Rainy Season "Cow Camp"

It has been a long time since I blogged ... the internet has been up and down lately and posting pictures is a challenge, but today, I am going to give it a try!  As it has been a few months - there are so many stories to catch up on!!  I have seen and have had a lot of new cultural experiences during the rainy season.  

This year, the village area created a "cow camp" .... basically, they left about 2 square kilometres of field land fallow - for use as grazing land instead of planting millet this year.  

Then, young shepherds from five village areas set up camp for the four months of rainy season and the cows, sheep, and goats wandered around eating the grass and depositing their manure for the upcoming year.

As I've not seen this done since I arrived in 2008, I was naturally curious - "how often do you do this?", I asked the village chief's son.  He said it had been a long time, maybe 10 years since this had last been done.  My road out to the village traverses the grazing land - so every time I went to the village, I would wave to the young shepherds and often had to weave my way through the flocks and herds which were resting on the road!

I stopped to chat with them one day and take their picture.  The sticks that they are holding are the traditional Fulani shepherd stick!  

Mostly, from what I understood, they live on the milk from the cows that they drink each day.  Perhaps sometimes food is delivered as well.

Pre-Harvest Treat

On Wednesday this week – I went out to the village for a baby naming ceremony.  This was the home of one of the village committee elders.  Almost every time I am at his home, he gifts me with a chicken or guinea fowl. 

This week, he gifted me with a special treat … pre-harvest of the millet fields, the Fulani love to eat “mumri”.  This is the first millet of the season – usually toasted over a fire, and for a special treat – eaten with milk and honey or sugar.

As I was leaving, Hamani sent a few of the young men into the fields to pick out some fresh millet stalks for me. 

(doh …. photobombed!!)

By the time these men finished gathering millet for me – I had twice this amount in my truck!!  They brought another 3 small bundles this size!  When I returned home, I re-gifted a few bundles to my night guard and my neighbour’s night guard to feed their families this treat as well.

But today …. I went to the neighbourhood corner store and bought some charcoal.  Then, my guard, my neighbour’s guard, one of their friends on the street and I, proceeded to cook our treat!!

Getting the charcoal ready …. fanning the flames!:

Once the coal is burning in little flames, then the millet stalks are roasted over the small fire … it reminds me a bit of a campfire with hotdogs or roasting marshmallows …. turning the stalk slowly so that the kernels roast and pop. 

It even sounds a bit like popcorn – and some kernels pop out white, while others just brown and turn crunchy!!

Once it is toasted, the kernels are shorn off into a bowl – using a piece of the millet stalk formed into a v-shape tong …. I helped with this job!!  My hand was black by the time I was finished and the kernels were quite hot.  The Djarma guy pictured above was much more accomplished at this than was I – a lot of my kernels spilled on the ground!!

We ate some of this toasted like popcorn (minus the butter and salt!!) … but then I went inside to make some milk and grab honey so we could eat this in all its treaty-goodness!

This was definitely a yummy and fun treat to have received from the village! I even have some left to throw into my next batch of granola!!

Wordless (ish) Wednesday

Today's blog post was inspired by a comment my mother made to my last blog post:  

"I am amazed at how green everything is right 

now - nice contrast to the orange sand. 

Beautiful in it's starkness!"

I am always amazed every rainy season how much "green" ..... plants ... are hidden in the soil, waiting to spring to life when the rain begins to fall!!  

So - I thought today's post would be a contrast photo display.  The location of some of the pictures from the mosquito net distribution, is the same location as the Chicken Training in June.  And - one of the pictures I have from both days is taken from the same place beside the huts and looking in the same direction.  I thought the contrast is even more amazing to see "side by side"!!

Here is the photo in June ... there had been a few rainfalls at this point, so there is a little green-ness, but essentially, you are still looking at a "dry season landscape":

And here is this last week at the peak of rainy season:

Adventuresome and Thrilling Driving

Travelling out to the villages is often a bit of a challenge … especially at this time of year, as during rainy season, puddles of water cover the roads and change the roads.  The regular roads to the village would be considered “off-roading” …. yet, on the day of the 3rd mosquito net distributions ….  I took my field director on a wild ride that took the term “off-roading” to a whole new level!!

That day, we were in a village area that is covered with crevasses and dry gulches.  In order to reach the distribution location (the village representative’s huts) – we had to go quite a few kilometres out of our way to skirt around these deep cracks in the ground.

This is the last deep dry gulch that we had to cross through.  I got out of my truck at the entrance to walk through and see the distance and level of the ground dropping – as well as the exit.  At times, what my village guide may think my truck can drive, I refuse and insist we find another road.  …. So before I drove my truck down into the gulch, I wanted to ensure the exit was passable!

After I drove out of the gulch – this is what I saw …. And my guide said “Just follow the road Khadiza!”

Can you see the road??!?

Finally, we arrive – in what seems like the middle of nowhere, to a grouping of three huts – the home of my village guide!

Here, about 30 people have gathered for the teaching – they have walked to this location from 4-13 km away!

And of course, on the way back – we had to drive back through the dry gulch.  We had preplanned for a video of my breaching back out – so, while Tim walked back up the dry river bed to position himself at the exit to film my driving adventure, I took a few pictures.

And this here … this is why I am so glad that I have a 4x4 truck!!!  I guess, in our planning that the truck could make it down and out on the way in  – it was not necessarily a safe assumption the truck could make it back out on the way home!! 

One last section of road that has washed out since my last trip … we followed a donkey cart path to its left to skirt around these little mini-crevasses!

… and another large  dry gulch. 

This one, actually, the rains have improved – it used to be an adventuresome, nerve wracking trip down a  steep bank, then through deep sand while skirting around a gulch ridge to the left and drop off to the right, climbing another steep bank – and then abruptly turning around the left of the tree, a few feet to spare to the right without hitting the tree and a few feet to spare on the left without falling into another crevasse!  The rains this time created a plateau in the middle of the first drop and leveled out the entrance. 

In the first picture below, you can see just past the open truck door the road between the tree and the drop-off  – normally, I would drive around the tree to the left of my truck. 

The village guide had been concerned about this gulch – but it was a piece of cake today!  (As compared to the one in the video above which didn’t seem to occur to him as possibly being a problem!)

All in all – it was a fun village day of teaching and mosquito net distributing!  And - It was a thrilling and adventuresome drive!!

Malaria and Mosquito Net Distribution

The tiny little mosquito … and I mean TINY, the size of the mosquitoes in Canada were a little scary while I was home last year! … is the source of much suffering in Africa.  In Niger, the mosquito – or rather the malaria that it transmits – is the number one cause of death.  Those particularly vulnerable are the elderly and children under the age of 5.  Each mosquito bite carries a 50/50 chance of malaria transmission!

Through the Alliance Justice and Compassion Gift Catalogue, my team receives funds towards the purchase of mosquito nets.  This year, we were able to purchase ~ 2,000 nets!  These are currently being distributed through a number of our project initiatives.

Earlier this week, I donated 3 bundles of nets (~150) to a clinic on the edge of Niamey.  This clinic is the first-stop service point for those who live in the villages where I work, as well as servicing a few of the city districts and a “suburb” district just outside town.  These bundles were divided into three areas for distribution:

• maternity ward: to mothers with newborns
• pre-natal clinic: for mothers who come to their pre-natal check-ups
• infirmary: to those who are already being treated for malaria

The doctor and clinic administrator have reported that the rate of malaria has increased greatly this year.  It is a good rainy season – and a “catch 22”.  Rain is so desperately needed for the crops and the subsistence farmers; but the better a rainy season for the crops, the more the rate of malaria increases as well!

During this last week, I have also done 3 mosquito net distributions throughout the village area where I work.  The nets distributed in 3 locations in order to reduce the distance the villagers need to walk to attend the teaching and distribution.

At each distribution, I taught a quick lesson which reviewed the four lessons I taught in 2012 during the first distribution:

• malaria transmission – the mosquito
• mosquito reproduction – the need for standing water in which to lay their eggs, after 10 days, more mosquitoes now live to transmit malaria
• malaria symptoms and treatment
• mosquito net use and care

During the section on malaria transmission, I did a short skit: Calling one person to stand on my right and another on my left.  I in the middle was the mosquito!!  The person to my right was sick with malaria while he on my left was healthy.  I taught that as the mosquito feeds of the sick person, it receives malaria – and then gives it to the healthy person when he finishes feeding from them.  However, if someone is sleeping under a mosquito net, then the medicine in the net will irritate the mosquito – which then flies away before finishing its meal and thus it does not transmit malaria to the healthy person.   In this way, the net saves people from being infected with malaria.  The medicine in the net also kills the mosquito – thus reducing the mosquito population in the area!

After the teaching – we set about distributing the nets.  Each net costs the villagers 200f (~ .50¢) … these funds are being held for the village benefit.  In the next few months, I aim to start a village medical locker – medicines which the villagers can purchase at a reduced rate, but sufficient enough for the medicine supply to be replenished.

It is always a bit of a gong-show to do a distribution …. my pronunciation of names unfamiliar to me is sometimes entertaining!  And it takes awhile to get through all the recipients and then determine who in the village was missed.  There is no official census of the village – save for the distribution lists that I create!  Since the last distribution, there have been deaths, people have moved, young men have married.  I am amazed at how many names the village representatives can keep in their memory, but there are always a few who are missed! 

I also love seeing the villagers show care and concern for each other – some of those who were to receive nets were elderly widows or those who are handicapped … those with no source of income.  Yet each time, someone in the community stepped up and paid for their net so they could also receive!

Here are some of my favourite pics of the distribution – admittedly, all from the third day, as the field director,

Tim came along for the fun and became the cameraman and film director!

Each day, I anticipated to be in the village for maybe 3 hours … but all 3 days, ended up lasting 5-7 hours!  Though each days was exhausting, due to the heat and driving – they were all days filled with joy, fun and excitement! 

From the mouths of the villagers – to all those donated towards the purchase of these mosquito nets:  Mi yetti ma sanne sanne!  Alla barkine!  …. Thank you very much!  May God bless you!

A Day in the Life of Kristi

I contemplated a few different names for this blog post … my second choice title would have been:

“My WAWA’d Schedule”

WAWA is a term used by ex-pats over here in Niger somewhat frequently and I’ve heard similar expressions for other corners of Africa.  

Its meaning: West Africa Wins Again.

This term has varying degrees of meaning.  Generally speaking it could mean “Life (read: my day, this morning, this task, this week) did not go as I had planned, and the complexities of life in Niger are what made my plans go awry.”

The emotion behind this can range from bemusement to complete and utter frustration.  Uttering this phrase, is a way to let other ex-pats or teammates know that frustration exists – without necessarily having to go into the details (though we usually do!).  But usually, common use of this phrase means, to quote Judith Viorst’s children’s book: I’ve had a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!!”

This could mean that you needed to do some paperwork for a government office, but the forms or procedures changed from last time (or even the month before).  In fact – this happened to me this summer while I was taking care of the office work over the holidays.  We needed to pay some back fees on government paperwork that we had not realized changed a percentage in their calculations earlier this year.  After one month, three different form propositions (and submissions) by/to this office, sending the Office Assistant down five times, and going down myself to speak with the supervisor – our money was finally accepted and our fees were paid!!  But, I digress … that is another story!

I had one of these days last term when I had planned language study, but the leaking roof in the office had me running around marking ceilings as per the landlord’s directions and waiting at the office until the evening for his representative to come look at the problem.

WAWA could also explain the day when I was working at the office last term and was called back to my house because the water office had taken my water meter (again!).  My landlord had two homes in his name – when the other tenants reneged on their water bill, my house happened to be the first listed under the landlord’s name … so they would take my water meter.  This meant that I was without water anywhere from 6 – 24 hours until the meter could be reinstalled. 

This day – I went driving back frantically to my house to catch the guys.  Spoke with them.  Drove back to the office for the bill and proof of payment.  They assured me they would bring my meter back when they were finished in the neighbourhood.  I brought a chair out to the street and sat there to watch and ensure that they didn’t leave without bringing my meter back!!

I haven’t really felt yet, since I returned last year, that I’ve had any particular or distinguishing WAWA moments.  Perhaps it is a change of mindset?  Is WAWA based on my western mindset of having to set and meet schedules … productivity?  Sometimes.  And this term, I sense I am more learning to go with the ebb and flow of life – God’s timing versus mine.

But last week, in the general sense of “my plans changed due to life and culture,” could be classified as a WAWA week, and ultimately a WAWA day.  However, because most of the events that happened to change my life schedule were cultural norms and obligations, I’m not solid on calling it WAWA.

One of the most common questions I receive is “Tell me about your typical day/week in Niger.”  My typical response is that there is “No Typical Day” (nor typical week).  Every day changes.  What I do from day to day … and week to week changes!  

So, I thought I would blog about this week … hence A Day (week) in the Life of Kristi:

My original plans for this week were pretty low key.  My major plan was to continue assessing the data from a survey I did in my village in May/June.  Aside from this, I had a few scheduled  events:

Tuesday: work with the Office Assistant

Wednesday: meet with Fati to follow-up on the micro-enterprise project

Thursday (12:30-2:30): Meeting with ex-pats who work with Fulani

Possibly on the docket – having a first meeting with the ladies in Golfumba to talk about their dreams and visions for the future and discuss my ideas as well.  This meeting is on hold as my main contact out there – Safia – is staying at a hospital in town to care for her sick sister.  Once the sister regains her health – the meeting is on.

Fairly simple and manageable plans!  …. Enter “WAWA”.

What happened to my week:

Monday night: Office Assistant calls …. he needs to take his sick wife to the clinic on Tuesday morning … Can we work on Wednesday??

Yes, no problem.  However, Monday night is too late to reschedule Wednesday meeting to Tuesday.  So, this meeting was moved to 9am on Thursday – still plenty of time to make the meeting at 12:30.

Tuesday: became a catch up on work and email day (the internet was having issues on the weekend – so lots of emails to attend to!)  Data assessment on my village survey continues.

Tuesday Night: The village chief’s son calls me to inform me that the sister of Safia had passed away.  It is customary in Fulani culture to go and visit with the family to pass on condolences.  Though this can be done within a month, the first week is the norm and practice – the most important.  So, I plan to visit this family on Thursday morning as well while I am out nearby.  These visits only last 20-45 minutes, so still completely manageable to making my meeting, albeit possibly late.

Wednesday: work with the Office Assistant … more emails

Thursday …. the day that got WAWA’d … my original plans:

9-10:30 : micro-enterprise project follow-up

11-12 : visit Safia’s family

drive across town

12:30 – 2:30 : Fulani worker meeting

3:00 : stop in at Orca - a store on the road home: to buy a scale, kitchen scissors, an exacto knife and maybe some small baskets if there are some available … this is a fun store with lots of unique items for sale – but as it is on the other side of town, I usually only go when already driving by or as a shopping trip with friends!

What really happened in my day …. A Day in the Life of Kristi:

7:30 … I wake up to the sound of rain.  Not much in Niamey happens in the rain – in fact, it is usually only us ex-pats who venture outside.  I contemplated calling off the plans for the day and rescheduling for Saturday … turning over and going back to sleep (getting over a cold takes rest!).  But I can tell by the sound of the rain that it is just over a drizzle.  As most of my meetings are indoor meetings, I decide to honour my plans.

9:00 …. I arrive at Fati’s house

I then chatted with Fati for 1.5 hours.  Her husband, Abdoulaye, had taken his sick younger brother to the clinic – his brother was then diagnosed with malaria and given medication.

I could do the meeting without Abdoulaye, but Fati has mentioned her husband’s stuff is on top of hers (and I think he had the key to the money box), and she obviously doesn’t feel comfortable moving his things around … so we had to wait for him to get home.

10:30 – 12:30 …. Abdoulaye arrives home and we start the micro-enterprise follow-up meeting.

This should typically take an hour max. … but many people stopped in to chat with me and them … and the meeting is put on hold each time to chat with those who come to visit.

12:30 … we head to my friend Aissa’s place

A few weeks ago, one of the goats that I gave to Aissa as a “loaner goat” for the year was hit by a child driving a motorcycle.  The broken leg was bound by a Fulani herder, but Abdoulaye has heard rumour that either the goat has died or she has had to sell the goat to gain a profit before the goat died of infection. 

As he did not have phone credit to call her for verification, and as her house was on the route to Safia’s, we stopped here first.  We also were served lunch – steamed rice couscous with beans and fried onions.

Indeed, the goat was sold.  She regained only half the value of the goat as it was sick.  She was going to call the owner of the motorcycle who has seemed to indicate that he is willing to pay for the damages.  We plan that if he does indeed pay money (20,000 francs …. $50Cdn) then we will rebuy a “loaner goat”.  If he does not pay for the damages, then we will wait a month until the price of goats goes down again and we will rebuy the second goat at that time.

1:30 … we head to Safia’s place to give our condolences

Here again I am served lunch – this time rice and beans, with some macaroni on top … and spices!  One mouthful ended up being 90% ground hot red peppers – YIKES!!

I chatted with these ladies for a while.  Abdoulaye soon needs to leave, so he can take his brother back to the clinic for his second round of medicine injections.  I agree to drop 3 people off at a market on the road – but then they discover that I live close to their village on the other side of town.  It would cost them 3-4 taxi fares to get home (each) … or, rather, to the place from where they would have to walk, as taxis do not go as far as their village. 

2:30 …. I become a taxi,

and we head back across town.  The traffic is unusually high for 3:00 in the afternoon – worse than rush-hour!  So, I wonder absently if something is going on.  At 3:30 (what should have been a 20 minute drive across town), I drop my three passengers off at where they can walk home.

3:30 …. I visit my guard

As taking my passengers to their drop-off takes me out past the home of one of my guards – I decide to visit him and his family while on the road driving back home.  He is on sick leave for a month, having stepped on a broken glass at the end of June … his foot is now infected and swollen.  As he went out to the village shortly after the injury, to work in his millet fields, it did not receive the treatment it needed as there are no clinics out there.  Since his return two weeks ago, he has been receiving treatment and I am happy to hear that it is doing much better!

It was a good thing I decided to stop as he had been sitting out beside the road visiting with his neighbours - and saw me drive past with my passengers!

4:00 …. I notice the Director is in the office still – so I stop in to chat with him for a few minutes about my day and to check on some work.

4:15 … I finally arrive home!!! …. 7.45 hours after I left!

At the end of the day, though everything I had planned for the day in my nice little day timer was completely rearranged …. the day was not only as it should have been, but a day filled with joy for me as well to be with my friends in their ups & downs of life!  And I ended my day supremely thankful that I had not rescheduled my plans and turned over for more sleep!

Help With a Twist

This last month – I started a project with two ladies … but the project is a twist of three types of projects combined.

• habanaaye: traditional Fulani aid for the poor in their community, those who have a herd of animals (cows, sheep, goats) can loan a female animal to someone in need.  This person will keep the animal for 1-2 years, after which, the original animal is returned to its owner and the animals born during that time are kept by the borrower to start their own herd.
• l’embouche:  this is a program that I heard of through Samaritan’s Purse … literally, it translates to “animal fattening”.  The concept is that a widow (or someone in need) is given a male sheep to keep and feed for a year.  In the culture here, once a year, a sheep is sacrificed in their religion … and the cost of these animals sky-rocket during this month.  So, the widow after a year, has a sheep to sell at anywhere from 2-5 times its original value.  She will then with the funds made buy two sheep – one for another widow and one with which to start her own herd.
• micro-enterprise: In a micro-enterprise program, I would generally want the recipient, or recipient group, to save 1/2 of the needed project funds to start a program … their investment into helping themselves.  The remaining half would then be a loan that would be repaid over the first year of their project as they make money. … A small enough percentage of their earnings so that they are also making enough funds to reinvest in their program and make a profit; but conversely, a large enough percentage so as not to draw out their repayment period over more than a year.

I started to reflect on these three project ideas in May – during a month of surveys in which I met one Fulani lady in great need.

Meet Fulani Lady 1:

In the last year, Ummu’s husband died in a market accident.  He earned money by hiring himself out as a market shepherd – one who would herd animals bought to the land of their new owner.  One day, he was gored in the stomach by a cow horn and died.  He and his wife lived with her older mother.  Then this mother got sick, and the widow sold two of her three goats to buy medicine … the mother died.  Her oldest child, a daughter, sent her daughter to live with the grandmother to help care for her.  Now, this widow had no source of income and lives on the gifts of friends who visit her.  She was one of a few people who could articulate an actual plan/dream of how to improve the life of her family – Ummu would like to start a business of selling firewood from her courtyard.  As she has slight paralysis problems with her legs and cannot walk well, she cannot have a business which requires her to circulate and sell product (or to travel to purchase her product)… but firewood is delivered by wood trucks to the sellers and those who want firewood also go to the seller to buy.

Meet Fulani Lady 2:

The second Fulani lady that I've been wanting to help is my friend Aissa.  A few years ago, her husband divorced her because she is barren.  Aissa moved back to her family home out in a village along with two children in her care – a younger sister and a cousin or niece.  However, this year, Aissa moved back into the capital so that the older girl could attend school – having reached the higher levels of education not available in the village.

Aissa now lives in a straw hut, squatting on land on the edge of town.  She earns a small amount of income each day by cooking lunch meals to sell to construction workers in the neighbourhood.

Each of these plates contain a meal of rice and beans - which is then topped with: steamed rice couscous; a mixture of leaves, peanut butter, and onions; hot red pepper powder, and a spicy sesame seed powder mix.

It seems like a lot of food to me – but I am sure the guys making bricks and building homes work up a large appetites!!

Aissa dreams of being able to both start a street restaurant to cater to more of the construction workers in the neigbourhood, and to be able to sell food ingredients that are only sold at a market 8 km away.

Hindrances:

For both of these ladies, Ummu without any source of income and Aissa with only enough income to keep her small business of five plate sales a day afloat, neither has no way to save money aside in order to start a micro-enterprise project. 

With the cultural religious holiday only three months away, it was not enough time for a traditional embouche project.  And though habanaaye is a good traditional, and culturally appropriate way to help, the return of investment to bring them help would be one-year away.

Enter …. Project with a Twist:

In what may be a trial run for future possibilities – I decided to combine all three project ideas into helping both of these two ladies.  Last month, I bought each of them three goats: 2 female goats and 1 male goat.

The two female goats are habanaaye … the traditional Fulani method of helping those in need.  These ladies will keep their two female goats for one year, after which they will be returned to me (and I will turn around to give them out to others in need).  The ladies will own and keep all young from these goats – I chose goats because they can reproduce faster than sheep and are easier to feed.

The male goat is part of the embouche project idea … we bought older male goats which the ladies will then sell during the religious holiday.  The purchase of this goat was my gift to them – so all the profit goes to these ladies, with which ….

They start their micro-enterprise projects - without a loan requiring repayment!  During the set-up of these projects, I will be meeting with the ladies to help them think through their plans – the expenses required and potential income.  The first few months or half-a-year, I hope to continue meeting with these ladies to help them as their projects roll-out.

It is written in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.

 In the spirit of this proverb, I hope to stand alongside these two women … so that neither is alone in their attempts, but as a second “in” the labour, I can help them up if they should fall down.