Tajoua

It's my turn to do the weekly blog entry, so I'd like to introduce you our new dog, Tajoua. She's an African dog with an African name: "Tajoua" means red in the Tomashek language. Extremely affectionate and energetic, she's my buddy at home during the day -- she goes running with me, greets me on the front porch with her curly tail wagging, and when there's a storm, she pitter-patters to wherever I am in hopes for consolation and companionship.

Although this first picture of her is very flattering, fluffy fur and all, it doesn't quite show her personality, so I decided to try to get another picture of her. The first couple of tries were too direct for her shiny eyes, so I climbed down on the floor to try to get a different angle. Unfortunately she thought it was time to play, so she dove in, bumping the camera with her nose (and knocking me over backwards) while I was trying to take a picture of her. Here's what it turned into, as Steve rescued the camera from my hands that had gone limp from laughing so hard...

Busy lives

The last couple of weeks have been filled with activity. That, along with our painfully slow and sometimes sporadic Internet connection (over an hour to upload this little message), is our excuse for missing a week on the blog. Our apologies to all.

Among the most significant events of the past few weeks are the following:

* The roadside vendors outside our office building were forced to leave one day. Big trucks hauled away the shacks that couldn't be torn down in time.

* Steve coordinated a major rearranging of the office furniture.

* Our colleage who's house we have been sharing, moved out and we are adding our own personality to our new home. Steve has especially enjoyed working a bit in the yard.

* Celebrations and goodbyes. A surprise birthday party for a team mate brightened up last weekend; sad farewells to the team mate who is leaving filled this weekend.

* Tajoua the dog seems to be adjusting to us.

* We visited another savings/credit group in a different low-income neighborhood this week. It is neat to see the impact our work is having.

* We have enjoyed some nice sunsets near our house--overlooking the river (and the only bridge in the region)