Parc W fun!

I was lucky and got to tag along on a 2-day trip to Parc W, an awesome wildlife reserve a few hours' drive from Niamey. My French friend Raphaelle who works for UNICEF had her boyfriend Gathian visiting from Paris, and another French pal Sophie came, too. We saw a TON of awesome animals that I had of course only ever seen in zoos, and I have to admit it was great to be in a pretty open area with not one single black plastic bag littering the landscape! (that's a big prob here, not only in cities, sadly in villages and all throughout the country...The Rwandan govt outlawed the use of black plastic bags, seems like a brilliant idea to me)



All of us, plus our great guides Alhmoud and Issafou, at the park's entrance



Splish splash they were takin a bath!



You gotta love this giraffe!



Finally, at a millet beer bar in Niamey, with Seydou the serenader...my Nigerien name Fatimata sounds really great when belted out by this dude

Alright, now it's back to work on some articles I'm finishing up from the Diffa trip...turns out I'm lucky enough to be getting several awesome visitors from the U.S. in May, so I'll be playing tour guide, wrapping up my work here, giving a presentation at the American Cultural Center, saying my goodbyes, tout au meme fois/ all at the same time!!!

Hope all is well, I hear there has been snow in the Seattle area lately...hard to imagine for me when it's 120 degrees F here!