Well, the rumor right now says that there is a blond woman who lives quite close to us, who brings out a whole clan of animals when she walks out. Sometimes she'll bring a dog and a horse. Sometimes she'll bring a dog and two horses, and have her friend walk the second horse. But lately she's started to go out alone, bringing one horse with her and letting the second one tag along! 
...and so we cheat! With the our picky horses not drinking up their water, we figured we might as well spend it on a mango tree... Which we planted this weekend!
After a week of doing the busy bee show at work, Nettus, Michelle and I went to the market, looking for tissue. I'm a big fan of the market. It does tire you, but that's why it's such a great weekend thing to do.
Looking for my favorite flip-flops, but unfortunately, they didn't have them.
A new jewelry shop? Better check that out!
Dates, anyone?
Every day, you get a little bit older, but it's not every day that you are reminded of the fact that another year has gone by... But anyway, here's a message to Hanna: I have finally become what you have been saying that I am for the past five months or so... But not a day older! 
I don't know what took us so long, but while we were on our Nigerien socialization tour, we decided to stop by our neighbor. She turned out to be an American-Jamaican PC who had just moved in and is sticking around for two years. 
The funny thing is that we have identical houses, but one is a lot more run down than the other. It's not surprising seeing that her house has been kept by short term volunteers, while ours had been inhabited by one same family for many years. Good ambiance however has nothing to do with the material standards of a house, and I have learned one new thing: Jamaican food is really really good!!!
One of the reasons I haven't been able to blog so frequently lately is work! But I'm slowly getting forward at least, which is the good news!
In true Nigerien manner, we headed out on a socializing tour and started off with the Snow Man. At first, we drank coca cola with his family and watched CNN-
...and then we moved out into his "horse yard", where we sat for at least an hour, before moving on to the next set of friends!
Since it was Ramadan, there were a few races at the track (nothing big). Nettus and I deciding to bring out the girls and let them parade the new racing saddle I bought with me in Sweden.
Arwen was first to go, and loved every inch of the track (as usual).
The biggest change this year was Sahara, who was impatient for her own turn. She had to wait a while though, because in between Arwen's lap, there was another race:
Then her turn finally came, and she surprised us all with her newfound strength and motivation to carry through.
She looked good!
This year, the Ramadan celebrations went by very quietly, due the region being split in three different groups, each choosing a different day of celebrations. On the first day however, the sultan went out as usual, and in the afternoon, there was some celebrations involving bulls outside his palace. So Nettus and I went there to see, and saw a LOT of people in a very cheerfully mood!
We sat on the rooftop and watched all the people go by.
It was quite impressive - and enjoyable!
And by the way; when in Niger: Never forget to socialize!
This is really a picture for Szavanna since it's not only a picture of what we had for dinner today, but of food prepared in a solar oven. Since I know some of you are going to ask what on earth is in there, let me inform you straight away:
So we adopted a seven year old dog and have already begun to turn him into a teddy bear. He's eating properly and taking regular showers. Now don't you all think that the fuzzy fur suits him much better? He wants to be a veranda dog, but he'd rather not have the showers...
...and on our way to a village up north, we stopped to watch some storks! There are a lot of them this year. Wonder how long they'll be staying before they fly elsewhere... Until it rains again, in a year or so!
Any siesta, evening and weekend is a great opportunity to do some adjustments on the house! This weekend, Nettus painted her room and we had two windows changed. It costs quite a lot of money (seeing we have gone Nigerien now) but it's really worth it, having light into the house!
It all started when my friend the Snowman brought stallion boy Pablo over to see my girls. My two mares responded very differently: Sahara tried to attack, while Arwen tried to catch his attention. After 1½ years of showing absolutely no interest, she was on heat again!
Pablo was so impressed that he jumped for joy, but unfortunately for him, Arwen's owner wasn't as impressed by him as he was by Arwen, so Pablo had to go home emptyhanded.
Next up was Rio - a another colt belonging to the Snowman who runs absolutely beautifully!
I would have accepted him had Arwen liked him, and at first, she showed all signs of liking what she saw.
Now Arwen had already set her eyes on the stallion of her choice: a certain Mr Colonel whom we greeted once when going out riding. The Colonel and she clicked immediately, and the match would have been perfect. Unfortunately, the colonel's owner was in the UK right now, and the process of getting in touch (much less getting a yes) seemed to be a very complicated affair. 
It seemed at that point that Ishtar had her hands full with a mare crying out for male attention but no suitable sire in sight. Several friends got involved at the same time, trying to sort the issue, and then all of a sudden, different people had each organized it in their own way (without asking Ishtar!) so that different stallions were coming to see Arwen at the same time!
In the end, it was Dan Maffia (Son of Maffia) who was chosen because of his merits and linage (true Nigerien barb, not an import). 
As soon as he saw Arwen, he called out for attention and reared.
Arwen was interested too, and had there been time to get to know each other, it could have been a very pleasant experience.
After a bit of fighting, and a bit of human help, the match was finally made-
and everybody started laughing!
Today, we were back on the road again, going as far as north of Tanout town. I hope I don't spoil your wonderful (cold) winters showing all these pictures of beautiful sunshine and warm winds!
Unfortunately, it has hardly rained since Nettus and I arrived over a month ago, and as a consequence, Niger is drying up...
The seasonal rivers are a thing of the past, but the seasonal "tapki" lakes will be around for good couple of months. Under the scorching sun, I was really tempted to take a dip in the water, until I saw that the color was black - not transparent as I first thought...
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