New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve together with Aïssa, my childhood friend, who came over for dinner and game. We had fun! Aïssa is such an amazing person: warm and generous. She adds to much to the company and I was so happy to see her and Nettus interacting so much, despite not being to speak each other's languages!

As for the food, I made this particular dish for Aïssa (who is a picky eater) I had made a spicy tomato sauce with mixed vegetables which she thought was simply great!

As for Nettus and I, we had one of the best dishes I made during the entire year, with a cream based sauce filled with Swedish mushrooms (dried and sent by Nettus' mom), Eden nuts, sundried tomatoes, the season's vegetables and wild Nigerien herbs (the ones that Western media labels as famine food). It was really, really good and I just hope I can remember how I made it so I can do it again next year!

Last picture of Aïssa 2007

Last picture of Nettus 2007

Last picture of Ishtar 2007

See you again soon though!

Ishtar

The Baobab forest revisited

After having visited the market, we headed out to the infamous century old Baobab forest - another of my top 20 Niger places.

The perfect place for a picnic, where you can lie in the shade and watch the people pass by... It was wonderful!

And it all ended with a photo shoot of the two Scandinavian girls of Zinder....

For more images of the Baobab forest, click here or you can always coax me into uploading more... :-)

Ishtar

The Mirriah market revisited

So today, we went on a Sunday excursion to Mirriah, one of Ishtar's top 20 places in Niger, bringing with us our guest Haruna and our neighbour Jmackie.

The visiting party caught on picture...

The calabash department

The market view

Looking for the right tiya of salt

Fish to the left and clay work to the right - it's your pick and it's not expensive!

Nettus & Ishtar, the two Scandinavians of Zinder

For previous visits to the Mirriah market, click here

Ishtar

Swings

Just wanted to let you know...

... that we love the spirit in our garden! Swings are not only for children, in case you wondered! And as we have one in our garden, we are pleased to see it being used by all sorts of people - mostly grownups!

Ishtar

Dogo

We had planned this weekend to take Haruna to the race track, but when Saturday arrived, the races had been moved to Dogo. Seeing we were up for a little adventure, we decided to hit the roads (and what bad roads it was!) and go to Dogo and show Haruna some of the typical Nigerien weekend action.

Dogo was no disappointment, with a number of people and horses all looking their very, very best!

Ishtar immediately found herself a little black beauty. Unfortunately, he won't remain black for long since he has white hairs coming up from underneath. What a pity grey is such a dominant colour!

The Dogo track was a charming bush variation of a racetrack, compared to the one in Zinder (which in turn is nothing compared to the one in the capital Niamey).

I liked the "tribune", but I didn't use it!

Contemplations in Dogo by Nettus

The visiting party

The photographer herself (this picture was actually taken by me!)

And for those of you wondering how the races went, well, let me just inform you that the best horse won!

Ishtar

Meet Haruna of Maradi

This week, we had a visitor from Maradi. Meet Haruna, an American expat TCK (and MK) who grew up in Jos (Nigeria) and who is now back in West Africa for a year long term of agricultural volunteer work. Although Nettus and I have been busy at work, we took turns to show him Zinder. He got to ride the horses (loved the gallop - but hey, what did you expect!) and when I fell sick, Nettus took him out on a long bike ride on a never ending gravel roads.

There may not be as much to do in Zinder as elsewhere in the world, but the landscape is beautiful!

And I think Haruna had a nice time. Who knows, maybe one day he'll blog about it? :-) If he does, I'll post you the link!

Ishtar

Does aggressive have a tender side?

In late December, I wrote the following draft:

For a dog who previously had huge aggression issues, Dennis is turning out to be quite a teddy bear!

He still has days when he is immensely uncooperative and prefers being the hunter rather than the herder, but then he has other days when he's just being himself and tries to make contacts with the animals now occupying his former kennel.

Then my dad came to visit, and the dog bit him (totally unprovoked)! So much for our tough guy having a tender side! But to end with a true Ishtar thought: "Hey, at least I'm glad I don't have small children!" But I haven't given up on him yet. Am in no position to either, since he's a fabulous guard - just has to work on his social skills...

Ishtar

Visiting friends on Boxing day

On boxing day, Nettus and I finally got the time to get out of the house/office and go visit some friends!

This little cutie (the daughter of a family friend) and I share the same name, and so I had to have a picture!

Then Dick the Dog showed up because he didn't want to be left out, but Nettus still got to take some fab pictures. Here are some of her other shots:

Warm greetings to everyone, and make sure you remember to pay all your loved ones a visit now and then! Don't wait for Christmas, life's too short for that. (And imagine all the smiles you'd miss if you didn't!)

Ishtar

Chilling on Christmas Day

In Sweden, Christmas Eve is the big Christmas day. Hence Christmas Day must be for recovering after Christmas Eve. We sure took it easy, eating fruits as a contrast to the heavy stuff we had last night. And chilled for half a day, which was grand considering the tempo we've had lately.

But hey, by the way, it's getting cold!!

Ishtar

Fabrics from the market

Today, we went to the market and came back with a whole lot of different fabrics. You'd be amazed at how fast you wear clothes out (you wash them more often here due to the dust and the heat) and Nettus was starting to run out of clothes. Hence, she needed a new wardrobe, and where better to go look for one than at our very own Zinder market? Of course I was not a bad friend, so in true Nigerien spirit, I tagged along and did some co-shopping with her! Here is what we found:

A beautiful colorful African tissue which will make a superb Ishtar skirt or dress one day. Our neighbor liked it so much that when she saw it, she went straight to the market the following day and bought the same tissue before it disappeared.

This was a red bazain that both Nettus and I fell in love with. Still haven't decided what I'm going to do with my share, but I'm pretty sure it will end up as a top.

A new fabric I hadn't seen before: of course I couldn't let this pass me by! Nettus bought the same tissue in a different colour (brown). Once again, I am not exactly sure what I will make out of it, but that's part of the charm isn't it? You find some fabric, buy it, save it (for years sometimes!), only to bring it out for the perfect occasion! Haha, when I listen to myself, I can see just how much I am my mother's daughter at times... :-)

Another bazain with a different pattern. It really wasn't expensive, and the vendor is one of my favourites because he always gives us good prices. No nasara price discussions needed here!

Nettus found her equivalent before I did - but she chose a colder color.

This cool lime green fabric will make Nettus next pants! Will have to post a picture when the tailor is finished making them. Which reminds me that we have to call him and ask him to take her measurements (so he can get started!).

And finally, Nettus found another beautiful deep blue bazain but I don't think she has decided yet on what she is going to make of it. We'll just have to wait and see!

Stay tuned for more fabric shopping at the great market of Zinder!

Ishtar

Christmas Eve

Seeing both Nettus and I were short of family members for the great Swedish family gathering event, we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve with our Jamaican/American neighbor Jmackie.

Since we were going Swedish this particular night, I had made a Jansson's Frestelse (amongst other things) which turned out so well that I forced Nettus to take a picture of it!

With Nettus being my greatest food critique, I was so happy when she turned out to love it all! Hehe, see what a little touch of cream will do to a pair of otherwise (voluntarily) starving volunteers...

Home-made chocolate ice-cream made of real chocolate and real cream - can a desert get much better (and fatter!) than that?

Then we played The Settlers, which none of us won because our neighbour had to rush off and check the latest gossip at the Goal party. Hey, if you're not updated on who's doing whom in Zinder, you're not a true expat it seems, but then again, I've never made good expat material I must confess. I think I love Niger too much for that! And running off to get drunk would have ruined our cozy Swedish familiar Christmas Eve feeling...

Then it was time to open some presents!

Nettus got this piece of African leather art (for more Nigerien leather articles, check out Livswerk in Sweden) which is one of her favourite items in Niger-

...and I got (amongst other things) this beautiful little Swedish candle heart from my parents in Sweden which now sits on our coffee table. Miss u so much, guys!!!

So- Christmas wasn't the same without family, but it was nice nevertheless!

Ishtar