Free time

Now that we have been in Mali for a few months we are starting to find things to do in our free time. Here are some of the things we do:

The only golf course in Mali is in Bamako 400 miles away, but that doesn’t stop Matthew from getting ready for next year’s Monger Open. Luckily the back yard is one big sand-trap.

Maria has taken up sewing. She has made cushion covers for all the sofa and chair cushons as well as pillow cases and blankets.

Andreas loves to draw, color and write his name. He saw a Mickey Mouse movie where Mickey was writing with a feather – so of course he had to try that!

Petter and Mia love to play on the floor. Driving little cars around or chasing the Zhu Zhu Pet.

Sometimes on the weekend we wash the car together. Kind of hard to believe that it is december when we can splash each other as much as we want and not get cold! It’s not that easy, though, to wash the car with a boy in the bucket!

We also enjoy going swimming at the pool at a hotel in town and going for hikes on the hills just outside of town. We really are thinking of all of you all back in Norway and the US having the coldest winters in a hundred years!

andreas

golf

miaandpetter

painting

sewing

Cold weather

Cold weather has come to Mali. The past few mornings the boys have begged me to get them dressed as soon as they get up. The eat breakfast wrapped in blankets and even asked me to turn on the heat in the car today when I drove them to school. It was 68 degrees (20C) ! It still gets pretty hot during the day, above 90 (32C), but at night when it gets below 70, we sleep really well!

Today, when I dropped Andreas off at his classroom at school, I saw that there was a picture of Santa Clause on the blackboard. Today they are going to talk about Santa! I can’t wait to hear what he has to tell us about the Malian version of Father Christmas.

Life is good! (posted by Maria Monger)

We just had a wonderful weekend at Teriya Bugu. We drove 300km from home, the last hour on a bumpy dirt road that took us out into the bush. The goal was a small hotel under the tall eucalyptus trees on the river. We got our own little hut (with beds and air-condition), and spent most of our time by the pool, trying desperately to get a tan (you would think that would not be a problem when you live in Africa, but with all the clothes we have to wear the sun barely gets to any body parts at all!) We took a boat ride to see the sunset on the river, no need to say that that was a beautiful sight. It was a good place to go with kids, in addition to the pool, they loved the playground, the animals (some monkeys, snakes and crocodiles in a cage), and of course to hang out with their two friends. We enjoyed hanging out with our friends as well, and are very thankful that they showed us this beautiful place for recreation.

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