Can you eat lizard eggs?

The kids have enjoyed watching the various lizards run up and down the walls outside. They are intent on catching one for a pet, but as of yet have been unsuccessful.

Today as Luke was digging in the sand looking for a shovel the kids buried, we found some lizard eggs! We’ve never done much digging in the Niger sand, so this was a new discovery for us.

The kids wanted to know if we could eat the eggs. Apparently it’s safe to eat lizard eggs (turtle and crocodile being the most commonly eaten), but we decided to put the eggs back instead so the baby lizards can grow.

artisan tour- part 1

A few weekends ago, I (Tab) finally had a chance to go on the "Artisan Tour."  A group of about ten of us followed our tour guide through town visiting the potters, bakers, and blacksmiths. Our first stop was the potter's. It is amazing how much work goes into making these pots...all done by hand.

it all starts with a pile of clay rocks

that get pounded down to a powder

then carried over to another compound to be made into the clay (we didn't see that part of the process)

The clay is eventually formed into a round circle. Then, this old lady coats it with donkey dung and starts to pound it with a stone

she places over an old pot that is used as a mold

Then she continues to pound it until it covers the old pot (a more finished example is on the left)

Once finished, the pots are fired and painted, Voila!  (they weren't firing or painting pots that day, but there were some finished products)

some of the kids who decided to join the tour

don't touch!

The millet fields a few weeks ago...tall and green

Harvested millet field

Millet harvest season has come and with it have come bugs.  Lots and lots of earwigs that swarm up walls, cover doorways, and somehow seem to make it inside your mosquito net at night. Thankfully, our house is in the middle of the compound and is somewhat protected from the influx of earwigs that occurs during millet harvesting.  Another interesting bug we find occasionally around here is this:

That is a blister beetle...if you startle or squeeze them, they secrete a powerful substance called cantharidin which causes blistering. Luke had his first encounter with one several weeks ago and got some painful blisters on his arm. Interestingly, cantharidin from blister beetles is used medicinally in the USA to remove warts! I don't think I will try extracting it here anytime soon, though. :)

The dust before the storm.

Every year is more of the same. After months of cloudless skies, one by one they start to appear on the horizon. Will they have rain or will they just provide some minor relief from the scorching sun?

In America, predicting the weather is a part of everyday life. There are whole TV stations and websites dedicated to the prediction and documentation of weather events.  I have never been the type to look up the weather unless there is something important happening  (like to see if the mountain passes are closed due to snow, or is the rain-delayed sportscast going to resume soon). I think this is a reaction to my father's addiction to the weather channel. Or maybe it is because I never really minded being inconvenienced by rain, hot, cold, or snowy days. I couldn't do anything about it anyway.

This place has relatively stable weather patterns. It's sunny and over 95 degrees almost every day, but we do experience a couple dozen thunder storms a year during rainy season. Those storms can have extreme winds that are known to topple trees and blow down walls and crops.  Each storm is unique and we never know what is coming until it is here. Each time the clouds build on the horizon, we pray that the storm will bring rain and not too much destructive wind and dust.

Storms follows a similar pattern almost every time. Clouds appear, the wind picks up, and eventually a wall of dust overruns everything, with everyone huddling in whatever shelter they can find. During most of the year, the dust eventually settles and everyone goes on about their lives. However, this time of year, there is a chance that one of these storms will produce rain- significant rain that floods the ground and cools the air.

This year, the rains started quite late. They were late enough that our church had prayer meetings every evening for a few weeks to pray for rain. In this land, there is never sufficient rain, but even less than usual can be the difference between life and death for many people.

Towards the end of the workday a little while back, I saw the dark storm clouds amassing in the east. They were very dark, which doesn't necessarily mean rain, it may just mean more dust than usual. As I watched the clouds moving slowly, I could clearly see the massive wall of dirt and sand as it made its way across the valley. I knew I wanted to get a picture of it. So, I hopped on my bike and hustled home to get a camera and run to the edge of the property to get a great picture of this spectacular site. Unfortunately the storm was moving way faster than it looked. By the time I got out of my house the storm was upon us. I tried to get some pictures anyway, but walking into a storm with my mouth and eyes full of sand is not as fun as it looks.

You can kind of see the difference between the dust on the right and the clear skies on the left.

This is the view across the air strip and the valley beyond. There is an orange wind sock on the left that is pointed straight out. 

This was the one! The storm that finally brought rain. The next day the fields were full of men planting and tilling. We've had steady rains since then and now the millet sprouts are about 30cm tall. W Although, with the blessing of rain there is also the plague of mosquitoes and the malaria that they will bring. It is always something here. If there is one thing that place has taught me is to learn to be content where ever you are. No matter how perfect or horrible the place is you live, there will always be things to complain and worry about.

seasons change

We have three "seasons" here: cold season, rainy season, and hot season.  They could more accurately described as: hot season, hot & humid season, and unimaginably hot season. Its never cold. Anyway, as we progress through our second year here we are starting to recognize other seasonal patterns of change like the boabab trees growing leaves, the swallows migrating, and the limes ripening on our tree.

Yesterday, I stopped by Luke's office on the way home from work and witnessed another seasonal event. On the way home, we saw swarms of lizards running and jumping about outside the administration building.  Luke told me that he saw this last year, then he led me to a hole in the ground that looked like this:

The lizards and birds were just running around eating as many flying termites as they could as the bugs emerged from their holes in the ground. The flying termites filled the air. It was kind of gross but fun to watch the lizards jumping and eating them...until the termites tried flying up my skirt. Yikes!

lean years

Whenever I see the cows around here, for some reason it reminds me of that story of Pharaoh and his dream. You know, the one where the poor, thin, ugly cows come out of the Nile and eat the plump and attractive cows. 

Genesis 41

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke."

what I used to think of when I thought of cows

oh, how I miss fields of green grass

Here are a couple pictures of the cows here:

I wouldn't necessarily call the cows here ugly, but they can be tragically thin. 

Can you count the ribs? The grass is missing. In fact, I'm not really sure what the cow could be eating. 

This pic made us laugh. I imagine this is what a cow would look like if it swallowed another cow. Thanks google images. :)

guess who's here?

My mom came to visit for a couple weeks! Her second day here we rode camels. It was our first time riding camels as well.

Luke on the lead camel. Many people assumed the other three camel riders were his three wives. Nope, only the one right behind him. :)

This is the camel owner. You can't really tell in this picture, but his is missing his right arm from a camel bite. We kept our hands as far away as possible from the camel's mouths!

Its been interesting having her here and having our two "worlds" collide. Hopefully I can cajole her into writing a blog or two about her experiences and her perspective now that she has seen our world firsthand. :)

I'm BATMAN!!!

From time to time we get interesting animals appearing on our compound. Last week one evening a goat found it's way past the fence and into the lush gardens of our neighbor. All was well until one of the dogs noticed him in there. They managed to chase him around for about twenty minutes until he finally found an exit.

This is one of the goat chasers. He likes human food, sleeping on cool floors, and barking at strangers.

A couple months back now this guy landed on our power lines. A mistake he will not make twice. A consequence of being 30cm from head to toe. The smaller bats never have this problem. He ended up staying there a few weeks before he finally fell. No surprise, the young boys around loved it and the girls thought it was the grossest thing ever.

This is actually a fruit bat and not very common here since there isn't much fruit.

We actually have many bats here, they are small and live in our roof. They chirp all day then at night the pigeons come and coo on top of our roof. Always activity. 

what's out back

The other weekend Luke and I went strolling in the neighborhood behind the hospital compound. We wanted to get away from the compound for a bit...and it turned out to be a fun little adventure. Come along...

heading out back (this is the end of the airstrip right before the gate to leave the compound)

we took the path through the harvested millet fields and headed toward the green land. This is basically what the country looks like this time of year. We were headed towards the irrigated fields, where the onions are.

we came to a main road, green bean fields, and a millet stalk fence to keep the animals out.

Picking beans, the irrigation channel is the background.

transporting the beans. these girls greeted us and couldn't get over the fact that we spoke Hausa to them. they walked with us for awhile, giggling and saying things like, "Did you hear her say 'hello, how are you in Hausa'?"

blooming onion field

A hobbled donkey happily eating onion tops that were removed as the onions were put in bags to sell. 

little boy taking a rest in the fields

The onion fields are watered by pumps that bring water up from deep in the ground. The wells are so deep that they have to dig pits for the pumps so they can reach the water below.

A deep, deep water hole.  It made me happy that the kids had a decent fear of the water hole and kept telling us we should be afraid and not get too close. I've taken care of too many kids that have fallen down wells.
You can see the the blue sky reflecting off the water in the bottom. The well must be at least 15 meters if not more deep. Now if only they would put covers over these things.

fun times!

camel sighting

Today we briefly attended a local meeting- a sort of interfaith peace rally. It was really interesting, there were hundreds of people there, kings and chiefs and mayors...and some camels!

what you looking at?

noses!

listening with rapt attention to the king's speech

the camel owners had some of the best seats in the house

New Years Day

adventuring

New Year's Eve was kind of a bummer. After an emotionally exhausting weekend, I was looking forward to the evening prayer time with games and snacks to follow. But, by the time I got home from the OR, washed the hospital off and made dinner, prayer time was almost over and I was exhausted. Also, Luke was feeling anti-social. So, instead of having some fun, l collapsed into bed. Which, on the bright side, gave me some energy for a little New Year's Day adventure.

There isn't a whole lot to do for adventuring around here, but we had planned a fossil hunting trip a few weeks ago with our friend J, the school teacher and a few kids. It turned out to be an interesting little field trip.

Setting out across the rocky landscape

interesting rock designs

a local shepherd boy and his cattle

some of the fossils...t top left is a fossilized vertebra, top right is a spiral seashell, and bottom left is a clam. Guess there once was  an ocean to go along with all the sand!

On our walk back we stopped by the local "butcher shop." Today was market day, so it was a pretty busy place as animals were slaughtered for market.

posing

being carried to the slaughter

up close and personal

photo op

not sure about this

bucket full of goat heads (not sure what they do to them...eat them?)

I got an impromptu "name that internal organ" Hausa lesson

On the walk home we walked through an area with rocks arranged to mark what we found out were gravesites

This was the only grave with a grave marker

As you can see...it was a pretty interesting 3 hour adventure all within a 20 minute walk of our compound. :)