Isaak's weekend in Niger and a Pirate party back here.

It's crazy sometimes how fast the week goes by. It's already Thursday. It seems like it was just last Friday and I was kissing Isaak off to go to Niger for the weekend. And now today is the start of another weekend. Where does the time go?

Well, before another busy weekend full of activities gets ushered in, I better take a minute to jot down some memories from this past one.

Isaak went to Niamey, Niger last Friday. Every year there is a softball tournament held in the capitol and many of the students from Sydaleigh's school, ISO, embassy staff, Burkinabe kids from local softball teams, and just other random softball enthusiasts from around the country all travel together across the border for a weekend of games.

We all planned on going for the weekend, but without a personal vehicle, and somewhat poorly organized general arrangements, we just hung back and sent Isaak off solo. Next year though...we'll be there.

Isaak took lots of pictures along the way. Me and the girls particularly love to see the ladies who carry goods on their heads. It's really quite fascinating. They can balance some seriously heavy loads up there, and they do it with such ease. I love to watch them.

Check point along the way.

They put my car packing skills to shame! Ha ha! I love it.

Due to deteriorating roads like this, the car Isaak was riding in had a blow out.

So they pulled over to change the tire. There was a little red dirt road off the "highway."  In one glance it was deserted.

 In a second glance there was all of a sudden a little boy standing there watching them.

A third glance and he was gone just as fast as he appeared. In a fourth glance he was back with three other kids. Too cute.

Niger is 90% Muslim with a very small percentage being animist and Christian.

Niger is also the largest country in West Africa. 80% of it's land is covered by the Sahara desert. Niamey in the southwest closely bordering Burkina is much more of a tropical climate with more greenery as opposed to the sand dunes covering much of the rest of the country. Gosh I would love to see those sand dunes one day.

Camels on the road to Niamey.

The Niger River. The largest river in West Africa and the third longest river on the African continent only behind the Nile and Congo River. Love the paintings on the side of the boats.

Once everyone arrived they had many games to play over the coarse of the weekend. There were such a variety of people playing on teams from all walks of life, locals and then ex-pats living in West Africa for a variety of reasons.

The guy swinging in the blue shirt is an American living in Niger working for Samaritain's Purse. Isaak got to spend some time talking to him and just loved his heart. He speaks like five languages and loves Jesus so much. He said that like Paul, he asks God to bring him to "the wilderness" every.single.day so that he is always in a complete state of dependency on God. I love that.

"Hey batter batter, swiiiiiiing batter." From the looks of it, he nailed that pitch. Way to go babe.

Isaak had a great time. He got to meet so many different people and experience a little bit of life in another African country.

 

Sadly Isaak's team did not take home the trophy.

He did win me a necklace from a local vendor. So I win! Yeah me!

Isaak had a great time. We're glad he got to go. While he was gone we hung back at home and kept busy with our own happenings.

Friday night we spent a quiet evening at home having a girl movie night. It was mommy's choice and I chose Tangled because I love that princess so much. So we snuggled up on the floor with our blankets eating M&M's that Mimi sent us watching Rapunzel.

Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for a boy in Sydaleigh's class. Without Isaak here we had no transportation and I wasn't about to have the girls miss the party because of that so we walked.

Me and Marvelly made the same walk on Thursday because his mom had a bunch of ladies over for coffee, and we walked then so I knew we could do it. Originally I thought they lived much closer to us. The map she provided appeared that their house was just a couple blocks away, but on Thursday as me and Marvelly walked to where we thought it was....there were no houses. Come to find out the house was way down a busy road we had already been walking. I called and she told me I was almost there, just another five or ten minute car ride. Right. On foot with a four year old that's like another 25 minute walk. But I wasn't about to turn back.

And come Saturday we did it again. We prayed before we set out, that God would give us strong legs and help us not to complain. And even though it was a long long walk and 99 degrees outside with no shade and a harsh sun beating down on us the entire way, with no sidewalks and walking along a busy street and dodging motos and cars and bicycles and banana carts...we made it. The girls didn't complain. We looked like we were melting by the time we arrived, but we arrived. And once we replenished all the water we lost in sweat the girls had a blast!

The house just makes my jaw hit the floor when I see it. You can't really see the houses from the streets here because of all the gates so you never know what the houses really look like until you step inside the gate. And the houses here are fabulous. Really. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous. The architecture here is so interesting.When you step inside the gate there is a wrought iron spiral staircase leading up three floors, and the pirate party was held on their third story roof top terrace. It's four times the size of this picture, with a kitchen and bathroom plus there's another little roof tower that you can climb up onto. It was spectacular.

They colored and dressed up and walked the plank, had a treasure hunt and the girls danced. It was fun. And thankfully another parent graciously gave us a ride home when it was done!

Afterwards at home we had another girl movie night watching Beauty and the Beast!

Sunday Isaak's boss and good friends of ours picked us up and we all went to church. And then their two boys who happen to be seven and four stayed for the afternoon to play.

Sydaleigh and Luke are absolutely smitten with each other. It is innocent and sweet and they play and have fun and we chuckle and get a kick out of them. They all play so great. We are incredibly grateful for all the friends the Lord has put in our path during our time here so far. And thankful for opportunities to get out and live and have fun while Isaak was gone. We are blessed.

It was a great weekend all around!