Monday, 31 January 2011

Sara Donaldson Photography

We had the pleasure of a professional photographer being on a visiting team. One day at church she took some pictures of the boys. We had forgotten cars that we always take to church for the boys to play with since there is no Sunday school or anything. We saw these cars made out of trash on the side of the road on the way there and decided to pick them up. It ended up making for a great photo shoot! :)

















I realize these are all the same but instead of trying to figure out which is best, I just decided to post them all.



















Thank you Sara for taking pictures! you can check out her website saradonaldson.com

Sunday, 30 January 2011

The updated tree house!

We had a Togolese guy finish up the tree house and put up walls so all the boys could play there. He just finished Thursday and they have played in it a ton. We've played duck,duck, goose several times. They've played Memory and Trouble up there. They've taken their snacks up there. They love it!


Dawson and Brett were playing Trouble the first night the man cave was finished. They've also already added a bucket and string so all the items can be lifted up there. More fun times lie ahead!

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Things that make me smile.

The boys are always saying the funniest thing or doing something that just makes me laugh. So in the midst of the chaos that often exists in our house, I want to take a moment and remember the times that just make me smile.

Silas: he’s into saying “Humongasaur!” (from Ben 10) and proceeds to fight some evil. He’s also really big into turns. he is always saying “my turn!”

He loves taking his medicine. Begs for it. If you leave some on the table, he’ll eat it. He always runs up expectantly in the morning, “med-cine?” Whether it’s a vitamin or a bitter malaria pill or antibiotics- he loves them all.

He’s now in a big boy bed. The transition was basically flawless. He just comes out in the morning without waking his brothers. He walks up to us with arms wide open and a huge smile and gives the best hug, with a little pat on the back. It makes my morning. I love it.

Kenan:

This boy has become a talker. He lives in his own world and moves to his own beat. Even at school they say he just does his own thing. Not in a bad way, but just in a he thinks life should move about the speed of a turtle kind of way. He talks to everyone. He’s a sweetie.

Kenan has really started eating a lot. Even though he is smaller in build, his belly is quite round. The other day after eating two quesadillas and a glass of carnation instant breakfast (with whole milk), he sat up and said, “my belly’s full…I think I can roll on it.” He proceeds to lay down and roll back and forth on his basketball belly. Quite funny.

The great conversations in the car to school have continued this year and now Kenan joins in. The other day he said, “I know why God made finger nais. He made finger nails for opening presents”.

Tuesdays the school has PE. They have to wear blue and have tennis shoes. Most kids in his class don’t have tennis shoes, but just wear sandals. This isn’t out of the ordinary, even grown men play soccer in essentially a shoe that’s like jellies. So as he was headed to school with his shoes on he said, “Black girls and black boys don’t have tennis shoes. I think they have ‘em …they just can’t find them….they just can’t find them.”

Dawson went through a stage where he was saying things like black kids are dirty or various things like that. I would always tell him that wasn’t nice and wasn’t acceptable to say. He has done much better and I haven’t heard him say things in a long time. So the other day they were talking about whether “this country” had STOP signs. Dawson said that we did. Kenan thought that they were only at “grandma’s house” which is how they refer to America. Then Kenan said, “STOP signs at grandma’s house are clean but STOP signs here are dirty.” Dawson quickly chimed in and said, “Kenan, don’t say that, that’s not nice.” At least he is learning! J


Dawson:

We’ve started a new rule in order to help the boys have motivation to learn French. If they can tell me four new words from school that day then they can have ice cream from this little stand on the way home (it’s not great ice cream, but they love it). So they were trying to say their words yesterday. Dawson came up with “Adam et Eve” even though he said they were the same but just different. They came up with numbers zero through 6. Not realizing, this was technically more than 4 words, I asked them what washing their hands was because I knew they knew this. Dawson says, “oh yeah, laver les mains…because she says “Laver les mains. Va à la classe. Poser le tete sur la table.” (wash your hands, go to the classroom, put your head on the table). I was shocked. He really is learning French and doesn’t even realize it.

The other night we were talking about how the Bible is God’s word. I said that God told men what to write and they wrote it down. He looks at me and says, “did He draw the pictures, too?”

Friday, 28 January 2011

Their artwork

Now that Dawson is in school, he brings home a lot of artwork. I'm keeping it all for the moment but I'm sure as the boys get older and are all bringing things home it will be too much, so I thought I'd take some pictures of their work and keep it here...

Silas, 2 years 4 months:

"Wowo" He started out making Batman like Kenan (see below) but as he drew it turned into a wowo, a dog. He still looks at it and points out the dog. I guess he can see it. :)


Kenan, age 4
"Batman"

He says, " you know what's in his hand? A batarang. and those on the top are those things on his head (the batman ears)...and those are his feet... he has two eyes and you know why his mouth is like that?" with a furrowed brow, "it's because he's mad!"

Dawson, 5 years 10 months

"Night and Day" He says, "This is night and day..."


"And this is what you do in the night and in the day...at night, you sleep. at the daytime, you play"

Dawson

"Mommy and Daddy"



Thursday, 27 January 2011

more pictures...

I found more pictures from Anne's visit.

There was a picture of the pediatric dinner. From left to right: Jake, Lazar, Eclé, Brett, Héré, Esai with his baby Olivi (named for a former midwife here, Olive), Kanufen, and Joseph.


Some from the school. Anne spent the day with them at L'ecole Samuel.

playing in the sand to do something for class...

Kenan with friends

The "cafeteria"

Dawson buying da juice from the juice lady.

Sunday, 23 January 2011

The rest of Mémère's visit


The fun continued while Mémère was here. I thought about making this several posts, but I decided to just do one really long one. So hold on, there's a ton of pictures coming...

Sunday, Anne went to the Bambara service to hear the music with Brett. Then she went again with me to the French service.

Brett with our neighbor kids that come to church with us. I don't know why the girl, Ami, has her head down. I don't think she was upset.

After church each week we always go and buy bread at the "bakery."

That evening we went to eat with one of the nurses' at the hospital so Anne could have a real Malian meal in the Malian way- with your hands!

A meal always begins with good hand washing.

Anne eating with the nurse's father, Batoma, and his wife Djenba.

The boys ate with the nurse, Esai.

Kenan showing off his really big belly after eating. He kept saying, "I'm full...okay, just one more bite..." The boys love nzamé!

Mémère watched Kenan build this masterpiece. It's standing on only two blocks- all those toys on top are not attached. I don't know how he did it.

We also had the pediatric nurses over on Tuesday night. No pictures, though, but it was a fun time. We actually watched Amistad in french. I think they liked it.

Then on the spur of the moment at 1 pm on Thursday, we decided to go to Teriya Bugu. Anyone who has been here knows that you can't just pack up clothes and get in the car. You must get water, food, blankets since the beds in hotels rarely have anything thicker than a sheet and many other items. Amazingly, we were out of the house two hours later and on the road.

As we were pulling into Teriya Bugu, Kenan just said, "look, a camel." It didn't register with me at first but then I looked and lo and behold there was a camel. Dawson was amazed and in disbelief, "how can a camel be HERE? Camels live in the DESERT! This isn't desert!" It's a little closer to desert than you think, D. But he is right in that camels are rarely seen around here so it was a fun treat.



Taking a picture by one of the many statues. All lined up by height. I'm wearing a sababu shirt by the way- you should check them out. www.sababuclothing.com Our friends started this company in Bamako.

We did all the normal things we love to do at TB- feeding Fast Eater...

playing on the playground...


feeding the monkeys...


and looking at the funny statues...

we also went and played games while waiting for dinner.



here we are at dinner

this time with Mémère

then the boys and Mémère had breakfast the next morning.

Brett had coffee and the boys "da" juice which they love.


We love TB! I think it is our favorite place in Mali. A home away from home!

On the way out we headed toward Segou instead of going home. We saw a lot of different things going the other way.

A lady cooking in her kitchen...

Then we kind of got lost. Here's the "road" we were following.


Pretty scenery sometimes, though.

though other times there were blocks in the road.


Finally, we made it to Segou. Anne and I went to the mud cloth place where they show you how they make their mud cloth.

A little town right beside Segou.

Then we went to eat dinner by the river.



We had a great time with Mémère and are sad that she has gone! Thankful for the time we had together and the opportunity to show her our life.