Two years without electricity. Without running water. Without the Internet at the tip of our finger tips. Two years of getting up when the sun does (and the rooster). Of biking everywhere we want to go. Of speaking French like its English. Two years without air-conditioning (nor fan, nor ice cubes) in 100F+ heat. All while living in a rural village (comfortably) on a dollar or two a day. Crazy how time flies, and how quickly this new lifestyle becomes somewhat"normal".
Amazingly enough, we've been here long enough to already have grand kids. Well, grand puppies. Our little Mocha welcomed four little puppies into the world last week. Four little bundles of furry joy.
Mocha and her puppies
With the weather drying up and the heat coming back, it's officially the end of the rainy/harvest season. As soon as the last little rains came down, everyone was busy pulling peanuts out of the ground. We would have made ol' George Washington Carver proud.
Have you ever eaten a raw peanut just pulled from the ground? Tasty.
Everyone lending a hand to remove the peanuts from the bushes.
Despite the dry and golden landscape, the Burkinabe use colorful "pagnes" to brighten up their lives.
Sonia posing with a local seamstress from our village.
And Ryan is now an honorary member of the local women's union.
Vive les femmes!!!
Finally, a super giant thank you to our great friends back in Portland who chipped in to get us a portable DVD player. So now, while sitting in our little mud house in the middle of nowhere, we can watch movies (so long as the sun was out that day to charge the player off our little Brunton solar panel). A ridiculous luxury that we've done without for 2 years, but hey, we're in the final stretch now... need to start reintroducing technology back into out lives.
We have even been watching old Scrubs re-runs, so it's just like being at home.
Merci beaucoup nos amis!
