February, part I

This month has been full with Darren, my nephew, visiting me. First I went to Niamey to meet him at the airport on February 10. We spent a few days in the city visiting the National Museum, the open market and the supermarket, taking him to my routine places I visit and do my shopping. He didn’t get much of a Niger cultural exposures going to the American Recreation Center where we bought Nachos, Hamburgers, and Dr. Pepper. (Got me another case of 24, to split with Linda). On Monday, 13 Feb, we hired& filled a taxi along with a Swiss student nurse, who’s here for 6 months, with all our baggage and the co-op purchase and the ice chest of 10 pounds of fresh strawberries!

Darren has spent some of his time helping install some new computers and troubleshooting computer problems for others. He’s been a great asset for us. I’ve enjoyed having him hang out at my place, eat lunches and dinners with me, and set up my new laptop he brought. He’s taken lots and lots of pictures. I keep giving him suggestions of what to take as I’ll get a CD of the 1000+ pictures. Stuff I never get around to taking. My own photographer!

We made a weekend trip to Tchintabaraden, 30kms north of Galmi, on the edge of the desert (but still not desert). Bruce and Robin Walton live there with their 8 children ministering to the Tamajeq people. Sunday is market day, so after the church service we walked through the market. Darren bought all the necessary apparatus for making the Tamajeq green tea. (Maybe I can use these things when I’m on Home Assignment). Later he got to try some in the bush where we rode camels. The church is a small group of believers who meet under a millet stalk shelter. We sang in Hausa & Tamajeq. The sermon was in Tamajaq and translated in Hausa for us, and then I translated it to English of Ruth, a pediatrician from Rhode Island. Bruce translated from Tamajeq to English for Darren.

In the afternoon we drove 20kms out to an encampment where Bruce keeps his 5 camels. From there they had to go look for them and bring in the 3 males so we could have a ride. Ruth, Darren, and I were led around for a little bit. Then Darren, Bruce, and one of the older sons went riding. I followed on foot with the camera. The weekend was relaxing, being out of our usual environment and with a large family where we really enjoyed being together.

Pictures to come.