Tabaski

Tabaski is the festival in Niger where Muslims celebrate how Abraham didn't have to kill his son Ishmael because God sent a ram in replacement. About two weeks before this holiday the streets of Niamey are filled with rams. Rams strapped to the roofs of bush taxis, riding on motorcycles (especially hilarious when your sitting at a stop sign next to one and it takes a dump on the guy holding it), and wandering along the side of the road. This festival is a pretty big deal.  Almost as big as Christmas in the US.

Early in the morning this past Sunday, the city was calm. Then it began. The rams were slaughtered and set up to roast all day. They are roasted outside of the gate along the side of the street. In my opinion, this is just getting more dust on the meat and making it a bit more grainy, but I'm not roasting. The air of Niamey grows thick with smoke as everyone has a large fire for the roasting. My friend Lisa took some great pictures when she went out. Hope you enjoy them!

It's a bit of a prestige thing to have a large number of rams roasting outside your house. I equate it to the obnoxious house on the block that loves Christmas WAY TOO MUCH and wants everyone to know that.

Yup. Those are testicles hanging there, just...hanging there...

Fun Times in Niger

It is Harmatan season. That time of year when it doesn't rain a drop but the wind blows like the dickens and brings all of that lovely Saharan sand down our direction. No big dust storms yet, but the sand is certainly piling up in the streets. Here's a picture of one of our students hanging out in a dry river bed.

Galmi is a town about 6hr drive east of Niamey. We have a hospital there and it acts as a rest stop for missionaries heading out east. I got the chance to lead a group of kids out there this past month. We went out for a weekend and organized a retreat for all of the homeschool kids in east Niger. It was fun to have the kids and their families there from many different organizations, yet enjoying each other's company. Here's a picture of a few of the girls at Picnic Heights, one of the outings we took them on. The scenery behind them is very beautiful, but you can't see it for the dust.

We also took the students to church during our time in Galmi. Here is our entire group in front of a village church we attended. As is normal for visitors in a village church, our group was asked to sing a few songs, so we sang "Amazing Grace" in both English and Hausa. Some of us had to read the Hausa as we had no idea what we were saying.

A Bit of a Holiday

Tunisia!

Christmas Day this year was a bit...adventurous. We went spelunking. Yes, cave exploring. And it served as a bit of a bonding experience between us and bat poop.

Hiking with Emily up to the cave. All was well.

Here is our cave attack crowd...minus one...he had to take the picture. By the time we got to this point, we were pretty much covered in bat crap.

But the cavern at the bottom was definitely worth it.

I don't have the pictures of us rappelling up and down the cave. Maybe those can come later.

Day trip #2 took us to some Roman ruins further in the country.

Found an attractive Roman guy. Kinda like Santa, except older...and headless.

Hung out with each other in a dead doorway.

Absorbing the views

Chillin' out with a dead stadium

The beautiful views again.

And just generally awesome Roman stuff.

I'm ok with this Christmas. I mean, it's not hanging out with family, but we had a good time.

WWF in British Literature

We're talking about Beowulf in class. Ya know, the classic 'foundation of British literature' story of a super-man who kills dragons, zombies and the zombie's mom. I like this story. Parents think it's nice, clean literature that will develop their child into an upstanding citizen, and then I get to teach all the violence, blood, guts, and appendage ripping horror to these wide-eyed missionary kids.

I hit the jackpot this year with this little piece of magic: Beowulf vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Let's take these two guys and pit them against each other and see what happens. Before I read this I had to explain what WWF is and who "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is. Too bad internet was down and I couldn't show a YouTube video!

I keep wondering to myself how much to expose these kids to. In my mind, if I can open their eyes to something here, in this safe classroom, then all the better for them when they return to their home countries. Therefore, I have no problem tossing a picture of this scary wrestler dude standing in a ring in nothing but his man-panties for all my kids to see. I take time to explain a piledriver and body-scissors (the kids kinda gaped at me a little when I asked if any of them wanted to show us how they were really done) so they can see how ridiculous it all is.

Something I struggle with is knowing where the line is. At what point am I explaining and exposing them to too much? Is there a line? My kids in the states catch almost all of Shakespeare's sexual humor, and my kids here catch almost none of it. Do they need to know? Am I doing them a disservice by leaving them in the dark about this? I don't want them to leave naive, but I don't want to over expose them either ... I'll leave all the over-exposing to "Stone-Cold."

What do you think?

Your __________ looks good!

The words echoed across the dorm as I stepped out of my apartment. The voice, that of a strong, 17-year-old African young man,

"Aunt Cindyyyyy!!!! You look so buff!"

Now, I understand that in African culture, this is a high compliment. However, this child plans to attend college in the US. It is time for a lesson on complimenting girls.

So gather the non-Americans who plan to go to school in America and dig-in to a very confusing conversation riddled with a million questions.

Me: Asyncrite, you can't say that to girls. US girls want to be told they are skinny and pretty.

Yun-In (Korean): But what if that is a lie? I don't want to lie if she is not pretty or skinny!

Me: Well, that is where silence comes in. Either give a positive compliment or don't say anything.

Asyncrite (Beninois): So what can I say to compliment girls?

Me: Well, we have this handy phrase in English of 'You(r)____________look(s) good!'

It's great and can be used for almost all situations.

You look good.

Your shoes look good.

Your hair looks good.

Yun-In: Your fat looks good.

Well, we might have to practice this one...