Courageous Readers–Final Installation

Well – here are the final articles written about the Canadian Food Grains Bank projects in Niger – written by a reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crescent-moons-stave-off-starvation-151228385.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/paradox-of-hunger-in-niger-151353745.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/more-mouths-but--less-to-feed-them-151493155.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/diverse-yet-peaceful-151667635.html

And two more articles from the BBC website – it appears Niger is making a fair amount of international news this year!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18111384

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18074093

Oh Lord – Have Mercy!!

Field Work: Training–Day 1

As I mentioned in a previous blog post – my team is working in the village of Kongu this year to provide grain aid for the villagers without food from last year’s failed harvest and to provide field work training so the villagers can improve this harvests of this year and the future.

Every time I visit this village, I look at the dry and scorched, wind scarred land and I wonder how these people manage to grow any food at all. 

 

When the rainy season comes though, the landscape morphs into a lush and green land – it is oft-times unfathomable that all this life is dormant below the surface . . . waiting for the rains!



This land can grow grain!  But, it needs help.  You can look across these fields and see the effects of desertification.  As I sit here week after week, teaching in the village – I see the sand blow off the fields and you can track the wind pattern on the ground in the scars it leaves behind. 

The chief’s son tells me that when his father was a child all their land was like a forest of trees – they lived by roaming these lands with their cows.  (He also mentioned once that when his father was a child, the lions lived here . . . I am glad that I do not need to sit in the village and wonder if there is a lion behind yonder scrub bush!) 

The Fulani were once a nomadic tribe, yet now, they have settled on land (or are semi-nomadic) and plant fields.  This generation is the first to plant fields! 

Earlier this month, we divided the village into three teaching locations and held a two-day training with national agents teaching on field work. 




The training was done in Djarma (another national language) so I only caught a few basics as I watched the demonstrations.

The first day of teaching, the farmers learned two methods of using a micro-dose of  insecticide powder in combination with non-organic fertilizer:

1.  micro dose of fertilizer with seed grain



2. non-organic fertilizer



3.  digging a hole – mimicking the action of a small wooden hoe



Even though we divided the village into three training sites, in order to reduce the distance some had to walk, there were still those who walked up to five kilometres to the training!  (as opposed to 15 km)  As the training was two full days, we provided lunch each day, so that the men did not need to walk home for lunch and then back in the afternoon.   

I started off the first morning on the chief’s land for the training and ate lunch there before heading off to the second training site for the afternoon.  The women set up their kitchen just off the side of the shelter, so we could smell lunch cooking – I wandered over to take pictures.  It is quite the process, each pot of the many serving a function: cooking the oil, onions and tomatoes; cooking the rice; cooking the sauce; frying the hot peppers in oil.





















For the afternoon, I drove out to the second training site.  After a short time, lunch was served here to the teacher (the men having eaten earlier . . . I was confused) but this meant second lunch for me!  Culturally, I cannot refuse the food, so I ate again but thankfully it was sufficient this time just to eat a few handfuls to satisfy the cultural politeness.

In the second session, we learned how to use a combination of non-organic and organic fertilizer (yes – manure!) along with a new method of using the fertilizers.  The Fulani do use manure – for all through the dry season, their cows, sheep and goats graze their way through the fields, leaving their droppings behind.  However, the manure is left on top of the ground, never mixed in with the soil.

For this session – a child of the household was sent out to collect some manure of sheep, goats and chickens from around the hut.  Then the teacher taught how to dig a hole, line it with a small amount of non-organic fertilizer and then cover it with manure.  This is then left open until the rains come and mix this together – then the seed is planted in the hole and finally covered:




And of course no day would be complete without tea!

 

Stay tuned for Field Work: Training – Day 2 . . . coming soon to this blog post near you!

Courageous Readers Continued

The news articles in the Winnipeg Free Press, continue to speak of the trials in Niger – here are four more new articles to read:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fortress-of-food-151088235.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/the-vicious-cycle-of-hunger-150592295.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/securing-food-for-niger-a-risky-business-150729715.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/trees-shrubs-vanishing-from-sahel-150905775.html

Please continue to pray for Niger . . . for the rains of this hungry season . . . that the harvest of 2012 would be plentiful and feed the families of those I love and those whom I also do not know.

Wordless Wednesday

Actually, today I cannot quite do wordless . . .
Yes, these are two outhouse buildings which have fallen into their holes.  They are located close to a village my team works in – and on the border between Niger and Burkina Faso.

I have used these outhouses!! And I am soooooooooooo happy that they did not tip in whilst I was occupying and occupied within!!!  Needless to say, my reaction would not have been wordless!

For the Courageous Readers . . . .

My host country – Niger – has been in the news lately.  We have stumbled across many news articles being written concerning the health and well-being of those among whom we work. 

These first two articles are from the Winnipeg Free Press – workers connected with Canadian Food Grains Bank are currently supervising projects in Niger.  My team has some CFGB projects running in the country – as do friends of mine working for other organizations.  These two articles are part of a series that has been started – I will try to continue posting the articles in this series as they are posted online.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/the-suffering-sahel-150274655.html
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/hope-turns-to-dust-in-niger-150391095.html

The third and fourth articles are from the BBC website, covering the food crisis as well – but some history of the Niger planting climate and the long term impact on the population.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17984899
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17506421

Though I have written recently of the food crisis and the efforts of my team, these articles are for the courageous readers . . . a view from another perspective on the work in Niger.
And though I return home for a one year home assignment, I dream of the work that I will return to – and a renewed effort to address some of the systemic problems behind the food crisis: addressing malnutrition and thus the child survival rate and the health of mothers.  The road ahead is long, but I dream of the day when the Fulani break some of the statistics listed in these news articles!

As the Fulani love to say “Allah hoynu!”  May God grant you the road to provision of your need.

Tea Time

Drinking tea is an essential component to the Niger culture – almost everyone has the necessary implements to make tea.  Up and down the street you can see the signs of a “fada” – a group of men sitting around, drinking tea, and discussing politics and the weather.  (It reminds me of the farmers in Saskatchewan who go to the local    Co-Op to drink coffee and discuss the harvest!

My house is one location of a fada – my guards have many visitors day and night.  I call them the “tea boys” and I love to joke and laugh with these guys.   We chatter with each other in a big language mix of Djarma, French, Fulfulde and Tamasheq!

 

They salute me when I drive into my yard and wave to me when they see me around town. And when my guard was in a bush taxi accident, they piled into my truck to accompany me to the hospital and help me navigate this unknown system.

There are six basic implements necessary to tea making:

• wire mesh “oven”
• small metal teapot 
• glass tea cup – shared among the group
• tea
• sugar
• coal

 

Once a live coal is found from a street food vendor, the wire mesh is swung in a circle to start a petering fire with which to make the tea.  There is an art to making the tea – pouring the tea into the cup,              re-pouring into the pot, pouring into the cup again . . . over and over – the height of the pour making the tea nice and frothy!

The Tuareg culture drinks three cups of tea, the first being the most bitter and the third being the most sweet.  Ironically, I always tend to arrive in midst of the second cup – so I have yet to try the first or third.  Each cup represents a part of life:

1. the first cup is bitter like life
2. the second cup is for friendship
3. the third cup is sweet like love

And should you find yourself at one moment far from your fada – tea is still available.  In Canada – we drive to coffee shops . . . in Niger - the tea shop comes to you! 

Walking vendors parade up and down the street – carrying their tea table on their head or in their hand.  Once a customer is found, the tea table is lowered to the ground – there are many options of tea flavours, coffee, fresh mint, milk and sugar.  The vendor pours the tea from his teapot which is carried over a bed of coals

and then serves the customer tea. 

The tea is finished on the spot and the cup returned – and the vendor continues on his way!