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Tag Archives: Ndeye Marie

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

17 Apr

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

First Bluebells, Coloured Pencils and A Baby Naming Ceremony

30 Mar

1 On the lane we take to walk into town, I saw the season’s first bluebells – such a rich colour, ‘like a piece of sky’ as the inspiration for my blog, http://threebeautifulthings.blogspot.co.uk/ once said. We also saw some beautifully veined leaves but I have yet to find out what they are.

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2 We went into town to find small presents to take to Senegal for Ndeye Marie, the 3 year old daughter of our son’s fiancee – so our soon-to-be Granddaughter! We found some bright and chunky coloured pencils and some paper for her and lots of biros for the other children. We know from our Voluntouring in South Africa that such pens are much treasured by the local children.

We have also bought Ndeye Marie some picture story books, one of which is about The Heligan Giant. See my previous post to see this delightful mud sculpture: http://mybeautfulthings.com/2012/03/28/sally-boots-the-heligan-giant-and-swish/

3 I’ve visited a delightful family in St Erth this evening to talk about their son’s Baby Naming Ceremony. It’s already sounding charming and we’ve hardly started.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 30, 2012 in art, Baby Naming, Cornwall, environment, Humanist ceremony, sculpture, Senegal, travel, Uncategorized

Tags: Baby Naming Ceremony, bluebells, coloured pencils, delightful family, mud sculpture, Ndeye Marie, picture story books, piece of sky, rich colour, Senegal, South Africa, St Erth, The Heligan Giant, Voluntouring

Blossom, Raised Beds and Welsh Snowdrops + Senegalese Wedding

25 Feb

1 On my walk down into Redruth today, this beautiful blossom took my breath away.

Blossom 25:2:2012

2 Mr S has cleared the patch for the new terrace and spread compost on the raised beds, ready for vegetable planting quite soon.

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3 Lovely friends brought us some more snowdrops from their place in Wales.

4 + a little extra! Just had over an hour with Daniel on Skype talking about the wedding and all the things we need to know about before we go to Senegal. I have to send my measurements to Ami so that she can get my wedding outfit made up for me before we arrive! It was Ndeye Marie’s 4th birthday last week and Daniel sent some photos while we were chatting.