Congratulations x 2!

This is Melissa, my niece, as a baby. She is graduating from high school on Sunday, May 31, 2009

Melissa now. She has become quite a beautiful young woman.

Jeni, with Kyle and Matt at her college graduation.

More birthdays! Sorry I am late!

Stephanie's birthday was Saturday, May 23. Happy Birthday Stephanie! Stephanie is our youngest and we really wish we weren't so far apart.

Matt's birthday was May 20. We celebrated his birthday today with steak and Boston cream cake.

Life in the Coop

This is Atilah the Hun. He was in a bloody fight today with the character below him. Now keep in mind, he has killed all males in the coop since he began his brutal rule.

This is Mr. No Toes. He was a very ambidextrous guy for a long time. Probably why he is still alive. However, his feet have never been of the rough, tough stuff chickens need. While still a youngin I had to bring him in for a while. Anyway, he has taken over as lead rooster.

However, this is one of his sons. He was known as the ugliest chicken in the world for quite a while. He was also ambidextrous. Now he is becoming quite a looker. He will be in charge next I am sure. Thank goodness, he has the more mild dispostion of his father, Mr. No Toes. Hopefully no more dead roosters.

Hair and white people in Africa

Some of Rasmata's in-laws doing hair the day we picked up Rasmata.

Delilah doing my hair the first time.

What is left of my going home hairdo.

I didn't spend a lot of time with Delilah while I was in Ouaga. Delilah had some issues that are regretful, but they were out of my control. Teen problems can be big and bold even in Africa. So I was a bit disappointed with that. However, language barrier or not, Delilah and I bonded through my hair. She just loved my hair. So I let her brush and brush. I mostly let her do what she wanted until she got out the hair oil which is a staple for black/negroid hair. It was quite funny explaining what a mess I would have if the oil actually made it on my head.
On the morning I was leaving, Delilah asked if she could do my hair. I said ok. As I got on the plane, many of us looked the same. It is a custom to be given a gift of a nice hairdo before travel. African women spend many hours working on each other's hair. It is part of the bonding process for them.
Notice how wilted I looked. Yeah it is that bad. White people just do not do so well in that climate. There is one look- hot, wilted and sweaty. They all asked why I didn't wear my hair down like they were used to seeing in pictures. Let me tell you, the "soggy, just got out of the pool" look would have been fine with me.

Grandpa

Grandpa worked on puzzles for hours yesterday. It has become his passion. I dug out the children's jigsaw puzzles we had saved and have been slowly building up the collection via Amazon. Target and Rite Aid have a very good selection of the 25-60 piece sized ones too.
Last night as I gave him his pills, he grabbed my hand and told me he loved me. That is pretty normal, but he told me he loved me as his doctor because her could count on me. I said "I like being your doctor. You make me smile." He asked why. I said because he was always so happy. He said. "I am happy because of you." Pretty neat from a crabby old geezer whom I was positive I could never care for precisely because his attitude was so rotten-especially to women.
While I never planned to care for either of them the way I do. It has turned out to be a good thing. Especially for Matt.

Star Trek

Today I talked to Rakieta and told her Matt and I were going to see Star Trek. She said "What's that?" I explained. She said "That's weird. Are there people in real life who go to space?" I said "Yes, there are people out there right now trying to fix a space ship. But it is different. It is cold and dark and dangerous." She laughed and thought the whole thing was quite silly. Just a footnote so you would understand that not every corner of the world lives in the state of mind we in the US do.
Now, keep in mind they still believe in witches.

Regis, Michael and Michel (pronounced Michelle)

These are Fidel and Rasmata's children. Rakieta's nephews. Regis who is the oldest, and the twins. They are both named Michael, but one is the English pronunciation and spelling and the other is the French.

Happy Birthday Delilah!

Delilah in her new do. She got it the morning of the day I left for her school program.

The girls blowing out their birthday candles. I wrote about this several posts back if you'd like to read more about this.

Today begins the litany of birthdays in my family for about a month. Today is Delilah's birthday. Happy birthday Delilah! We wish you a great day!
Delilah went to go live with her birth mother shortly after my trip over last year. She moved to another region. However, she is learning English because our e-mails from her are now coming in English.

Ouaga 2009?

(work in progress) Well, it is time to begin to decide whether or not we can afford a trip to Ouagadougou this year. First, we need to make sure Rakieta gets her new leg. I'll write more on that later. I need to figure out just how much cash is still needed. Then we need to make sure my husband is still employed. Let me tell you Obama's "changes" get to be a bit much some days. If we are all having fun now, just wait until he gets through "fixing" health care. That should destroy another large segment of the economy. I digress
Anyway, I was casually checking prices and it looks like if I am VERY flexable about when I go, I can get a ticket as cheap as $1,000. That sure beats the $3000 from my list trip.

Cyndy or Cinderella

My mornings go like this: Down the stairs I come at promptly 8:00, hopefully to a yet sleeping grandpa. Isabelle, the dog wants out. So first I let her out. Then I let any cats out that want out. I start the coffee,wipe down the table, get breakfast on the table, make hot chocolate for Adele. When the chickies were in I would take the towels off the cages (for darkness) and feed and water. I get pills ready and then I can have some me time. If grandpa is up, I don't even get to the bathroom first because he is usually up to mischief. On some of these mornings I can't help but giggle that my mornings are a bit Cinderella-ish. Remember the dance show we just did. I watched every version of Cinderella over and over as we were preparing for the show. Maybe I am Cinderella-ed out, but you have to admit I have a point.

Pics from Rasmata

This is one of Rasmata's twins. Rasmata is Rakieta's older sister. I am not sure whose kitchen this is as I was not in this home while I was in Burkina. But this is a more upscale house than Rakieta's parents have. Note the stove in the corner. That is typical of the area. This is an average middle class kitchen. Having table and chairs is a luxury. The woman in the picture is Rasmata. There are 3 pictures in this set. They were sent several months ago, but with all the grandparent chaos and subsequent computer mishaps, it had to wait. As of tonight I have my computer life pretty much back to normal. And boy does it feel great!!!!!!!!!

More on Bill and Jake

Here are Bill and Jake all decked out in their gear. See how massive they are. Good thing they are such teddy bears. Anyway, if you are ever in need of a hay ride, feel free to give John a call. The number is 724-6840. They can also do carriage rides for weddings and other special occasions.

Cinderella

Cinderella trying on shoe.

Cinderella and fairy godmother

Well the show was Sat, May 9. It was wonderful. It was very complicated and we did have technical booboos but it was a great show! Now I am ready for at least a couple weeks of very little scheduling. I need to get my laundry done.

Bill and Jake

Meet Bill and Jake, Sweetie, Ellie Mae and Copper's new neighbors. They are something else. First of all they are absolutely huge. As in gigantic. Second of all they think they are kittens. Third of all they are used for hay and buggy rides so they are used to the public and are HAMS! It is going to be quite a summer getting to know them. They are already growing on me.
That is the view I have every day at the barn. No traffic, no people. Just lots and lots of nature. My troubles just melt away.

Stuff

Today is windy, cloudy and cool. I am stressing out over laundry, paperwork and watching Grandpa. Shortly I will probably have to move my computer to a more strategic area as Gramps is getting bolder and bolder about going outside AND he doesn't seem to have a respect for temperatures. In other words the button is now broken. So his safety is really at stake now.
On the up side I don't have deadlines now so I am less frazzled.
Next post I am going to talk about these 2 draft horses who have moved into the adjoining pasture to my girls. Quite the characters would be an understatement. It is going to be an interesting summer.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I had a very nice surprise for Mother's day. About one o'clock a strange jeep pulled in the yard. Strange cars pull in the yard all the time to turn around, to get dance info, to ask to collect metal etc. Living on a farm on a secondary road gets you all kinds of visitors.
Anyhoo, this time a small lady rolled down her window and knew my name. I had no clue who she was. It turns out she is one of the children of the lady we bought the house from. This is a centennial farm and the homestead was settled around the mid 1800's. It was owned by the same family until we bought the place. The lady was taking her handicapped brother for a ride and to take flowers to her mothers grave for Mother's day. They drove by the house, saw cars in the drive and decided to stop. It was a wonderful little visit. We have decided to have them back for a dinner or something and take them through the house so they can visit memory lane. The brother is wheel chair bound so it will take a little work and planning but I think that would be a very nice thing to do this summer. For me it was the perfect Mother's Day gift. She said it was the perfect gift for her too.

One Ringy Dingy, Two Ringy Dingy..............

Ok, it has been a very rough couple of weeks in the calling Burkina Faso department. For some reason, now even my Western Union phone card is not working right. Under the best of circumstances calling Burkina is not what I would say is stress free. Their lines are all rotary I think. At least it sounds that way. Remember the old buzzzz, buzzzz from our child hoods if you lived in a rural area? The circuits are frequently busy and dropped calls, buzzing and echoing are all pretty normal. However, some days are just an exercise in futility.
However the western Union card could always be trusted. In the last few months, it was sending my calls on a wild goose chase about every 5th time I called, but last week it was constant. Out of desperation I finally called Rakieta directly and amazingly the call went right through and with no static or any of the other annoyances that we just deal with. Since I was not sure how much Verizon was charging me, we kept it very short. I called Western Union who assured me they would correct the problem. I spent another week not being able to get through. So today, since the show is finally done and I have some disposable time now, I called directly again and had no trouble, called Western Union again who assured me they would fix the problem and I finally broke down and bought an MCI card. We'll see how things go. More on this later.