Kids in the village

Our kids love the village life. It is a blessing to me that they find it so enjoyable. Maybe if it was their only place of residence and they didn't have friends around and such, they wouldn't love it as much, but they always look forward to the time there. They don't even mind the car rides anymore because they listen to audio books. We don't hear a word from them the entire trip. :)

There is much to do there, like tree climbing, playing in the mud and sand, games of baseball, bike riding, forever freeze tag, playing with our donkey, lounging in the hammock, and going for evening drives with the kids sitting on the roof of the car. I've done the roof ride once and won't again. While for one second it is fun and almost gives you the sense of a boat ride, bouncing up and down on metal bars is not very comfortable. Not sure how the boys handle it. :) I'll be happy being the driver from now on. 

Haven likes helping at the hospital. :) She'll treat her own patients while walking around and takes over the pharmacy as needed. :)  It's cute to here her say, "You going to help the sick baby?" and "I want to help da baby."

The first times we were there, we loved seeing these beautiful black birds, with purple and teal feathers. They are really gorgeous. But after a few nights of hearing a ruckus of squawking, we came to loathe those birds. They are pure evil, we have decided. They love to get going around 2 and 5 am. It's awful. We have sound machines and ear plugs to make it bearable. And, now, we also have a pellet gun. I am totally against guns and I hate that we even have a pellet gun, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The only problem is that no one in the family is a good shooter. :) We are working on it, though. 

Finally, after trying many, many times, Brett hit one. D, though he had been the biggest proponent of the hunt, was devastated when his dad got one. The death was not humane, I'll have to admit, but I'll spare the details. I can at least make it more humane by saying the boys (except D) and Brett ate it. They loved every single second of the process. Me, not so much. This was a total man thing of which I wanted no part.

Other fun parts of being in the village include being in wide, open spaces so our 11 year old can learn to drive. He does surprisingly well. I even rode with him with Haven in the car. It actually seemed fairly natural as I rode with him but when I stepped out of the car, it hit me that it was my ELEVEN year old that was driving! Craziness!

 We are in the season of the harvest now. Peanuts are everywhere. This huge pile was these ladies' task for the day. It is hard on the fingers. I worked with them for a little bit but my weak fingers gave out quickly.

Haven enjoyed stealing peanuts and making a mess, throwing the peanuts all over. (Yes, she does have underwear on). They tolerate her crazy behavior because she's white. A Malian child would not be shown as much grace. They would have a blistered backside.

 And what do you do with extra rolled bandages that were sent on a container but had gotten too dirty to use? Give them to the kids to play. They wrapped themselves, they tied themselves together for three legged races. They had a blast with it.

If you ever wonder if I'm up for the challenge for being a Malian woman, the answer is no. I am weak and pathetic. So pathetic, actually, that a friend and I went to the market to buy a few things. It's not that far from the house but there's no shade and it's hot. If we were good Malian women, we'd have the items on our head and Haven on my back. Since we know our incapability, we hired a guy to push Haven and our items back. He was not amused at first and really tried to get out of it. But a job is a job, right? We were willing to pay (it cost a whole 20 cents). Once Haven decided to lay down on his cart, he lightened up, laughed at her, and even tried to make her more comfortable. It was cute. And if I ever go to the market again with Haven, I will most certainly find a push cart for my travels. I even thought of getting one myself to go back and forth with, just so I didn't have to carry items. Or maybe I'll just suck it up and continue to pay 20 cents per trip. :)