Yesterday, I took a morning train to Copenhagen, to meet with two good friends – Signe & Marie – whom I haven’t met in a very long time. Twenty years pass so quickly, it’s almost unbelievable it’s been that long! It really doesn’t seem that long since we were children in Niger and going to [...]

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On my second day off this week, Hanna and I visited the parents’ of a fellow friend of ours: Björn – who stayed with us in Niger in 1998 and later married Hanna’s cousin Jennifer. His parents Claudia and Anders left the city a few years ago and bought a farm, where they now raise [...]

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Tonight, Anette is coming down from Varberg so that we can have a skype conference and attend the Garvi Family Formula 1 Grand Prix in Africa – which is so cool, since some of us are more than 8000 km away! Last time we had a girls’ night was a couple of weeks ago, when [...]

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With my favourite Chinese restaurant located in Kano (Nigeria), it no more than right that my favourite sushibar should be located right here in Falkenberg (Sweden)! A few days after arriving, my father, Hanna and I had been shopping at Gekås, and coming back to Falkenberg, my father took us out for dinner. After nine [...]

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The last excursion that we did with Hanna before her departure last week was a morning picnic to Mirriah’s ancient Baobab forest. Having heard so much about it, Hanna was eager to go despite the heat, and so on Sunday morning, we set off for a morning adventure, picking up Liz at the Peace Corps [...]

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Finally, around midnight, the car came back from the garage, looking next to new after being completely deformed by a truck who ran into it for no apparent reason. The car on April 23rd The bill landed on 250€, but the money has already been payed out to us, which is amazing. A little short [...]

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Despite appearances (as suggested by her presence at Ishtar’s Ark and the fact that she spent a lot of money to come and visit us), my dear friend Hanna is not known for her love of animals (except for the occasional cat). Prior to arrival, she was asked about her expectations at coming to live [...]

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Cooking – in my book – is always fun, and as you may have figured out by now, I love to improvise, using the resources that are available. When we visited Liz (a Peace Corps Volunteer) in her village, we brought a few ingredients for lunch that we knew would not get spoiled in the [...]

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As soon as we heard that there was a camel in Liz’ village, we wanted to ask the owner if we could ride it. At that time, the camel was still not back from the market, but the owner (the herder of the village) told us to come back the following day and he would [...]

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Arriving at Liz’ village in the remote bush was like stepping into a beautiful little world of its own. The villagers, who are like Liz’s huge adopted extended family, were very happy to see her again (and “in health!!” seeing she had been taken to Zinder after falling seriously ill) and thrilled to see that [...]

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It isn’t often that I suggest we go up at 4.45 am in order to enjoy the sunrise, but this was one of those times, and I regardless of how tired I was before when driving up the hilltop (known by us as Mt Zinder), I don’t regret it for a second! There is something [...]

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One of the highlights of the Zinder area is experiencing the endless expanse of Niger bush, which is most conveniently done by horseback (you can’t bike through the lose sand, walking doesn’t take you far enough and driving a polluting vehicle would ruin the authenticity of the experience). Between ourselves, Anette and I have two [...]

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Although most of our days tend to be busy, this past weekend was busier than ever (in a good way). Between horseback riding, house cleaning (mostly done by our guest Hanna from Sweden) and heading off to dinner at my father’s, we managed to squeeze in an excursion to the Zinder market. Much to Hanna’s [...]

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…and Hanna is already solar cooking! The end result was a very filling, tasty, vegetable-rich omelet which included onions, leeks, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and spices. I love when other people cook! We served it with some solar cooked millet bread to the side. And for dessert, we had some delicious mangoes and citrus fruit! Red [...]

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This past Saturday, we got up very early in the morning, in order to attend the opening ceremony (called a ‘Fatia’) of a wedding at the other end of town. This was Hanna’s first real excursion in the “real Zinder”, after visiting Ishtar’s Ark, Eden Street, the Eden office and the nearby bush. The wedding [...]

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