Waylon is Three!

Waylon turned three on July 15th and in dog years, he's finally the legal drinking age! We thought about throwing a kegger for him, but decided to celebrate at his favorite bar, Trusty's. Belle passed away before her third birthday so this birthday was especially special to celebrate. These pictures were taken at Trusty's a few days after his birthday (photo credits to Matt Wallis).

Mali and Niger

I took a trip to Mali and Niger at the end of May/beginning of June for work. In Mali, we provided funding to the World Food Program to purchase millet from local farmers to use in their program activities including Food for Work and community health center feeding. In Niger, we had just approved funding to provide emergency food rations in response to the drought. We were able to travel to several locations in Mali including Bamako, Segou and Mopti, but were stuck in Niamey in Niger due to security concerns. It was an interesting trip - a very hot trip and I definitely need to learn French!

NIGER

Grand Hotel in Niamey that was not so grand:

Niger River view from Grand Hotel:

Sandstorm in Niger:

MALI

Mosque in Djenne - largest mud structure in the world and UNESCO World Heritage Site:

On banks of Niger River in Mopti:

Dogon Country:

Grain storage - aren't they so cute:

Meeting with a women's cooperative that was able to sell 30 metric tons of millet to the World Food Program and purchased with our funding:

USDA donated commodities to be used in a school feeding program:

Distributing food at a local community health center:

Houses and grain storage in Dogon country by the Food for Work activity:

Community members participating in a Food for Work activity to build a water reservoir:

Regular road block - the sheep were the slowest to catch on and move out of the road - the chickens weren't too bright either...

Millet purchased under our program at the World Food Program warehouse waiting to be transported to one of their program activities for distribution to beneficiaries:

End of the dry season:

View of Bamako:

Beekeeping

Bekah and I took a beekeeping class from the DC Parks and Rec Dept and we're now volunteer beekeepers for DC. Our hive is located at the Franciscan Monastery in Northeast DC.

Monterey Trip in March

In March, I had a conference in Monterey, CA and Spanky joined me for a weekend trip at the end of the conference. Did the 17-mile drive, trip to Big Sur, a few wineries and a trip to San Francisco to see Alcatraz and Angie