After many prayers from many people, Sonia is back in Burkina!
It's been an eternity since we updated our blog. Needless to say, we have not been camping out in the cyber cafe much recently here in the final stretch of our service. Sonia made it back after spending almost 6 months on the DL list. But like any veteran, she has bounced back quickly already in the thick of things (like she had never left).
Baby weighing day at the maternity.
Ryan is busy too. On one hand he's got a $500,000 agriculture development grant from the USADF just kicking off, and on the other, a fledgling Moringa tree agro-business he's helping grow with a village-based group. But sometimes, when he can find a free moment, he climbs a tree. In this case, the large Mango tree in our backyard.
Taking a quiet moment to learn about a monk who sold his Ferrari.
Weather-wise, we're loving it. Last year we were out of commission in South Africa and missed the entire month of September. Well, it's fabulous. Rain storms almost every day! In fact, there was a massive rain storm on September 1st that made international news. In just 10 hours, 300mm of rain (or 25% of the capitol city's annual rainfall) came down in Ouagadougou causing flash floods and a lot of damage. In our sleepy village all was fine.
Here are some pictures of life around village. Some of these might look a bit familiar but the cloud formations are just so impressive we had to include a "big storm is coming" shot one more time.
Two-toned sky means the rain is coming in t-minus 20 minutes!
One of Sonia's many famous sunset pictures. Ohhh. Ahhhh.
Our mud house.
Ryan's little courtyard "urban" garden.
Ryan's little corner plot garden of green beans, peanuts and Moringa trees.
Pretty flowers. Kills my allergies, but nice to look at nonetheless.
The kids... Mocha and Cafe hanging out.
Out of gas. Sonia cooking on an outdoor charcoal stove.
What is she cooking? Plantains in coconut milk. A tasty dessert!
Delphine is all smiles for getting to cook with Sonia.
A nice shot of one of my 900 Moringa trees with a big storm brewing in the background.
Ryan and his little munchkin.
Go Mariners! Thanks to the Robinson's for the donation. Delphine has no idea who the Mariners are, what baseball is or who Ken Griffy Jr. is, but she's darn cute.
The art of getting your hair done. Our three sisters with all new do's.
Finally, this weekend marked our COS conference and party. COS being our "close of service" in the Peace Corps. We'd adding on a few more months to our service, but we had a nice "going away" party with the rest of the COS'ing volunteers here in Ouagadougou.
Our Burkina formal wear.
