we say "shapah!"

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The Senegalese are among the friendliest people in the world. Given the challenges they face as a people, this is magnified ten-fold when considering the grace with which they shared their homes and hearts with us this past week. Below is a rather large sampling of still images from our week-long visit to work with Habitat for Humanity outside of Dakar. We are grateful to the people there for their kindness and generosity and are very happy we could make a contribution to their community.

It was just about one week ago that we first picked Frankie up from Lynn and Gardner Gray’s beautiful ranch in the remote Black Hills.

Since arriving here and starting to get used to her new home, she’s picked up on things very quickly:

She knows her name
*mostly* comes when called
Sits via verbal and visual command
Ss crate trained during the day while Pollee and I are at work
and is coming along nicely with her potty training, especially after having sat by the front door last night, waiting for us to notice she wanted to go out.
She’s met her new vet and begun the menu of vaccinations recommended for city pups.
She sleeps at our feet each night with Meta as they continue becoming tight pals who share everything and play mighty hard.

The images above illustrate just a slice of the new richness she has brought to us. Thank you, Frankie.

I just cannot stop watching clips shot with the Canon 5d Mark II, simply for the obvious reason – a still camera shot this motion footage:

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Some friends and I debated over whether this is real or photoshopped. The consensus is that if this was photoshopped, then that would be even more of a feat.

The whimsical nature of this is great – even if it took the fella a few tries to nail it.
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I give thanks to the gods for Danny Wilcox Frazier.

Responsible for chronicling the Midwestern way of life in multiple mediums, he is true to the cause of his homeland and to the powers that live here, unknown to those on the coasts who dare not venture out of their safely *cool* havens for parts much more obscure and full of possibilities, much like the places and oral histories captured in Danny’s latest, beautiful film, Driftless.

Danny, lately I am raising my glass to you and your work.

Cheers.

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