P1 These funny looking ‘skittles’ are actually old plastic bottles filled with sand which we are using to play skittles with children in the village Guinebor II near us. We have been going out with Clare a short termer every Saturday afternoon to play with them and have made some friends! Also our friend Aicha who lives nearby and speaks English has helped us too as she speaks Arabic.
P2 This is a picture of our tortoise’s Alfie’s home. We got around September time when a man with him turned up at the hospital and our mum bought him of him! He’s very funny when he walks but strangely for the past couple of weeks he has been asleep underground, we think he might be hibernating but for a different reason as we are in a mini hot season again…..
P3 In this picture Mowzer is up a tree. Normally as soon as she steps outside she sees a lizard run straight up one and chases it (she has become a very skilled lizard catcher!). But the problem is lizards can jump from a tree to the ground and still be OK, unfortunately Mowzer can’t and occasionally pretends to get stuck as she must feel rather silly……
P4These plants are called carcangee (in arabic) satit (as they called it in Guinea) and are really a form of hibiscus! You can get two sorts white-which we use the flowers from for a sauce with boule and red-which we use the flowers from to make a drink which makes your lips and tongue turn red!
P5 This a mango tree which was planted with many others a while ago before we came. Unfortunately for this tree it was planted too far away form the tap to be reached with a hose pipe and didn’t get as much water as it should. But now it seems to be revived if the hospital gardener sticks with watering cans!
P6 This plant is called Gombo (in French) and Okra (in English) though we don’t know what in arabic! During the rainy season lots of plants were grown and this in particular. It can be used in many different sauces dried or fresh and we had it in guinea too! The wife of the guardian of the hospital has been growing it all over the compound to sell at market!
P7 These bricks are the start of our house which will be built when the hospital is open and finished! Our Dad is carefully planning it out to make it as cool as possible in the hot season! So this time next year we should be moved in.
P8 These cute little chicks belong to their mother, yes and also to the guardian of the hospital. Their father is the lovely cockerel that wakes us up at half past five every morning. Thankfully Mowzer hasn’t taken to eating them, yet……
P9 Now this might seem a bit strange but when we were on the way to school in the rainy season we managed to get stuck in the mud. So Dogo (the hospital driver) grabbed a spade and tried to dig us out. Meanwhile Rebecca had phoned our mum and they were coming to help, some minutes after that with Dogo still digging us out a huge digger came towards us down the road! We joked that it might come and save Dogo the job of digging us out as it wasn’t working. But when the digger came closer Dogo shouted a few words in arabic to him and just as our parents arrived ready to tow we were being dug out by this digger who’s driver was Dogo’s friend (he knows everyone!). Our mum wasn’t there in time to take a picture of it happening but she took this picture of the digger afterwards whilst we zoomed (literally) off to school!
P10 This is a picture of some of the lorries that used to come past us each morning starting at 5.00 at the latest! They are getting sand to take to a road in town that the president is having built so that we don’t have what we call “tapis rouges”( red carpets or huge traffic jams) when the president is coming back to or leaving the country. It will run to the airport and they have postponed the 50 years of independence celebrations until January just for this road so it needs to be finished quickly! Thankfully the Lorries are now going a different way (as they messed up ours!) to annoy the missionaries who live by there!
P11 In this picture Mowzer is being lifted down from the eaves of our roof! Lately she has taken to climbing up and into the roof to explore and get stuck. We have done our best to block it off but she always finds another way! But now her latest adventure is to go out of the compound and meet her boyfriend that she found….. So she spends all night out miaows at the window at 5.30 (to replace the lorries!) and spends the day asleep!
P12 The children in this picture go to a youth group at our church called Flambeaux and Lumières. Lately we’ve been going every Sunday afternoon to join in! We haven’t yet got our uniforms and everyone thinks it funny that ‘Nazaras’ want to go there but we have fun and have made some friends! This picture is of when at a baptism they were encircling the people that were baptised though we haven’t been part of anything like that yet……
Hope you are all ok and in case anyone didn't know our Dad had to come back to England for a swallowing problem to be checked! But he is back now and the hospital should be opening soon!
Ruth and Rebecca
P.S Thanks to anyone who sent Rebecca birthday presents!
