Stay Tuned...

We haven't stopped since leaving Kenya last Tuedsay! We have stayed in 4 different countries over the last 4 days, but the good news is we finally hit U.S. soil last night. Updates on our safari trip will be coming your way soon!

A Little of This and a Little of That

Jess' henna tattoo; should last a couple weeks.

Senate Minority Leader Lawan came and spoke to

Jordan's AP Comparative Government and Politics class

Sunday washing.

As much as we hate doing laundry, we have it pretty good.

I will no longer complain.

Wildlife at Usuma Dam:

Random Abuja Pictures

Lauren admiring the teapot Chris made for her birthday

AISA student's work getting ready to be fired in the kiln

Fulani herdsman

Ironic!

Nigerian drivers, especially taxi drivers, are always in a hurry.

Yam field

Brian, Jordan and Lily relaxing during a picnic

Carrying the cooler the Nigerian way

Usuma Dam

On Sunday, we went for a hike at at Usuma Dam (30 minutes from Abuja) with Chris and Lauren. We were pleasantly surprised by the cool breeze and beautiful scenery.

Chris, Jordan and Lauren reaching the top of the cliff.

Chris showing Jordan the climbing routes.

Fulani herdsman at the base of the cliff.

Earth Day 2010

The first grade and fifth grade classes at AISA teamed up to help plant trees at the school in celebration of Earth Day. We asked Rubens, a sustainable farmer, to come help us with the planting process. He brought 4 trees for us to plant as well as cashew seeds for each of the students to plant at home. The first grade planted Cashew trees while the fifth grade planted Guava trees.

Rubens presenting my homeroom class with their tree

One Blue-- my homeroom class

One Red--the other first grade class.

I see these kids for math and science every day

What a Name!

We recently went out to dinner and found the waiters name to be a typical Nigerian name, but yet unique. Before we go on to tell you what his name was, let us explain names in Nigeria.

Most names are either biblical or faith based. For example, we have come across names such as Patience, Grace, Faith, Innocent, as well as the typical biblical names like Emmanuel, Joseph, Isaac, Jonathan, Ester, etc... Many names also begin with 'Chi', which means 'with God'. We work with Chinwe, Chijoke, and Chidiebere. We have also found that the days of the week are used for names. We have a guard whose name is Friday and when we first arrived in Nigeria, one of our guard's names was Sunday. Although this may sound odd to those of you back in the states, the names in Nigeria are very meaningful and are given for a particular reason.

So, to not keep you guessing...the name of our waiter was Thank God.

The Smallest European Country

Luxembourg City was quant and quiet. We had limited time in the country of Luxembourg, but we did manage to find a Mexican restaurant.