Neighbors Habilou and Missiliou

Neighbors Habilou (right) and Missiliou (left)
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi

Opposite my house are a family of neighbors who have added alot of laughter and smiles to village life. Missiliou, on the left, will begin elementary school next year, though just the thought of that makes us chuckle given his troublemaker ways... I don't know how Habilou, on the right, will make it through days without the big brother, maybe he will adopt the responsibilities incumbent on him as the big brother of a 6 month old sister named Rashida.

The three children and their parents, whose house and courtyard you see in the photo, have become my closest village family. We feel a bit bonded being all on the fringe of village culture, myself going to mosque but still hopelessly fringe, the wife being a non-Muslim and non-native of the village, and the husband not going to mosque married to a non-Muslim non-native... Even more fringe, unlike most husbands, this one accompanies his wife to the bush to cut and carry fire wood, but in order to avoid ridicule he carries the wood only while out of sight of fellow villagers and then has his wife carry it when they arrive back amongst the village houses...