Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Friday, 16 December 2011
Literacy Training
I have spent the last three days in a village, teaching 6 men how to teach others to read Fulfulde. As a teenager I have helped children learn how to read, I still remember my grade 1 buddy when I was in grade 9 and the year we spent together poring over books in the hallway as she struggled to sound out words and her excitement as the words and letters began to make sense. Since then, literacy work has been a dream of mine - a dream that I thought would need to wait until I retired and I could be a "grandma" helping children in a school learn to read. It still amazes me how in choosing to follow God around the world to do His work . . . He brings my passions and dreams to the table and I can do both in my obedience to Him.
These six men can all read a bit and it is a joy to see their passion that others of their village and neighbours will learn to read as well. And it was a fun week watching them learn and tease each other!
I am learning on the fly how to teach to oral learners and changing my lesson plans as I go. Despite the fact that these men can read, I discovered by the second day that their default learning style is still oral-based and not literate-based, While I realized this before hand, the degree to which this impacted my teaching plans was beyond my comprehension - I had thought that because they would read, they would still study the manual. Though practice sessions were planned for these two weeks - times where the students practiced what I taught - by the middle of the second day, these were increased and teaching times between each practice round was shortened. So they were able to practice small segements of a lesson immediately following my teaching of it, rather than preparing overnight a whole lesson plan to teach the following day.
I also finally printed two books in Fulfulde that I have been working on for the last year - an alphabet book in Fulfulde and a reader with stories that I wrote while in language study - and a few Fulani fables that have been told to me.
The stories are about village life and range from: Ali visiting his grandparents and seeing monkeys by the river and Aissa learning how to make straw mats - to health stories where Ruwa buys a mosquito net and Gaani learns from a doctor how to use the soap she makes to fight germs and stay healthy.
My favourite story is the first shown in the picture to the right - it reminds me of the "See Spot Run" books I read as a child: "See Spot Run! See Spot run fast! Run Spot run!" But of course, this is Fulani style: "Aissa sees her dad milk cows. First he ties the calf. He milks this cow. He milks that cow. He milks cow by cow, until all cows are milked."
It was very exciting to print the books and see something I've done "come to life" . . . these books will be taught next week, but this week I spent an evening doing my school homework while one of the men sat across the millet stalk table reading this little story book - each of us studying by flashlight!
Aside from the teaching times, I had fun living in the village as well, and taking part in some of life there. Here are some of my experiences:
One evening when I got back to the village from the "school" - about 15 of the village kids gathered in a semi-circle around my chair and watched their evening tv show: "White Lady Blowing her Nose in a Kleenex"!! Once I was done, I tried to chat with the kids and a few less shy children answered my questions about school and the babies they were holding and then they all drifted back home.
The next day, one of the men in class wandered over, looked at my stash of travel kleenex packs (thankfully, I was able to find some for sale in the village marketplace) and asked if he could have one, stating: "I too have a cold"! As he had been doing the "farmer's blow" outside the classroom for the last two days, I figure that he wanted the cultural experience. I wonder what he thought!
Oh - and I discovered that the last thing one wants to hear while waiting for supper is the sound of a child throwing up in the "kitchen" and the mother yelling "Don't let him throw up in the sauce!!"
Yup, for the first time, I found myself wishing that I did not speak/understand the language!
These six men can all read a bit and it is a joy to see their passion that others of their village and neighbours will learn to read as well. And it was a fun week watching them learn and tease each other!
I am learning on the fly how to teach to oral learners and changing my lesson plans as I go. Despite the fact that these men can read, I discovered by the second day that their default learning style is still oral-based and not literate-based, While I realized this before hand, the degree to which this impacted my teaching plans was beyond my comprehension - I had thought that because they would read, they would still study the manual. Though practice sessions were planned for these two weeks - times where the students practiced what I taught - by the middle of the second day, these were increased and teaching times between each practice round was shortened. So they were able to practice small segements of a lesson immediately following my teaching of it, rather than preparing overnight a whole lesson plan to teach the following day.
I also finally printed two books in Fulfulde that I have been working on for the last year - an alphabet book in Fulfulde and a reader with stories that I wrote while in language study - and a few Fulani fables that have been told to me.
The stories are about village life and range from: Ali visiting his grandparents and seeing monkeys by the river and Aissa learning how to make straw mats - to health stories where Ruwa buys a mosquito net and Gaani learns from a doctor how to use the soap she makes to fight germs and stay healthy.
My favourite story is the first shown in the picture to the right - it reminds me of the "See Spot Run" books I read as a child: "See Spot Run! See Spot run fast! Run Spot run!" But of course, this is Fulani style: "Aissa sees her dad milk cows. First he ties the calf. He milks this cow. He milks that cow. He milks cow by cow, until all cows are milked."
It was very exciting to print the books and see something I've done "come to life" . . . these books will be taught next week, but this week I spent an evening doing my school homework while one of the men sat across the millet stalk table reading this little story book - each of us studying by flashlight!
Aside from the teaching times, I had fun living in the village as well, and taking part in some of life there. Here are some of my experiences:
- pounding millet
- sifting flour
- catching baby goats and sheep in the field each morning (The little ones don't spend the day in the field grazing, but as my cousin pegged me - I volunteered to catch them so I could snuggle them as I carried them in. The baby sheep and goats are so cute!)
- a little guy named Fala snuggling on my lap and listening to me read stories from the books
- teaching Aissa in the mornings some of the vowels - she wants to learn to read too!
One evening when I got back to the village from the "school" - about 15 of the village kids gathered in a semi-circle around my chair and watched their evening tv show: "White Lady Blowing her Nose in a Kleenex"!! Once I was done, I tried to chat with the kids and a few less shy children answered my questions about school and the babies they were holding and then they all drifted back home.
The next day, one of the men in class wandered over, looked at my stash of travel kleenex packs (thankfully, I was able to find some for sale in the village marketplace) and asked if he could have one, stating: "I too have a cold"! As he had been doing the "farmer's blow" outside the classroom for the last two days, I figure that he wanted the cultural experience. I wonder what he thought!
Oh - and I discovered that the last thing one wants to hear while waiting for supper is the sound of a child throwing up in the "kitchen" and the mother yelling "Don't let him throw up in the sauce!!"
Yup, for the first time, I found myself wishing that I did not speak/understand the language!
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Field Work - Part 2
Last month, I wrote about the field work training in a village south of Niamey - following that two-day training, I headed off with the trainer to another village just North of the city. We are in the beginning stages of development work in this village, so the training here is back to the first level: how to prune trees.
This knowledge is valuable in a few aspects:
1. This village land could be the "poster-child" for desertification. The soil is wind-swept and cracked dry - you can look across the fields and see the scars in the land as you track the wind patterns throught the field.
By learning how to prune trees, they can build up the wind break on their land. The trainer also taught how the clippings can be left on the land in the scarred area to build up the soil.
As the wind sweeps across the land, the soil it carries will catch and gather among the clippings and help rebuild the soil base after a year.
Even after one night, you can begin to see the difference:
2. As the trees grow stronger and with more branches, eventually the trees will be large enough to produce wood for the field owner - wood that can be used for their cooking fires and wood that
can be sold in a time of need for income.
This knowledge is valuable in a few aspects:
1. This village land could be the "poster-child" for desertification. The soil is wind-swept and cracked dry - you can look across the fields and see the scars in the land as you track the wind patterns throught the field.
By learning how to prune trees, they can build up the wind break on their land. The trainer also taught how the clippings can be left on the land in the scarred area to build up the soil.
As the wind sweeps across the land, the soil it carries will catch and gather among the clippings and help rebuild the soil base after a year.
Even after one night, you can begin to see the difference:
2. As the trees grow stronger and with more branches, eventually the trees will be large enough to produce wood for the field owner - wood that can be used for their cooking fires and wood that
can be sold in a time of need for income.
Recently, the village chief son told me the story of their village land - when his father was a young child, this land was like a forest; and they roamed the land with their cattle. It was land they occupied with giraffes and lions. When it became evident that they would need to settle semi-permanently and plant fields in order to survive in the changing world and economy . . . they cleared the land of trees to create field land. Unwittingly, they created the effect of desertification on their land, and today after many years of soil erosion, this village has a consistent and almost yearly poor to average harvest. The years of drought and grasshopper infestation, worms and birds eating their crops aside - their harvest on a good year is insufficient to feed their family until the new year's harvest.
We pray that as we begin to bring in more teaching on field work, that their harvests will begin to improve. It is a slow journey that may take 3-5 years to see a return for their work - and we pray that they will remain steady in the task of applying what the Fulani trainers from the East can teach them.
The training in light of the proverb: "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." We could search every year for funds or partners to feed the villagers during the lean months of May - October, but that is not enough. For one day, if we are not here, they are back in the problem they have always found themselves in - lack of food. The villagers say "there is always hunger". And we long to see the day when their fields produce a harvest sufficient for them to say "there is enough food".
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Perogy Night: Some things are worth the Hard Work!!!
It has been at least two years since the Cheung family and I discovered we are mutual perogy fiends, missing this wonderful food (staple??) of cuisine from back home while living in Niger. Before I came to Niger, I stumbled upon a perogy recipe in a magazine and brought it along. So from time to time we have talked about and dreamed about having a perogy night. This fall, we decided that plans must be made for said cuisine extraordinaire!
I rarely eat potatoes here as they are usually tiny, dirtier than in Canada (thus requiring more work to clean and scrub) often rotten half way through. So I do not often deem the work of washing, peeling multiple tiny potatoes and cutting half away worth the effort of a yummy goodness added to a meal. But, the call of perogies is worth re-evaluating my view of potatoes in a meal. A few weeks ago, I mentioned to Cecilia that they were on "perogy stand-by" . . . if one day large potatoes appeared in the veggie stalls (which they do from time to time), I would buy said potatoes and we would have a perogy night. Never dreaming that such an opportunity would quickly present itself. However, on Monday, the Fulani veggie man from a nearby village, who rides around on his bike selling produce from his garden, stopped by the office. Immediately I saw that his potatoes were HUGE (biggest I have ever seen here), clean and good quality! I bought 2 kilos on the spot and called Cecilia that Operation Perogy Night was in effect for Friday!!
We had a lot of fun making and rolling out the perogy dough, filling the centres with a mixture of mashed potatoes, cheese and fried onions. It didn't take too long to figure out how to pinch the seals of the dough around the filling.
The recipe said that the perogies would float to the top of the pot once cooked - and sure enough, it was as simple as that. First batch cooking!! The recipe says it will make six dozen and we managed to roll out 70 perogies!
While home this summer, I remembered to bring back a few large bags of crumbled bacon (thanks to Costco for large packs!) . . . planned specially with perogy night in mind! What perogy does not need accompanying bacon, fried onions and sour cream??!?
Once the perogies were all boiled, we commenced with frying onions, frying bacon and creating the sour cream (1 cup whipping cream + 1 Tbsp vinegar)! And of course, frying the perogies. Supper was soon on the table! Complete with cole slaw on the side - I figured with the doctor coming for a meal, I should serve a vegetable! Cecilia taught me how to make her cole slaw and it was a yummy edition.
The finished product for our meal - the only thing missing is Mennonite sausage on the side!! But, I figured that would not transport well to Niger on the plane!!
From that one big bowl . . . this is all that remained! We five managed to polish off 64 perogies in one sitting!!!
But oh, we had such happy tummies relishing in the wonderful taste from home - and savouring each precious bite! Yes indeed, some things are definitely worth the hard work!!
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Field Work - Part 1
Earlier this year, in the peak of hot season, I spent four days in two different villages - the purpose: to observe a Fulani man from Eastern Niger teach about field work and how the villagers can increase the yield of their harvest.
The first village has received the first round of teaching (how to prune trees) and this year received the training on zai hole planting. The zai hole is a semi-circle dug into the field, with a circle dug in the middle of the curve. A tree is planted into the circle and serves two purposes - first: the tree roots serve to enrich the soil of the field; second: the trees - which are planted around the exterior ring of the field - act as a wind break, which keeps the soil from eroding in the wind.
The zai holes are four metres across the width and a two metre depth. And spaced four metres apart on the first layer to the outside of the field - the second layer to the inside of the field spaces xy-holes within the four metre gap of the first layer.
Measuring the first zai hole:
Eventually, I was entrusted with the task of tracing the semi-circle pattern into the dust (above right). It was fun to contribute, though I could tell they were concerned with my working in the sun and heat!
And then the men started digging . . . physical labour with pick-axes, hoes and shovels . . . all at 43+ degree heat! I am impressed with their commitment to the teaching which can help move their village foward! Currently, we are working on a "model field" - land bought by the village association, land that is sun dried and never been planted - hopefully a living testament to the teaching and the difference it can bring to the land.
Moussa - one of the young committee members who can write - pacing out and diligently recording the measurements so the strategy can be duplicated in other fields:
Measuring out to the next zai holes:
Standing in the first completed zai hole:
The first night in the village, I set up my tent despite caution of possible rains - as it was not yet rainy season, I was willing to take my chance that the clouds only spelled a cool breeze and not a rain storm! From the stories of my colleague, I know the other option is sleeping in the house, and possibly sharing a bed, with some Fulani friends!
Though I set up my tent at sunset, it seemed to still somehow retain some of the heat of the day. But, as the clouds advented a cool breeze, I unzipped the opening of my tent at my face and managed to slip into sleep with at least a hint of coolness . . . until at 1am when I jolted awake to the sensation of something crawling on me!!
I had not pre-thought what else, besides the cool breeze, might be let in by the zipped opening of my tent door!
I quickly zipped the tent shut, sat up, and searched for my glasses and cell phone. With the flashlight on my cell phone, I quickly started scanning the inside of the tent, wondering what all the while what I would do should I find a scorpion or snake in my tent! With my sandals outside, I didn't have much option to kill a scorpion with - and definitely no machete with which to kill a snake.
Finding nothing, I laid down to sleep again. Calming my spirit with the knowledge that at least the invading critter felt more like a skitter than a slither - so at least I knew a snake was not in my tent. But still somewhat anxious to know if I was now sharing a tent with a scorpion or spider, one poisonous indeed and the latter possibly so.
With naught else to do, I breathed a prayer for protection from my bedmate and a prayer for sleep despite the now stifling heat (for the tent would now remain firmly closed for the remainder of the night). In the morning, as I readied for the day, I discovered my night time visitor - a spider! Though I hate spiders (ask my dad - he has killed many a spider in my room at all hours of the night for me), I was much relieved in this occasion to find only a spider in my tent!
The second day we headed back to the field for some more teaching and then continued work on the zai hole digging.
This day, the instructor told a fable/story in Fulfulde - a story of development and how someone can come and either teach someone how to solve their problems (cross the river of problems) or how someone can carry someone across the river.
However, should the "problem helper" have to leave mid-task, the other person is stuck in the middle of the river - their problem - with no knowledge of how to cross the river themselves. Our team, uses this story frequently as well, because we desire to show people how to cross the river themselves - if all we do is provide the solution, they will always be stuck in the middle of their problem.
The ladies and I working on zai holes:
Tea Break:
Village Elder - observing all the work:
After two days of instruction and work - this village is off to a grand start of digging xy-holes and planting trees around the perimetre of this field . . . the Fulani instructor and I head off to another village to start another two days of training in a second village - Part 2 to come!
The first village has received the first round of teaching (how to prune trees) and this year received the training on zai hole planting. The zai hole is a semi-circle dug into the field, with a circle dug in the middle of the curve. A tree is planted into the circle and serves two purposes - first: the tree roots serve to enrich the soil of the field; second: the trees - which are planted around the exterior ring of the field - act as a wind break, which keeps the soil from eroding in the wind.
The zai holes are four metres across the width and a two metre depth. And spaced four metres apart on the first layer to the outside of the field - the second layer to the inside of the field spaces xy-holes within the four metre gap of the first layer.
Measuring the first zai hole:
At the end of the two days, the instructor from out East told the Fulani that I "have the heart and strength of a man towards work" . . . I think that was a compliment!
Moussa - one of the young committee members who can write - pacing out and diligently recording the measurements so the strategy can be duplicated in other fields:
Measuring out to the next zai holes:
Standing in the first completed zai hole:
The first night in the village, I set up my tent despite caution of possible rains - as it was not yet rainy season, I was willing to take my chance that the clouds only spelled a cool breeze and not a rain storm! From the stories of my colleague, I know the other option is sleeping in the house, and possibly sharing a bed, with some Fulani friends!
Though I set up my tent at sunset, it seemed to still somehow retain some of the heat of the day. But, as the clouds advented a cool breeze, I unzipped the opening of my tent at my face and managed to slip into sleep with at least a hint of coolness . . . until at 1am when I jolted awake to the sensation of something crawling on me!!
I had not pre-thought what else, besides the cool breeze, might be let in by the zipped opening of my tent door!
I quickly zipped the tent shut, sat up, and searched for my glasses and cell phone. With the flashlight on my cell phone, I quickly started scanning the inside of the tent, wondering what all the while what I would do should I find a scorpion or snake in my tent! With my sandals outside, I didn't have much option to kill a scorpion with - and definitely no machete with which to kill a snake.
Finding nothing, I laid down to sleep again. Calming my spirit with the knowledge that at least the invading critter felt more like a skitter than a slither - so at least I knew a snake was not in my tent. But still somewhat anxious to know if I was now sharing a tent with a scorpion or spider, one poisonous indeed and the latter possibly so.
With naught else to do, I breathed a prayer for protection from my bedmate and a prayer for sleep despite the now stifling heat (for the tent would now remain firmly closed for the remainder of the night). In the morning, as I readied for the day, I discovered my night time visitor - a spider! Though I hate spiders (ask my dad - he has killed many a spider in my room at all hours of the night for me), I was much relieved in this occasion to find only a spider in my tent!
The second day we headed back to the field for some more teaching and then continued work on the zai hole digging.
This day, the instructor told a fable/story in Fulfulde - a story of development and how someone can come and either teach someone how to solve their problems (cross the river of problems) or how someone can carry someone across the river.
However, should the "problem helper" have to leave mid-task, the other person is stuck in the middle of the river - their problem - with no knowledge of how to cross the river themselves. Our team, uses this story frequently as well, because we desire to show people how to cross the river themselves - if all we do is provide the solution, they will always be stuck in the middle of their problem.
The ladies and I working on zai holes:
Tea Break:
Village Elder - observing all the work:
After two days of instruction and work - this village is off to a grand start of digging xy-holes and planting trees around the perimetre of this field . . . the Fulani instructor and I head off to another village to start another two days of training in a second village - Part 2 to come!
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
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