Our first 4th of July in Burkina

Friends. Food. and Fireworks. The best three ingredients for a great 4th of July! What a fun memorable night!

There was plenty of food. Along with the traditional flag cake we make every year.

 Plenty of friends.

And plenty of fireworks. No 4th of July celebration is complete for Isaak without fireworks!(that fire stick Marvi is holding is what they put on cakes here! Go big or go home apparently!)

We have learned that Burkina fireworks are....questionable. It's always a good idea to have a place to take cover.....because they can not be trusted to do what they packaging says....

case in point...the one Isaak is lighting up above was suppose to putter around on the ground and shoot into the air.

notice Isaak and Joel and currently not standing there anymore. Because granted yes, the firework did putter and go into the air...however, I would not consider jumping around and blasting forcefully around in circles 'puttering' and then...

the thing blasted off over our side wall and up onto our neighbors third story roof. And then our neighbors complained and we got a call from the security officer telling us that fireworks are illegal here because it scares people into thinking there is a riot or coup happening. Right. Well, funny in a not funny way that I live in a place where I can actually see the logic in that...

 And as a special bonus to end our night...we got a thunderstorm complete with hail!

Some of our friends who have lived here almost a decade have never witnessed hail in Burkina before. And Marvelly, finding the idea of pieces of ice falling out of the sky quite fascinating, bolted out of the patio and ran into the rain...getting drenched in the process. They had a ball!

Fun night. Great memories. Blessed by the family of friends we have here to celebrate times like this with! Happy Independence Day!