Anniversary getaway

Turns out we share the same anniversary as Dany and Nadine, (Aug. 16th), BUT since they are leaving Senegal before then we are all going away tomorrow to celebrate for a few days.

Rumor has it the hotel we are staying at as A/C and a pool less than 100 yards from the ocean. As the boys would say "boo nice"!

We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend away to celebrate 6 years of wedded bliss.

Last year we enjoyed having a big party with all our friends and family to celebrate. This will be a nice contrast to just get away from everything and be on vacation.

We'll post pictures when we can.

Girls weekend

I (Crystal) had a wonderful girls weekend with my good friend Esther in Dakar. We ate Western food, went on a run, went shopping (not your mall shopping so dont' get too excited). The one thing we did that I took pictures of was a walk on the beach. I felt so homesick because it felt so much like the Oregon coast.
Oregon or Senegal? Hard to tell, eh?
Despite being a "girls weekend" we also spent some time with the boys too (Esther's husband)
(And son).
Where we were walking was sand stone that had broken off the cliff above. I'll be honest, a little scarey, please don't fall on my head.
The sand stone had some really cool patterns in it.

It was really cool to see how the waves had erroded the stone.

I managed to capture a little wave, which inevitably got me soaked, but it was worth it.

fishing

I (Scotty) went deep sea fishing last week. It was a little different than the comercial deep sea fishing trips in the states. It started with a bunch of the guys from the shop pushing me and Dany directly into the waves while Dany tried to cold start the little outboard. It fired up pretty quick, and we were away.

The boys love the camera, but you can kinda see the size of the boat behind them. We went about 14 kilometers out, trolled around a bit, and came back. It was about a six hour trip overall.

I was pretty happy and excited to be out there until I started puking off the side of the boat. Then I was sad for a few minutes until we saw some dolphins jumping and a bunch of flying fish, which made me happy. Then I started puking again. Overall it was a good trip.

Dany was loving every second of it, even though we didn't catch any fish. After a full day of fishing we headed back to the beach where all the boy met us. They pulled us back up onto the shore. I am pretty sure the main reason they came was to give them an excuse to overfill the truck so they had no options but to hang off the sides for the drive home.

Their open mouth smiles and hoots of joy reminded me of the "Orange Mocha Frapacino" scene in Zoolander. For the first time in my life, I wished Crystal had Wham! on her Ipod.

day at the beach

This weekend, we enjoyed some leisurely time at the beach with the Bode clan. Scotty was sick in bed back in Malika--he is feeling better now. One of the kids had surfing lessons, doesn't she look just so Roxy here?

Here the instructor (a friend though the Malika Monkeys) and our "little sister" are going back out to catch more waves.

The rest of us played in the waves, some even had mercy on poor Micah (the dog) and played tug-o-war.

katie?

Why didn't you tell us?

Sell, sell, sell.

One of the many things we do here is sell the boys products for them at local events. One of our favorites is the school called BCS. Twice a year we head out there (about 1 1/2 drive) for their play and sales expo. They play is always entertaining, the parents and kids are super cool, the food is great and there is always interesting stuff to look at.

Here we are waiting for the play to get out so we can sell. It's getting hotl, so we were trying to get some shade form this little hybiscus bush. The building behind us is the auditorium where they have their plays.

We didn't bring a table, so we used some stones and flowerbed to showcase our goods. The building behind in this picture is the cafeteria. Many of the students here (equivalent of a K-12 system? It's a UK system so I'm not really sure) live on the grounds in dorms. The end of the year play is always a big deal because many of the students are going to their host/home country for furlow and may not see their buddies again. The life of a missionary kid, always uncertain and changing.

Rain!

So happy to experience some rain the other day. Actually makes us more homesick. Apparently, we are Oregonians through and through. Who knew?

It's hard being small.

The excitement never ends here in Malika. You remember Suuf? The little dog that sleeps in our house at night? Why, you might be wondering, does she sleep in our house at night? Well, that is because Herma has 1 male dog and 2 female dogs...you see where this is going? One one female dog is allowed lose at a time, otherwise they try to kill each other. Just another apparent indicator that monogomy is a good thing.

While Scotty had one dog, collar in hand, she lunged at poor little Suff, catching her leg in her mouth. Suuf would clearly not survive in the wild because she immediatly rolled over and exposed her neck to the attacking dog, which naturally went for her neck and chest area.

Scotty pulled the bad dog off the small dog but the small dog was still in the clentches of the bad dog, so when one came up so did the other. Scotty was able to get the bad dog off, but Suff sustained some pretty serious injuries.

At this point in the post if you are swimish you need to STOP READING, IT GET'S GRAPHIC AFTER THIS. A quick recap is Scotty played Dr. and Suff is healing nicely.

Now, for those of you who are brave.....

Here is Scotty playing Dr. Suff had 3 serious wounds, two of which you could see the tissue underneath.

It was actually a good thing that we could see so clearly the wounds because it allowed Scotty to determine if any lungs or other vital organs were punctured. Praise the Lord, they were not. Scotty shaved the area, irrigated it, applied antibotics and a butterfly bandage..Suuf is good as new..well almost.

She is healing well, She is now eating, drinking and walking so, Scotty must be a good Dr....for dogs that is.

Don't you wish you were here?

4th of July (au Senegalese)

4th of the July went off beautifully this year. The weather was perfect, so we spent much of our time by the pool listening to Bob Marley and 80's mixes.

Since this is an American holiday, we took the liberty of kicking Herma out of the kitchen.

Scotty made the ever famous beer can chickens. Aren't they cute? Sitting there having a little headless conversation?

Crystal and the girls were on decoration detail, which started out good but later ended in some watery catastrophies.

Men, doing what men do best..."watch" the grill.

More decorations.

And finally, two beautiful chickens.

Due to the lighting/decoration failure (several hanging tea lights landing unexpectedly in the pool when their strand broke), we desided to eat indoors and not fight the mosquitos for our food (and bodies).

The candles burned on into the night (you can see two strands here, the others landed IN the pool). It was very romatic as Herma likes to say. No fireworks this year, but overall a great time spend with our Senegalese family.