I was so sure last time I posted that I would post again before leaving Niamey... then I got a phone call from my villagers that my horse was colicing...AUGH... pretty much I was a nervous wreck for about 6 hours. I spent about 3,000 CFA just on phone credit, first calling my villagers numerous times asking all symptoms, and feeling completely helpless, then calling the L'evage (vet) setting him up to drive all the way to my village to check on her. Then, after that point, my villager calls back, 'oh, shes doing much better now, she doesnt need the vet'.. So I begin another round of phone calls to cancle the vet, talk to my villagers to get the whole story- it worried me a bit because they were a bit vague with the details.. What they did tell me was that she was laying down and wouldnt eat anything (panic?) and then they 'gave her medicine' and she was fine. When I returned from NiameyI asked what kind of medicine they gave her. They replied, traditional medicine... ok, and what exactly was it?... Well, you take a shoe made of cow leather, and tap her stomach. What? and that worked? Of course. So there you go- next time your horse colics, tap it with a leather shoe. At first I was like, no, thats rediculous. But the more I think about it I guess if it was just a gas colic, like they made it sound like, taping on her stomach might have done something... hmmm. Anyway, moving away from the horse drama.

In the final prep stages for this grain bank- I have a seller all lined up next week to meet with and discuss buying/transport. Its been a little more work than I though it was going to be- but it'll be worth it.

Thought I had rid my house of scorpions when I moved in and haddent seen one for a while... until last night.. there he was, sitting in my window. First I just sat and shined a black light on him (ever tried it? its cool...) but then I finally just killed him. I usually let them live, except one of my friends/ fellow volunteer reciently got stung- it was hiding in her house in a shirt that she went to turn right side out. After that story, I'm not sure I'll ever let em live again. Its not that theyre deadly, or, at least not in this part of Niger, but they apparenly hurt and burn like crazy.. No thanks.

One more quick story- so the other day I was sitting with my friend Hilemo at her house, and these two girls (around 10 or so) timidly walked up and just stared... So Hilimo asked them what they wanted and they were like, we've never seen a white person before! I didnt even think that was possible anymore, but they explained that they were from a village way out in the bush, and as they were passing through my village with their family, they heard there was a white person there, and just had to see.. usually when kids stop and stare I find it kinda akward, but this time i couldnt help but smile:)

Just a little stress... its a good thing

Well, its been another couple of weeks and it's already October... First, I would justlike to complain that the french need to just type on the same type of keyboard as the rest of us(sort of joking) , and my typing speed has reduced by about 30 words per minute... so if you catch any mispellings, its not my fault... ok, well now it is- after spending about 5 minutes seaching for the @ key, I begged to be switched to a different computer (most you can switch to an english keyboard setting, just not that one)
Anyway, it's been a good, if not slightly hectic couple weeks- although Ive long since realized I'd rather have a stressful, busy week than one with nothing to do... The grain bank plans are coming along- me and a few of the women from my womens group swept and cleaned out the storage building for the grain, and my good friend/village construction worker is going to cement all the little holes and cracks while I'm gone to finish it up. YAY.. then all we have to do is wait for the funding to get to country, buy the grain, and wait.. Thank you everyone so much for donating- it's such a good feeling (and relief) to be able to work with these villagers on such a big project. I seached on line today to see how much was left to fund, but it had been taken off line because it was full- THANK YOU all so much!!!
The world map is finished, and I have a newfound respect for just how many countries there are in this world (trust me... after labeling all the countries is just Europe with a paintbrush, you'd see what I mean). Now, I plan to do one the same size but just of Niger- so while I'm in Niamey I'm going to hunt down a good map with hopefully climate zones, and all the communes, etc. Then, in a few weeks, when school gets in to full swing, I'll hopefully spend an hour each week with the primary class and do some geography games'n stuff..
The biggest headache of the week has been this women's garden- not the garden itself, but getting this well repaired. The people who were originally going to do it are no longer able to, so now we're going to a different village to ask these other people.. I say 'we', but really it's my work counterpart thats doing all this. So, while ideally we'd like to plant as soon as possible, we're waiting a couple weeks until that gets done. I had a meeting with the women who are interested a couple days ago; first, the meetings alone sometimes turn into a fiasco, I have to repeat everything I say about 3 times (first time SOMEONES talking, second time everyones talking to shut the one person up, and third time it usually goes through) and then someone else has to repeat what I say once for the old ladies in the back, who, no matter what, cant seem to understand more than a dozen words of my Hausa... Anyway, so I get the message across, we discuss everything, then, casually, I ask, what should we plant? well, everyone answers at once- SHU! SALATI! KARROTI! TOMATER! TONKA! POMME DE TERRE! ALBASA!... Needless to say I spend probably 20 minutes of every meeting with my pencil paused above paper looking a little lost.
So the horse is doing great- completely night and day from when I first baught her- I REALLY wish I had taken a picture of her at the market- she looked like a half dead horse.. Now, I spend about 20 minutes just cantering and galloping through the bush just trying to tire her out (not that I'm complaining...) She's also a total mare and increadably moody... I think I've changed her name to Sahara- a little Cliche, but eh- what the heck...
Oh, so on my way to Niamey tomorrow- the new AG/NRM/CHA stage is coming in and I was selected to be one of their VAT's (Voulanteer Assistant Trainer) so a few of us are heading in for a training and to see the 'newbies' off the airplane. It's nice to get out of the village, even though I hate leaving behind the horse.
Anywho, thats my life thus far, not much more to tell. Village life is great as always, learning new things everyday- I didnt know peanuts were conected to the root of a plant.. I helped 'de-peanut' the peanut plants the other day, and I was like, wow, the peanuts are covered in dirt... who knew? I kinda felt like a failure of an Agriculture volunteer...

Horses, grain banks, and Ramadan- oh my

Wow- once a month is pretty shamefull... I'm sure I've left everybody in suspence... So, past month in a nutshell: baught a horse, working on funding for grain bank, humid as heck, painted girls education murals (that might have been last month) Almost done with my world map, Ramadan, planning a womens cold season garden, planning the repair of a traditional hand-dug well for that project, kinda want to buy a goat... I think that covers all the important parts.

So lets talk about this horse- shes about 15,2 hands high Id guess, almost a gruella color (lets just say a dusty sandish brown with black) with three white socks, a blaze, and a white splotch on her belly. She has pretty good conformation for a Niger bush horse, but she was so skinny when I baught her that I got a decent price for her (although, I think I got the 'anasara'price- 'white person'..) Ive had her for three weeks now, and between her and recent piles of work, I havent gotten out of the bush much for internet time, but thats a good thing. Days are litterally flying past and I cant believe septembers almost gone.. So, I went up to my big animal market, thats not too far from my village, Id guess about 26 K or so, brought the saddle and everything with me, and went straight into the market. So there were about 20 horses total that day to look from, but most werent within my price range. So when I first met her, she was timid, shy, and just really miserable looking not to mention skin and bones. (Shes a total princess now). Anyway, well, I rode her home from market, and 26 K on a tired horse took much longer than I thought it would... Not to mention hot... and I couldnt get that darn America song out of my head ("I've been through the desert on a horse with no name..."), but I eventually got there about 4+ hours later. My villagers have been so excited about her and love to brag that their 'batura' is the one with the horse. I was so worried about what would happen with her when I had to leave the village for a couple days, but the first time I left her, I came back a day before they expected me, and her area was imaculately clean, she had a fresh pile of hay waiting for her and a full bucket of water, and someone was out in the fields grazing her. It made me realize that they feel a sense of pride to care for her, and I havent worried since.

Ok, for non horsey people, we'll move on. Ramadan was a really good experience- I have a new respect for the huge effort it takes to fast for a whole month. So, during all daylight hours, they are not allowed to drink anything, eat anything, smoke, etc. Every morning at about 4, they would wake everyone up to drink water and eat, and then every evening after the 7 o'clock prayer, they would break the fast. I only lasted 6 days in the fasting, after that I baught my horse and I let it slip. It was really hard- not so much the food part, but not drinking water at all during the day, in 100 degree heat, was a huge challenge. However, there was something very rewarding and a sense of accomplishment every evening when you broke the fast. One of the other traditions I love in my area is that people will go to the nearest electricity town and buy a bunch of blocks of ice and sell them in the bush villages- there is nothing like a little ice... I love ice.. Anyway. So the end of ramadan was about a week ago, and there are 3 or 4 days of fete following the siting of the new moon (lunar calandar- as soon as the new moon was spotted, Ramadan ended). The days leading up the the big celebration were a lot of fun too- all the girls (myself included) get their hair braided, get henna done on their hands and feet, and get a new outfit made. Then the day of the celebration, everyone goes around greeting each other, kids get small change or candies, everyone is bringing each other food- I ate three complete DELICIOUS meals that day thanks to the generousity of my villagers, as well as had meat galore. I had baught 4 kilos of dates to pass out as my "salla gift"- it was a lot of fun. Also, the men also attend an extra 10 o;clock prayer that they do just outside the village- I felt slightly akward, but they all insisted that I go and that it would be great to take pictures- (I took pictures all day that day) so Ill try to get those us soon. Anyway, it was a great bonding time in my village and I thoughouly enjoyed my first end of ramadan celebration.

Ok. Whew, moving on. So, we are FINALLY getting started on our village grain bank!!! My villagers are so excited and keep asking me when we're going to buy the grain (I have to tell them over and over that we're waiting for it to be funded from people in America). There's so much to get done in the next few weeks, that I get almost frazzled thinking about it.. Weve got this room for the grain, that we'll scrub out, cement all the bat entrances, and lay down pallets for... I have to organize a grain storgage workshop with the Agriculture agency and a money management workshop for the women running the caisse. The part that makes me most nervous of all is that grain is starting to get really cheap right now, because its harvest, but in about a month and a half, prices are going to be high again so we really have to buy before then. Which, THANK YOU so much everyone who has donated so far!!! My villagers really are so excited and just so thankful that they're given this chance for a grain bank. I've never really been the type that enjoyed asking people for money so thank you all for your support. If you still want to donate (I think we need only 1000 dollars more! were getting close!) You can go to peacecorps.gov, click under donate now, and then you can either type in my name, country of service, or my home state, and it will pull up my project and show you how to donate over the internet. Thanks again, from me and my villagers.

Thats about it- I've got a couple other things just starting- planning for a womens garden (to sell veggitables for income generation) going to do another tree nursery with moranga trees ( the leaves are VERY nutritious and a great nutrition reasource during hot season when there is no produce)- my goal is that before I leave, every family will have a tree in their family concession. Oh, and I need to get to planning some geography lessons to work with the school kids on that go with my newly painted map, and I kinda want to buy a goat... I always said a wanted one as a pet as a kid, my parents I dont think took me seriously...

Back in the BUSH!

Wow, exactly a month since I wrote last- the internet has been either down, or incredibly slow (as in, 45 minutes didn’t even get me into my email inbox) and this is the first time I’ve been in with working internet. Well, month after vacation- its been really good to get back into the swing of things. Been out in the fields working with my villagers, whom, because of recent drought throughout all of Niger are incredibly fortunate to have an ok crop of millet this year- parts of the country have literally had to replant 3 or 4 times because of lack of rain and honestly have little to no crops… so that’s kindof hard to watch- they work all day every day for the grain their family is going to be living off of throughout the year, and I just cant imagine how it would be to see that crop fail planting after planting.
On a lighter note, work has been fun and picking up! (FINALLY!) My latest projects have been a lot of painting- which is a really good change from planting… So, myself and another volunteer, Meaghan, planned some girls education sensibilization murals in my nearby market town- they turned out really good! So we did two- one at the cultural center, and one at the secondary (?) school (the French school system still confuses me). So the first one has a cartoon figure of a girl in a class room raising her hand- to the side of that says: “Rishin Sani Ya Hi Dare Duhu”, a Hausa proverb meaning; Lack of Knowledge is darker than night. Then beneath that we had in French a little blurb about the education of girls can benefit everyone and to send girls to school. The second mural was pretty similar, with a similar cartoon girl sitting at a desk, and to the side, “Allah, Ya Ce, Tashi in Taimake Ka.” Another Housa proverb which is basically, ‘God helps those who help themselves’. And the same French message on the importance of girls education. Anyway, so the whole project was a lot of fun- we worked with a couple of the JICA volunteers (Japan’s equivalent of Peace Corps) in the painting and just spent a couple of days at it. Hopefully the murals and a couple radio shows we plan on doing later, will just get people thinking and opening their minds to girls education.
In my village, last I talked to my school headmaster, we had around 4 girls in all of 35 students in school. It is a little frustrating to ask parents why only the boys go to school- usually there’s a conversation of, oh, she has too much work to do, or, she’s at more use at home, or worse, well, she doesn’t want to, plus, how is that going to help her get married (educated women tend to not be as quickly married.. hmmm)? Especially in the bush, even most girls have an outlook of, knowing how to read and write isn’t going to help me get married, have lots of kids, and pound millet/pull water each day. I feel like sometimes a woman’s status is based on how many children she has- most women are so timid and intimidated when they’re around men, that very few get the respect they I think they deserve- I try to hint that women’s education is a way of ‘evening the playing field’ so to speak, but I think it’s going to be a slow and gradual change. I do feel like it is getting better- it just takes time!
Anyway, enough on that topic, so after we finished the murals, I took the paints to my village and I began a world map in my school. Since the school has very limited resources, they don’t have a world map and I doubt most in my village have ever seen a world map (one day a women asked me how long the bus ride to America was… “isn’t it next to Nigeria?”… um a little farther…) So there’s a world map booklet with a grid to help paint in onto the wall. So I’ve just started that, and so far I’ve got about half drawn up on the wall in sharpie- it’s kinda a pain, but still a really enjoyable project!
OK, so. It’s official- I am going to the animal market next week to buy my horse! I still have a lot to get done before that, (like, buy a saddle, put a stick in the ground to tether him to, buy a 50 Kilo sack of millet, oh, and hire about three little kids to pick 3 big bags of grass/weeds for him each day) oh, and the saddle in the market is going to cost me about 20 us dollars… pretty amazing considering the last saddle I bought was several hundred more than that… I’m pretty excited J So donations of peppermints will be greatly appreciated!

The first picture- The Point of No return, Ouida, Benin next, Liz Myself, and Ariana on a hike through the rainforests of the Volta Region, third, One of our little monkey friends in Tafi Atome just eating his banana...

Fifth, the Wli falls- just the lower ones, since it was rainey season, we couldnt hike to the upper falls. Below, me feeding the monkeys, next the fishing port at Cape Coast, I loved this scene- I think it'd make a great watercolor painting...

Next, on the river at a small fishing village near the Green Turtle lodge, after that, at cape coast again, these two boats and the flag just looked too picturesk to pass up.

The bridges at the canopy walk in Kukum Rainforest, and Liz, Myself, and Ariana pausing for a photo on the rope bridges.

Ok, so I have a bunch more photos on my facebook page, but I figured this was enough for one post!