Welcome to Rennes!

Our family will be together this Christmas and I am so excited. Not only will we all be together (which is hard, considering we are spread across 3 different continents) but we will all be together in Rennes, France, the city where my sister Melissa lives. Here's a little map to give you a visual. Can you find Rennes?

Erika and I came a few days early for a little sister time. What?! We had a very interesting/stressful airplane ride. I could write a whole blog post about it, but I'll just give you a summary. Troy missed our exit to the airport (but blame Nate, who called him right before we were supposed to turn off), the Delta guy in Wichita told us we didn't have a reservation to Minneapolis (NOT true, and he eventually found it), they momentarily lost my carry-on and told me I would have to file a missing suitcase claim (but eventually they located it and I was paged to retrieve it), we sat on the airplane in Minneapolis for a good hour and a half because of some technical malfunction, and this last problem caused us to have less than an hour in the Paris airport to go through customs, pick up our checked suitcases, find the train station and hop on the right train. I must say, though, Erika and I are experts! ha! Or we just run really well with suitcases! Regardless, we made our train connection JUST in time. Unfortunately, we did not get into the right car of the train, so we promptly had to move ourselves and all of our suitcases three cars forward, causing many toes to be smashed and one child to be bodysurfed. BUT, we sisters are all in Rennes together again. The giggles have begun.

Here we are just arrived in Rennes. Forgive our traveled looks. Thanks, Joel, for taking the picture and picking us up in your car! Trop d'la balle!

The first evening here, we walked down to a little outside market to buy some fruits and vegetables. Look at all of the cheese! And this was just half of it!

Today we walked around downtown, browsed in some shops, hung out in the cutest little cafe, and just had fun being together as sisters.

I've had a handful of "tourist" mistakes, but otherwise, I'm blending in quite well! Can you spot me in the Christmas crowd?

Favorite story of the day: Erika and I were waiting for Melissa in a store while she was in line, waiting to check out. I was standing toward the front, next to a clothing display, very nonchalantly and normally. As a lady walks through a door I casually turn my head in her direction. She is startled, starts laughing and turns to me and says (in French of course!), "I thought you were a manakin! You scared me!" haha! Oops! I can't help it if I my clothes look like they belong in a French clothing store!

Oh, the adventures are only just beginning! What's on the agenda for tonight, you might ask? Oh, nothing, really. We're just going to watch the professional Rennes soccer team take on Bordeaux! What??!!!!

An Official Emporia State Graduate

Well, friends, I've done it. I've completed my undergraduate at Emporia State University and graduated summa cum laude, with a GPA of 3.96. Saturday was the ceremony and it was a bittersweet day. Bitter, because my parents were in Niger and unable to come to my graduation, but sweet because my sister and so many of my aunts and uncles did. It was a very special time and I felt extremely loved and appreciated. After the ceremony was a co-graduation party with Tony Pearce. Katie and Sherlynn did an excellent job of organizing and planning all of it. What a fun time of visiting and hanging out with friends. Thanks to all of you who stopped by. Jim Pearce surprised me by asking my dad to write an email for the occasion and then reading it out loud. What a tear-jerker!

I can't believe my time at ESU is over. So many memories. Maybe I'll just have to go back and get my Masters. I don't know if I can stay away!

Here are a few pictures from the big day.

This last one is a picture of all of us secondary education English majors. Well, all but one, anyway. One guy came late. Sorry, Cody.

I still can't believe it actually happened. Reality hasn't quite set in. I don't feel quite old enough to be a college graduate! No more classes to enroll in. No more books to buy. At least, for now...!

So...what's your teacher's lounge like?

As promised, it is time for the great reveal. Thank-you, all three of you, who attempted to guess the murder, the weapon, the place, the victim, etc. Here are the correct answers:
Murderer: Maintenance Man---although technically, I think the hotdog, Loti is her name, (see picture below) did the actual killing. Mr. Maintenance was more of an accomplice.
Victim: huge disgusting rat
Weapon: Either the broom handle or Loti's teeth. The broom handle may have only been used to stun the rat so Loti could attack.
Room: teacher's workroom--right across from the teacher's lounge.

Sorry about the poor picture quality. I was trying to take a picture quickly before Loti ran outside.

I realize there was no dog in the original picture, so Amy, you win Best Guesser! Congratulations!

It was quite an exciting Friday morning! We had known for several days that there was a rat abiding in the teacher's lounge, but he had skilfully managed to evade the traps while still eating the peanut-butter. Early that morning Lita sniffed out the prey and it was concluded that the rat was somewhere behind/underneath the fridge. With a little teamwork between Mr. Maintenance and Lita, the rat was smoked out (note literally) from behind the fridge and chased into the workroom. It ran very close to where I was watching the excitement going down. A little too close. For a split second I thought it might dart between my legs and out the front door. Thankfully, it chose a different door. Lita did not eat the rat, but since her slobber was all over the filthy beast, we could not make brochettes with the fresh meat. You think I'm kidding, but one of the teachers was really hoping for some rat brochette for lunch.

All of this transpired before 7:30 AM!

Anyone Like Clue?

Do you all know the game Clue? Did you ever play it with friends and families on a rainy day? I have always enjoyed Clue, but I haven't played it in a long time. Therefore, I've decided to play it with all of you...only with a twist. A murder was committed last Friday here in Niamey. I'm going to show you a picture taken at the crime scene. You must figure out the killer, the victim, the murder weapon, and the location of the crime. Here's your picture:

Let the game begin! Good luck!

my father

Today is my Dad's 57th 37th birthday! :)   I asked him if he was sad because he was getting so old and he emphatically replied "no!" Since I wrote 25 memories about my brother on his 25th birthday, I thought about writing 57 memories about my Dad, but I was short a few! ha! Just kidding! Seriously, though, there's no way I could confine all of my memories into a list of 57. Thus, I decided to give you my top 5 reasons why I love my dad, with 1 being the highest. This was difficult, but here you go:
5. He can make up songs anytime anywhere about anything. (Growing up, I knew he liked my friends the moment he started singing about them to them!)
4. He whole-heartedly supports my dreams of becoming a famous professional author.
3. He loves and provides for his kids. The father-daughter dates, family devotions, family vacations, etc., are evidence of his desire to lead the family in the Lord, and to purposefully minister and encourage us.
2. He loves his wife, my Mom, more than anyone else in the world.
1. He loves the Lord, with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength. He is an incredible example to me in how he memorizes and meditates on Scripture, spends quality daily time in the Word, and lives a life of daily sacrifice as he shares the Gospel with students at the University of Niamey.

I don't feel like the list does any justice. I wish everyone in the world could meet my Dad and see how great and wonderful he is. I am so incredibly blessed. What an example he is of what my Heavenly Father is like.

Here are a few pictures:

 He's the best packer I've ever known, probably because he travels so much. Andrew is his young apprentice!

 I was blessed to be able to help lead Cru with him at Emporia State for 4 years! He is a terrific speaker and I grew so much under his teaching.

 He always brought us back a bottled coke from Africa whenever he traveled there. We were always especially thankful when the cokes were wrapped in clean socks.

 Dad still wins at arm-wrestling with my brother. Sorry, Ando. It's the truth.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! I love you!

A Walk on the Bridge--a special post for Erika

My little sister, Erika, has bridgeaphobia. Bridgeaphobia: (n) scientific term meaning the fear of bridges, overpasses, or any other tall object that can be driven or walked upon. I'm not entirely sure when this case was first developed in my dear sister. Perhaps it was when she walked on the long swinging rope path that extended from tree to tree, (aka, Canopy Walk) in the rainforest in Ghana. Regardless, it is a known fact that Erika suffers bridgeaphobia. Andrew has often tried to cure her of this syndrome through unethical techniques, but all to no avail. One thing that Niamey has that Ouagadougou does not is a river. To get from where we live to downtown we must cross the river on a bridge. The bridge is usually overly crowded. I often think of Erika and what she would do if she were stuck in traffic at the top of the bridge. Well, the other day, Dad and I made a little excursion to downtown Niamey and we decided to walk, so we could enjoy the bridge and all of the sights, sounds, and smells that go along with it. Here's some of what we saw.

Men threshing rice.

A shipment of pumpkins were in and were being unloaded. The process of unloading: pick one up, chuck it to a guy 6 inches away, chuck it to another guy a little farther away, and then chuck it in the water and let it float to the bank where another retrieves it. Makes sense, right? It's fascinating to watch. The pirogue was huge and had beautiful designs on the side.

Here are a few aerial shots:

I love how Rooney is watching on, overseeing the job! Do you see him there in the background? No, well then here's a closeup!

Here are some more sights from the river.

No need to count quarters for this laundry mat!

See all of those laundry carts all in a row?

While we were walking on the bridge we came across a recently deceased cow. A man with a cart had two choices: try to drive over the cow and continue on the sidewalk, or risk life and merge into the heavy busy traffic. He chose the former and I watched in horror as he tried over and over again to get his cart over the body of the cow. Doh, I thought of you immediately.

Overall, it was a beautiful and exciting walk across the bridge. Erika, be ready to face your fears if you come to le Niger!

my brother

My brother's golden birthday was November 25 and I failed to dedicate a blog to him. Albeit a bit cheezy and completely unoriginal, I decided to write 25 of my favorite memories.

Andrew, here are some of my memories...
1. Dancing it up with you at Cassie's wedding. You are such a great dancer. I had a hard time keeping up!
2. Playing Robin Hood in the yard with our very own handmade bows and arrows.
3. Being home-schooled together; just you and me. Such special times.
4. Letting me play "swords" (also handmade) with you and your friends.
5. Watching you hit a home-run your first time up to bat at Sofanwet your senior year.
6. Walking back together from Albright's in the dark after watching the movie Signs.
7. Having great talks on the way home from getting ice-cream with the youth group after Edge. 
8. Watching you be such a good friend to the Whipple kids.

9. Setting up legos in the living room and playing for hours.
10. Beating you in Playstation football......once......right?
11. Eating and loving sushi together.
12. Jamming to Fiddler on the Roof and Oklahoma soundtracks on family vacation.
13. Being the comic relief whenever things got too serious/emotional during family time!
14. Crying Moistening your eyes when you read my first children's story I wrote.
15. Riding bike with me to FES and back the year we were home-schooled together.
16. Riding bike together to ISO and back every day for school.
17. Buying me coffee when you hate it so much knowing that I love it.

18. Giving me a beautiful journal with the words "Trust in the Lord" for my birthday, knowing it would be a year of much uncertainty and great transition for me.
19. Driving all the way down from Minnesota to spend a weekend with me.
20. Being a fan of traditions and then maintaining those transitions.
21. Willing to be Joseph (among other characters!) for so many of the Christmas plays we put on.
22. Having the natural ability to make people laugh and have a good time.
23. Watching you chase your dreams (football) and being a role model for me in many many ways.
24. Texting me verses that you treasured during your morning time with the Lord.
25. Nurturing my heart with truth. During a time of great heartache you told me these words on the phone: "I have two hearts: an African heart and an American heart. I don't have one and then the other, but always both. I just have to put on my American heart right now."

 I love you, Ando. Happy belated 25th Birthday!