The Kelley's

Dreaming of spring...

2011-03-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

I started our garden. I am so excited for my first potted garden.

I planted:

basil
tomato
broccoli
peppers
onion
zucchini

Bi-Mart was having a 50% off seeds sale, limit 6, so I'll have to go back to get more varieties soon. I'll let you know when they "hatch".

What? That's not right!!!

Pete and Crystal take on the Fireworks Open Mic

2011-03-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for your support and for singing along. We had a great time. Send in your requests, we hope to make this a regular thing.

Loves,

--c

Ashland is all that!

2010-10-19T21:32:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a fabulous weekend in Ashland. Scotty came up from Hollywood and I came down from Corvallis. We met up with our dear friends, Casey and Lauren, so watch a screening of an original hip-hop play written by Casey, Jon, Ian and their friend.

It was AMAZING! It was a brilliant blend of gospel meets rap, with muted earth tones splashed with vibrant red. Everything about this play (technically a "reading") was beautiful, even the ugly, creepy, and scary parts.

I wish you could have all been there to see it. And I truly hope opportunity comes knocking and it gets picked up by a producing company or something.

Scotty went back down to Hollywood for (hopefully) just a few more days. In the meantime, Case and Lauren are in town, so give them a shout out and/or buy them a beer (they are truly deprived in CA with a lack of 1) good coffee and 2)good micro brews!

- Posted using BlogPress from Crystal's iPhone

Wow, bach nah!

2010-04-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

A little something from our boys in Malika. Miss you guys!

Not exactly what I had in mind

2010-03-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

I was super excited to get my new REI rain jacket in the mail. I bought it on Ebay for $15, what a steal....

...until I pulled it out of the package and the womens size 6 ended up being a kids size 6, bummer!!!!

Does anyone want a kids jacket? I'll sell you a nice one for $15!

- Posted using BlogPress from Crystal's iPhone

Help Casey make it to the big time.

2010-02-03T10:02:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

One of my best friends, Casey, is doing a special promotion through Windows 7.

It's kind of a contest and he need to get the most downloads to win.

All you have to do is go here. And download a FREE song. That's it.

You want to download "Seven Seas", by Casey Hurt

This promotion/contest is going today through 5p on Fri, so don't delay.

Chics in the snow!

2010-01-31T21:23:00.001-08:00

In an effort to keep myself busy while Scotty is in LA, the ladies and myself had a little adventure weekend which included some pretty incredible backcountry snow shoeing.

The players:

Lovely Brea...

...Silly Tiffany...

...and Crazy Crystal

We were blessed with some pretty incredible powder, which made for a very challenging hike straight up the hill.

We stopped for a stellar picnic in the snow. Right after this picture my camera slipped off the tree branch it was perched on and sunk a foot into the snow...good thing it's waterproof and freeze proof, eh?

Mighty conquerors!

My after taking a tumble in the snow, back for more. See you next time.

Why did I leave Hollywood?

2010-01-23T11:46:00.001-08:00

It's only been 5 days since I left Scotty and the crew in Hollywood, and I already have been looking at plane tickets back.

Studio update: the wood got delivered and they started construction. Scotty is really excited about making progress and the gang is excited about Jon's new commercial. (Thanks Jenna for doing the work to find it.)

Miss you guys, hope to see you soon!

I forgot to take pictures of Hollywood

2010-01-21T21:37:00.001-08:00

So life has been a whirlwind since we got home 3 months ago, but I am not complaining. I am thankful and excited for whatever life has for us. As you may know our dear friends Casey and Lauren moved to Hollywood to follow their dreams of music and photography. The plan was for Scotty to go with them and stick around for a month or so to work on the recording studio that they want to build. Pretty last minute the plans changed and we ended up driving down a week after Casey and Lauren so I could see them all too and then I would fly back home.

Needless to say hanging with the crew was AMAZING. I had a blast and am already looking for cheap tickets so I can go visit again soon. The only bummer part of the whole thing is saying goodbye, even if it's only for 8 weeks or so, it still sucks. So, I left my hubby in CA along with my crazy friends and I can't wait to see them all again soon. And wouldn't you know it, I was so caught up in the weekend (it was a big weekend after all--more on that) and I only took 4 pictures.....4! So, sorry kids, but that's all you get.

The ONLY shot I got of all us together and naturally it's blurry. But I love these guys, I can't wait to go back down to see the crew in a couple months.

We are squinting in this picture because we forgot what the sun looks like. Actually, we wanted to see the view from the roof before I left because it's spectacular and the rain finally let up.

Kissing my baby goodbye on the room before driving to the airport to catch a flight back to Oregon.

Thanksgiving and stuff

2009-12-10T21:28:00.000-08:00

This is a bit behind, but here is out account of two different Thanksgivings. We spent one Thanksgiving in Oregon with Crystal's family and another in Cali with Scotty's Grandma, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins.

Joei had never been invited to a family Thanksgiving before...this is what she thinks of the situation

We tried getting a family photo, this is as far as we got. Next to California...

The crew all gathered together in Cali.

Grandma, explaining the food, so that's where Nancy gets it.

Casey, explaining how the buffet system works.

Everyone eat up.

Too much turkey.

Cousins bonding.

While in Cali, the whole family went out to see the 3-D moving Christmas Carol.

I am really excited for this movie to come out.

M&M (from Senegal) came to visit. It was SO nice to see them and catch up. Miss you guys!

Come support CARDV this Fri night.

2009-12-02T09:19:00.001-08:00

This Friday is LBCC night at the

Best Cellar Coffee House.

Proceeds go to

The Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence

Please join us for this always enjoyable event!

Performers are:

Tom Chase and Ron Sharman
Ian Priestman
Audrey Perkins and Friends
Janeen Phillips
Scott McAleer
Tom and Ellen Demarest
Mark Weiss

The Best Cellar provides live, acoustic music. We meet in the Cellar of the Methodist Church in Corvallis, corner of 11th and Monroe. Enter from the back.

7:30pm—9:00pm, Friday, December 4th.

Admissions: Sliding scale down to $2... Kids are free.

More details here.

Taking nothing for granted

2009-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Good Monday-After-Thanksgiving all,

Just another reminder of what we have to be thankful for. This is a write up from our local paper, the Gazette Times (for those of you not from C-town). Crystal works for the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence, mentioned in this article. It's a longer article than normal, but the weight of the issue is pretty heavy. Will you consider sharing this article with your friends and/or getting involved by giving? See details below.

Click here for a link to the article on GT website.

A mother's nightmare

By Rachel Beck, Corvallis Gazette-Times | Posted: Saturday, November 28, 2009 11:45 pm | 1 Comment

Font Size:: Default font size; Larger font size

Hee Son left her husband after what she says was years of abuse, only to have him flee to South Korea with their two sons. (Jesse Skoubo/Gazette-Times)

Hee Son keeps asking questions.

Why are her children in South Korea with their father, who doesn’t have custody of them?

Why is Son in debt for the foreseeable future?

Why, instead of pursuing a nursing degree at Linn-Benton Community College, is she spending much of her time meeting with an attorney, trying to figure out how she can get her kids back?

But for all the “why” questions Son has, the most important question is a “will”:

Will she ever see her children again?

Son’s attorney, Lorena Reynolds, doesn’t have many answers.

What is known is that on Nov. 7, Son’s ex-husband, Shiwoo Lee, took their two boys for an overnight visit.

Son and Lee were in the middle of a divorce, and until then Lee had been limited to short visits only. Reynolds and Son had fought to limit Lee’s visits with the kids to eight hours and had gotten him to relinquish his passport due to a fear that he would take the children to South Korea.

On Nov. 8, Lee called Son to tell her he’d done just that.

Numerous attempts to reach Lee by phone and e-mail for this story were unsuccessful. His attorney declined to comment.

Not only has Lee violated a court order, he’s left a pile of bills and virtually no way for Son to pay them. Any efforts Son makes to get her sons back will be extremely expensive, time-consuming, complicated and stressful: In the Nov. 8 call, Lee warned Son that if she tried to find her sons, he would make sure she never saw them again.

For Son, it is the latest excruciating development in a nightmare that has been going on for years.

An arranged match

Son, 35, moved to Corvallis about four years ago with her husband, Lee, 40. The couple have two boys: Andrew Jisoo, 6, is a quiet boy and a talented and gifted student who always wants to know how things work. Alex Jiho, 4, is athletic, sweet and easygoing with a cute baby face.

Son and Lee were wed in 2002 in their native South Korea. It was an arranged marriage, and people thought it was a good one.

They soon moved to Boston, where Lee, who has a Ph.D. in engineering from Penn State, took a job at a university.

That was where the abuse started, Son said.

Twice police were called because Lee was being violent toward her, Son said, but Lee was never arrested.

After a few years, Lee, Son and Andrew moved to Chicago, where Lee had another job at a university.

The abuse resumed, Son said: At one point, he hit her in the face and choked her, forcing a visit to an emergency room. She got a temporary restraining order against him and moved with Andrew to a shelter for a few weeks.

Lee begged her to come back.

“He was very afraid to go to the jail,” Son said. “He said that he would be nice.”

Members of the couple’s church also urged Son not to pursue criminal charges, saying it would be wrong to ruin Lee’s reputation after he had worked so hard.

At the same time, they knew he was hurting her and said they would help keep her safe.

When they found out the family was moving, Son said, they were worried for her.

A move to Corvallis

In July 2005, Alex was born. One month later, the family moved to a nice house in northwest Corvallis. Lee took a job at Oregon State University as an assistant professor.

About a month after they moved, Lee went into a rage, Son said, punching her and knocking her down. He dragged her to the master bedroom, where Son says he hit her until her two front teeth came out.

Andrew, who was about 18 months old at the time, saw it all.

Lee put them both in the closet, where they stayed for hours. In the evening, they climbed out the bedroom window and went to a neighbor’s house. Son asked for help, but also told the residents not to call the police — she didn’t want to make Lee angrier.

Lee followed them. When he showed up, he told the neighbors it was all a misunderstanding and persuaded Son to come back to the house with him.

“He didn’t hit me anymore on that day,” she said.

The next day, one of the neighbors came over to check on Son. Lee told Son, whose face was now visibly bruised, to stay in the bedroom. She called out that she was fine.

About a week later, Lee took her to a dentist. He told them her injuries were the result of an accident.

In the summer of 2006, Lee pushed Son and knocked her to the floor. A worker fixing siding on the house called police.

Lee told the cops Son had fallen and he was helping her up. He wasn’t arrested, but Son and the boys went to the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence shelter.

In 2007, Lee was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants. His driver’s license was temporarily suspended, so he finally allowed Son to get a license.

The last time Lee hit her was on March 30, 2008, Son said. That day, the family went to McDonald’s. The boys were on the play structure and Andrew was afraid to walk across the swinging rope bridge, though Alex seemed to love it.

This angered Lee and he forced Andrew across several times, Son said.

When the family got home, Lee’s anger continued. He began yelling at Son. Then, she said, he pushed, choked and threw things at her.

He kept her from getting to a phone to call the police, she said. But a few hours later, he calmed down and went upstairs to his computer. Son got the phone and called the police from the bathroom.

The police report says Son did not complain of injuries and Lee told officers there had been “mutual” shoving during an argument. Lee denied hitting Son and said she often got angry without reason.

Lee didn’t go to jail, but Son and her children again went to the CARDV shelter.

No arrests

Son and Reynolds wonder why Lee was never arrested for assault.

Police are required to make an arrest if there is probable cause to believe that an assault or a menacing has occurred, said Capt. Jon Sassaman of the Corvallis Police Department, but when officers respond hours after an incident, it’s sometimes hard to make that determination. In those cases, officers need evidence such as a visible injury or an independent witness. According to police reports, those weren’t available when officers responded to Son’s house.

“If there’s no markings, there’s nothing that would indicate or be consistent with the fact that someone was struck, it doesn’t work so well,” Sassaman said. “Those are very difficult cases.”

He said officers may refer people to CARDV even if they don’t think there’s enough proof to arrest the perpetrator.

“Just because evidence doesn’t present itself strong enough for an officer to make an arrest truly doesn’t mean something didn’t happen,” Sassaman said.

Pattern of abuse

When Son talks about her husband, the word she uses most to describe him is “strange.”

He told her what television programs she could watch, where she could go, who she could talk to, how much money she could spend.

While Son was pregnant with Andrew, she met a Korean woman with a similar due date. The woman invited Son to go shopping. Lee followed them the entire time.

Son has a bachelor’s degree in French but says she began to lose her language skills in both English and French simply because she never had anyone to talk to.

“I never had a personal friend before I separated from him,” Son said. “I know that it’s hard to believe and hard to understand.”

But Son’s story is not that unusual, said Nancy O’Mara, executive director of CARDV.

While most people think of domestic violence as just physical assault, O’Mara said abusers have other ways of hurting a victim: Isolation from friends and family. Forbidding the victim to have a job. Sexual assault.

“It’s just that constant, constant controlling, demeaning behavior that is meant to crush someone’s spirit,” O’Mara said.

Everything is compounded when there are children involved.

“It’s horrifying and terrifying enough to know that you yourself are the target of someone’s threats of harm (and) degrading, cruel behavior,” O’Mara said. “It’s even more horrifying when you’re needing to protect your children from that.”

Abusers often use the threat of taking the children away as another means of controlling the victim.

“Of the thousands of women I’ve worked with over 28 years, it is a threat that is made in the vast majority of cases,” O’Mara said.

And leaving an abuser with children is harder than leaving alone.

“It just makes it that much more fraught with consequences and terror,” O’Mara said.

For Son, the worst part of it all is the effect the abuse has had on her children.

They’ve started to accept it, she said, especially her oldest child, Andrew.

Her voice cracking, Son said the boy just saw too much violence.

“He doesn’t think that it’s so serious,” she said.

A new life

Despite having no legal recourse against Lee for the abuse, Son left him and filed for divorce shortly after the March 2008 incident. She lived in the CARDV shelter for a month and then moved into an apartment.

The divorce proceedings dragged on, complicated by constant custody battles, but Son, Andrew and Alex forged ahead.

Andrew’s teacher reported improvements in the boy.

“I believe that because Mom is much happier, kids are much better,” Son said.

Son enrolled at Linn-Benton Community College. She planned to enter the nursing program after she finished her prerequisites.

But things were not going well for Lee.

He frequently violated the court order on visitation or “parenting” time, Reynolds said. Son would call the police when Lee didn’t return the boys on time, but they said it was a civil issue.

Sassaman said custody cases present unique challenges for law enforcement. Generally, a custody complaint is considered a civil matter.

A parent who isn’t following the court-ordered arrangement has to have “an intent to permanently violate that custody arrangement or violate it for a protracted period of time” for it to be considered criminal, Sassaman said.

Criminal charges

On April 1, 2008, the case took a criminal turn. On that day, Son and her sons went to the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. When they went back to their car, parked in the underground lot, Lee confronted them.

A friend of Lee’s got Andrew into the back of his car. Son screamed at him and tried to get Andrew out as the car started to drive off.

Bystanders called police to report an attempted kidnapping. When police arrived, they saw Son, carrying Alex, running away from the garage. A car with Andrew in the back was trying to drive away.

According to a police report of the incident, “several bystanders witnessed the incident and were alarmed and disturbed by Lee’s actions.”

Lee was arrested; he also was served with the restraining order Son had filed against him.

Charges of second-degree disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer were dismissed after he completed a diversion program, including 40 hours of community service and an anger-management course.

More than a year later, on July 4, 2009, Lee was arrested in Polk County after he checked into a hotel room at Spirit Mountain Casino with the boys. At the time, Lee had been ordered by the court not to take the children out of Benton County.

Gone

In October the court said Lee, who generally had been limited to eight-hour visits with his children, could have an overnight visit. He picked them up at 9 a.m. Nov. 7. At about 4:40 p.m. Nov. 8, he called Son to tell her they were in South Korea. His tenure-track appointment at OSU had ended in June.

Police accompanied Son to Lee’s house. All of the furniture was gone. Debris was strewn throughout. One piece of paper found there was shocking: instead of listing the house for sale, as he had agreed to do (Son and Lee were to split the money from the sale), Lee had taken out a second mortgage.

The next day, an emergency order was made granting Son sole custody of Alex and Andrew. It was little consolation.

On Nov. 18, Judge David Connell issued a judgment on the divorce. He ordered the marriage dissolved immediately and granted Son sole custody of the children.

The order states that Son has suffered “severe and sustained” abuse from Lee, causing “extreme distress and physical injury,” that “the children are in immediate danger of abuse and irreparable emotional harm while in (Lee’s) care” and that Lee is “emotionally unstable and presents a credible threat of harm” to Son, Andrew and Alex.

The same week, Lee’s attorney, Jason Castanza, filed a motion to withdraw as Lee’s lawyer. The request was denied.

Castanza declined to comment for this story.

Reynolds has been frustrated by how the kidnapping has been treated by law enforcement. Her understanding is that the Benton County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI weren’t involved until Nov. 9, the day after the children were reported missing.

Reynolds said that even for a period of time that day, there was hope the children might not have left the country, despite Lee’s call.

“If it had not been true, if he had made that call from Seattle or he had made that call from the road, it could’ve made a huge difference,” Reynolds said.

Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson said he couldn’t disclose specifics of the case due to the ongoing investigation.

“We have committed intense resources into this case in order to be responsive in a timely fashion,” he said.

South Korea

Getting children back when they’ve been taken out of the country is always difficult. The complications increase dramatically when the country in question is not part of the Hague Convention.

The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a treaty signed in 1980 that is meant to help return children who have been abducted to another country. Nations that have signed the treaty agree children should be returned to the country they were taken from and have mechanisms in place to make that happen. Nations that have not signed do not recognize court orders or custody arrangements made in other countries.

Son and Reynolds plan to hire a Korean lawyer. Son will go to Korea.

“I’m trying to do my best to get custody legally,” Son said.

But it will still be quite a process.

“The chance of recovering the kids is very small, and without substantial amounts of money it’s virtually impossible to do,” Reynolds said.

Her office has set up a fund for Son. Hopefully, the house will sell soon.

Even with money, Son faces an uphill battle.

Bob Lowery of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said getting kids back from a country like South Korea is particularly difficult because the nation doesn’t even recognize parental abduction as a crime.

“We work with federal authorities for warrants for criminal abduction, and then we get the State Department involved. It’s a complicated task with a lot of red tape.”

The center also works with law enforcement to charge noncustodial parents in the United States in case they are brought back.

South Korea may not think it’s a crime, Lowery said, but courts determine custody for a reason.

“People seem to dismiss parental abductions as not important,” he said. “We take these cases very seriously.”

A Christmas wish

Son is trying to hold up, but the circumstances are trying.

“She’s very, very poor, she’s lost weight, she hasn’t had money to eat sometimes,” Reynolds said. “This is an absolutely devastating case.”

Nevertheless, Son has had some hopeful moments.

Last weekend a crew of people, many of them from Reynolds’ office, showed up to help clean the house, for which Son is extremely grateful. She also feels she’s gotten excellent care from CARDV staff members and her dentist.

Son hopes that Alex and Andrew aren’t aware how serious the situation is. She’d rather they think they’re just on vacation.

She also hopes, for their safety, that they are not alone with Lee. If other people are around, she thinks he will control his temper.

Her dream right now is to be reunited with Alex and Andrew.

“I just want to get back my children,” she said. “I want to spend my Christmas with my family and my children in Korea.”

And then, she said, she’d like to return to Corvallis and not be afraid.

“If I can come back with my kids (and) he cannot do anything to me and my children? That’s what I want.”

Posted in Local on Saturday, November 28, 2009 11:45 pm Updated: 10:10 pm. | Tags: Hee Son, Sons Taken, South Korea,Lorena Reynolds,

just some of this and that

2009-11-23T23:28:00.000-08:00

Crystal has been craving the Senegalese food, so she whipped up a batch of Cebbu Yepp (rice with meat). We didn't quite have the right spices, turns out maggie cubes are slighly different than beef bullion cubes, but in the end, not bad for a toubab.

An American version of Cebbu Yepp, our favorite Senegalese dish.

Keeping the rope organized is really important, it keeps you from getting kinks and thus getting the whiplash. Ouch!

Scotty cleaning a route. This spot was beautiful and so secluded from the rest of the climbers.

It doesn't get any more hippy than this. Dany, this is for you.

Scotty setting the route so we can climb safely. It's so romantic.

Soaking up the last minutes of sun and Smith Rock at an absolutely fabulous climbing trip.

Taking a moment to relax at the Zonta Auction. The theme was "elegant cowboy"--one of the great things about Crystal's job is that she gets to visit other organization's fund raising events. A couple weekends ago we werent to the Zonta Auction fundraiser (an orgazniation for the eduacation and advancment of women.

Cooking up some great, healthy, hippy food: TVP burgers on a portabella bun with sweet potatoe fries, mmmmm.

Enjoying Casey at the Wow Hall. We're your biggest fans.

Cooking Light Magazine for $0.43 a month.

2009-11-13T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Found this deal from another cite. Amazon is selling one year subscription to Cooking Light Mag. for $5, deal good through Sat. Nov 14th at midnight.

Check it out here.

Maybe a good Christmas gift?

Do you have midget feet?

2009-11-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

Do you have midget feet? Say size 6 AND have a pair of cowboy boots I can borrow tomorrow night?

The perfect weekend.

2009-11-07T18:47:00.001-08:00

We have been waiting for 15 months to go climbing, and this weekend, was OUR weekend. We arrived at our beloved Smith Rock and were a little nervous because, seriously, we hadn't climbed for over a year. And it's not for lack of trying, we DID pack our climbing gear with us on the off chance that there would be climbing in Senegal. The closest we found was AcroBoubab, a local place to do high ropes course in Boubab trees.

A HUGE shout out thanks to Brea for letting us stay at her place, it's like a resort, we LOVE IT!!!

All smiles because we haven't climbed yet for the day...just wait.

Really? You want me to climb UP that thing?

This place is AMAZING!!!

Crystal, prepping to go up a brand new climb for her.

Ending a perfect day, by cheering on the Beavers at a local sports bar.

Smith Rock baby!

2009-11-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

For the first time in over a year, we are headed out to Smith Rock. It will be our first (and likely last) climb of the season (due to the fact that our Senegalese blood can't handle the cold that well).

I cannot describe how excited I am for this.

Also, for the first time in-I-don't-know-how-many-years, we will be climbing just to climb, not to lead a group or share an experience with newbies...just to climb. Joei is staying the weekend with her boyfriend, Sampon, (thanks Casey and Lauren), so we have no responsibilities...not that a dog is a huge one.

It's just going to be us and the rock and few other crazy climbers.

Man, I LOVE Oregon!!!

Yet another reason to be an REI member

2009-10-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

One of my new favorite websites:http://www.frugallivingnw.com/ had this to post. It's a full on copy, so all credit is due to the above website.

photo by pepe.dino

REI is offering one free ski or snowboard hot wax to REI members. Just bring your board or skis in to an REI near you now through November 15th so you'll be ready to carve those slopes!

Who dunnit?

2009-10-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

These pictures are blatantly stolen from Denny and Abby, so this post is more for the non-Dox crew who have no idea who Denny and Abby are. (Thanks for the pics guys).

We were invited to one of those mystery dinner things. It was awesome, we got to dress up in costumes, which I will get to later, and eat great food while trying to figure out which one of us killed a fictional character.

This is us sitting around the table trying to figure stuff out. We each only had a little bit of information so it really was confusing to try and figure stuff out since the actually killer didn't even know it until the big reveal at the end of the evening.

Scotty's goofy, but that's why I love him.

Well, Denny and Abby are goofy too. Abby was "Scoop" a reporter, Denny was "Harrow" a DA (District Attorney).

By the end of the evening, we all got a little crazy, but it's okay, we are all married. Scotty was "Billy the Kid Thrower" a star pitcher for the Kings Baseball team. Crystal was "Torchy" a jazz singer.

The whole crew. BTW, the scene was set in old Chicago.

Jaimie was "Silky" a "brothel" owner, but don't say that to her face, and Ryan was "Eddie" a slick dealing golfer guy.

Tom was "Ernie" a millionaire gambler, and Sam was "Molly" an up-town, well to do girl from NY.

And that's all. Buh-bye!

my new favorite site

2009-10-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

for those of you interested in being socially, environmentally, etc responsible, I have a site for you to check out:

Better World Shopper:
http://betterworldshopper.com/rankings.html

This give you a quick list of best companies for consumable products. If you want your daily dollar to make a difference check these guys out.

The homepage tells you how they priorities their causes to get the companies they did.

I challenge us all to try and stay in the A/B grade range!

For all you iPhone peeps out there, you can get:

the electronic book version on your phone for quick and easy all the time access for $8. Get it through Kindle via Amazon.
or the app for $2, search for "Better World Shopper". I have it, I dare you to.

Here's a sample of stuff we probably all use:

Yay for local credit unions.

We should probably just give up fast food all together for SO MANY obvious reasons.

Dang, looks like I have to revamp my future clothing purchases. Bummer.

it's a dog's life

2009-10-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Crystal took Joei to the local water park which opened up it's doors to only dogs.

It was amazing. All these dogs just loving all the water and toys. Needless to say they closed the water slide.

Joei did more drinking of the water than swimming in it.

But eventually, she did brave the water.

And when she did she was so proud "Hey, look at me!!!"

There were a ton of dogs there and Joei did a great job of coming and healing and obeying. And a fair amount of just running wild...what? she's a good dog, she deserves to cut loose a little.

I guess a lot has happened in 2 weeks.

2009-09-30T23:34:00.001-07:00

So it turns out I had more time to blog in Senega, than I do in America...odd.

Sorry for being super lame and not keeping up, BUT here's what's been going on in the last 2 weeks.

Joei!!! Need I say more? I LOVE this dog, I have MISSED this dog, she is the best dog in the world.

And, THIS is what she thinks about us, clearly we are more devoted to her than she is to us.

Crystal got a job. Started on Tuesday, she is the Development Director for CARDV (Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence). We are VERY excited about this.

Emma had another birthday!!! This time she's 2!

So we had a little party...

...which was VERY grown up with fancy fondue and such.

Emma didn't understand that it was a fancy party so she stood on her seat the whole time.

And THIS is how Emma dressed for the occasion. What? She's 2, she can do what she wants.

Happy, happy lady!!!

We also went to a couple of Beaver games. One sad, one happy.

Crystal played a show with Casey.

Casey liked the crowd.

The crowd liked Casey back.

It's good to be back singing again.

Herma came for a visit and rocked our world (more of that once I get Herma to send us pictures).

We've spent time with our long lost friends. So good just to chill.

Went to visit Crystal's brother's place that he is developing. Joei thought it was cool.

Brother on the back hoe.

Aww, we just like each other.

Ate some awesome food at a hole-in-the-wall place in Brownsville.

Caught a few sunsets.

In a nut shell, that's been our world.

What have YOU been doing?

Lake Tapps--Day Three

2009-09-19T22:38:00.001-07:00

Well, the camera spent most of today in a bag full of rice to try and draw the moisture OUT of the camera. The bad news: not a lot of pictures from today. The good news: we think the camera is working now. Needless to say, we aren't taking it into the water until we get it checked out, but a normal camera is better than no camera.

Crystal doing a little "work" posting pictures on the web and checking the all important TV schedule so we can watch the premier of The Office.

The weather has been holding out beautifully, so the boys decided to go golfing at one of the 10 clubs near the lake.

The Kelley brothers on their golfing outing...aren't they cute.

Scotty won the golf, he had the high score. Go Baby!!!

Part of the fun of family time is that each night a different couple makes dinner. Last night was out turn and we make everyone a Senegalese dish--Domada, which is fried fish meat balls, served in a tomato base sauce with cooked veggies over a bed of white rice. We served it traditional style with a communal plate.

Lake Tapps--Day Two

2009-09-18T09:30:00.001-07:00

The weather has held out beautifully for us here at Lake Tapps. Yesterday was a full day of sun. We started the day out with a wonderful breakfast on the veranda.

Jenna was bonding with new baby niece, Ellie.

This is the view from the house. I love the boys playing frisbee on the lawn.

Pete and Emma have new tricks: they are cheerleaders now.

Cousins on the trampoline.

Crystal with Shamu.

Our castle for the weekend. LOVELY.

Sisters on the floating trampoline: Tiny Asian and Tiny Hippy.

Scotty and Crystal went out on the lake early before there were a lot of waves. The lake was super glassy, nice!!

There are few things you need in life: a jet ski is one of them. Some of our earliest memories together before we dated were on a jet ski in the Tadmor days. Being on a jet ski for the first time in over a year was outstanding.

More sister time reading: Tiny Asian and Baby Mama.

Emma with trampoline static hair: the latest fall fashion.

Jenna and Seth on the big boat.

Emma and Jenn on the big boat. Emma even went with Pete on the tube behind the boat, but the waterproof camera apparently has a leak because none of the pictures worked.

Our fearless captain: Phil.

Pete is our lookout on the front of the boat.

And THIS is the point in the day when the camera broke. Hopefully, all it needs is a good air dry. Aparently, when they said "waterproof" camera they didn't take into account a year in Africa.

More soon.

Family Vacay at Lake Tapps--Day One

2009-09-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

We are off on our Kelley Family Vacation 2009 at Lake Tapps. This is the 3rd (?) year that we have been at this wonderful lake house right on Lake Tapps. We are so excited to spend time with family and hopefully catch some sun.

Scotty has been LOVING driving in the states, so much that he hasn't let me drive when we are both in the car. I'll let him win this one, he's so cute.

We have been drinking A LOT of water since returning from Senegal. We got matching water bottles and they were cuddling for the drive.

Driving through PDX for the first time in a year, man it looks different than Dakar.

Trying so hard to wish the sun into making an appearance.

The Bad

Emma and Jenna trying to watch a movie. Emma got bored.

Jenn, cooking and being a model all at the same time.

Pete and Jenn making us a LOVELY meal, thanks guys!

That's all for day one...more to come.

One week in America

2009-09-14T13:29:00.001-07:00

Well, we have been back in the US for just over a week now AND we have a new charger for our camera.

Here's what we have been up to:

Scotty at the Dakar airport getting ready to leave Senegal.

Getting picked up from the airport, pictured with Crystal's sister and nieces.

Driving for the first time in a year.

Tailgaiting at the first home Beaver game.

Meeting our newest neice.

Sister camping at the Oregon beach.

Spending lots of quality time with the dogs.

oh yeah!!!

2009-09-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

So as you may have guessed, we made it safely to Oregon and have been running since.

We somehow lost our camera battery charger somewhere between Malika and Oregon, so no photos until we get a new one.

We have spent a lot of time with friends and family and have been overwhelmed with just how much we have to catch up on from the last year.

We still have lots of people to see, so it's going to be a super busy upcoming few weeks, but we are thrilled to be home.

More soon, sorry for the delay in posts.

Love you guys!!!

The best layover EVER!

2009-09-04T06:28:00.001-07:00

On our way home we had a 4 hour layover in Chicago. Normally, I am not a big fan of layovers unless they are SUPER long so I can get out and explore the city and, let's be honest, 4 hours is just not enough time.

We however have an incredibly flexible, spontaneous and fun family, so when we emailed Peter and Suzanne last week and told them we had some time and did they want to grab a bite to eat, they were ALL OVER IT!!!

They met us in baggage claim and took us to one of their favorite little places that had the best sandwich according to Scotty and a pretty dang good soup and salad deal too.

It was the shortest visit in the history of time, but it was a much appreciated respite from the grind of international travel. Thanks guys we owe you one.

We have since arrived in Oregon, eaten Mexican food, crashed hard and are now wide awake since 4:30am thanks to good ol' jet lag.

Today is going to be a full and great day.

Today we get to:

see more family and friends
BBQ with said family and friends
see our dog, Joei, for the first time in a year
unpack and see if anything got broken/confiscated
take a HOT shower
get Scotty some much needed new pants (one pair of pants + one year in Africa=?)
eat some more food that we have been craving for a year
rummage through our storage boxes to try and find some warmer clothes, it's FREEZING!!!
find lost battery charger for camera so we can document everything above...well, maybe not EVERYTHING!!!

America, here we come!!!

2009-09-02T12:29:00.001-07:00

We are headed out the door to Dakar to catch some dinner...

...oh, yeah, and a flight back to America.

See you guys in 28 hours!

Love,

Crys and Escuddy

Last night in Malika

2009-09-01T01:13:00.000-07:00

So, three of the four suitcases are packed

many good byes have already been said

and tonight will be the last night we sleep in Malika

5pm Oregon time (Wed) we get on a plane and start our 24 hour journey back to the States.

We can't believe this year is already coming to a close.

Soon we will be eating pizza and speaking English like maniacs.

Come check us out at the Welcome Home BBQ our family is having for us on Fri, Sept 4th at the Kelley house in Philomath. Bring your own, meat, drinks and side to share. We will probably start the Q at 5:30ish and go til we can't go anymore (which will mean early because we will still be on Senegal time--7 hours ahead). Let us know if you need directions or more info.

romance on the rooftop

2009-08-28T04:13:00.001-07:00

Last night was a particularly wonderful sunset. As our tradition, we try to soak up as many sunsets together on the roof.

Naturally, malaria carrying moquitos make for an especially exciting time--here Scotty is trying to set up ou chairs as the romance of the mosquito repelant incents coils wafts over him.

We were shortly joined on the roof by Herma. Our roof is a wonderful place for her to get away from prying eyes and needy neighbors, even if it's just for a few moments.

"Proast", this may be one of our last evenings together, just the three of us.

That is, until Herma comes to Oregon.

A little friend

2009-08-27T09:45:00.001-07:00

We have a little friend living under the roof of our rooftop hut. He's not super big, but he sure is cute!!!

AND for your viewing pleaure just some good old fashioned rain. It may not seem like much but it sure does make us miss home. Imagine rain in Oregon, but WAY warmer, ahhh!!!!

New products for the monkeys.

2009-08-25T04:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the help of friends back at Doxology, we have been working on new products for the Malika Monkeys...t-shirts.

Here is an upclose of the Malika Monkey's logo in Senegalese flag design. We also are working on just black and on other items: hoodies, pants, etc).

Thanks guys.

My favorite little man.

2009-08-23T05:45:00.001-07:00

What started as a joke, to buy a monkey in a remote village and make it a pet, has turned into a significant part of our lives here in Senegal.

Chaco is by far my favorite little man (weighing in at under 10 lbs). We moved him into his new home last week and I have to be honest, I will be sad to say goodbye to this little man.

Though he is still VERY wild, he is also very social and loves to just hang out.

He loves to try and steal stuff...

... especially stuff from INSIDE your pants as he was caught in the act here

He is trying to master the art of sophistication by working on his table manners...it's slow going.

He is super playful.

And loves to help Scotty out with odd jobs around the "house".

Speaking of his "house" he has a new swimming pool, which doubles as a drinking fountain.

Cocktails and a shadow show in German lady's home in Senegal...normal?

2009-08-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have met Barbara, I have another one for you. A few weeks ago we were sent formal paper invitations to have cocktails at her house with a special presentation. Barbara LOVES nice things, so we took the hint from the invite and all got dressed up, the best we could, and arrived fashionably late (something Barbara does not appreciate).

The adults were directed to use the back entrance to the house, while the young Bode girls were taken with Barbara through the front entrance. For the week prior Barbara and the Bode girls had been rehersing for the night's performance.

We sat in Barbara's living room and were passed a tray of beverages from underneath a sheet separating the living room from the dining room. This sheet served as the focal point of our evenings entertainment which featured shadows of fish, birds and trees projected onto the screen. This was accompanied by some very festive classical music played on a tape player, which inevitably malfunctioned and was beaten back into submission by Barbara's helper.

After the shadow show there was scarf dancing of which we did snowball style, meaning slowly each member of the audience was beckoned to the dance floor and given a silk scarf to dance with.

Somehow the boys managed to evade inclusion.

As a gift, Barbara let the girls keep their silk scarfs of which they promptly turned into wraps.

Just another day in Malika. Man, America is going to seem boring after this!!!

Belated farewells

2009-08-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple weeks now since we had to say our farewells to the Bode family. It was bitter/sweet. Bitter for us because we will miss them. Sweet for them because they get to go back to life as "normal". We miss them a lot already and are thankful that we have been a part of this family for a season.

We all went out to dinner on the way to the airport to say "bye for now".

Herma gave the girls gifts for the plane.

Blurry but still cute little Neve and Crys.

Crys is going to miss her "little sisters"

The ever faithful and awesome Djibi.

I don't know why Scotty never smiles...

...unless he's with THIS guy!

Miss you guys. Can't wait to see you in snowy Colorado!!!

Moving day for Chaco.

2009-08-19T03:55:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our move back to Oregon we got Chaco all situated in his new home outside. It's nearly twice the square footage of his old house. We think he will be very happy here.

Mr. and Mrs. Kelley

2009-08-16T09:58:00.001-07:00

Celebrating 6 years of being Mr. and Mrs. Kelley.

And to think it all started in a little place called Tadmor.

Everyone pictched in, even Baby Casey and Baby Tom.

The ladies...

...and the gents.

We were ahead of our time regarding modern wedding fashion.

It's "baby" Casey!!!

We did it!!!

Cutting the cake (that Chef Whitney made, BTW).

And who could forget the dancing. I tried to find the video but I must have left it in America (silly me). You can just ask Casey or Jim (depending on where you are in the world) to reinact it for you.

Now there's a handsome group of boys. I guess by now they are men, eh? Funny that Winklepleck walked away with the garter. I don't even see him in the pile.

An awesome Tadmor sunset, perfect for our day.

Leaving in style (?)

Where am I?

2009-08-14T05:59:00.001-07:00

One of the many things that is different here is the driving. You woud think driving 25 km (approx. 16 miles) should reasonably only take 30 minutes and definitely under an hour.

But, this is Senegal...this drive takes us anywhere from 1 1/2 on REALLY dead days up to 3+ hours on really sad bad days.

Senegal, however, has been given some money to put in a new autoroute and we are REALLY excited about it. They have been working on it since before we came here and just this week we got to drive on it for the first time. It was amazing, it reminded us of I-5, for a moment there I thought I was back in the states. It's going to make communting so much better for so many people.

Just for comparison:

Before

After

Another baby!

2009-08-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

A friend of ours through the shop, Maryama, had a baby girl about a month ago. We were able to visit them both last week.

Sweet baby girl sleeping. Check out her earings...she has double peirced ears with a twine like material. Amazing.

There is nothing like holding a sleeping baby. In many of the smaller villages like Malika, many babies and young children are quite frightened of white people simply because they don't see many. It's wonderful to be with a new young baby who does not have any of these fears because they haven't yet noticed skin tone.

Maryama's home that she shares with many family members.

This is a pretty typical home in our village.

Just for fun.

2009-08-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

I know this is totally off Senegal topic, but I just discovered this Coldplay video that totally made me think of Jake, take a look, I think it's worth your time.

The wedding of the century.

2009-08-08T05:07:00.001-07:00

We had the amazing honor to be part of the most amazing and surprising wedding celebration I have ever been to. A good friend of Fiona and Carrie's got married last week and we were asked to participate in the wedding by driving the bride from her village to her new home. This is actually a part of the ceremony, so it's more special than it sounds to us westerners.

Wanting to honor our friend, Boubou, we all got dressed up in our finest Senegalese clothes and headed the 5 hours south to Keur Soce where the part of the wedding celebration was to take place (weddings last several days here).

Once in Keur Soce we all went to the salon where the bride, Ami, was getting her hair and make up done for the wedding. Appearance is VERY important here and the Senegalese have their own sense of style.

Here the bride has elaborate braids in her hair and the stylist put lines of gold nail polish like stuff decoratively in her hair. Her eyebrows were nearly completely shaved off with a straight razor (please be careful) and then penciled back in with a purple-y burgandy. Shimmery metalic eyeshadow was applied and lipstick matching her eyebrows was the finishing touch.

Another tradition is to decorate the hands and feet with henna.

Once all the hair, make up and clothing was perfectly in place, we ceremonially drove the bride back to her father's house where the wedding was to take place. Interestingly enough, the groom is not present at this part of the wedding, rather he waits for his bride back at their home (which on a side note, is shared with 20 other family members). If Ami looks mad in these pictures it's because she hasn't slept in days getting all the preparations ready for the wedding. The lack of sleep is probably the only similarity between this wedding and western weddings.

Well, that's not entirely true, there were presents and (you ready for this Jim and Casey *wink*) DANCING. The Senegalese dancing is unlike anything I have ever seen before. It more resembles running in place with high knees pointed out to the side and the occasional kick or stomp. Fiona, Carrie and Crystal all danced, Scotty was hiding with the other 10 men that were present.

After the dancing, there was the ceremonial bath by the women in the community. After that Ami got changed into another outfit and then was blessed by the Emum, the Muslim leader of the community. She wore a sheet over her head to keep her safe from evil spirits. She wore this on her head the entire drive back to Dakar.

Just for some timeline:

-we left Dakar at 10 am

-we arrived in Keur Soce at 3pm

-we ate dinner at 9pm

-we packed up Ami and all her belongings and headed to Dakar at 1am (the bride has to be transported during the night to keep the evil spirits from finding her)

-then we arrived in Dakar at 5am

We were greeting with about 20 women sitting outside Boubou's house banging on pots and pans and drums and singing. Again, this is all ceremonial. Then they teasinly, negociated the bride price (it had previously be negociated and paid), then once they came to an agreement Ami had to get transfered from the car to the house, but she cannot touch the ground. So a strong young man ceremonially puts her on his back (like a piggy back ride), she is still covered in her sheet and he has to ram through 20 women ceremonially baracading the door.

Now when I say ceremonially that brings to mind images that the women are just being playful, but this was not the case. These women were taking their jobs seriously and the man had to get up some speed and really ram hard to get through the wall of women. It really looked like Ami was going to be knocked off his back and onto the ground. Thankfully, she was not.

We then unloaded the truck of all the gifts and belongings and then went to our friends house in Dakar where we were all crashing for the night, we arrived "home" at 6am and proceeded to crash hard.

The party got started the next day at 8am, needless to say, we were all still sleeping. We desided tobe fashionally late and showed up at 7pm. Notice how we are all wearing the same thing but Ami is in yet another outfit.

We all sat in lawn chairs in the dirt street out front of Boubou's house under a large tent. It is not a problem that we were completely blocking the street of all traffic, this is a normal occurance. We were served an amazing meal, that is called "Salad", it's goat meat with cooked wedged potatoes in an onion sause with lettuse on the outside and served with bread, so tasty.

We were the only toubaubs at the party and we were a hit, the kids especially love to yell out "toubaub" and poke at our weird skin and hair. These guys all live in Boubou's house (part of the 22 residence) and they were sweeties.

Another part of the ceremony is to have a singer at your wedding. Now this is not your western wedding singer doing Sting covers, this lady was serious with her megaphone and everything. The guests are expected to pay the singer a little bit, which is actually nice because I imagine it helps the couple pay for part of a very expensive event.

The party goes on into the night. However, after such an exhausting day before we excused ourselves to find comfort in some ice cream from our favorite ice cream shop "Nice Cream". After a crazy 2 days these feet were ready for a break.

pictures from anniversary getaway

2009-08-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

We had a double anniversary getaway with Dany and Nadine as we share the same wedding anniversary (8/16). And just to make it fun we brought their kids AND Herma. We went to a beautiful hotel on the beach and had a wonderful time, here are some pictures from the trip:

Sitting by the beach, just taking in the view.

View of the ocean from the pool bar.

The patio to our room, which was pool side.

The view from our patio, see the pool?

This is the view when you come down the stair entrance of the hotel.

Our room, complete with AC and THE BEST shower hands down. The water pressure and heat on this thing was AMAZING! Our first hot shower in over 6 months.
We ate our meals between the pool and the ocean. It was beautiful with all the ethnic table clothes and shiny glasses. We wore our swim suits all day, everyday. Scotty even shaved for the occasion...fancy.
The hotel had two pools, this it he pool by the bar, the other pool is opposite it and next to the restaurant.
Getting ready to soak up some sun and then once we got hot, run into the ocean and body surf the waves.
Coke *wink* by the pool. The weather was perfect, warm but not so hot that you sweat like crazy.
Bikini smilie face on my towell.Jenna, this is for you...the food. This is Yassa with Jenn (Onion sauce with fish).
This is a french cream puff, kind of like those cream puffs from Costco (Jenn, I was thinking of you).
Breakfast by the ocean. Clean white china never looked so good.
Nadine with Gabrielle (can you tell which one is the mom?)
Crystal and Nev.
The stairs entrance/exit of the hotel, so sad to leave.
K, it's official, we have to leave now, we just paid the bill, so sad.
After all the beauty in the hotel, it' s nice to get slapped back into reality by the meat market just outside the hotel.
Road trip music, thanks Casey.
Road tripping back to Malika (only an 1 1/2 drive) and so thankful that we got to just be passengers.

Anniversary getaway

2009-07-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Turns out we share the same anniversary as Dany and Nadine, (Aug. 16th), BUT since they are leaving Senegal before then we are all going away tomorrow to celebrate for a few days.

Rumor has it the hotel we are staying at as A/C and a pool less than 100 yards from the ocean. As the boys would say "boo nice"!

We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend away to celebrate 6 years of wedded bliss.

Last year we enjoyed having a big party with all our friends and family to celebrate. This will be a nice contrast to just get away from everything and be on vacation.

We'll post pictures when we can.

Girls weekend

2009-07-23T04:48:00.000-07:00

I (Crystal) had a wonderful girls weekend with my good friend Esther in Dakar. We ate Western food, went on a run, went shopping (not your mall shopping so dont' get too excited). The one thing we did that I took pictures of was a walk on the beach. I felt so homesick because it felt so much like the Oregon coast.
Oregon or Senegal? Hard to tell, eh?
Despite being a "girls weekend" we also spent some time with the boys too (Esther's husband)
(And son).
Where we were walking was sand stone that had broken off the cliff above. I'll be honest, a little scarey, please don't fall on my head.
The sand stone had some really cool patterns in it.

It was really cool to see how the waves had erroded the stone.

I managed to capture a little wave, which inevitably got me soaked, but it was worth it.

fishing

2009-07-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

I (Scotty) went deep sea fishing last week. It was a little different than the comercial deep sea fishing trips in the states. It started with a bunch of the guys from the shop pushing me and Dany directly into the waves while Dany tried to cold start the little outboard. It fired up pretty quick, and we were away.

The boys love the camera, but you can kinda see the size of the boat behind them. We went about 14 kilometers out, trolled around a bit, and came back. It was about a six hour trip overall.

I was pretty happy and excited to be out there until I started puking off the side of the boat. Then I was sad for a few minutes until we saw some dolphins jumping and a bunch of flying fish, which made me happy. Then I started puking again. Overall it was a good trip.

Dany was loving every second of it, even though we didn't catch any fish. After a full day of fishing we headed back to the beach where all the boy met us. They pulled us back up onto the shore. I am pretty sure the main reason they came was to give them an excuse to overfill the truck so they had no options but to hang off the sides for the drive home.

Their open mouth smiles and hoots of joy reminded me of the "Orange Mocha Frapacino" scene in Zoolander. For the first time in my life, I wished Crystal had Wham! on her Ipod.

day at the beach

2009-07-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we enjoyed some leisurely time at the beach with the Bode clan. Scotty was sick in bed back in Malika--he is feeling better now. One of the kids had surfing lessons, doesn't she look just so Roxy here?

Here the instructor (a friend though the Malika Monkeys) and our "little sister" are going back out to catch more waves.

The rest of us played in the waves, some even had mercy on poor Micah (the dog) and played tug-o-war.

katie?

2009-07-11T09:08:00.001-07:00

Why didn't you tell us?

Sell, sell, sell.

2009-07-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

One of the many things we do here is sell the boys products for them at local events. One of our favorites is the school called BCS. Twice a year we head out there (about 1 1/2 drive) for their play and sales expo. They play is always entertaining, the parents and kids are super cool, the food is great and there is always interesting stuff to look at.

Here we are waiting for the play to get out so we can sell. It's getting hotl, so we were trying to get some shade form this little hybiscus bush. The building behind us is the auditorium where they have their plays.

We didn't bring a table, so we used some stones and flowerbed to showcase our goods. The building behind in this picture is the cafeteria. Many of the students here (equivalent of a K-12 system? It's a UK system so I'm not really sure) live on the grounds in dorms. The end of the year play is always a big deal because many of the students are going to their host/home country for furlow and may not see their buddies again. The life of a missionary kid, always uncertain and changing.

Rain!

2009-07-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

So happy to experience some rain the other day. Actually makes us more homesick. Apparently, we are Oregonians through and through. Who knew?

It's hard being small.

2009-07-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

The excitement never ends here in Malika. You remember Suuf? The little dog that sleeps in our house at night? Why, you might be wondering, does she sleep in our house at night? Well, that is because Herma has 1 male dog and 2 female dogs...you see where this is going? One one female dog is allowed lose at a time, otherwise they try to kill each other. Just another apparent indicator that monogomy is a good thing.

While Scotty had one dog, collar in hand, she lunged at poor little Suff, catching her leg in her mouth. Suuf would clearly not survive in the wild because she immediatly rolled over and exposed her neck to the attacking dog, which naturally went for her neck and chest area.

Scotty pulled the bad dog off the small dog but the small dog was still in the clentches of the bad dog, so when one came up so did the other. Scotty was able to get the bad dog off, but Suff sustained some pretty serious injuries.

At this point in the post if you are swimish you need to STOP READING, IT GET'S GRAPHIC AFTER THIS. A quick recap is Scotty played Dr. and Suff is healing nicely.

Now, for those of you who are brave.....

Here is Scotty playing Dr. Suff had 3 serious wounds, two of which you could see the tissue underneath.

It was actually a good thing that we could see so clearly the wounds because it allowed Scotty to determine if any lungs or other vital organs were punctured. Praise the Lord, they were not. Scotty shaved the area, irrigated it, applied antibotics and a butterfly bandage..Suuf is good as new..well almost.

She is healing well, She is now eating, drinking and walking so, Scotty must be a good Dr....for dogs that is.

Don't you wish you were here?

4th of July (au Senegalese)

2009-07-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

4th of the July went off beautifully this year. The weather was perfect, so we spent much of our time by the pool listening to Bob Marley and 80's mixes.

Since this is an American holiday, we took the liberty of kicking Herma out of the kitchen.

Scotty made the ever famous beer can chickens. Aren't they cute? Sitting there having a little headless conversation?

Crystal and the girls were on decoration detail, which started out good but later ended in some watery catastrophies.

Men, doing what men do best..."watch" the grill.

More decorations.

And finally, two beautiful chickens.

Due to the lighting/decoration failure (several hanging tea lights landing unexpectedly in the pool when their strand broke), we desided to eat indoors and not fight the mosquitos for our food (and bodies).

The candles burned on into the night (you can see two strands here, the others landed IN the pool). It was very romatic as Herma likes to say. No fireworks this year, but overall a great time spend with our Senegalese family.

Dread wax au' Senegalese

2009-06-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

So, I ran out of dread wax and my hair is in DIRE need of conditioning, so I asked Modoo what he uses for his dreads and he bought me some karite (aka shea butter). It is raw so had to be "processed" for use and being a toubob I had no clue how to do this...

...enter Djibi. This guy is a mad man, he can do anything, case in point he taught me how to process my karite for my hair.

First you take the hunk of karite, or shea butter, that you got from the market for 500 cfa ($1USD) and melt it. This is really important because it STINKS. It's better if you do this in your outdoor kitchen (because Oregon is full of these, right?).

You want to heat it until all the bubbles disapear, like the little brown spot in the middle of the pan.

Once it's all clear, you pour it into a heat safe container. Note: old pickle jars and the such don't work for this. However and old instant coffee can, such as Nescafe, works great (Fiona, that's for you). Then you let it sit, or put it in the fridge if you are in a hurry and you have soft and creamy shea butter.

some random things

2009-06-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of random stuff that has been happening lately:

It rained!!!! For all of 2 minutes, we are really looking forward to some real rain. Djibi thought we were a bit crazy to be out in it, not sure how he would last in Oregon?!?!?

We had a group of elementary school kids camp in our front "yard". I say yard because ther is no grass. It was great it looked like a little tent village.

We made some new friends, this is our friend who is from the Ukrane but living out in the bush probably 15 k from us. She is all dressed up as a waye fall, which is the female version of the m'baye fall here in Senegal. Check out the little guys Cons, eh?

They LOVE Obama here, he even has his own hair salon.

And when the day is all over, this is our little oasis up on our roof. With the rains coming we needed a nice place 1) in the shade and 2) protected from the rain. LOVE IT!!!

Another Gente (baby naming/baptism)

2009-06-25T04:41:00.000-07:00

One of the Malika Monkey's just had their 2nd baby, which means, another gente. This is the first gente that Scotty has been to because it's the first of his friends (versus Herma's friends) that had the baby. So, we all packed up in Herma's truck and drove into the middle of no where for the party. We had 6 in the cab and at least 6 in the back of the truck, a regular parade of toubobs driving through the Senegal sand.

Once there, we were treated with high honor, we got to hang out in one of the residence rooms (most of the other guests were sitting/laying on mats under trees in the courtyard). Here Crystal is with Nia (friend/cook/housekeeper). This is the first time Crystal has been able to wear her outfit in public, not bad for a toubob.

Here is the new litle guy, we didn't catch his name. He is a he though, we caught that much. Boys are very prestigious in this culture.

He is only 8 days old, and super small, he slept the whole time.

After hanging out with the new baby and his parents, they insisted that we eat. They brought us some amazing Cebbu Yepp (rice and lamb). It was really tasty, but we had all just eaten right before we came, so the boys did what boys do best and were team players.

After eating, we had to get some air. The weather has turned really humid and there is NO breeze to speak of inside the brick homes. Lucky for us, the boys had already staked claim to the perfect tree with a perfect breeze. Here is the motley crew of the Malika Monkeys.

Ending the trip, we just had to get our picture by this amazing Baobab tree. This is a medium sized one and it already miniaturizes us. This is by far our favorite tree in Senegal.

Date Night!

2009-06-24T03:22:00.000-07:00

We have been pumped to have Dany and Nadine here for the summer. Case in point, we went on our first double date in a year.

We went to one of our favorite places: Indiana which has amazing Indian food. We all ordered one dish and shared it, this was Crystal's Prawn Ginger.

Us all dressed up for the hot date, love you babe.

Surf Competition

2009-06-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

We went to a surf competition last week here at our Malika beach. It was surprizingly nice and low key. It was great to get out and be more like beach bums. There was a great little restaurant on the beach and little umbrellas stuck in the sand.

When we arrived there were little kids surfing, so I didn't get any good action shots, but here is a cool wave, hope that makes up for it.

Dany and the boys just hanging on the beach watching the surfers.

The boys riding home "a-Senegalese" style, because let's face it, it's more fun this way.

Lac Rose "The Pink Lake"

2009-06-17T02:39:00.000-07:00

One of the many things we have wanted to do and just finally got around to doing is going swimming in Lac Rose, Senegal's answer to the Dead Sea. It's a pretty cool place, you can see the salt harvesters from the swimming hole, which has full restraunts so you can eat and relax, super nice. It even has a fresh water spring that you can rince the salt off with.

Crystal floating efforlessly in Lac Rose.

We were lucky to go on a day where there were no tourists, just us, so nice. The water felt slimey and was thick like watered down syrup and HOT. I guess with all the salt and minerals it retains the heat? But it was AMAZING how easy it was to float and how hard it was to put your feet down under you.

Scotty putting on the vibe.

The crew getting cold drinks to cool off from the hot day. The one's on the left are Herma's grandkids and their mom, they are staying here for the summer and we are SO happy they are here.

gilem aka "camels"

2009-06-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

We had the wonderful experience of riding camels to the beach and back. It was a very touristy thing to do, but so worth it. Here is the crew at the beach with the camel entourage.

Scotty's camel was smiling. but some of the camels were a little grumpy about getting up and going. They had interesting methods of keeping tabs on the camels, most of them had a "leash" going through their nose. They were quick to respond when someone tugged on the leash. You can kind of see the green leash going throug the camel's nose here.

The seats for the camels were super old looking, but surprizingly comfortable. We walked and trotted with the camels.

A little video for those of you who want to live vicariously.

Happy Birthday Escuddy!!

2009-06-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Baby. (These are handmade cards from Dany's girls, so sweet!)

Sorry guys, I have been trying to post this for 3 days. So, Scotty's birthday was a 2-fold party here in Senegal. First, we had the shop party which consisted of me learning how to make Scotty's favorite Senegalese dish: Cebbu Yepp (rice and meat), see doesn't Scotty look excited for his meal?

Then, at lunch we did a little song, made a lot of noise and drank some Africa Cola and Africa Orange (soda).

Djibi made a cake, you can't see it from the picture, but it had a "Merry Christmas" plastic decoration on it, a deer, candles and a giant paper "S". Cake decorations Senegalese style.

Nice one baby!

Part 2 of the birthday celebration was a dinner with some of Scotty's favorites:

huge shrimps

sushi

and mango (couldn't find any peaches) cobbler.

ah man!!!

2009-06-09T12:59:00.001-07:00

So the worst thing for anyone with dreads has happened...I got the lice. Not surprizing considering where we are, eh? But still a bummer.

I have researched this thoroughly and am in the first phase of my Senegalese treatment. Believe it or not, they have lice shampoo here, apparently it's really common.

So I shampoo my head with this stuff, and leave it on for a while, we are sitting at an hour and a half right now, I should probably go wash it off.

That will kill all the live lice, then in 5 days I do it again to kill all the eggs that have hatched, but I have to kill them before they have time to sexually mature and lay more eggs.

No fear though, the baby dreads will NOT, I repeat NOT, be cut off. Silly non-dreaded people on the internet think that's the ONLY way to get rid of lice. So I should be lice free in a week, wish me luck.

THIS might hurt.

2009-06-06T04:59:00.000-07:00

After being in Senegal for 9 months, we finally finished our vaccines. We decided instead of spending upwards of $500 USD each for our vaccines by getting them in the States, we would get them here in Senegal instead. Many organizations offer safe/clean vaccines for reasonable rates. This week we finished the last of our 3 shot series for our Hep A & B.

Scotty braved it like a champ. The doctor who gave us our shots graciously allowed us to take pictures. You can't get a real feel for the clinic, but believe me when I say it's not for the faint of heart.

I was trying to smile but the doctor got me right at a bad moment. I actually had a bruise from this one, a tiny one, but still.

The staff at this clinic are very nice, we had the same guy give us all our shots and he always had this little grin when he helped us, I am sure he thought us toubobs were paranoid getting all the vaccines which included: typhoid, yellow fever, menecochal, tetanous, and Hep A & B.

And we saved over $400 USD EACH...cha ching!

Chuck's visit part 2

2009-06-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Chuck was able to stay for a kids club that is held every Wed evening. He shared the story with the kids, they were very active listeners.

Before kids club we play games with the kids, its the best way to get them to listen to the BIble story. Scotty playing basket ball with the unruly boys.

A cutie playing jump rope.

After games all the kids pile in Herma's house, here is the mountain of shoes outside her front door.

Out and about Malika/Dakar: mattresses anyone?

The Three Kelleys: On Chuck's last day in Senegal we went to the famous Goree Island

Fist things first, when you get on the island, get lunch. Chuck loves taking picutres of his food, this one is fish.

Chuck at the outdoor restraunt where we stopped for lunch before exploring the rest of the island.

Crystala'sl lunch: prawns and calimarie.

Scotty's lunch (a man's lunch): steak and fries

Enjoying a wonderful lunch at a restaurant overlooking the dock at Goree.

A musician seredaded us with a kora, a traditional Senegalese harp-like instrument.

Coffee or espresso? This cup was tiny.

Crystal harrassing the local vendors.

Chuck and Scotty walking through part of the island.

One of the holding cells in the slave house.

We were tired and hot so we stopped by this little bar/restaruant for some cokes.

It's simple and quaint inside, one of my favorite parts...it's quiet and there are no vendors.

Scotty chillin' with Chuck.

The view down the hill, you can see vendors selling their art on either side of the walk.

We left Goree on the ferry at sunset, it was a first for us, it was really nice.

After Goree, we took Chuck to our friends house for a few hours, then we had a nice dinner, at the traditional Senegalese time: 8:30p and then promptly got Chuck to the airport to catch his flight back to civilization. Other than a minor traffic stop, it was a wonderful and uneventful visit.

Chuck's visit part 1

2009-05-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in getting pictures up. I never have time to blog when we have company, then once we got Chuck safely to the airport we both got sick...so, finally, here are some pictures.

Naturally, we had to go to the beach. The weather was nice enough to hold

out cool for Chuck, so that was a blessing.

On our walk down the beach we ran into these guys. They really wanted us to take their picture, which is kind of sad because realistically, we may never get an opportunity to give them a copy, but in any case they were sweet.

Father and Son on the West Coast of Africa.

Chuck took some time to paint the "wild life" while he was here.

The infamous, community bowl for lunch, this is one of our favorites: Cebbu Yepp (rice and meat).

K, that's all for now, more soon.

He made it!!!

2009-05-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Scotty's Dad has been in Senegal for a day and a half! Hurray, he is still alive. Today, we worked in the shop and walked to the beach. We are SO happy that he is here, even though it is only for a few days. More to come, but for the loved ones back at home..."Dad made it safe and sound".

Loves.

cooking lessons

2009-05-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that the food here is AMAZING?! Because I know I am going to want to take all this goodness back home with me, I have started taking "cooking lessons" from Nia. This day was Cebbu Jen (pronounced "chep u junn") or fish and rice.

I should have taken more pictures, but you know how it is? This is us dividing the HUGE amount of food onto 3 large platters for the 20+ people that would be eating lunch.

I LOVE plate style. Imagine having a dinner party and only have to clean a bunch of spoons and 1 plate, so cool.

they grow so fast

2009-05-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hair for Senegalese women is a BIG deal. I have learned in my time here that if you see a Senegalese woman with really nice hair, it's probably a wig.

Case in point: Alison found this wig just laying on the shelf in the bathroom of our friends house. Their housekeeper gets all dressed up for the walk to work, then once at work, gets into her work clothes, and apparently work hair too.

Just for fun, I thought I would put together a little photo timeline of the life of my dreads to date. Just to warn you, some of this is scarey, we are talking BAD hair...enjoy.

Pre-dreads November 2006

Newborns: December 2006

Fluffy Wedding Dreads (Thanks Jenna)

Two weeks old: December 2006

Stringy Pigtail Dreads

2 months old: Feburary 2007

Stringy Ponytail Dreads

5 months old: May 2007

Gross Dreads

6 months old: June 2007

Bun Dreads

7 months old: July 2007

Casual Dreads

9 months old: September 2007

Half-back Hippy Dreads

10 months old: October 2007

Backpacking Pony in a Beanie Dreads

11 months old: November 2007

Half-back "Surprize" Dreads

1 year old: December 2007

Pony Dreads with Visor

Year and a half old: June 2008

Flying Through the Air Dreads

Year and a half old: June 2008

Low Pony Dreads

1 year 7 months old: July 2008

Wedding Anniversary Dreads

1 year and 8 months old: August 2008

French Braided Dreads

1 year 10 months old: October 2008

Princes Leah Dreads

2 years old: December 2008

Casual Dreads

2 years 5 months old:May 2009

poor dog

2009-05-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

One of the disadvantages of living in sand is the problems it produces for animals, specifically skin issues if the animals lay in the sand all day.

One of Herma's dog's is named "Suuf" which means sand or dirt in Wolof. Poor Suuf has major skin issues right now (from laying in said sand). The problems are only made worse when she licks and bites at the sores on her skin so.....

....Herma fashioned two cone collars to prevent Suuf from making the problems worse. This first one (made of a water bottle) worked well but is too short and too abbrasive on Suff's neck.

This second one (made of egg carton) is much more comfortable and functional, though I wonder how long the cardboard will hold up?

Ahh, the joys of inventive living in Malika.

Steep and Cheap is KILLING me!

2009-05-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

Despite being half-way around the world and really not in NEED of any more outdoor gear, I still MUST check the Steep and Cheap listings regularly....

WHY????? Why does S&C have all this super cool gear when I am not in a position to get it?!?!? Why?!?!?

Please, if you need gear check S&C, all items are AT LEAST 50% off retail. They have so much cool GOOD gear (the kind that will make you happy you paid the extra $20 for a REAL tent when you are in an Oregon downpour in the middle of summer).

They have it all:

Arcteryx

Smith

Big Agnes

Camelback

Osprey

Backcountry

Marmot

Man......

I know, I know

2009-05-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been forever since we've posted. We're going to go ahead and blame the computer for that. We got a new TINY computer and within 1 week we already got a virus on it and had to reboot the WHOLE thing, at the same time as when Scotty was rebooting the older computer, so that meant 1) lost pictures and 2) no computer ie. internet access.

But it's all okay now. The Dox boys are working on getting us the pictures we lost back and now BOTH computers are up and running so it's all good.

So, no new pictures from the Dox boys visit, least not for a little while.

What have we been up too? The last couple of weeks have been very busy with visitors. The Dox boys left (so sad) and on the same day Herma's mom and two nieces arrived for a two week visit (they are still here). Also, we have had some visitors from Dakar come just get away for the weekend, so just like that all the rooms in the inn are full and there is lots of hussle and bussle.

The monkeys have been busy getting ready for upcoming sales events. We were invited to display our products at an International Women's Convention, thingy. VERY excited about that. We also have lots of special orders, so things have been busy for us and the monkeys.

More soon.

Dox boys, sand and water: Day 1

2009-04-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay in posts. We have been busy this last week hosting two guys from our home church, Doxology. We spent the first day letting them adjust to the time difference (7 hours ahead of Oregon) and getting them up to speed on the project as well as some of the cultural info we could pass on. Evan and Brad showed up and jumped right into the middle of things.

The project they came to help with was putting in some water pipes in a village where Dox is involved in a water project.

Scotty with the elders of the community where we were putting in the water pipe.

When we arrived we were pleasantly surprized that the village had already dug the trench for the water pipe. Had they not done this there is no way we would have been able to put both pipes in time.

A local shepard moving his cattle. While working on the pipe we regularly had to wait for the cattle to finish drinking so we could turn off the water to cut into the existing water main to add a "T" for the new pipes.

Some of the local kids. They are super sweet and cute and got a big kick out of us tubobs. Check the mohawk on the little guy in the middle...money.

Another view of the elders and the trench. They were really excited about taking ownership of the work needing to be done on the project, which was good and bad...does the expression "too many chiefs..." mean anything to you?

These cuties are shepards in training. They were in charge of about 50 goats. Someday they will move up to the ranks to handle 100+ cows.

Leveling the trench so the water will flow properly. Many of the kids and adults came out to help us with the work.

In the heat of the day we all ducked out of the sun. Here's mohawk baby again with his Mama, and the skinniest horse I have EVER seen. Oh, and yeah, we are sitting on a termite hill, why not?

One of the men of the village offered us his house to sit out of the sun in. It was a huge honor to be invited into their private space. His sons kept us company, the were very entertaining.

Heat does funny things to the human brain. Fiona gave us these chiller things that you are supposed to wear around you neck to help keep you cooler. The guys thought it would be more effective if they dressed up like Rambo, why not?

As the finishing touches were put on the pipe for the first day a crowd began to form around the new shiny spicket.

So rewarding to watch the villagers as they turned on the spicket. The guys had been working so hard that they wanted to play in the water a little. Shortly after this picture was taken the water jugs started showing up. It was wonderful to see their joy.

A perfect end to the first day in Keur Soce. After this we all headed back to our rooms to rest up to start the whole process over again the next day.

Silly boys

2009-04-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

Djibi got a cell phone last week and he is VERY excited about it...

...so excited he made his cell phone its own chair.

Another gente.

2009-04-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

Crystal and Herma had the priveledge to go to another gente or baby baptism. The baby is traditinally one week old. Mostly women attend these celebrations. Everyone brings gifts, like a baby shower and the recipient takes careful record of who gave what because it is expected that when the giver of the gift has their own gente they are supposed to give a more expensive gift than they received.

Nia (in red) and Sedu (in gold) both work for Herma. Sedu is the one that just had the baby and is the person of honor. They think lighter skin is beautiful, so for special occasions they will lighten their skin with chemicals and/or make up.
Herma with one of the ladies. They LOVE having their picture taken.
Some of the ladies. I love all the colors and the outfits, they are so eleborate. This is also a time when the ladies put on their finest makeup and jewelry. Appearance is VERY important to the Senegalese.
Crys and Djibi after the gente. Djibi is wearing a traditional outfit also. He is very proud of it and it looks good on him too.

Easter!!!

2009-04-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

We found the Easter egg!!! Thanks Fiona. We spend a nice Easter evening with some of the boys from the shop. We had some good games, food and sharing time. It was simple, but genuine, so it was a real treat.

The boys here are super into "gangsta". Kemo loves the signs: "peace", "West Side", and even an "I love you".

Seriously, they love the gangsta, check the stance.

Scotty and Herma in a serious game of "cat and mice", pretty sure Herma made it up.

I don't even know what this sign means, but the boys LOVE IT!

The crew: some are from the shop and some are their friends, believers and non, all gathered together to celebrate Easter. They didn't really get our American twist on Easter with the eggs, but they liked it none the less.

Happy Easter everyone.

just life

2009-04-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here are just some random pictures from Malika and Dakar:

Just hanging out on the balcony, cooking. People don't have mortgages here, so they build as they have money and live in it as it is. I am sure a building inspector in the States would just freak out if we tried to do this, eh?

Even though Dakar is only 25 km from Herma's it still is an ALL day trip. Seriously, the drive is over an hour each was just because of traffic. We sometimes stop and get lunch in Dakar, this is Chepu Yup (Rice and meat), I like the one Nia makes better, but this will do for now. Jenn, I need to get you this recipe too, eh?

The new guy, Thoma. He is super sweet and cute. He has been here for only a few weeks and it looks as if he will stay. He is from Mauritania (sp?), to the north of Senegal, so he speaks just about as much Wolof as we do, cool! (They speak Serer in Mauritania).

Just getting some laundry done. No dryers here, because let's face it, that is just a waste of electricy and literally the clothes dry here in minutes.

The infamous: car rapides. This was one of our favorite forms of transportation because you really got in the middle of the experience. So much color and smell and noise around you when you ride in these. Note: don't ride these at night or with luggage, just too much.

Speaking of too much, driving to Dakar is too much. It physically hurts my head. Hey, remember when Scotty rode all the way back from Dakar in the trunk of Fiona's car, and we all forgot about him until he started talking...from the trunk. Pretty sure we broke some rules there.

more of Pete & Jenn, and Fiona & Alison

2009-04-06T04:50:00.000-07:00

Pete and Scotty working on making djembes in the shop.One of my favorite things we did while Pete and Jenn were here was spending time on our roof watching the sunsets and talking.

Another great sunset in paradise.

Senegaleses traffic, yes that is a man walking between the cars trying to sell stuff.

Pete working on his drum skills.

Because sunglasses on dogs are ALWAYS funny.

Distributing Jake's 600+ pairs of sandals in Keur Soce.

Boubou retelling the story of how Jake's students donated shoes for the Keur Soce kids.

It's kind of like a graduation ceremony, you know, shake hands and get your pair of shoes?

Getting dinner at the hotel after driving WAY TOO LONG.

Pete on Main St., Keur Soce.

A guy carrying stuff on his head, probably grass to fix his roof.

Keur Soce at sunset.

Pete bringing the message in Djourbel.

After church we had lunch with Jgon, here he is showing us pictures of his first son, only a few months old.

Senegalese eat REALLY late lunches, this one was at 3:30p, so while we all would have loved to eat the entire plate ourselves, we had to share.

Back at home, Scotty putting the finishing touches on Pete's new djembe.

Djbib teaching Pete some new beats. Djibi also makes drums and he gave Scotty 2 thumbs up on the drum he made for Pete (the green one).

Naturally, we had to play in Herma's pool. We did that game where you stand on someone's shoulders and they launch you, this is Scotty launching Crystal...

...and Jenn launching Pete.

Last meal for Pete and Jenn in Senegal was, of course, at a German's home: our friend Barbara.

We counted and with 8 people sitting at the table we had 5 nationalities present, pretty cool, eh? (Dutch, British, German, Canadian, American, but I am pretty sure Herma counts as 2 because, she's really Senegalese).

Walking home from Barbara's. Somehow Herma manages to make even walking in the sand look good, can't say the same for the rest of us.

K, it's time for you to go home now. Poor Pete and Jenn had to be at the airport at 1a to catch their 3a flight back to the states, least they look good on this end.

Miss you guys, can't wait to see you in Sept.

came and went

2009-04-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Pete and Jenn came to visit us...and already went back home. Sorry for being so lame at posts. The first couple of days they were here they were jet lagging and we were working around the shop, but the third day they were here we did the famous Goree Island tour. So, here are Pete and Jenn on the boat to the island.

Here is the crew (Fiona and Alison had just gotten off a plane a few hours before this so they were SUPER troopers for doing the island thing even though they were jet lagging).

We stopped for lunch at this super cute/off the beaten path restraunt that was anything but fast, despite their sign saying they were "fast food".

Steak and "freets", AKA fries.

Many local artists live and do business on the island, this is one of their houses/show rooms.

One side of the island has steep cliffs into the ocean, it's beautiful.

Another artist working on mixed media art (for reals Jake). They take garbage, arrange it and add some paint and voila, they have art. The machine gun looking thing behind this guy is part of the old castle, used to defend the island.

Now, the empty bunkers have become homes/shops as well as camping grounds for the "off-the-beaten-path" tourist. Here the crew is walking across a "bridge" over a stair well leading to a bunker.

We had to stop by the old church and Pete, being the pastor he is, had to check out the old pulpit. I think we need one of these at Dox, eh?

This is just day 3 of their trip, more to come!!!

Seriously?

2009-03-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

We were all enjoying a relaxing Friday, trying to get some last minute products finished before the weekend when all of a sudden we heard a big crash come from the front of the property.

So, naturally, we all went to see what happened and this is what we found.

Nice, eh? Apparently, a sand truck (dump truck full of sand that is illegally taken from the beach) was turning the corner and as is customary for vehicles that are super heavy and can easily kill someone, the breaks were...not broken--full on missing.

Needless to say, they didn't make the corner and they took out our wall instead.

Welcome to Senegal!!!

P.S. Don't worry about robbers, we tied up this beauty by the wall to protect us, don't let her fool you, she CAN be furocious!!!

calling ALL artists

2009-03-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Do you want to make a difference in Africa, but you are starving artist so you don't know how?

I have a job for you...

We need easy to understand drawn instructions of how to thread a ring sling... THIS video.

I am thinking 3-4 little pictures that show how to thread the ring on the sling and how the sling is properly oriented on the body.

We will then take the drawings and use them to make a little instruction card to attach to the baby ring slings that one of the Senegalese we are working with in Malika is making

This is a request for pro-bono for this guy...

...isn't he cute?

Let me know by email...or whatev.

crystalandscotty@gmail.com

.just sweet.

2009-03-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Chaco has continued to get used to us humans, here she is trying to figure out Scotty's pants. They are so different from the hair she is used to.And then we have our bedtime routine, super sweet.

saying goodbye

2009-03-18T04:01:00.000-07:00

It's interesting how in such a short time you can make friends. We had to say goodbye to Nathan last week. He was working with a French missionary couple in Dakar, but was able to come spend some time with us monkeys. He was a great guy to have around and he will be missed.

His host family threw a little going away party which we were honored to be able to attend. Here he is with Djibi in his fancy Senegalese outfit.

Herma and Djibi, matching monkeys.

The delicious dinner we enjoyed: Brazillian food, prepared by Senegalese IN Senegal, nice!