vendredi 24 avril 2020

First glimpse...

... at what the Monkolé Bible will look like after page setting. This was sent to me by a colleague at Midi Bible, and it is not the finished edition, but gives an idea of what it will look like. It is very exciting for me to see this!

mercredi 22 avril 2020

"Wild" life

Someone who reads this blog regularly asked for some photos of the rabbits and birds, so here they are...!



Both rabbits are white, but Edelweiss is bigger with dark ears and Blanco is smaller with light ears. And they now have a larger cage outside.

We think this next photo is a Green Wood-Hoopoe.



And we think this next one is a Black Kite - a pair of them have a nest in a tree on this compound.




lundi 13 avril 2020

Life in Parakou

When we first arrived in Benin, in 2009, it was planned that we would live in Parakou. We weren't sure how long - I think we said "between 1 and 8 months" - and it ended up being 8. Well, this time we didn't plan to live here at all before leaving, but it's already coming up to a month! It wasn't too hard to get into a routine. The kids have school, and since it is hot season if we want to get any exercise it has to be early in the morning. It would seem a shame not to make the most of living on a lovely big compound, so we all walk or run before school.

I have been able to look at illustrations for the Monkolé Bible, but not get very far with it as my new colleague in Switzerland has been unwell. He is better now though, so hopefully I may be able to get on with inserting them into the text soon. I am also trying to go through old emails so that I can transfer everything onto my "new" (2 year old) computer from my old (9 year old) computer so that maybe I won't need to carry the old one back to Europe with me.

I have been helping out our interim director where I can.

We have been keeping ourselves to ourselves much of the time. When COVID-19 hits here, as it is likely to, we don't want to be part of spreading it around. We are fortunate to have plenty of space and pretty flowers here to console a little us over missing family and friends who we thought we'd be seeing.







This was a walk we went on at a monastery near Parakou.





We were remembering the buffet breakfast we had in the hotel in Casablanca two years ago, and decided to make our own (on Palm Sunday).