Our First House Guest

Late last night our friend Steve arrived. He is our first official house guest. He and PapaGus used to work together so when we heard that he had a conference in a resort town south of Dakar we told him he should come see us. He ended up getting in around 2am and since we hadn't seen him in a while we chatted until 4am.

Steve lives in Gabon, West Africa with his family so when we told him about our mouse problem he didn't seem to mind. "Get a cat," is what he told us. I explained that Gusi and I are allergic to cats. He told me that he was too, as was one of his children but they had to get a cat to get rid of their mouse problem. He also gave us some good tips on living and traveling in Africa with small children which was helpful.

We got up with Gusi at 6:45am and told him that Steve was here. When he came into the kitchen around 7:30am, Gusi was a rather bit shy but then warmed up to him. Gusi found it easier to call Steve by his name in Spanish: Esteban. And since Esteban also speaks Spanish he and Gusi hit it off right away. Perhaps it's because he remembered when Steve visited us in the US when Gusi was four months old? Probably not, but Steve has a way with kids that is welcoming.

It was nice to have an old friend stop by and chat with us. He'll be coming back again to Dakar later this week taking a flight to Casablanca, Morocco and then on to Gabon, so I'll have to make sure to make something special for dinner that evening. Until then I can say that the guest bedroom has been christened.