Catching You Up (Mostly Photos, Very Badly Formatted)

 A few times in conversations recently I’ve heard things like “when you write about that on your blog…” or “I’m sure you’re going to write more about this on your blog” or “when are you going to write about this on your blog?” and it reminded me that I haven’t written anything at all on it in many months. Almost even forgot that it existed. I just had to go back and look at what I last wrote and when. Apparently it was in March about stuff that mostly happened in February. I’m clearly very dedicated to this project. 

What have I been doing in the meantime?

Just lounging around

Leif came to visit and we transported a radio tower and he broke and fixed my car and also got it stuck in the sand once.

After loading the truck

Fixing my truck after it overheated.

I went to Ethiopia to visit a new project and decided I need to learn Amharic because 3 way translated conversations are not OK with me. Also it has its own script and lots of interesting consonants and it is irresistible to me. Who wants to help me learn it?

My favorite breakfast in Ethiopia, possibly the world.

Went to a Massa festival (Kadessou's tribe) with Frew, visiting Ethiopian finance manager.

The Sultan's entourage

The foreign visitors--only one of us speaks Arabic
and it wasn't the one people expected to speak Arabic.

I spent some time in Sweden with some meetings and also some fun times mixed in. 

Fun with Ayantu and Sam in Stockholm

I took the dogs to the river and Joe got loose and bit a sheep and I had to buy it. The sheep would have survived the tiny nibble Joe gave it, but we decided to eat it anyway.

The negotiations. Clearly the sheep is fine.
They thought I would pay and leave the sheep. 
They were wrong. I bought that sheep and I ate it. 
Or actually all the guests who came to celebrate Abiner's baptism ate it.

Along with Abiner and Sabit, I started scheming to clean up the Chari river behind my house where we love to walk and swim with the dogs and the hippos.

River Clean Up Cameroon office came to visit us and help us plan!

Hippo in the river by my house

I went to South Africa for the second time this year to get surgery on my wrist. I now have a much cooler skeleton with metal pieces in it. I also got to catch up with an old friend who humored me and took me on an adventure to Lesotho and other interesting places around South Africa. 

Arm in a cast with Lesotho in the background

Thanks again, Danielle!

I’ve harassed all my vet friends and all the vet friends and family of my friends to try to figure out why Joe breathes too fast. No one has cracked the case, but to date the only person who is really bothered by his breathing seems to be me. (If any vets read this and have any idea, I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH JOE'S BREATHING!!!)

Katie is checking out his blood in a microscope,
but we couldn't find the right dye.

Treating a wounded paw. Thanks, Katie!

It’s been pouring rain, which I like-- unless it stops me from going for a run in the morning or my truck gets stuck in the mud. Also due to rain, the walls in my cement/mud house seem to be crumbling at the base in the kitchen and the storage room, so I’ve gently suggested to the owner that if my house collapses on my head one day, my blood is on their hands. They promised to try to fix it, so they dropped off a pile of sand and a stack of bricks. The dogs have LOVED the sand and yesterday they buried one of the tires of my truck nearest the pile in a fit of enthusiastic digging.

Before the truck was parked too close to the sand.

And now I’ll just put in a bunch of photos that I would have put in earlier if I had blogged about these things in the moment.

More from Sweden:

Hiking to see the view

Pointing out the view because I'm a really helpful tour guide.

I enjoyed so many nice running trails while I was in Sweden.

The view from Leif and Britt's balcony. I stayed in the little red cabin.

I took this photo at 11:30pm at the lake behind Leif and Britt's house.

Leif took me fishing in the canoe! I was mostly excited about getting in the canoe.
I was also hopeful about the fishing. I've never been fishing before. Well, once in Indonesia 
someone took us to a fishing pool (like a swimming pool but they put fish in it and you fish for them--it's a thing there). None of us caught anything and they told us later there weren't any fish in the pool. So I've had a negative opinion about fishing since then. But I can't shake the thought that sitting in a boat trying to catch fish might somehow be fun.  And Leif regaled me with stories of all the fish they catch and Britt showed me cute videos of their adorable blond (of course) grandchildren carrying fish they caught up to her to cook. So I had high hopes.

The canoe part was fun. But we caught nothing.
Also the boat sprung a leak.

And I got the line badly tangled. 
And Leif fell in the water, and I didn't get a picture!

He is patiently trying to re-string his fishing pole.

More from South Africa:

Danielle and I met in Khartoum many years ago

She showed me Clarens, the Hallmark town of South Africa, she says.
It was freezing but cute.

Pretoria

Sunset walk with Danielle and her godchildren

Her goddaughter and I both with broken wrists.

More from Lesotho:

Walking in the footsteps of the King of Lesotho

Danielle taught me how to take panoramic photos with two people in it.
I am not very good at it.

Self timer worked better

We were happy to find out that both of us like trying weird street food.

This guy made some great sausages

Tasty lunch

Famous Lesotho building shaped like their traditional hats
with people selling said traditional hats in front of it.

More from Chad--dogs and friends mostly:

Hanging with Frew and Emelie at our favorite pizza place

Ashleigh came to Chad to do some nursing work.
I started this blog while living in the middle east, working with Ashleigh's family.
Once my friend and I babysat 6 year old Ashleigh and let her eat anything she wanted,
 and she ended up sick in the bathroom. But look how great she grew up anyway!
How do you like our recreated photo?

Joe cuddling a German missionary lady he just met
who was not super excited to see a dog in the office. Oops.

Buying some grilled meat for dinner--everyone is happy! 

This photo of Joe playing dead while the dog at TEAM compound asserts her dominance,
made me laugh so much because his expression is so funny. I've since been banned from bringing Joe to their compound because they think he upsets their dog. Clearly he is the one at risk.
I miss Bobby who loved Joe and said he was always welcome. I think the new people there think
I just bring Joe everywhere I go like he is one of those purse dogs, and the truth is that if he
were one of those purse dogs, I would totally do that, but mostly I brought him there because Bobby said it was fine and Joe loves car rides. Sadly, I now have to leave him at home when I go by.

With my bros and my dogs at the river--good times!

Our "we bought a sheep!" photo

Loading up my truck to go to Abiner's baptism.
I had 20 people in the back and 6 in the cabin. 

Baptism day for several churches in N'djamena

We wore matching cloth to support Abiner

I took Manon and Deborah (my neighbors) to visit Dourbali.
We stopped by this sign because our neighborhood in N'djamena 
has the same name as this little village.

After driving them to and from and around Dourbali all day,
we made it back home in time to shower quickly and hop across the street to the French Cultural Centre
to watch Afrotronix perform! It was fun, but I was very tired and I'm significantly older than everyone in this picture and I felt my age that night.

Just making faces with friends.

Going for a drive with my favorite kids and dogs

Antani and I will always be friends because
we both think it's hilarious to dress Pika up in clothes.

I couldn't decide which rainbow picture I liked more:

Cutest, most spoiled dogs in all of Chad.