Life is Fun

Favorite Toys

This one is a little long - and slow - but it shows where Nathan's interests seem to lie!

Gettin' around

Yesterday I left Nathan with his toys in the living room. He "crawled" all the way down the hall to find me in my bedroom. He can finally do something about the fact that he doesn't like to be left alone! I love how he raises his eyebrows at me at the very beginning of the video.

Geneva airport - saying goodbye

Sailing

Fun at Nana and Grandpa's

Thonon

Yvoire - a midevil city

Jet Lag - 1:30 am

If only Mom and Dad were so happy and awake!

Growing

Nathan now has two teeth and is working on sitting up.

Trying on my new coat

Thanks Marmee!

John, Katie, and Luca Visit

Mom-my?

or maybe I hear what I want to hear...

Nursery

Dancing

Ticklish

Sweet Potatoes

Doctor's Visit - 4 months

Nathan was 26 inches and 13 lbs today. That's the 75th percentile for height and the 25th percentile for weight. The doctor said to start feeding him solids - as much as he'll eat. Baby peas... here we come! He did fine with his shots and is still knocked out in his car seat.

Tired Nathan

Nathan - way more into watching his DVD than being tickled!

Nathan & Me

Going on a walk!

Nathan at nine weeks

This is an old video but we like it!

Map

This was Briant's birthday present. It's kind of hard to see but the white pins are places he flies to for work. The colored pins are places we've been together.

Cousins Visit

Watching U.S. vs. Ghana

Look at What I Can Do

He really doesn't know which toy he likes best!

Father's Day

Nathan at 1 and 2 months

After a 3 years hiatus from blogging, I guess having a son (and Heidi) have motivated me to start again! I'm not sure how well I'll keep this blog updated but hopefully it will be less than 3 years before I post again... Here's what Nathan looked like as of yesterday.

Almost 3 months old!

12 weeks
Nathan laughing. He's a ticklish little guy.
9 weeks

5 weeks

There are some older pictures on my facebook page if you haven't seen them yet.

A day in the life of Briant McKenzie

Wow, I have a whole new appreciation for what Briant does every day! In the previous post, I wrote about the evening I spent with Briant in Accra, Ghana. But I didn't write about what it took to get there. Below is what his day looked like last Friday. However, the only way you can truly relate to what it's like for Briant is if you take your computer outside, in 106 degree weather, and read this post in the sun, while lifting weights.

6:00 a.m. Sadiola - Bamako
Pre-flight plane. Load luggage. Load passengers. Do passenger briefing. Leave Sadiola, Mali where he had spent the night. Fly passengers back to Bamako. Call the fuelers. Wait a long time in the sun. Communicate in French how much fuel is needed. Check to make sure fuel is clean. Wait. Sign fuelers' paper work. Pay in cash. Turn in flight plan for next trip. Stand around and wait an hour for the next flight. (I met up with Briant at Bamako's airport around 8:00 and accompanied him for the rest of the day.)

8:30 a.m. Bamako - Siguri
Find passengers in airport. Load their heavy luggage. Do passenger briefing. Fly to Siguri, Guinea's somewhat short, bumpy, dirt airstrip. Deliver 2 pieces of mail to the commandant. Have passengers get off the plane and stamp in to the country.

9:30 a.m. Siguri - Lero
Fly to Lero, Guinea. (This airstrip is similar to the one in Siguri but it's on a slope and somewhat shorter.) Wait for new passengers. By this time, it's getting really hot. Someone drives up and asks us to take a water sample on the plane to deliver to someone we don't know in Accra. He puts a large blue cooler on the plane.

11:00 a.m. Lero - Siguri
Load lots of heavy luggage again. Sweat some more. (It's even hotter and more humid now. I always conveniently found a place in the shade to stand or sit but made sure I didn't do any type of strenuous work.) Load passengers. Do passenger briefing. Fly back to Siguri. Wait 20 min.

12:00 a.m. Siguri - Accra
Have new passengers stamp out of the country. Agree to deliver more mail to someone else in Accra. Agree to buy the commandant of the airport his favorite drinks in Accra and bring them back the next day. Load passengers back up. Fly to Accra. While flying, eat cold pizza that was ordered at 5:30 a.m. from Sadiola. Land at 3:00 p.m. Unload luggage. Call the fuelers. Wait. Check to make sure fuel is clean. Wait. Sign fuelers' paperwork. Pay in cash. Get to hotel around 4:00 p.m.

I have no idea how the pilots remember what they are supposed to deliver to who, pay all the right fees, shop for the right people, and do all their flight plans. I think I would loose half of the money, mail, flight plans, passenger manifests, and luggage that was entrusted to me! And this day was uneventful compared to some. Other trips entail paying landing fees, having several people ask you for money, and talking your way through customs.

On Saturday, we did a similar trip in reverse. But with 2 LESS legs: Accra-Siguri-Lero-Bamako.

Ricci landing one of the BE 1900's in Lero.

Accra, Ghana and Ice Cream

I got to go on an overnight trip with Briant to Accra, Ghana on the coast of West Africa. The weather is more tropical in Ghana and the people speak English. I found Accra to be beautiful and realized all of the nice things that I had always taken for granted until this year.

As we approached the capital, I couldn't stop staring out the the plane window. I first noticed the houses. Nice, big, painted houses. And LOTS of them! Then I stared at the roads. Straight, paved, multi-lane roads. Some that actually looked like real highways!

Once we landed and were driving to our hotel, I continued to stare. The roads were smooth.
There were lines painted on them, marking off the different lanes. Drivers usually stopped when expected to stop. And there was grass. Like whole fields of grass! I hadn't seen that since last Summer's rainy season.

AND THEN... we went to a grocery store. It seemed HUGE to me. And was so clean! I didn't feel like I had to buy anything. I just wanted to walk around and stare some more. So, with all the choices we had in this grocery store, what DID we buy? A carton of orange juice, gum, and a magnum ice cream bar which we split. We THOROUGHLY enjoyed all three things.

I never knew how happy a simple ice cream bar could make me!

Cultural experiences

Where's Waldo? I mean... Briant?

Can you see the tiny newborn in the front? That's who we really went to see. But, as always, we got more than we bargained for :)

Briant's friend's wife had a baby a few weeks ago. He was so excited that he called Briant at home to tell him. The next day, Briant asked Ba (his friend) what the baby's name was. Ba answered "Lundi" which mean 'Monday' in French. For a few moments, Briant actually thought that the baby's name was 'Lundi'. I'm not sure how long the confusion lasted, but somehow Briant figured out that the baby would be named on Monday. Exactly 8 days after the birth, a Muslim baby is baptized and named. We didn't make the baptism (and the all night party that followed) so we went out to visit the baby a few days later.

After visiting Ba and his family, we had to stop at Ba's brother-in-law's since he works at the airport as well. Cola has four beautiful children.

The kids dressed up for us. The girls even wore make-up! We were told that the little girl with the big eyes had never seen a 'tout babou' (i.e. white person). She sat on Briant's lap a long time just staring at him, every once in a while touching his skin.

The kids showed me the chalk boards that they use in school. They have no books, no paper, and no pencils; just 6 X 12" chalk boards and some chalk. They got a little French lesson from me and I got a Bambara lesson from them. They did better than I did!

We were out there so long we were fed lunch. They bought us bread and fresh cow milk. They were even thoughtful enough to boil the milk and put sugar in it for us. I'm sure they splurged to feed us "western" food. They had a completely different meal. I tasted their millet paste and sauce. Apparently, I didn't put enough of my hand in my mouth while eating. At least, I think that's why they were laughing...??

Note to readers: If any of you feel like you need a lesson in humility, just come visit us. We'll drop you off in a village and let 5 yr olds try to teach you their language. And... we'll let their grandmothers teach you how to eat correctly :)

What I saw today...

I (Briant) was in Conakry, Guinea and was standing by our plane on the ramp when a Guinean military plane burst into flames while flying about 2 km away. They were directly over the city. My captain and I watched the whole thing happen. The pilots ejected and floated down in their parachutes. The plane continued to fly briefly then rolled over and went straight down into the city. Then we saw a big plume of smoke. The news said that nobody was hurt, which is a blessing but we didn't know that at the time.

Here is a link to an article about the crash. The only thing that is wrong is that the article makes it sound like the plane burst into flames when it hit the building. That isn't right because it was already a ball of flames when it started to go down.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/070416/world/guinea_military_aviation_crash_2

Well, I guess I have another story to tell about flying in West Africa! Also, I was thinking that it would be nice if our planes had ejection seats!

Briant's parents' visit

We had a great time with Briant's parents. I'll let the pictures tell you what we did.

In a village.

At a Bible school. This student's wife crushing her grain before making lunch. How the baby on her back is sleeping through this is a mystery to me!

Mom even got to help this student's wife! She's stirring the soup.

While driving. I wonder why he broke down...

At a market.

At the orphanage.

Watching someone make mud cloth. He stenciling with mud.

All the parents... I guess we had to move to Africa to get both sets of parents together!

This green van is public transportation. Each one of our four parents have ridden in one. I guess they are braver than we are. We have yet to step foot in one!