe day, and what a day it was!  We left around 8:00 with  Moussa, our faithful taxi man.  It's about a 60 km trip out to the place where we picked up the guide.  He needed a spot in the car to help us find the giraffes so the guys took turns riding in the trunk.

It wasn't too long before we spotted a mama with her calf.   But the guide knew there were more out there so we began cross-country driving.  After about an hour of going over hill and over dale, we began to see the heads of a dozen plus giraffes above the tree tops.  There were 18 all together, including 6 calves.  How amazing they are. (Several of the pictures are ones Matthew took.)

What does this look like?  Yup, Troy, the giraffe stalker.

"Is my neck getting longer?" asks Troy as we chews on the same tree leaves the giraffe does. Never a dull moment. 

Oh, how we are enjoying "our" boys here.  Moms, don't worry, they have exhibited excellent manners.  You can be proud.