Sunday in the village

We spent today in a nearby village.  Harvey and I are going to help with a project to raise money for a borehole to be dug.  This will allow them to be able to have clean water instead of walking 5km every day to get water.  We went today to get water samples and survey the land.  The girls and I had fun with the children in the village.  They showed us their school and we played in the dirt with some of the young students.  Emma taught them how to play duck, duck, goose as well.

      This little girl showed us how she can write 1,2, 3 in the sand.

This is Emma playing duck, duck, goose with the children outside of their school house.  The rocks are where the children stand for class assembly.

 Inside of their one room school house.

These are the types of days when we feel lucky to be in Africa having these experiences.
Love to all, Jess

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Heart Day!

To celebrate Valentines Day, the girls made cards for their friends.  I had traveled to Abuja the week before and found mac and cheese from the U.S.  Together with that and candy from LaLa, the girls were very happy, as you can see from the picture above.  

We all talked about what we loved most in the world.  Emma made my heart melt when she said that she loves our family and that she loves how mommy and daddy make everything special.  She ended her sweet sentiment by saying she wishes we were all fairies.  Addie repeated everything Emma said.  

They are so precious and reminded us of how special it is to have a family so full of love.

Sending love, hearts, and chocolate bliss, Jess

Something Fishy

Hi All, 

  This will be a quick post, something to let you all know that we are doing well here in Yola.  This semester is in full swing, so it means that we are all quite busy.  Classes for me are going well and Jess is doing great juggling her many jobs.  Speaking of classes a few weeks back I took my Principles of Ecology class out for some aquatic ecology along the Benue River.

The Benue System is on the right hand side and is part of the greater  Niger River. 

It was a hot field trip, but it was great.  We sampled two sites for fish and gathered some water samples.  Here are some of the fish:

These are all catfishes, I believe they are all Synodontis sp. , but in the first photo the nearest fish may be a Chrysoichthys.  I am impressed with the diverstiy of catfish.

This in a Mormyrus sp. often referred to as one of the elephant fishes.   I did not dissect this specimen, but it is supposed to have an enlarged portion of its brain that may be used for a sort of electrosensing prey in the murky waters which it inhabits

This is a good ol' fashioned Tilapia.  I don't want to go out on a limb and ID it because I am sure someone  will correct...ok I'll try Tilapia zilli?

Here is one of our sampling techniques, it would be interesting to do a catch per unit effort for this.  I'm sure it low for the site we were at.

To understand the feat this gentleman just performed you need to understand how "Tippy" these boats are. 

Anywho, its fun to share some of the experience.  On another quick note, Google Earth recently updated its imagery for Yola.  

Our House

AUN Campus

The Mighty Benue

More later! Hope all well...Cheers!

Weekend Art and Dress Up

Hi all,
I know Harv is the usual blogger these days, but I wanted to put a few pictures up of the girls enjoying their weekend.

We spend many Saturdays creating art for our "art wall" in the living room.  The girls are enjoying creating art in their African dresses we had made in the market.

               Addie got a new Indian dress from our friends.  She loves dressing up!

                                      Emma dressed up in her Egyptian dress from LaLa.

We have been keeping busy with work and school.  Yesterday we visited an orphanage down the street from us. The girls picked some books and favorite toys to take to the children there.  They asked a lot of questions about the orphans and we had much discussion about sharing with others. I think it was a true learning experience for them.  We will go back and take more donations as well as hope to work with the children there when the graduate students come in May for their field visit.

I am headed to Abuja this week to present to the board on Study Abroad.  I have started teaching on online course at American University for graduate students that will include research and a field visit in May.  Harv is working on trying to get some research going and has been quite busy with classes.  The girls will begin their after school program this week and will take part in the dance class I will be teaching today.

We are sending love and happiness to you all, Jess