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

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. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

No, it's not really looking like Christmas here. It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas. It's a couple hundred degrees everyday and I haven't seen a flake of snow. However, a few weeks ago we got to do a very Christmas-y thing, Operation Christmas Child (OCC). OCC is a program that Samaritan's Purse has been doing for years and years. If you are unfamiliar with it you can check it out here. Basically, people from countries like the USA pack up shoe boxes full of stuff and they are given out as Christmas presents to kids in poor countries. Usually this is accompanied with the story of the first Christmas when Jesus was born and condensed summary of what Christianity is and isn't. 

Anyway, I had the opportunity to go out on one of the OCC distributions. It was fun and chaotic and very interesting. It seemed as if every kid in town heard about the gifts even though we didn't even announce we were coming. Once they saw all the white people word spread and before we knew it there were hundreds and hundreds of kids wanting to get a shoe box.

As a side note, this wasn't an early 2013 distribution this was a very late 2012 distribution. 

When we first got to town we walked around with a welcome group. They were elders in the town and they wanted to show us respect and thankfulness by giving us a tour. Incidentally, one of the stops they were mourning the passing of a family member. At another stop one of our team members had her flip flops taken. She left them at the door on the way in and they were not there on the way out. That poor family was so embarrassed.  

As we went around town we had quite a following of kids and curious onlookers. These are some of the kids that followed us around at a safe distance while we were given our tour. On the rooftop the adults can't chase you away.

We made it to the church. The courtyard of the church is where we distributed the shoe boxes. 

A church member is carrying a box of shoe boxes into the church courtyard.

After all the boxes made it inside they had to pick out the kids that would receive a box. Even though we had about 200 boxes, there were way more than 200 kids there. Probably like 400 kids. They tried to get one box per family at least.  It seemed as if the whole thing could descend into chaos at any moment. The kids out numbered adults by probably 10 to 1. Keeping order was very difficult.

If you didn't get picked you found a spot on the wall and waited for an opportunity to jump over and maybe get mixed up with the chosen ones.  You can see the one guard with a millet stalk in his hand. 

What do you do when you get a box? Put it on your head and walk home.

This dude was super happy. Maybe because he got two boxes.

After receiving a box, leaving the church was a bit tricky for the kids. Once out the gates they had to  avoid the hundreds of other kids trying to get their hands on a box or two.
Here is grandma with her stick protecting her grand kids from possible thieves.
Best t-shirt of the day TURN UP THE BASS!

It was a bit of a weird experience. Towards the very end, when there were clearly only two or three boxes left, some of the few parents there decided to fight it out for the remainder. It was a bit of a scrum and one or two of the boxes were torn open. But it was sorted out in short order. If you calculated the cost of the items in some of the boxes, the books, markers, toothpaste, candy, and toys, they would total about a week's salary for one of their parents. Even though Mcdonalds toys and stickers may seem like land fill material in America, it all has quite a bit of value here. I think that is why it seemed like black Friday towards the end.

Once the final shoe boxes were given out, the big empty cardboard boxes that the shoe boxes came in were given out. The people that received those big empty boxes were just as happy as the ones that received the shoe boxes full of stuff.

It would have been nice if more of the parents had come with the kids to the distribution, but perhaps the parents were working or taking care of the younger children. And it's kind of a counter cultural thing to give out presents to kids of all ages and genders. Here, if there is something new in the family it usually goes to the oldest male child. So, the boxes may get taken by the oldest male child of the family before they even reach the home even if the box was for a girl aged 2-4. That's just how it is.

It didn't go perfectly, and it did not meet my expectations, but I learned many things from that day. I just hope that the kids had some fun and will enjoy the gifts and that they will realize why they were given the boxes of gifts.

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  James 1:17