Ojai, Niger

I have not visited our little community of Ojai for some time. We named it Ojai when Peroji and his family moved there because we built a well for them. The wives were there, but Peroji and his grown son were not. Peroji’s family used to be all girls, but they are all married now… even little Bimbia who was named after me. So now there are a whole bunch of new kids, but they are all boys. Yacouba, Mohamed, Issa, Ibrahim are all under 8. Juuti who I haven’t seen in years is now a carbon copy of Peroji. Tunao, who we all call bingel Barbara (Barbara Bowman’s kid) because she was ready to adopt him when she came about 6 years ago, is now a young man. Since I was there with Barbara’s husband Sol they were all wondering where she was.
Before long Sol had everyone standing on their heads.
He showed them their photos…

And then the kids danced and sang into the night.
After all the hassles of the trip this was a welcome happy relaxed moment.