All Settled In…5 months later!
I can’t believe we’ve been here for a little over 3 months. Time has flown by. In those 3 months, we’ve received almost all of our belongings, and our truck finally came in a few weeks ago. With public transportation not being great, I had to rely on people to pick me up and take me everywhere while David was gone with his work truck. And now, I’m able to get where I need to go with no problem.
We celebrated Elena’s first birthday and David’s, along with Easter. I started a new job, we finally built a crib for Elena, David is getting the hang of a good work life balance.
Elena turned 1 and David turned another year older (31, but who’s counting). Elena smashed her cake like a pro, and loved every bite of it. It was a great weekend!
I started a part-time job at the end of March at the American International School as an Admin Assistant for the remainder of the school year. And then in the fall, I will be teaching Service Learning to the high schoolers. I love that I’m able to get out of the house for a bit, meet new people, and then come home the second half of the day and spend it with Elena. We only have a couple more weeks of school left and then I get a nice summer break. Our nanny is amazing and she has become a dear friend of mine. She is also a seamstress and does a lot of work on the side, and has already made Elena and I a couple outfits. The company she used to work for closed the same week she started working for us, and this job was a huge blessing for her and her husband. Please keep her in your prayers as she is having medical issues that are making it complicated to conceive.
David is settling in to his job, and has found a good balance between work and home. He’s already got a couple travel trips under his belt, which means I’ve survived my first couple nights alone with a baby in the wild west of Africa.
We’ve found a good community of Christians out here which is awesome. It’s amazing when Christians come together, there’s a bond that’s shared that makes it feel like I’ve known them for years and we’re family. I’m so thankful for them. Most of them have been here for years, speak both french and or the tribal languages, and are my go-to’s when I have a question about the city. Or if I just need to know where to buy good lettuce. (Oh man, I miss picking out boxed lettuce in the grocery store). We’ve already cried together, prayed together, and seen each other at our lowest. It’s this type of community we’re extremely thankful for, that you can’t find everywhere.
A few weekends ago we went to see the West African giraffes. There’s only 49 left, can you believe it? Although we didn’t see 49 on our trip, we definitely saw a good handful including a pregnant giraffe, a few younger ones, and several male giraffes. They are just out roaming about the terrain with villagers nearby. They are so used to humans, and hate running if they don’t have to, so we were able to get pretty close. I was maybe 50 meters away from a couple of them. Elena was not impressed, she just wanted to get back inside the air conditioned car.
I am quite thankful for air conditioning, because this hot season is no joke. Most days it’s 115+ degrees, and it feels like I stepped into a legit dry sauna. We’re drinking water as much as we’re sweating it out, but nothing makes you more tired than the heat. Along with the heat come widespread power outages, that can last just a few hours or days. We really try our hardest not to complain, because we have a generator, but we know so many here who do not have one.
Elena is growing and changing everyday. She’s gotten about 7 teeth in the past 2 months, so you can imagine the tears that have been shed in this house. She’s babbling non stop, and gets really shy around new people she meets. But after a few minutes of checking them out, they are her new best friend! She’s sooo close to walking on her own, but still needs to hold onto something.
Oh, and I almost forgot we finally picked up our dog Shuri. She’s 9 months old now. She is so sweet and very timid, which is quite opposite from our last dog. House training is going well, and we’ve been able to teach her the basic commands in these past 2 weeks. Elena and Shuri love each other and it’s so cute to watch them together. Elena tries to share her toys, and has also started sharing food, which I’ve had to put a stop too.
Well, that’s about it for now. I’ll write a new post soon about some of the organizations we’re getting to know out here and ways you can join us in helping out. Until then, bon journee from Niger.
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