Labour Day

Such an odd title for a holiday . . . and thus an odd, but also appropriate title for my blog. It seems that I have not much to tell these days - due to my ceaseless labour in the office these last 3 weeks to help prepare the 2011 budget, finish the July and August accounting, and my evenings studying Fulfulde - I have not been out and about visiting much. Thus, a sad feeling that I do not have many stories to share. Today though, I had the 'brilliant' idea to share of a holiday day spent in Niamey.

I did take my labour day holiday - actually on the Wednesday, as the Monday I laboured on the budget. . .

However, I did a few interesting things that I have been waiting awhile to do:

After sleeping in and a nice lunch at the American Rec Centre, Rebecca and I headed to the river to take pictures.

The squash boats are in from Mali!! Once a year, these huge wooden canoe boats arrive from upriver in Mali and bring us fresh squash of every variety!! Some resemble pumpkin and some little spaghetti squash. But, I always love seeing the huge boats and eating fresh squash!

Alas, the day I went, there was only one such large boat and just the other day I saw 5-6 all lined up on the banks. I will have to try another year to get a picture of a larger group of canoes.

Another picture that I have waited a while to take is the laundry area. Yes, in this dirty river are many launderers and laundresses . . . and the clothes and rugs all dry over the bridge railing or on the sandy banks!

I always wonder how clean they actually get in all that dirty water and then dried on dirt!!

I also wanted to take pictures of the river, which is currently flooding from a dam break in Burkina Faso - on a tributary which feeds into The Niger.

When the river peaked after the dam break, the river overflowed its banks - wiping out houses, fields and gardens. It was the highest the locals have seen in over 15 years! The river has receeded some, however, the river will not reach its normal peak until December-January. The river is still higher than I have seen in the last two years and the river still awaits the rainy season drain-off from Mali. I am sure that the situation will not rectify any time soon. The SAHEL International School on the river banks - where ex-pat children attend - is shoring up their dike in an effort to help contain or avert flooding of their campus.

It is bizarre to think that in parts of this country there is famine due to lack of rain and in other parts there is flooding!

After our photo taking, Rebecca and I headed further downtown for a special treat - soft ice cream!! There is an international trades fair in town, which normally means that a vendor has brought a soft ice cream machine. Such a treat!! For a few hundred francs on a hot day we enjoyed this special cup of vanilla & strawberry swirl.