Looking for a house, looking at schools

Hello All,

After several nights of no internet connection, I finally have one. Yay! Karim and Cheikh and I have all been very busy the last few days trying to secure and stabilize our life here. Cheikh is discovering that managing means a lot of talking and a lot of meeting, a big change from his number crunching at HQ! The director just got back from vacation and the regional program director is visiting this week, so Cheikh's pretty much working and sleeping. We enjoy our evenings and lunches with him though. Karim is a house hunting trooper. We're all pretty done with the hotel and we've found some nice houses,  but we have to negotiate price and all that, so it could take a little more time. I'm trying to be patient about this, but I'm sick of restaurant food and I'm ready to have a home again. 

This morning, Karim and I tackled the new task of finding him a school. Yes, they start school here at 3yrs old. Nobody asked if he was potty trained, they assume he is. Thank goodness we've been working so hard on that! Yay Karim! He's not wearing diapers at all anymore. Even at night, we made the switch (his request) but we're still a little nervous on that point. We looked at 3 schools today and liked things about all of them. Ecole Franco-Nigerienne Alliance Maternelle- a local french private  school that has plenty of local kids. It's spendy by local standards but not crazy. There were a lot of local kids there. I really liked this one. They reminded me a bit of EEI with art projects, theme work, reading, writing, nice outdoor playground. The second one we visited as Lycee La Fontaine- which was harder to read. Nobody wanted to show us around or even talk to us. They just told me to look at their website, which is impressive, very exclusive and highly reputaded. Everyone tells me that La Fontaine is the best (it should be for 3X the price!) but I haven't really decided yet. But, in the meantime, Karim will be attending the summer program at Les Petits Pas, a cute little art school for little kids up to age 4. I think it will be a good way to make friends and learn French without being too overwhelmed. He'll likely be starting there next week for 3hrs each morning.

Whew, we also found a gym with excercise classes! I guess I don't need to open one after all! It's actually right next door to our hotel. We checked it out this evening. The facility is basic, but it looks like it'll get the job done. Gotta combat those french pastries somehow!

Niamey is turning out to be a delight at every turn. Besides the fact that it's beautiful, (and warm) it has everything! Niamey is the Sahel's best kept secret. We went to the supermarket and although they don't have a huge selection of each thing (no six aisles of toilet paper) they have pretty much everything a person needs- toys, garden tools, toilettries, food, clothes hangers, medicine, sunscreen, whatever. If I had known this city was more comparable to Dakar than to Mopti, I would have packed differently! Ah well, live and learn- and the variety of food is incredible too- better than Dakar, I think. We've had Italian, Chinese, Lebanese, Nirgerien, French and the best pizza ever. Pure goodness. They even have a golf course, Dad!

Well, it's getting late here, so I'd better sign off. Love to everyone!