congratulations Mark

This is a little bit late but I just wanted to congratulate Mark Carney Phillips on completing his MDiv from Southern Seminary. It has been a long road but he is finally finished. When he started back in the fall of 2002 (only a couple of months after we got married), I never would have thought that he would complete it in Africa of all places! But he's done & I am SOOOO proud of him!

I am also SOOOO glad that the mountains of books & papers are finally finished. Six years of stacks & stacks of reading, 6 years of paper after paper, 6 years of always having to turn something in has finally finished! In the States he would use one of his days off from church to drive 4 hours round trip to Louisville & usually be gone from 4 am to 11 pm. That was just for classes & doesn't include the work! Here in Africa it consisted of lots of reading & papers & watching lectures on DVD & using his "internet time" in Niamey to turn things in or check up on assignments. Finally, it's done. It brings much relief to me but I know it's an even greater relief to him. Have I said how proud I am of him? I am SOOOO proud!

Christmas in January

We were able to have another time of Christmas while mom and dad were here. It's kinda fun leaving Christmas decorations up till mid-January! It also gave us an excuse to keep listening to Christmas tunes!


Izzy got some new toys including this one. I think she likes it!


Izzy's mom and dad liked their gifts too!

Don and Janis part 2

Don and Janis just finished their second trip to Ayorou. While we'd like to think they came to visit with us, we know that they came with one goal in mind: hanging out with a little girl named Isabelle Ruth Phillips. While here they also found time to reconnect with some friends and visit with Parker and I.


We were able to celebrate mom's 60th birthday (just a few weeks late) while they were in Niamey. We ate at a great Lebanese restaurant and then had cake.


They were also able to meet with Ela several times to encourage him in his faith.


Of course hanging with the kiddos was a big part of their trip. The kids remembered them from last year and didn't want to see them leave!


Dad had to show off his mad piano skills. The kids were quite impressed.


Mom and Dad reconnected with some of their friends from their first visit and even showed off their African style!


Thanks so much Mom and Dad for everything! Izzy, Parker & I and all the people of Ayorou had a blast hanging out with you!

Christmas!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year. Mark and I love traditions. In America, right after we got married, we agreed that one of our traditions would be to have Christmas morning in our own home every year. During those 1st 4 years we also had the tradition of attending Living Hope's Christmas Eve service, having dinner with Mark's parents & then going to see a movie on Christmas day. The only one we've been able to keep since being here is having Christmas in our home. But with Isabelle here now, we wanted to have more meaningful traditions established. So this year we took our time getting up on Christmas morning (a first for me in 28 years!), had some coffee, and then read the Christmas story before opening presents. After presents, my Dad & I made sausage, biscuits & gravy, and eggs for breakfast - not necessarily a meaningful new tradition but definitely a delicious new tradition to keep!


Working hard on Christmas breakfast. Everything was from scratch except the gravy ... yes, even the sausage. You can't buy breakfast sausage here so you have to get the butcher to grind pork for you & then you add your seasonings. Thanks Marion for sending us that yummy sausage seasoning!


New, fun kitchen stuff!


i-Tunes gift card! Thanks Amanda!


Isabelle checking out her presents from her Great Aunt Sue.


Izzy helping to pass out presents. It wasn't that hard of a job since most of them were for her anyways.

three cups of tea

Drinking tea in the culture we live in is a part of everyday life. Sometimes once a day but usually more. It's the way for men to be social. While their tea brews, they talk about life, current events, the weather, their farms, etc. It is an honor to be invited to have tea & it's an honor for them to have a "foreigner" drink their tea. If anyone knows my dad, they know that he is NOT a hot tea or coffee drinker of any matter. He gets Cokes at Starbucks for goodness sake! But he threw aside his comforts while in Ayorou & drank tea with our guard every night. And let me tell you, there is tea & then there is the bitter drink that our guard calls "tea" that I would say is more like putting 4 tea bags in your mouth & sucking the life out of them.

Even more than bestowing the honor of drinking tea, my dad received the honor of being taught how to make tea & then was invited to make it for our guard & his friend. In our 2 years of being here, never has our guard invited ANYONE to make tea for him. And my dad did it all right handed ... as a lefty! Just take a look at the complicated steps involved in making tea & you'll understand how hard it was to not do it with your dominant hand.


The professor & the student


After about 15 or 20 minutes, you check the tea to see if it's done brewing


Adding the sugar cubes


Mixing the tea back & forth to blend the tea & sugar together. You do this for about 3 minutes or so.





The tea maker then takes a test sip of the tea to make sure it's right ...


... washes off the glass ...


... & passes it to the 1st drinker (usually the eldest man around the circle)


Dad gets a thumbs up! Now he only had to do that 2 more times!

beef ... it's what for dinner

For a while now, I've been wanting a way to cook outside to help reduce the amount of heat in the house. In case you didn't know, during hot season (when temperatures outside are around 130 degrees) our house doesn't get below 95 degrees inside. So cooking on a gas stove in hot season is no fun. Well Mark & my dad, the clever guys that they are, decided to build me my very own mud brick grill. Fancy, eh?


The first taste test of meat from the grill. Yumm!


Isabelle learning how to grill from the Grill Master.


Now that's a feast!


Simple design yet seriously delicious results!