A couple of our choir friends are somewhere warm and far away at the moment and today I received a beautiful bunch of flowers from P to ”brighten your day!” They certainly did that and I’m sharing them here with you. Thank you very much P&J
Tag Archives: bougainvillea
Senegal 7th April – Weaver Birds, Newest Grandchild, Glasses of Tea and Sky on Fire
Yes, I know that’s four things. It’s so hard to keep to three from our trip to Senegal!
1 The garden, full of bamboo, bougainvillea and many other flowers, attracts lots of birds. The Weaver Birds love the bamboo which they tear off in strips for their nests, the Sunbirds come for the nectar and to spread their wings in sunny spots and the Bulbuls do their courting here! All the time there are Black Kites wheeling about overhead. Lucy, before we came, also saw Egrets and a flock of Pelicans!
Weaver Bird with Bamboo strip
Weaver Bird with Sunbird on left
Sunbird sunning her wings
Black Kite
2 Ndeye Marie was delighted with her chunky coloured crayons and paper and immediately started practising her letters.
Crayon Fun
I also read Eric Carle’s ‘The Very lonely Firefly’, translating it into French as I went along, to Ndeye Marie, our newest Grandchild – what joy!
Reading to Ndeye Marie
3 Mr S and I went down to Ami’s family home to see the hired chairs being hauled up onto the roof for the Wedding tomorrow. Some family were having tea outside and invited us to join them in true Senegalese fashion. The mint tea in tiny glasses was very hot, very sweet and beautifully minty.
Ousseynou making tea
4 The sky at sunset
The Sky over Pikine
Senegal 5th April – Pikine Apartment, Pikine Market and Meeting our Senegalese family
1 Our apartment in Pikine is very close to Ami’s family home, has rooms all opening onto a central courtyard which is smothered in palm trees, huge cacti and beautiful bougainvillea in pinks and reds.
Sunlight through the leaves
2 Took a yellow taxi to Pikine market – bursting with bustle, noise, colour and smells – to buy fabric for me to have made up into a traditional boubou for the Wedding on Sunday. The most colourful bus took us to the tailor’s where I was measured up and chose a beautiful blue thread to go with the emerald green fabric. It will be ready tomorrow!
3 Met Ami’s lovely family at her home – her parents, her beautiful daughter, Ndeye Marie and some of her aunts and children. We managed to understand each other pretty well with some shared language (French), lots of body language and Daniel on hand to translate from Wolof when necessary. The family has known Daniel for 15 years and spoke of him with pride and warmth and welcomed us into their family. We were able to say how pleased and proud we are to welcome Ami into our family too.
Lucy with some of the children
