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.

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".

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!!