Isaiah 58:11

One of our new students, 12 year old Mikaela wondered if she could plant a garden, "not a flower garden, but food".  So she and one of her room-mates, Blessing have hoed and watered a patch of ground that they call their own.  Monday Mikaela planted the top of the pineapple I had cut up for snack.  So we will see how it progresses!

"... He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land... like a well watered garden..." Is 58:11

pictiondictionary

Our first Saturday night in the dorm after Christmas vacation and the kids are not bogged down with a lot of homework (yet), so we played a game of piction-dictionary.  Everyone starts with a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil.  Each person writes a descriptive sentence and passes it to the person on their right.  The next person draws a picture of what is described in the picture, folds the paper so the original sentence can not be seen and passes it to their right.  The next person writes a sentence that describes the picture and so on all around the table until you get your original piece of paper back.  Then each person reads their original sentence and all the hilarious mixed up pictures and sentences that follow.  The kids had a great time seeing how their sentences got morphed!

Celebrate good times!

I know that it is important to celebrate joyful occasions, and so this week we celebrated!!

My good friend "Tanti Hadiza" who also helps me in the kitchen three days a week asked me if she could bake a cake for her friend who just had a baby. She had gone through the labour and delivery with her friend, so she was given the task to name the baby. She chose the name Arielle. Then she asked if I would decorate the cake for her. This is Tanti Hadiza with her cake for baby Arielle.

Joshua turned 13 in December (two days before Christmas) so we had an "unbirthday" for him on Wednesday. He asked for hamburgers and French Fries and Banana cream pie for dessert! It was a fun Supper, and Josh's parents were still in town so they got to celebrate with us too!!


On Thursday Rufus received a letter from Oral Roberts University that he had been accepted into the pre-med programme!! Whoa, are we proud or what?? John has also been accepted to ORU, so I baked a cake (chocolate since John brought us 20 boxes of cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire!! (Rufus on the left and John on the right)

Happy New Year 2010!!

Wow, hard to believe that 2010 has arrived!! Doesn't it seem like we are living in the future??
Tim and I spent Wednesday apart, which is unusual. Tim was over at the McIver's helping to build the new climbing apparatus for our playground. While Janice was over at the Beebout's house trying to get it clean before their arrival early Thursday morning. We met Jeremy and Susan and their two girls Lydia and Eliza ( aged six and four) in Quebec during our language study. They have become special friends of ours... They went back to America in August to await the arrival of their third child. Abigail was born September 9 (Labour day of course!) and they returned to Niger safely Thursday, December 31!
Thursday morning Tim and the rest of the men who helped create the climber brought it over to our playground and installed it into its cement moorings. After lunch with part of the crew we played our annual softball game, (even Janice played!)
Our friends the McIvers (also language study friends from Quebec) had supper with us Thursday night. Their two children are between our two, so they had a great time playing together. Since our kids are young we decided to have a sleep over!! We have lots of empty bedrooms this time of year while the dorm kids are with their own families. After the kids went to bed we played a game of "ticket to ride" (which was brand new to Tim and I). Chantelle won big time!! At midnight we walked over to the river to watch the hotels' display of fireworks (while most of you were eating dinner in North America). Happy New Year from Niger!