Niamerry Christmas

So it's been quite the busy month since Mark and I got back from the mock bike tour. I, along with a few of my friends, was able to get up to Niamey, the lazy capital of Niger, whence we partook of the excursion to see the last herd of wild giraffes in West Africa, an ENORMOUS crocodile skeleton (see Supercroc wiki entry ), and had the best pizza (cooked by a volunteer) I've had since Upper Crust in Boston. Here's a horrendously (but purposefully) corny picture taken at the PC office in Niamey. These are my friends Brad, Sarah, and Brigitte.

Here we are again with the giraffes. That's a Tuareg wrap, in case you were wondering.

So we returned on New Year's Eve and were able to ring in the New Year in Parakou. Unfortunately, we just found out that a couple of Frenchmen were kidnapped in a Niamey nightclub by people claiming to be affiliated with Al Qaeda three nights ago. Dodged that one, but they were eventually killed during a rescue attempt on the Malian border. This one goes out to them. Happy New Year, all, and let's have a safe and prosperous 2011.