Pigtails and see saws

Lucy was very excited to wear pigtails for the first time last week. Her hair has gotten very curly and has a mind of its own, but on this day Lucy decided she needed 2 bows in her hair. She was so proud of herself she ran into school to pick up the boys so she could show them right away. She and Max also had a great time on the seesaw yesterday at the playground. While not pictured, Charlie was there too ... busily digging with rocks, making sure to cover himself from head to toe in the gritty red sand.

Malian food

We ate some Malian food this weekend and I remembered to snap a few pictures before it was all gone. The food in the sahel is not as interesting as other West African cuisine like Ghana, but a tasty break from the mostly European fare we've been eating at the hotel. On Saturday evening, Max and Fred walked to buy some bread and pastries for Sunday breakfast and stopped at a vendor on the side of the road who was making "aloko" - yummy fried plantain and fried dough whose name I don't know. The dough, to everyone's surprise, had sliced onions and hard boiled eggs tucked inside. It was delicious and tasted a lot like a chinese egg roll. The sauce it came with was a bit too spicy for me and the kids but Fred enjoyed it. Then for lunch on Sunday we ordered 2 Malian dishes at the National Park restaurant (pictures above). We all enjoyed it, particularly Lucy. One dish was called "Widjilla" and the description in French was "sauce a la tomato avec pate de pain suite a la vapeur." It was a tomato based sauce with steamed bread. Our favorite between the two dishes. The other dish was "Soupoukondia" and was "sauce combo mule de palme poisson fumes avec riz blanc." This dish sauce was okra based with palm oil and some fish and it came with white rice. As okra dishes go, it was a good one though I still have difficulty with the sliminess of the okra texture. It's the yellower of the sauces and shown in the picture with Lucy. Also pictured above is a replica of the green minibuses you see all over the streets here - packed tight with people and their goods. It was right outside the restaurant at the National Park so the kids checked it out and let me take a quick picture. They were fascinated by the people inside made out of paper mache.

Our First Trip to the Clinic

Sunday ... nothing says "oh crap" like being 45 minutes from our hotel at an encampment with Fred's colleagues when Max starts throwing up ... poor kid made it all the way back to the hotel without getting sick in the car - a major feat considering half the drive was off-road. At times the experience was comical - switching between holding Max's head during bouts of sickness to changing Lucy's diarrhea diapers, all while outdoors at a dinner celebrating Fred's bosses birthday. Needless to say, we figured it was time to take the kids to the doctor Monday morning. The pediatrician was great and we left with medication for both kids and saw improvement within a day. So Max was back at school on Wednesday, in time for Charlie to get sick Wednesday night. I appreciate it when the kids take turns being sick so I can still send one of them off to school each day. And Lucy has really rebounded in the last day, eating and playing and acting like a 2 year old. And now some random animal pictures brought to you by Charlie ...

AISB Hippos

The school mascot is the hippo and the boys were excited to get their school shirts yesterday. They don't have a uniform but the older grades wear these shirts for P.E. so of course the younger kids all want to wear them too. Charlie came home with paint all over his yesterday so we figured we might as well get some ice cream after school to really make it worth washing them.

Little Lucy

Lucy hasn't been feeling well the last day or so ... nothing serious, just upset stomach. The thumb sucker that she is, it's amazing it took almost 3 weeks before she got her first case of diarrhea. She's still eating and drinking, just going through a lot of diapers, so a few pictures of our "busy" days hanging out at the hotel. The boys love school and are starting to get into the routine, homework, etc. My french is slowing improving ... I'm probably understood now about half the time which is huge progress from the first days here. We found a house and will hopefully move in about 2 weeks and until then, we continue to rough it at the hotel.