We made it! But it was no cake walk.

After 9 days of travel (including 5 days in Ouagadougou), we’ve finally arrived in Mahadaga.  It wasn’t easy.  For a really fun play-by-play, you have to read Liz’s blog post about our travels out here.

Check out:  http://themahadagaroad.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/on-the-road-again/

It gives a pretty good picture of what we went through to get here.  Truth be told, just about everything here is as crazy as that story, so we don’t even think about writing stuff like that anymore.  It’s great to have Liz around…she’s a great writer, and she can still see stuff through American eyes.  I’d be tempted to just write, “we finally arrived in Mahadaga”, and leave it at that.

Caleb is especially excited to be here.  He remembers it well, and feels right at home.  But he’s scared we’ll leave again.  He says, “Daddy, can we stay here now?”  Poor kid’s been on the road for 8 months.

So far, we’ve been visited by most of our friends, neighbors and acquaintances.  It’s been a busy time around our house, answering the door, shaking hands, accepting chickens, remembering names, etc.  It’s been tough to deal with the boxes of stuff in storage or transported across the ocean.

“Florence, where’s the silverware?!”  You get the idea.

Oh, and not to rub it in, but we’re so glad we came to Burkina for the weather!  While most of our friends and family are sweatin’ it out in PA, we maxed out at 75 degrees today…that’s right.  Cool and rainy.  But what that means for us solar-electricity users – no sun = empty batteries.  So, we chose to have our spaghetti dinner by candlelight.

[caption id="attachment_652" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A nice, quiet dinner by candlelight"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_653" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Liz wasn't happy about the death of our left-rear tire"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_654" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=""Le Gourmand" (the glutton) - From his car seat, Joel could help himself to 3 baguettes of bread that were meant for Mahadaga"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_655" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A Welcome-Back present - he's escaped twice, but he's tied up now in our chicken coop"][/caption]