Africa, Amsterdam, and Paris!

After the 13 hour journey to get to Africa- it took it's toll. There is so much that i saw and amazing people I can't even start to convey it here so I just picked some that i thought would show the jist of the trip- mom has more pictures that are incredible as always, but here are a few of mine. We went to do sugeries on women in Oulessabougou which is about an hour away from Mali's capital Bamako. It was life changing and i was lucky enough to go with a veteran my mom. Thanks mom.

This is trader Joe I bought some slingshots and necklaces from him he would come to our compond almost every morning.

Women waiting outside the OR that have been set up to have surgery they would wait all day and some would go home and come back the next day if we couldn't get to their surgery that day. they were patient and sat in the hot sun.

Me scrubbed in!

Mom scrubbed in preparing for sugery- she was a key player in making the surgeries possible.

Me and mom in the OR together was very cool to get to see her work and to learn more about surgery myself- thanks for teaching me mom.

This is one of our interpreters and his family Osman they were very nice!

This is Kristie another CNA that went with us. She and her family made these flowers for their hair and they loved the bright colors- she was very nice- she went with us on our morining walk and handed them out.

HUGE tree!

Me and mom. She would get up early everymorning and go on walks around the community. I went with her one morning and it was incredible to see more of how they lived.

This little boy was with his dad outside of the post op where I worked the majority of the time. We had done surgery on the mom so she was inside but he looked like he was sick and malnourished even more than the other kids.

This little girl was so cute and not annoyingly up in our face for candy or flowers she just kind of did her own thing.

Mom and the anesthesiologist that went with us Jim. This was at a school dedication that a dental group built and invited us to.

Not uncommon to see kids playing like this even without anything on the bottom. Moms would have a fit here.

These are Osman's sister-in-laws who did the henna tatoos for me.

It's just temporary it's a dye that they put on your skin. They think it's very beautiful and do it to brides before marriage.

I didi my hands and feet.

This is me and mom at a smaller village outside of Oulessabougou where they did first aid- I was like moms little helper because i don't have the confidence like she does to dress all the wounds. I had an incredible experience, but didn't realize how dirty i was even though i showered every night while there it was a treat to have a hot shower.

On to Amsterdam!

Some of the windmills are still used to pump water out of Amsterdam. It all used to be under water and they explained that it takes around 12 years or so (I think) to pump the water out which takes about 3 years and then they plant wheat for 5 years to help soak up some of the moisture in the soil, then some kind of grass that they feed to their cattle. The water has to be contiuously pumped out though because most of amsterdam is below sea level- all a lake bottom.

There were canals everywhere that were all connected. Called Amsterdam because it was made by damming the river Amstel.

While we were in Amsterdam we went to the country side and saw a cheese factory and this place where they make wooden shoes- they said people still wear wooden shoes mostly to garden in and some dairy farmers.

This is central station- very old buildings.

Small tribute to Amsterdam- lots of dogs very little grass.

This is sacre' coure or "sacred heart" It's another beautiful cathedral in Paris it has a very unique design. It was up by artist square where we went and saw some of Paris's struggling artists at work. While there we also had to stop and get some yummy crepes. Me and mom got sucre crepes (sugar crepe) and they were delicious!

I didn't realize how big the Tower was! this was taken from across a huge field just to get me and it in the frame.

This is Notre Dame from the from the front. My pictures aren't as good as moms nice camera, but you get the idea.

The famous window from inside the church- the arches inside were beautiful.

Notre Dame it was so beautiful we saw it at night when there was a mass going on, the chanting was beautiful.

We think this is John the Baptist who was beheaded- he's holding his head in his arms. there were saints that lined the entrances to the church. The detail was incredible and each saint had different angels over them.

I can't get this picture to turn for some reason, but I got to see the Eifle Tower in the day and at night it was very cool to see it sparkle on the hour. Me and mom went back to see this after Notre Dame and we had some exciting experiences with bathrooms and the Metro trains there (moms leg got stuck in the train door when we had to hurry to get off- it was quite comical to see us two Americans in a fluster trying to pry the door open before the train moved!)