Happy birthday Eli!

More pics to come after Saturday's party. :)

Visits to Danja

During our orientation in Maradi, our group made a visit to see the Danja Fistula Surgical Center and to see the other work that they do in Danja like working with leprosy patients. The Fistula Center just had its grand opening a few months ago. SIM Niger partnered in this with the Worldwide Fistula Fund and they are going to do some great things for the women in this region in the years ahead. You can read more about this SIM Niger project and why there is a need for this kind of medical care HERE. Since the visit was scheduled during the kids' nap time, Marc went with the group and I stayed back while the kids slept.

Gracie was there representing the little ones and making sure everyone's owees were doing ok.

 Some of the medical staff that work at the fistula hospital

Since I couldn't go tour the hospital the first time, Marc and I went back later on in the week with the kids. We had a great time walking around with the regional director and Eli and Hailey enjoyed providing the entertainment for all the patients and their families. The leprosy ward is behind Marc and Bert in the picture below. I had never seen anyone with leprosy until our visit. This hospital compound first opened in the 1950's as a leprosarium. Much like in biblical times, people with leprosy become outcasts in their village and are shunned from their families. The hospital opened to provide medical care for the patients and give them a place to live. It has slowly grown to provide care to patients with other medical conditions, but leprosy is still one of the most common things that they see and treat. It is hard to imagine that a disease like leprosy, that is easily treatable, still exists in the world. However, it is quite common in Niger. When we walked the ward, we saw many patients disabled and with missing fingers and toes as a result of untreated leprosy. As we heard about the history of the church in Niger we learned that Danja is one of the first places where Christianity took root as a result of SIM Niger's compassionate care of leprosy patients.

We headed back to Danja on Sunday for church. Here are some women chatting after church.

We took Eli's Nerf soccer ball with us and the Nigerian kids loved kicking it around after the service.

After church we headed out to Lake Madarounfa for a picnic! Marc and I could not believe that we were actually hearing "lake" and "Niger" in the same sentence since we had not seen any naturally occurring body of water since arriving here in January. This lake has an average circumference of 5 km and happens to be one of the few permanent open bodies of water in Niger. It was well worth the 30 minute car ride out there!

Shortly before we arrived we saw a dirt devil that was spiraling high above the tree tops. You can somewhat see it off in the distance in this picture, but trust me, it was very cool to see in person.

The Goulbi N' Gabi river is what forms Lake Madarounfa, but the riverbed is actually dry the majority of the year. It only has flowing water during the rainy months of July and August. There is a grass path that is put down over the sandy riverbed for travel purposes. I took this picture of the truck behind us after we crossed the riverbed. :) It is crazy to see such a large portion of river completely dried up.

There were lots of villages scattered along the lake. I imagine this lake is probably very precious to people in a country that is so dry and hot for the majority of the year. I couldn't capture everyone in this picture  below, (because I took it out of a moving vehicle) but there was a large group of women off to the right washing clothes, the children in the middle were swimming, and the man on the left brought his cows down to the water for a drink. A picture like this makes it more understandable why clean drinking water is a necessity for good health. In the same small area, animals wade and drop waste, kids swim and women wash clothes.

Everything was so green. This was refreshing to see after only seeing dirt for so many months.

The animals certainly know where to hang out.

Who needs a zoo when you can stand right next to a herd of camels???

These are mud bricks carved into the softer ground of the shoreline as the water recedes. Then after the bricks dry, people can use them to construct their homes or other building structures.

Don't let the serenity of the picture fool you, it was still a scorcher out there under that tree.

Eli enjoyed throwing rocks with the big kids.

Marc spotted this man off in the distance in his boat and flagged him down...

 ...and before I knew it Marc and Eli were setting out for a little boat ride. I should probably never again wonder where Eli gets his sense of adventure from. :)

Back to the water subject... Marc said that while they were on the boat, this villager dipped a plastic bottle in the lake, filled it up with cloudy brown water, and started drinking it. The lake is contaminated with schistosomiasis and animal waste, but it seems that many don't understand the importance of clean drinking water or they just don't have any other options.

 Here is our picnic crew... the majority of these folks are new friends from Australia.

We had a wonderful time exploring in Maradi and Danja and made lots of great memories (and some new friends!). Marc is going to take over the blog for the next week or so since he has some good posts he wants to share with you.

Pool Day in Maradi

The kids' favorite part about our trip to Maradi was our visit to the French club swimming pool. We have a small above ground pool here at Galmi that we really enjoy but this pool was much larger and the kids had a great time. Eli loved jumping in from the side and off the diving board. He can't swim yet and unfortunately still has no fears about being in the water. At one point he jumped in before we told him to and when we weren't within reach of grabbing him. Another man who was swimming with his two boys thankfully came to Eli's rescue since he was close by. It didn't phase Eli one bit and he went right back to jumping off the diving board (at least this time he waited until his daddy was ready!). We also ordered some spaghetti and some cheeseburger like sandwiches that were really yummy. 

Fearless Eli... Marc had to catch him while treading water. :)

Don't get any ideas Miss Hailey...

What a fun day! We enjoyed all the new families that we went with as well.

Easter in Galmi

We had a pretty relaxing Easter although we have been doctoring our two little ones back to health the past few days. Eli was sick first with this cough, runny nose, and fever and then a few days later Hailey followed behind. My mom commented today that it is quite amazing how well they have been since we have been here. They each have had an episode of febrile diarrhea that we ended up treating and now these colds, but that has been it so far. They probably would have been more sick at home in Wichita while in daycare! We are thankful for your prayers even in matters like the health of our children.

There are two church services that we normally attend here in Galmi on Sundays (when Marc is not on call). One is a local Nigerian church (that is spoken only in Hausa and sometimes French) and the other church is with the other missionaries on the compound (and is in English!). We were sad to miss the Hausa church on Easter because all the SIM missionaries had a little song prepared (African style) that even had some choreography to go with it. We heard the church members really liked it.

We did manage a little egg hunt on Sunday morning before it got too hot. I made some homemade Easter baskets from plastic bowls out of our kitchen the night before. Eli loved them and they certainly served their purpose well.

Eli finding an egg next to our sheep pen (see below for that story)

Looking for some treasure inside!

Eli liked the "eat as you go" method which was actually a good idea since the M & Ms were quickly melting.

The evening service is held near our house so Marc and I took turns each attending part of the service while the other stayed home with the sick kids. After that we had a big community dinner with roasted lamb as the main dish! The lamb was actually kept in a pen in front of our house a few days before he was sent to the butcher. Our kids had grown quite fond of him so we decided not to explain to them that he was their Easter dinner. :)

My mom sent Hailey a sweet little dress.... but she was not feeling up to smiling at this point in the day.

We attempted a few Easter pics but again, there were no smiles to be found with the Carrigan children. (Notice that I finally got to cut Marc's hair. Ha!) :)

This holiday weekend I found myself missing our family, friends, and home church that are so far away. I must also admit that I was slightly envious of the GREEN grass in everyone's Easter pictures on facebook. :) However, God is here with us... in the heat... in the desert... and with the Hausa people. And he loves us so much that he has placed all these beautiful people here to dine with us and celebrate that Christ is risen!

I still have some more days to post on our trip to Maradi so check back soon!