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Every kid needs a little red wagon, even in Burkina...

Isaak turns 32 with a taxi brousse and a 4-wheeler

Isaak ushered in his 32nd year of living last Friday, May 16th. To celebrate we had a family dinner with some friends at Gandwana's, a favorite restaurant of Isaaks.

He ordered this gargantuan burger called the taxi brousse (means bush taxi in French...very fitting). It's so big he likes to challenge other guys to see if they can eat it all. It must be a man thing. All the guys there took the challenge, Isaak, Ben and Seth...but only Isaak succeeded! Proud birthday moment right there!

Isaak had a good time. I'm so glad he did! This was only the second time we've gone out to dinner since bringing Steven home....and all I've gotta say is that it's in our best interest, as well as everyone in a ten foot radius of us, to not go to restaurants with sand all over the floor, maybe ever again. Because it will get thrown. On people. Down their clothes. Onto tables. By a little boy who doesn't know any better. Not sure what we were thinking on that one.....*side note-if you cover a really really dark person with sand, they turn gray. Now we know. Important parenting discoveries about your kids right there! =)

We went back to the house following the sandy dinner and Isaak enjoyed a homemade cheese cake with strawberry topping made by moi. First time ever makin' one....and it turned out great! So glad he liked it! I do so love to bake for my family.

And then the following morning me, Isaak, Seth and Rebecca all drove to Koubri, a little town about an hour from our home to ride some four wheelers.

I wanted to do something fun for his birthday, and new that driving fast over bumpy roads and getting muddy would be right up his alley. And he had SUCH a good time!!

Here we are, taking a quick pit stop at the local gas station to fill up before we head out. Yup, this is a gas station. Our guide in the red vest behind Isaak is purchasing liters of gas stored in those glass bottles.

And we're off! I must say, I am very impressed in my talents to ride a four wheeler one handed while taking pictures with the other. That's multi tasking at its finest right there.

These are actually the only four pictures I took. I was too scared I was going to crash and die while I took pictures so I thought it best not to press my luck.

My first time riding a four wheeler all on my own. Proud moment at 32 years old! I even managed to keep up with the boys. If you can call what I did keeping up...I was far enough behind them to at least see their dust trail. We drove for over an hour, our guide taking us through little back roads of tiny villages way off the beaten path. It was a blast. Except for the not being able to see because the dust was so thick I could hardly open my eyes. That was pas bon. I'll just need to remember for next time to wear goggles. And there will be a next time. That was so fun!

Birthday success! To another great year of being alive!

Our safari weekend in Pama National Park

Back in March, while the girls were on a break from school, we set off with some friends on an adventure to the southeastern part of Burkina Faso to a remote little area east of the town of Pama which closely borders the country of Benin. We stayed at a lodge set on the Pama National Park for two days of safari fun.

Unlike the previous safari we went on last March to Nazinga near the Ghanian border where we saw mostly elephants, this time we decided to venture out to a different part of the country to try our luck at spotting the critically endangered....West African lion.

So after weeks of planning and research (because that's how long it takes here to plan a little two day trip) off we set on our journey with a whole bunch of friends in tow!

We did some car swapping before we left and Sydaleigh rode with her friends and Marvelly's favorite friend rode next to her! They are a couple of goofballs! I love having friends with girls the same age as mine and they all happen to get along fabulously!

This was also my mom's first time driving outside the city, and all the things that she had heard and read about that you typically associate with African life started to come alive before her eyes.

I love driving through Burkina. The landscape is identical nearly everywhere you go, with sparse shrubs, red dirt, and little huts dotting the landscape....but it never gets old. I like it. I like the simplicity. My mom does too. There is just something very peaceful about driving through the countryside and seeing little thatch roofs peeking up across the land.....

....little roadside stands selling gasoline and drinks....

...seeing cotton spilled out and blown across the roads after being harvested and piled high into holding areas until it can be loaded up into "trucks of a Burkina Faso program that deals in cotton certified as fair trade."  It's too bad, and sadly not at all surprising, that the program is being investigated for child labor violations. 

All of Burkina's certified organic cotton crops are bought by Victoria's Secret, and the fiber harvested like shown here is then sent to factories in India and Sri Lanka and fashioned into underwear, and then labeled, "Made with 20% organic fibers from Burkina Faso".

So naturally we had to stop so my mom could hop out of the car to bring some cotton home! Cotton straight from Burkina before it ever hits the stores!

But! Just because the country is simple....doesn't mean it's boring! WHAAAATTT is up with that car?!?!?! Where else can you see this on the road I ask?! Truly epic. Only in Burkina. Hey mister, I think I see some room for a few more jugs up there in the corner...

It was a peaceful six hour drive....until we got to the fifth hour and our little green sign pointed us down this path for the last stretch....

...it might not look so bad, but lets just say it was a doozey!! Weren't sure we were gonna make it at times!

There was LOTS of sand out here. I'm not sure why I was so surprised to see so much sand...but I was. I think mostly because it's easy to forget at times that we live in the Sub-Saharan desert in the capital. But out here, where there are hardly any buildings cluttered together, no paved streets or dirt to cover the natural landscape....the sand has a chance to blow in a settle from the massive Sahara desert just to our north. In Burkina it is illegal to cut down trees in an attempt to help prevent further desertification here in the country. But out here, it's easy to see the effects of the largest desert in the world nestled just to the north of us(technically it's the 3rd largest desert, Antarctica and the Arctic take the top two spots).

Oh, just an elephant crossing up ahead....

The first time my mom saw an elephant in the wild! There's a cute little baby nestled in there! We may have screamed and pointed and parked the car as close as we could get and sat there watching them until the female in the lead decided she didn't like us being there....then we booked it!

African elephants, unlike Indian elephants, are super aggressive. These aren't your "Dumbo let me climb on your back and take a ride and feed you peanuts outta my hand" type. These are the "get too close and I'll charge you, crush you under my feet, and pick up this log with my trunk and beat you with it" kinda elephants. So, we snapped some happy pictures and then mozied on our way.....

Our little abode for two nights. This was by far the nicest place we've stayed at in country. By far! This little lodge was super clean, had tiled floors, covered terraces, good bathrooms.....AND, drum roll please....running water the whole time! Which means we could flush our toilets! Whoop whoop! AND there was A.C. that they turned on for us during the night. So we didn't have to sleep in wet clothes to stay cool! This was my mom's first time staying at a "hotel" of sorts, in the country, so I don't know if she was as impressed as we were...but with the luck we've had with accommodations here, this place was paradise.

And just beyond that "fence" (if you can call wood beams lined up in a row that you can walk through a "fence", then yes, that's what it was) is the very alive bush. Not a whole lot separating you from the wild! As we later saw and heard!

We arrived Friday afternoon around 1pm, unpacked and then quickly sat right back down so we could hang out and chat. The lodge had an outdoor restaurant with great food, minus the meat they kept servin' up. =)
      
We went with just the greatest group of friends.....coming along were our friends Mike and Amy (who brought along a sweet girl named Beeba), my dear friend Joanna, and some fun new friends Jonette and Martin (and their three girls).

Here is part of our group, rows two and three....as we were piled into the vehicle preparing to leave for our afternoon safari a little while after arriving on Friday. These rows do not seat six to a bench...but somehow we all squeezed in and no body fell out while driving! Success!

....and then the first row folks and Isaak in the front. That's fourteen people from our group plus the driver and the lookout....that's a whole lotta people squeezed into one vehicle! It was a BLAST!

Our first excursion started around 4pm and we stayed out for 3 hours or so. It was warm but the open top of the vehicle gave us a great wind and the fresh air felt so good. There is no fresh air to be breathed in Ouaga, so I was very grateful to come out here just for the air! Also, it's amazing how much animals blend into their natural environments.....there is an elephant in this picture. It could very easily be seen as a rock, or tree stump.
     

That first ride out we saw a bunch of animals, but never were able to spot our lion. We did however see lots of deer...

We saw roan antelopes, but here they are called Kobas. These are big, really really big animals. They looked more like horses out there. They fed one of these to all of the non-vegetarians our first dinner there. 

And of course we saw more elephants! Biggie on the far right wasn't too happy to see us. When elephants get angry, aside from stomping their gigantic feet and trumpeting their horns...they spread out their ears as a warning to get back. And they most certainly did!

We came upon this family right around sunset, which was great because we had just enough light left to be able to see them. We sat and watched them from a safe distance for a little while before they finally turned around and left.....

...off they go....so so cute.

We traveled around for about three hours looking for animals and then watched the sun set over the savannah as we traveled through the bush on our way back to camp for the night.

some oranges and pinks still clinging to the sky as the sun kisses the earth....

Before long only a sliver of light remained and it became harder and harder to see....

almost gone.....

...lights out.

We had about two feet of visibility from the little headlights on the vehicle. It. was. dark! And eerie! You become keenly aware in the moment that you can no longer see that you are in the middle of the very active bush bustling with animals that you could see moments before! Aside from the rouge animals lerking around, my biggest concern was not gouging my eye out or getting stabbed with invisible branches sticking out into the "road" as we drove back.

When we weren't out safar'ing the girls occupied themselves playing cards, roaming around the grounds playing and relaxing in our room watching movies.

The next morning we set out bright and early as soon as our a.c. turned off around 6am.

By about 7am we were roasting under the oppressive sun!

We stayed out for about 6 hours this time. It was a long safari, especially in the heat. But our guide kept it interesting by trying to shoot himself some of those flying things. Some kind of bird I'm guessing....I'm not a bird person.

    

We saw some baboons. And some more elephants. And deer.
      
And played memory games with the kids to pass the time as we drove.

Marvelly and her buddy rode in the front for a few hours, and eventually Marvelly fell asleep. The guide was so sweet, helping to keep her covered up with a towel I brought so she wouldn't burn to a crisp.

Our mode of transport. One of the tons of birds we saw. We drove around for so long this day that everyone was getting a bit tired from the heat, and the pain of sitting for so long on such bumpy terrain. We had mostly seen deer, antelope, and birds for the first few hours. We were getting antsy. Because their was still no sign of our lion, let alone the dozens and dozens of water buffalo we were told roamed out here.

We did however see Pumba!! And baby Pumbas! Warthogs are so cute! I may be the only one that thinks so, but really, they are. They are like this strange combination of a dog, pig, rhinoceros and horse (thanks to the horse like flowing locks on their head!) all mixed together. 

Eventually the guide pulled over to give us a break to stretch our legs. We stopped at this lookout that the park has set up way out in the bush. Two girls at the lodge stayed up here over night the first night we arrived. Of course all the kids wanted to climb up there and check it out. I don't think that I would have let my kids climb up and down two stories on a wobbly rickety old ladder if I hadn't of moved to Burkina, but after you let 'em sit on crocodiles it's like, "up ya go!"

We took a couple photos. And then loaded back up and kept on moving....praying praying we would see a lion.....

And then by an incredible stroke of luck (or God's grace...I like to think He answers my prayers even about seeing lions! =) ) we spotted one! A West African LION!!!! We couldn't believe it! I still can't believe we saw one in the wild. The chances of seeing one, not even because they are critically endangered, but because they blend into their environment so perfectly, makes it near impossible to see them! 

Had the lion been laying down in the brush we never would have spotted it. But, it just so happened to be standing up and walking over to a large nearby tree where it laid down on the base and disappeared in the camouflage of the bark and shadow. So so incredible. We were all so excited and amazed. It was such a gift to be able to see one, and sit some 100 feet away and watch it walk in its natural environment. This was definitely the highlight of this excursion!! 

Later that afternoon when we returned we met this Frenchman who was staying at the lodge for two weeks. He travels around the world for six months out of every year hunting wild game (can you say $$$$$!!!) He is one of two people in the world who was approved for a license to hunt for a lion this year at the park, and he just happened to kill one the night we arrived. Due to the fact that the W.African lion is critically endangered they have strict limits on how many can be hunted annually, and at this park only two per year can be killed. And this guy killed one of the two! Isaak is holding the bullets used to take down Simba. Personally I think that if an animal is critically endangered, then they should not be allowed to be hunted at all, but clearly not everyone shares my sympathy for the plight of our world's creation.

Despite my displeasure over the lack of concern for animals in the eyes of hunters, it was really fascinating talking to him. He says every time you kill an animal the staff takes it and butcher the animal immediately after the kill. A small portion of the meat is reserved for the hunter for his prize dinner, and the rest of the meat is given to the families of the local staff who live on site here. 

This is a picture of a water buffalo being skinned. This Frenchman killed a lion the night we arrived, and then killed this buffalo this same morning while we were out. It was a bit bloody to watch, but strangely, I found that I could watch it without being squeamish. What's happening to me?! I think mostly I have become very immune to the graphic-ness of watching animals being butchered here, because I see it on the street almost daily. Never an animal this big, but still. It is such a normal part of life here, I've noticed that I've slowly become unaffected to this aspect of life here without dry heaving every time I see an animal killed and minced. Animals are a source of food. Not for me, but to everyone else they are. C'est la vie. 

We all stood around for a while, talking to the hunter and watching.....as soon as they skinned the animal and started gutting the buffalo some kids came over and started fighting over the innards, which were massive and they were scrambling to put their share in a bowl. At one point my mom saw a little boy walking around with a hand full of raw meat and stuffing it into his mouth. It sure is interesting here!
   
This is the skull of the lion he killed the day prior. He gets to keep the head, hooves and hyde...as his trophy. Apparently people are really into this...I don't get it, but whatever.

And then Saturday night as we were heading to dinner, this guy pulled up right next to us with this thing hangin' out of the back of his vehicle.

A koba. Isaak couldn't resist getting a picture. He couldn't have been prouder if he'd shot it himself. This was a day filled with lots of dead animals. It's a good thing I'm not the easily offended kind of vegetarian.

Much much later that night after dinner and most everyone went back to their rooms some of us adults stayed out and played games.....we had a great time. That is until around 12am when we were finishing a game of 7 Wonders and we started to hear the field next to our lodge (the field just on the other side of our "fence" where we stood and watched baboons dangling from the trees some 20 feet away earlier on) start to come alive with wildlife. First it was a warthog(s) huffing and puffing, then an elephant started to toot it's big ole horn, then came the sound of what we think were baboons fighting...either themselves or something else...then the elephant started to trump even louder because of the baboons commotion, and then we heard what sounded like a lion viciously growling.

I swear it was a lion.

Of course when you are staring out into the bush in the pitch black and can't see a dog gone thing, it can be a wee bit tricky to tell exactly what you are hearing....but there is nothing that I know of that compares to the sound of a lion....and this was a lion. As soon as we heard it, that sound, that dangerous sound that makes your hair stand on end, everyone froze. And all the eyes just turned away from the game to the wide open field a mere 60 feet away from us. I actually stood up and was so scared I was ready to book it to my room! Except I kept thinking I was Val Kilmer in the Ghost in the Darkness and had this vision of a lion bolting out from dark and grabbing me as I tried to get away! Ah! Too many movies!! Only this time it was real! It didn't help that two weeks ago at this very lodge a hunter was mauled by a lion while out in the bush and had to be rushed to the hospital. It also doesn't help that when in the wild, and the dark, you have no way to gauge just how close an animal is because their sound carries SO far. SO of course what sounded like animals fighting 50 feet away from us could have been a mile. No way to tell! All I know is that it was LOUD! And nerve wracking!

A very fitting way to end an adventure, with a good healthy dose of animal fear!

We had an amazing time. This was one of the greatest trips we've taken in Burkina so far. The company was fantastic; I love our friends. We had such a great time talking and laughing. The kids had a wonderful time. I love that Sydaleigh and Marvelly had friends along too, and they were able to make memories together. So very grateful we get to do this. Love that my mom was here to join us and she could experience this with us. We've made such great memories.

Until the next adventure....