Fun Fair

WCA hosted their annual Fun Fair the first weekend in February. Brian helped out at the fair running the basketball booth. BJ and I went to the fair after his (attempted) nap and met up with Daddy during his free hour. We had a wonderful time playing games, eating donuts and ice cream, and interacting with students and their families.

The game booths.


BJ holding his balloon dog! He loved that dog...until it popped. Then we had to get another one :)


BJ playing a game.


Look at all the candy he won!


The man-powered ferris wheel. No, we did not go on it!


A picture with one of the "uncles" from the school. The uncles perform duties such as maintenance at the school.


A picture with friends.


One of my favorite family photos!


The crowd


BJ playing bean bag toss with other children.


BJ playing on the jungle gym.
We had several opportunities to take pictures with students from WCA. Below are a few pictures:

There was a booth at the fair that was doing face painting and mendhi (a plant-based stain). I was so excited to get the mendhi done!

The artist used a pen-like utensil filled with mendhi to draw the design. This particular brand only had to be on the hand for 5 minutes. Other brands need to stay on for an hour.

BJ showing off his star.

After washing off the dye this is what you get! The ladies usually have this done to their hands/arms for weddings and celebrations.

January Family Fun

Here are some snapshots of the Deschaine family having fun!
BJ playing hide and seek in the pack-n-play. Can you see him?


BJ with his armor on.


The whole family played along!


Playing hide-n-seek in the laundry basket.


Daddy makes a very comfortable chair!

America Week - Tea with the Ambassador

The one event that most of us Americans went to during America Week was the tea with the Ambassador. It was an adults only event so we had to find a babysitter for BJ (a little more difficult to do than we thought since EVERY adult we knew was going to the tea- BJ ended up being watched by all of the teenage children who had to stay home...it was a group effort!). I was looking forward to meeting other Americans who were in the city. The location of the event was on the roof of the 15-story Peninsula Hotel. This proved to be a fabulous location to take pictures of the city.



You could see the school from the roof (in the red box above). Brian's office is circled.


The rooftop had beautiful flowers all around. A good picture opportunity!


We all had to quench our desire to jump into the pool! It was SO inviting!


Look at all the Americans!!

Photo op with the Ambassador :)

So many pretty flowers.

It's nice to see something so beautiful in the city.

The city at night.

America Week 2012

In January (yes, I am a few months behind!) our city hosted "America Week 2012". There were events for American citizens only as well as opportunities for the nationals to see how America is helping their country. BJ and I went to the stadium to see the festivities. The family we drove with had some business to attend to so BJ and I explored the fairgrounds on our own. We were only there for 30 minutes but boy was it eventful!

I love it when I can read signs!

USAID is an organization that helps this country become self-sufficient.

There was a booth that focused on children. It was hosted by this country's version of Sesame Street.

There was a place for children to color. BJ decided not to participate :)

There was walking fish and shrimp at the fairgrounds. BJ was NOT a fan.

Please take note of the lady and the little child following right behind the shrimp. As soon as I took this picture this lady came RUNNING at us and threw her child into my arms. She hollered for her friends and instantly BJ and I became "celebrities". People gathered around us wanting to take pictures of me and BJ. Some wanted to hold BJ. I would not let him go. I just smiled nicely and posed for pictures while holding BJ. I took this picture below because I also wanted to take a picture of BJ and the children but I was not willing to let BJ go :)

I was able to calm the crowd and BJ and I continued to explore. There were a few booths that BJ really liked:

BJ pointing at the little model village.

BJ LOVES fish!!

Our Garden

For our first 3 weeks here we stayed at the guest house. At the end of January we moved into our own apartment. It is so nice to have our own space and to make it our home. We are blessed to have a small yard and garden for BJ to play. Below are some pictures of our yard.

Our beautiful, maze-like garden!
There is a swing set in the back right corner of the garden.

Our apartment building. Our home is the top (4th) floor.

Our darwa sweeping the yard. His main duty is to guard the gate from unwanted visitors (and to open the gate for us).

Spooky the dog

During the day Spooky is housed in the garage but there is "evidence" that he gets out once in a while. BJ will say hi to the dog ("hi woof") but does not like to go near him. The dog is a wonderful guard dog and barks at any and all people who enter the property. However, he does not bark at BJ and me when we play outside. I tell BJ that it's because he knows us and likes us :)

BJ playing in the garden.

BJ enjoying the swings.

Middle School Camp - The Village

The campground for middle school camp was located about a 2 hours drive from the city in a small village. It was our first time exploring the countryside. BJ and I rode in the school van (instead of in rented buses like the students). This gave us the opportunity to take pictures and ask questions about what we were seeing.

All along our drive we saw rice fields.

A village market.

The trees were so lush and green!

Such pretty and interesting flowers.

Village girls walking home from school.

A mother and her two children.

Often men carried things instead of using vehicles.

We drove by (and over) many tributaries and rivers.

Wedding decorations!

Funny story while we were at camp...BJ's bedtime is around 8:30. At camp we let him stay up around the camp fire til 9:00pm. BJ and I retired to our room while the rest of the campers sang camp songs around the fire. As I was putting BJ to bed I was a little sad that I wasn't down with the rest of the campers. They sounded like they were having a blast!! I heard drums beating and trumpets blaring (which would be possible since one of the teachers on the trip was the music teacher). At the end of the evening Brian came up to say goodnight. I commented on how much fun they seemed to be having. Brian had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to convince him that I heard drums and trumpets. He thought I was crazy. The next morning we found out that there was a wedding in the village. The music I heard was the groom's family coming to get the bride! I commented on how late the festivities were (you could hear the music til 4am). I was told that the bride always has to be ready, no matter what time of day or night. And it is always a surprise when the groom comes. Although I didn't see anything but decorations it was pretty interesting!

Middle School Camp - The Soccer Field

I chose to do a separate blog about the soccer field at camp because it was such a unique experience for me. The soccer field was located outside the campground but just right across the street. For some reason that I cannot remember right now, BJ and I did not walk with the rest of the students and teachers down to the field. Which means that I had NO IDEA where it was. Imagine my surprise as I walked down the steep driveway from the camp and witnessed THE ENTIRE VILLAGE watching our students playing soccer on the field! Talk about being in a fish bowl! Apparently our city kids where quite the attraction for the village folk! I just had to snap a few pictures of the audience. Pardon the crookedness of some of the pictures...BJ had fallen asleep on me and I was trying to take pictures without disturbing him.

Most of the spectators were men.

A village school was located just near the soccer field. The school let out while our kids were playing so all the village children joined the crowd.

A group of young ladies stopped to watch the excitement.

The boys playing tug-o-war of some type (Brian could tell you more details about the game...I just take pictures).

I was very happy to see the girls participating with gusto!

This little girl was standing all by herself on the complete opposite side of the field. I don't know why she was alone but she looked so sad. My heart went out to her.

As we were leaving the soccer field, this very elderly woman came running up to me and BJ with her arms outstretched. She was so excited to see a little American baby! She stroked his hair and tried to talk to me (but of course I did not understand a word so I just smiled). I am SO thankful that BJ was asleep because I'm sure he would've freaked out that someone he didn't know was touching him!

(PS...BJ has gotten a lot more used to having strange people touch him. He is such an attraction here that people just come up to us on the street and try to pinch his cheeks.)