Just Pictures

Here are some pictures of me dressing up and playing with my jewelry. Not much more to say about that.

O Christmas Tree

Mommy, daddy and I put up our Christmas tree this past weekend. We were able to buy lights and some ornaments for it in the capital, so they have provided a nice touch to it. Last year it was a little barer, but it is really styling now. There are even a couple of presents under it already and I know one is for me!

A New Pet

Mommy and daddy have decided not to get me a pet dog or cat while we are here in West Africa. But I am working on persuading them to buy me some other type of pet. People here in West Africa have many different types of pets. I have considered a pet goose, but they tend to be too aggressive. I thought about ducks, but they walk funny. We have had pet lizards in our house, but they tend not to stay around. Then the idea came to me this past week while we were out in the village. One of our friends had one on a leash and was taking it for a walk. It was shorter than me, but looked like it would be lots of fun to play with. So, I figured, why not? I will ask mommy and daddy for a pet calf! I haven’t got an answer back from them yet, but I am still hoping. I will let you know if they actually say yes.

Jacket Weather?!?!

While the fall season has been around for almost two months in the States, we are just now entering our fall season. The leaves on the trees are falling, the rains have stopped coming and the temperatures are cooler. We even have some snow! Okay, so it is not really snow. This time of year everyone burns their fields off, making a gray haze in the sky and there is an almost constant fall of ash from the sky. At a glance you would think it was snow, but you wouldn’t want to catch these flakes on your tongue.

This past week my mommy broke out a jacket for me. While the temperatures during the day can still hit 100 degrees in the shade, in the evening hours and through the night it is dropping down into the 70’s. For me and the rest of the people here that is really really cold!!! About 9 o’clock at night they all head to their rooms and don’t come out until the sun is out and starting to warm things up. Over the next couple of months the temperatures will continue to get cooler and I will continue to get to wear my jacket during the evening and morning hours!

New Outfits

Mommy and I got some new outfits made, so I wanted to share them with you. When mommy buys material to have outfits made she often has material leftover so I can have an outfit made also. All three outfits are skirts with elastic waists and separate tops. While the little girls here wear wrap-around skirts with ties, mommy opted to go with the elastic to make it easier on me. The blue outfits mommy and I have are made from indigo material which they make in our area of West Africa. The indigo materials have many different designs and are very popular here.

Nightly Devotions

Each night around 8:45 mommy, daddy and I have our night family devotions. This is a time when we read from God’s Word, sing songs of praises to Him, and say our prayers. I pick the songs we sing; some of my favorites are “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel”, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, “My God is so Big”, and a new favorite is “Rocka My Soul (in the Bosom of Abraham)”. Following singing is our nightly prayers. Right now my prayers basically consist of me thanking God. I thank God for mommy, daddy, my grandmas and grandpa, my friends in the village, and I thank Him for many of the things in my room. Here is a picture of some of the things I thank God for. “Thank you for my Dora. Thank you for my Elmo. Thank you for my ferris wheel. Thank you for ladybugs. Thank you for my dog. Thank you for my cow. Moooo! Thank you for my duck. Quack quack! Thank you for my pigs. Snort snort! Thank you for my E-I-E-I-O.” I don’t know the name of the farmer yet!

Ocean Fun

Mommy, Daddy and I just returned from a week long vacation. We had a wonderful trip and a fun time just relaxing and playing. Our trip took us to another country and we vacationed a short distance from the ocean. On two separate days we went down to the ocean. The first time I didn’t have my swimsuit. I was scared of the ocean at first because I thought the tide was going to get me. But slowly I was able to inch closer and closer. Finally I realized that it was just water and was fun to play in, so I stripped down and got right in.

The next day mommy and daddy took me back and I had my swimsuit this time. We had fun playing in the ocean. My favorite part was either when daddy was holding me or I was standing up holding on to mommy and daddy when big waves would come. They would pick us up and moves us a few feet. I even got use to the salt water and it didn’t burn my eyes. Now one of my favorite words is “ocean”.

Dora

Okay, it is not a big mystery to many people that I am a big fan of Dora. I love my Dora dolls, my Dora videos, my Dora bed sheets, my Dora Memory Game, my Dora Dominoes, my Dora pajamas, my Dora…and the list goes on. I understand that many people back in the States are big fans of Dora too. But, I bet you did not know that Dora was big in West Africa!!! Sometimes when we are in the capital I can watch Dora on one of the cable stations they have there. But instead of speaking English and Spanish, here Dora speaks French and English!

Today when mommy was at the market she bought me a new outfit. Here I am modeling it, proving that Dora is popular the world over!

Bucket Bath

Out in the village there is no running water. So that means when it is time for me to take a bath, which is every day since it is hot and I sweat during my nap, I take a bucket bath. To take a bucket bath, first you have to get your water. This involves walking to the well and drawing the water. You then carry the water to the shower in a bucket, of course you have to carry the bucket on your head. Here I am carrying a bucket on my head!

After that, you take the bucket of water to the shower for the bath. Normally you just scoop the water out with your hand to get yourself wet, but for me, mommy or daddy throw water on me with a cup. It is fun, especially when you are hot and the water is cold! However, if you really want to have some fun you get a big bucket in which you can sit. That is what I am doing here!

All Dressed Up

Mommy, Daddy and I have our weekly time of worship here in our house. There are no communities nearby where we can go and worship with others, or at least there are none yet! Here I am all dressed up for our day of worship with jewelry and everything. We have a time of singing, a time of prayer, and a study time. Mommy and daddy typically use a lesson off of the internet for the study time and we have cd’s and books we use for our time of singing.

A Fun Game

Many things here in West Africa are dependent on how you look at them. For example: Where you might see the road as a place to drive, the people here see it as a good place to walk (even right down the middle of the road) and the animals see it as a good place to sleep at night (who cares about the risk of being hit by a car).

Well, yesterday I found a fun new game, or at least to me it is a game. We take something which I am told is called “corn” in English and we peel the outside of it off. We start off with a big pile of corn and within 5 or 6 hours we have done all of it! To me it was a fun game as I sat in mommy and daddy’s laps and peeled the outside of the corn off. But it is all a matter of perspective. For the women who were there with us it was a time to visit (i.e. gossip). For the men it was nothing more than work.

Here are pictures of me playing the game and a pile of about half of the corn we peeled yesterday.

Cool, even when it is Hot

Well, I am at home today. Normally our family would be out in the village today, but I was a little sick earlier this week so mommy and I have stayed home the past couple of days. I am feeling better now and we should be heading out to the village tomorrow.

It is October, typically the hottest month of the year here. While April, May and June are hotter temperature-wise (hitting around 115 in the shade), October is the hottest month when you factor in humidity. It is right at the end of rainy season, so the humidity is very high and during the day the temperatures are between 95 to 100 in the shade. As daddy says, you just sit and sweat! But that is okay, because as you can see from my picture today, I am still very cool!!!!

Things To Do For Fun

So, the question is, “What do I do for fun here in West Africa?” Well, obviously the list is endless because each day brings new adventures. Nonetheless, I will try and give you some of my favorite things:

• Swimming – As is evident from my previous blog entries, I enjoy swimming. Mommy and I love to swim and swim and swim. I am getting good at swimming and I can go underwater holding my breath.
• Playing with my friends – It took about a year, but I have finally figured out how to play with my friends in the village. Of course it took them the same amount of time to figure out how to play with me. Now we have lots of fun playing outside, inside, with toys, with nothing, dancing and anything else we can find to do.
• Swinging – I am a big fan of swings. At first the people here were not sure what to think about me swinging and going so high, but I love it and they have learned to love it also. Just yesterday there were a bunch of teenage girls playing on my swinging seeing how high they could go. Some of them were a little scared, but they were having fun.
• Watching TV – I enjoy watching television when we are back at our home that has electricity. Some of my favorite things to watch are Dora, VeggieTales, Disney movies (I really like Jungle Book right now), Punky Brewster, and Elmo.
• Reading – I am big into reading books right now. I especially like the books with flip tabs that you open up to reveal more pictures.
• Chasing Monkeys! – Okay, so I don’t really chase monkeys, but I just wanted to say that so I could put this picture of me and a monkey on my blog. Besides, my daddy says I am a monkey.

Potty Time

Well my daddy made it safely back home Thursday evening. I was missing him lots and was happy to find him there when I woke up from my nap. While he was gone mommy and I made some great progress on my potty training. We had started a few months back, but I lost interest earlier this summer. But mommy inspired me and I have a renewed passion. Throughout this past week I have been averaging one or less accidents a day!!! Today I even went to the potty completely by myself. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of me.

Also today (Saturday) mommy and I went to the pool in our town to swim again. It was lots of fun, even with the frog in the pool. Mommy rescued the frog so it hopefully wouldn’t die from all the chlorine in the pool. As an interesting side note, many of the people here are scared of frogs. They often believe that if you touch them you will get sick and die. They also are scared of worms and some types of lizards, but scorpions and snakes don’t bother them as much.

Ready for the Water

Welcome to my first blog entry. I know I am only a little over 2 1/2 years old, but it is never too early to start blogging, right? I hope this blog will help you see and understand better what my life is like here in West Africa. While I can't promise this will be updated every week, my goal is to make weekly entries.

My daddy leaves for the capital tomorrow and he will be gone for a week for a retreat he has there. Therefore we decided to spend today together as a family having fun. Since there is not much in the way of entertainment out here, we opted for the one and probably only option of going to one of the local tourist camps for swimming and lunch. Soon as mommy told me we were going swimming all I could say was, "I'm gonna swim. I'm gonna swim."

As soon as we arrived at the camp it began to rain. But that was okay because we needed the rain. After it stopped raining I was ready to head into the pool. With my floaties and swimsuit on, I joined mommy in the pool. Of course I had my swimming Dora doll with me!! I love swimming and am getting the hang of kicking and even holding my breath to go under water.

After about an hour of swimming I was beginning to get cold (that is right, cold in Africa!). While the temperature outside was not cold, the water was cool and there was no sunshine. Mommy, daddy and I headed to the restaurant where we had steak and potatoes and watermelon for dessert. It was a great day!