Machoui

We arrived at Panera Bread in true Nigerien style, 15-30 minutes after the agreed upon arrival time, to begin work on the next series of blog posts. Although, walking out the door into the -11/-25 degree windchill was a pretty good reminder that we're not in Niger anymore. However, drinking hot coffee in front the fireplace, looking through pictures of our trip is a good way to cut through cold outside.

The next series of pictures comes from our thank you dinner for the medical students, interpreters, and physical therapists we worked with during our stay.  We called a caterer to have food prepared and delivered to our compound for the occasion. The finished product was a sheep stuffed with couscous and it was delicious! Susan and Mariyama worked hard to get the side dishes and dessert ready with a little help from Kristina and Michelle.  Turns out, when people glanced in the kitchen and saw us wearing our traditional dresses and cutting up vegetables, they thought we were Nigerien. We were told the roasting of a sheep was called a machoui, which sounds kind of like you are sneezing.  We truly enjoyed the time of food and fellowship with everyone that so graciously made us feel at home away from home.

Here is Greg and Dr. Carey proudly displaying the sheep. Notice Dr. Carey's traditional boubou (not to be confused with mu-mu).

Yacouba and Dismas, our sheep surgeons

The US PT group with the Nigerien PT group

Dismas, our med school interpreter with Dr. Carey...Smile!

Us with all the medical students that also served as translators in the clinics and hospitals.  They took time away from studying and everything else they have going on, to work with us and make sure language wasn't a barrier to the work we wanted to do.

Same group plus Susan and Abi (future translator)! We are so grateful to Susan and her husband Jeremy (not pictured) for playing chaffeur, translator, liason, and cruise director during our stay in Niger. They are an amazing family and we were so blessed to work with them.

Kristina and Michelle with the president of the medical english club Ishmael. He not only served as a translator during our National Hospital visits, but also gave us a tour of the Musee (the local zoo) and help us negotiate with vendors to purchase souvenirs at the market.

Kristina and Michelle with Dismas, who put up with us even though we never gave him our lectures until the morning he was supposed to translate them.

A picture of the whole party.  No that's not snow, it's the flash reflecting off the dust in the air.

A better picture of the party on the patio of the place where we stayed.  You can almost see everyone...

Our friends riding their motos off into the night.  Motos are the vehicle of choice for most students.  We never did get a moto experience but I have a feeling it would have been more terrifying than the camel ride considering rules of the road are more like suggestions in Niger.

We ended the night with a repeat performance of the song we sang in church the day before.  Vincent brought his piano and we sang songs in French, English, and Hausa. It was the perfect ending to the celebration. We are so blessed to worked with such incredible people.