Senegal

One more stop before heading back to Lusaka! We spent the rest of the week in Senegal visiting with friends and seeing a bit of Dakar. Above is a photo taken from the Phare des Mamelles (Cap Vert) -- one of the 9 or so lighthouses around Dakar -- of the city and the yet unfinished "African Renaissance" statue which is just a bit taller than Lady Liberty. Sure we saw the sights, went out to Isle de Madeleine for the afternoon, had drinks poolside at the super-luxe Radisson Blu, snorkelled and swam, stuffed ourselves with ice cream and croissants, dined at the most fabulous rooftop ethiopian restaurant (wink, wink)...but this little guy was the real reason for the extended layover. What a treat to finally meet the cutest kid on the continent.

I need to download photos from Owen's camera yet--I'll post a mess of photos from this trip next week! Stay tuned!

Paris

I'm sure noooo oooonnneee has ever taken THIS photo of the Eiffel Tower. I think I have the exact photo from a trip there in 1988

On the way back to Lusaka we had a looooonnnnngggg layover in Paris. We rallied, despite the fact that when we landed it was 10pm in Seattle and we were FRIED and it was really quite toasty warm that day. We had it on good authority that there would be multiple ice cream stops to lure the kids along if we did indeed decide to leave the airport and venture into the city and so...we took the train straight to La Tour Eiffel. Photo evidence below.

Voila les Jennings a la 2eme etage! We took the nearly 700 steps up (TJ carried Finn most of the way, ooh la la and oof-da) to the second stage...the kids walked down on their own, thank goodness....with the promise of lunch and ice cream at the bottom of course.

The kids somehow had energy to chase pigeons

enfin, la glace!

the kids could only last so long....This is how they spent the rest of the afternoon in the city of lights. REM sleep on the go--at least it was french REM sleep, oui?

summer kids

Summer vacation, part II

Above, Fleet Week! Below - a totally random collection of photos from the summer. What a great time we had. Never a dull moment.

The dog days of summer...Ruby and Bella enjoying a moment together/not together. This was the morning after the now-famous automatic sprinkler incident at Battle Point. oof
....always eager, ruby the retriever brings in a log
Rubbing GW's nose at the Capitol building for good luck.
Channeling the Beetles
Bocce Ball!
Working on the boat ... Todd of course did most EVERYTHING but he's not choosing the photos today, now is he? I'm so incredibly pleased with this gorgeous 'goldeneye'.

The blue Angles on their practice day - the first time we've all gone down to the lake for the show. Great Fun! (except for that poopy-diaper smell that we never did pin down...)

The music of the water drums at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center
Wine Tasting! Doesn't everyone take their 3, 6, and 10 year olds to wine tastings? They should.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part I

Battle Point, Bainbridge Island

White River, Goat Falls Hike

Sunrise Rim Trail, Mount Rainier (above and below)

Ruby, the 9 year old puppy

Hi-Yu Festival and Seafair, 60 year anniversary

Favorite friends

square meals

Marymoor Park...640 acres, 40 just for dogs

Who cooks for you?

O showed me the 'school owl' on campus the last day of school.  Owls have an interesting place in folklore - the Romans thought they were harbingers of death but the Greeks thought them a good omen.  They are magical, wise, mysterious. Afganis believe the owl brought flint and iron to man to make fire, Aboriginal Australians believe owls are the spirits of women and are sacred, in Bretengne (France) owl sightings mean a good harvest, the Inuit of Greenland look to owls for guidance and Indonesians think them wise and use the owls call for advise about travel.  

Unfortunately for owls in Zambia they are considered bad juju and are often killed on sight.  We have had a barn owl nesting on our property, two black cats (also bad luck), and if the cats haven't caught them all, chameleons (another bewitched animal because of their ability to change color, move both eyes independently, and their goofy line-dancing gait).  We feel pretty safe here in Lusaka but I am glad to have these creatures-in-residence as a bit of extra security --they probably do more to keep prowlers away than our silly security fence!  

Les chaussures

Is there a story behind this photo?

4th of July

Celebrating 'the fourth' in Lusaka:bundled up with hats and scarves huddled around a backyard campfire with 4 other families

Daily high=65 degrees, low=40 degrees 

4th of July potluck fare:  hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, white bean chili, pringles, cheese puffs, apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, cake, roasted marshmallows, heineken, and grape kool-aid--served from an official kool-aid pitcher, of course!

Entertainment:  Glow sticks! Fireworks! Tunes from the MixMaster SG iPod!

Travaille: Market day at Ng'ombe Compound

Here are a few pictures from my photoshoot today for a micro-finance bank. In all I did portraits of 14 vendors (all microfinance clients) and met (with the help and introduction from the bank's loan officer) several others that had either 'graduated' from the bank or were putting their proposals together. The shops this group were running sold: cooking oil (below), vegetables, kapenta (dried fish), rocks (to nibble during your pregnancy), fresh eggs, used clothing and shoes, chitenge cloth, fritters, chicken, offals, charcol and  popcorn. There was also a grocery store, a hair salon, soup stall, a carpenter's shop and a barbeque stand.

ho hum weekend....

Finny, proud piggy in the Lost Little Cowboy

We had a far-from typical weekend.  Todd got up at 5:30 on Friday morning in Choma after a religious leader's training and drove back in time to see Finny perform in the preschool graduation (his class did Lost Little Cowboy), pick up Owen from school, shower and get back in the car which I spent about 35 minutes packing -- actually, I kind of threw any camping or cooking related things in the general direction of the car and hoped for the best.  

Our friend graduating all the way from the Yellow Class up to the Reception Class at "the Big School." (with the school's GM)

We drove slowly...achingly, painfully slowly, through Friday afternoon traffic and then like bats out of hell out to the Kafue National Park where they close the 'Hook Bridge' gate for the night at 6pm.  We got there at 5:45 and it was ALREADY closed. Thankfully someone appeared from  the bush with 'the book' and a key (Zambian Wildlife Authority keeps close track of park visitors) and we were soon on the dusty road to our home away from home for the weekend, the Lufupa River Camp, just as the sun was setting.

The campsite under the marula tree which we shared with our friends and their two sweet girls

The 60km drive from the main park road to the camp took 2-1/2 hours; our tardiness at getting to the gate was not punished....we were in fact rewarded with the most amazing drive...we saw a CHEETAH!  Thankfully the kids were not asleep and we got to see it just sauntering down the road lit by our headlights (about 10m in front of us), then it turned off and disappeared into the bush.  Right after we saw 6 lion cubs (and made sure that the windows were up at this point b/c we didn't see momma lion) and also a genet which was just incredible.  We got to camp and met our friends, who left Lusaka at a reasonable time of day for a 6 hour drive and arrived in the daylight to set up their camp like most normal folks like to do.  The camp/lodge host met us to say hello and to remind us to be mindful of the fact that the camp is IN the park and we should expect to have wildlife in camp....i.e leopard, hippo, wild dogs, hyeanas and elephant that come nightly to check on things and eat from the marula tree that we were camping under....OK, Goodnight.

It was FLIPPING COLD that first night but we all slept despite this the threat of being a leopard snack if we needed to get up to go potty, er, visit the abulitions block. In the morning we all went out on the boat and went fishing, did a little game drive and then did a night drive.  We saw: monster crocs, hippos galore, monitor lizards, birds of every shape and size, elephants, maybe a wild dog (not confirmed but we can't figure what else it could have been), warthogs, bush baby, more gennets and every nearly every kind of antelope in the book: bushbuck, impala, puku, kudu, waterbuck, roan, sitatunga etc. 

How cute are these safari campers? O and Scout

Monday was a work day and school day. The kids are both healthy again so are back for their last week of school, I had a photo shoot and TJ jumped back into things as he has a busy few weeks as we prepare to leave for Seattle (9 July).   We were so lucky to have squeezed in one last adventure before the insanity of traveling. Some photos from the weekend.

 -

my espresso pot barely survived the camping experience (with O still looking sickly)

Fishing on the Lufupa River, Silver Barble for tea (with O looking much better!)

See?  roughing it:  my ice cold G&T had a LEMON not a lime!  

The staff spoiled the kids rotten

Kudu.  Kafue NP has no shortage of antelope....cheetah snacks

Ellie Elephant having a snack before a very close encounter with the Jennings family as we left the park on Sunday