Monday 28 May 2012

building work finished!

I realise that it took so long for our new bedroom to be completely finished that I haven't put pictures up here yet, but I thought that anyone who had followed the progress of the building work might like to see it!

Here are the cupboards – not very exciting but extremely useful!


The other side of the room, with curtains and wall decorations brought back from France by my lovely hubby:


And a close-up of the decoration! 


Tuesday 22 May 2012

hello baby!

Since we have been in Benin, we have had a number of particularly note-worthy cross-cultural experiences, such as my interesting time passing the Beninese driving test. We have also braved the dentist, and now we're venturing into another domain of the medical system. I am pregnant, due mid-November, and so at the end of last month when we were in Parakou we went to see a gynaecologist for a check-up and a scan.


It is a private practice, though I suspect he works at the hospital during the daytime, and so one turns up at 7 in the evening, takes a number, and waits for one's turn! A 2-hour wait in our case! Fortunately someone was babysitting our boys and so we had no worries about time. The waiting room was hot, there was a noisy overhead fan which didn't help much, and a television which showed death notices for a lot of the time we were there.

The gynaecologist was great. He felt like someone you could trust and who knew what he was doing. And the scan was better quality than I had allowed myself to hope for. The long wait was forgotten in the joy of seeing our baby for the first time, waving lazily at us! The gynaecologist was happy with the scan and allowed us to take both photos and a video with our phone! (There was in fact a print-out, but the phone photo was clearer.)

And here he or she is, Baby Deneuf #3: 

Wednesday 16 May 2012

changing seasons


We have survived hot season and are now going through the most turbulent season of the year, weather-wise! As hot season gives way to rainy season, we have violent storms, which begin as dust-storms before the rain takes over.
 
Here are a few photos from last week. First the dust:


And then the rain, which entertained the boys for quite some time!


The next day was beautiful!


On Sunday night we had a thunderstorm and then constant rain all night … it didn't finish drizzling until about ten o'clock in the morning, and then we had light showers from time to time all day. It really felt like rainy season, and obviously the pastor's wife thought so, as she decided it was time to start planting our garden. Simon and Benjy have their own small hoes, and Simon in particular really got stuck into working with his: