I got up before the sun this morning and daddy was not thrilled about it! Omar turned 7 months august the 19th, with 4 teeth out, a fifth coming up in the bottom and 19lbs 84oz! mameena has great biceps, ha!

... but he kissed me anyway, and i like that! 

Again with my girlfriend tantie Bea, when we went visiting a she butter factory in Thanguin Dassoury, 15km far from Ouaga. This certified organic factory exports 500 tonnes of pure she butter to l'Occitane every year. Story of the production of she butter and pictures in a further posting.

"I've got a girlfriend!!" This is tantie Bea, our friend Irene's sister and Madina's mother. Madina will take care of me when mameena will go back to work.

When mima (my mother) was here, she was taking omar every morning for a healthy walk in the garden, after spraying him with anti-mosquito lotion. Ouagadougou, june 2011.

Madina who cooks for us and help me take care of hakim and omar.

                                        
                                             Every morning hakim and daddy meet for breakfast

                                           hakim, Petit Paris, Goughin, Ouagadougou, may 2011

Some of hakim's favorite things to do in our new house : water the plants and play with the dirt, run after "monsieur lezard" (there are lots of lezards in the garden), shout salam or vincent's names (the guards), or marcel (the driver) to give them breakfast , lunch or diner and say "bon appetit salam...", run to the window when daddy leaves or come back from work on his vespa, and talks from sunshine to sunset non-stop and ask million of questions every day. he also takes the plane daily to visit the lavoie's in the US, or the senhaji's in morocco or tunisia, he listens to the news and pick up new worlds that he wants to understands and he says NO to every single thing we ask him to do. he kisses his brother and shows signs of affection as much as he hits him and wrestles with him. he notices peoples faces when they are not happy and ask why. And he keeps a book in the car about Burkina Faso and wants me to read it to him on all our trips. he doesn't complain about the heat, but knew very quickly about mosquito bites, until we put a net on his bed and stopped swimming in a big plastic tub on the veranda! 

Old and recent news form Ouagadougou, finally!

Hello all, We hope everyone is doing well, and think of you all every single day. It has been a long and interesting journey since we left Maryland on May 1st 2011. We packed our suitcases, a couple of books and toys, and our children hakim and omar:); we found new renters for our apartment, sold the car, stored our most valuable belongings within three weeks... to go and live in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for 3 years and a half!
Our last days in Maryland at aunt kathy were heaven. Seeing suey goey, thomas and aunt kathy everyday, and being so close to the water was for hakim the most unexpected gift before our new adventure. Plus he got to see grammie and pipo, as well as auntie megan, audrey and andrew who visited Maryland right before we left!
And then we spent 2 months in Morocco: 2 weeks with daddy and 6 weeks with our moroccan family, hakim, omar and I. It was great to have this nice transition, to meet and spend time with the family, to eat our chef jmia's (jimi) finest cooking before heading to a country where the cuisine is pretty poor and not the healthiest.
matthew arrived in Ouagadougou may 15th, and after a week spent in a hotel, he went to my friends Irene and Jean-Baptiste who are settled here since 2008, after living in Paris for over 12 years. She is Burkinabe and he is French, and theytook really good care of daddy and made sure he didn't feel isolated while waiting for his family to join. At their house there was dorian, hakim's 2 years friend, about 8 other kids from the extended family, a swimming pool, giant turtles, ducks, and crocodiles!
On june 26th my mother, the Lavoie boys and I joined daddy who started suffering from some serious loneliness symptoms!
Why you didn't hear form us in ages? How we got settled in our new house and life? Why we have a maid, a nanny/cook, 2 house guards and a driver? How is matthew's job starting up? How is mameena managing the new lifestyle, the house staff and what she's going to do of her time in the country of "People of integrity"? your answers and pictures in the next posting....
PS: we have had internet access for 10 days over the last 2 months for many different reasons, it doesn't make skyping, blogging and keeping in touch easy! I really hope this situation gets better.
We love you all.
hakim, omar, matthew and mammena