Happy 4th of July everyone! I’m back in the city again for a little while. I’ll get you guys up to date with life in Niger…

I was in the capital a couple of weeks ago and was able to go and see Niger play Benin in a World Cup qualifying match. It wasn’t a great game as Niger lost 2-0, but we all had a good time and were definitely supporting “our country”. We just recently went back to the training site for our Mid Service Training. We’re almost at a year which hard to believe! We shared past projects as well as future project ideas and discussed which projects worked or didn’t work and why. I think it was a productive time but it was also great to see all of the volunteers from my group together again.

The rains finally have begun. They were very spotty at first but now we are really coming into rainy season. My villagers are very thankful that they’ve begun but that also means that the real work has started. The men normally head out to the fields before 7am and usually don’t return home until 5pm. Six days a week they farm from morning to night. I plan on having a bean field so we’ll see how that goes. I guess I need to get out there and work up a good sweat. I also plan on having a rainy season garden in my concession. I will be planting cucumber, soy beans, lima beans, basil, tomatoes, eggplant and a few other vegetables. It will take some effort but hopefully I’ll be eating well come August.

I recently went and visited a volunteer whose village is right on the Niger River. We went out to see the elephants again who have not yet migrated into the deep forest. We took a pirogue up river and after a twenty-minute ride we found them on the bank on the Benin side of the river. There were thirteen in total, seven in the water playing and bathing, and six on land grazing. We were able to dock the pirogue on some rocks in the river since the water is so low. From the rocks we were only about 40-50 feet away from the elephants. What an amazing site to see! We sat there for over an hour and watched them roll around in the water, play fight, and graze. It was definitely one of the most excited things I have ever been able to witness. We headed back just as the sun was setting.

The other day in our regional capital some of the volunteers got together for a duck feast! One of the volunteers bought four ducks of which three we killed, myself getting to do the honors for one of them. We split up tasks and I was part of the grilling team. We ended up oven roasting one, frying one and grilling one which we ate with mashed sweet potatoes and brown rice. It was an amazing feast and all three ducks tasted great of course I was partial to the grilled one! We’re talking about having a pig roast next!

The new group of volunteers are about to arrive in country and I was chosen to be one of the volunteers who train the newbies. I’m really excited about being to help them out as well as see things from the flip side after being here for nearly a year. We get to go to the airport to pick them up and see all of their frightened faces so it will be fun. I can still remember how overwhelmed I was stepping foot on Nigerien soil for the first time. There are 48 trainees coming in so we will have our work cut out for us but it will be a great time!

I guess that’s about all to report for now. The dreads are doing well, locking up slowly but surely. I’ll let y’all know if anything else crazy or exciting comes up soon. Take care and keep in touch. Zatara

Do a rain dance!

What’s up guys, just got back from the bush and will soon be heading to our Mid Service Training. Pretty crazy. I can’t believe I’m in my 11th month in country! Time sure does fly- it seems like the days go by slowly but the weeks are gone just like that. A quick update on my life in Niger…

I was in the capital a couple of weeks ago for “Pangaea,” a music and dance festival put on by a few of the volunteers. This is the second year of the event and it turned out better than anyone had hoped it would. I was volunteering as a photographer which I was definitely excited about. The cultural exchange through music and dance was amazing- learning more about Nigerien music (traditional, rap, reggae, etc) and teaching locals about the origins of music from the states. My favorite part of the week were the daily “jam sessions” where a few guys would get together with a couple of guitars, djembe drums and some local instruments and just sing and jam out! There was a great turn out for the event, especially at the nightly concerts which were packed. We all had a good time.

Back in the village things have been great. It took my villagers a little while to get used to my dreadlocks but are fine with it now. They do offer to shave my head any time I would be willing but they know that’s not going to happen any time soon!

The first volunteer in my village, from ’99-’01, got in touch with me and came back to visit along with his wife and another volunteer who all served in Niger at the same time. It was a great reunion, all of the villagers were so excited to see Jason whom they hadn’t seen in seven years. It was also really cool being able to talk to him about the village and how things have changed in the time he’s been gone.

I have continued to work on the school maps, finishing up the map of Niger recently (now there is a world map, map of Africa and map of Niger). They all turned out great and the kids love them. I can’t wait to begin teaching geography lessons in the fall. I’ll also begin to teach weekly health lessons to the school children. We finally got a mason to come out to the school and in two days he along with many of the village men repaired the classroom’s roof, repaved one of the walls, and cemented the classroom floor. The classroom looks really good now and will look even better once I finish painting the walls white. Hopefully more kids will be encouraged to attend school now that it is so fresh and so clean!

Since the mason was in town working on the classroom, I had him come by and cement the interior walls of my hut. After having the sacks of cement sitting in my hut for three months waiting for the work to get done, I was so glad to finally get it taken care of. I plan on painting a mural on my wall, still deciding what to paint- maybe a beach scene.

Since school ended this week, I held a relay race for the primary school children and gave out prizes to the winners. We had a 100 yard dash, a potato sack race and a wheelbarrow race! It was so funny watching these kids do the latter two as they had never done those types of races before- they were hilarious! The kids all had such a great time- it was heartwarming to see the kids smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves. Among the prizes were t-shirts, notebooks, pencils and scratch-n-sniff stickers.

I’m currently working on getting funds to build a pulley system for each of the two wells in my villages. This will greatly reduce the risk of women falling into the well and will make pulling water much easier for them. I also plan on starting a major tree planting project in my village (around 300) with trees including mango, papaya and many local varieties of trees.

Guess that’s about it for now. Things are well and I feel very blessed here. God willing the rains will come soon, say a prayer because we certainly need the rain. Take care and please keep in touch. Much love, James.

Niger is hot as Sahel!

Hey guys, I just got out of the bush for a while so I wanted to let you all know what’s been going on in the village for the last couple of months. Well, I successfully made it through hot season- some of those days I wasn’t sure if I could handle the heat but I pulled through thanks to a little patience and some cold water from a clay water pot I bought. I keep it in the corner of my hut and it keeps the water surprisingly cool. The temperature some days was almost unbearable- 110°F inside my hut and hovering around 130°F outside in the sun in the afternoon. All I could do was sit in the shade and sweat as I daydreamed of a swimming pool.
Our first rains arrived in the village close to two weeks ago and we were all grateful for it, especially the villagers. The rains came about three weeks later this year than last so villagers were beginning to get anxious. The rainy season has definitely begun though- we have had three or four heavy rains, allowing my villagers to plant their millet. I went out with one of my villagers and his children to plant one morning which was pretty neat. A few men walked lines up and down the fields with their hoe, digging holes about every three feet or so. A group of us walked behind them barefooted, dropping a pinch of millet seed and fertilizer in each hold and covering up each hole by pushing the loose dirt over with our feet. After a couple hours I figured out a routine that went pretty quick- drop the seed, cover, walk two steps, repeat. The men will begin heading to the fields daily to work them- resting is over for the next six months.
I have a cat now, not sure if everyone knew about that. His name is Damien and he’s still a kitten. A friend came up with the name because this kitten was feral when we picked it up from another volunteer. It’s definitely calmed down now and is nice to have around the place. It has begun hunting the lizards that frequent my place and lately I haven’t seen any rat poop around so that’s another plus. The only downside is that the cat is active at night and is definitely wound up by the time I set my bed up and am ready for sleep. Whether Damien is running laps around my bed, sleeping not next to me but on my head, or wrestling with bush cats in the middle of the night, he definitely keeps me busy.
My concession just got remodeled which I’m definitely relieved about. My hut’s thatched roof was in dire need of repair before the rains arrived but that didn’t get done until just the other day. It was quite a night inside my leaky hut when the first rains came through- I had quite a bit of water rushing into my place but luckily nothing was damaged. I arranged a “bogu”, or community work where the men came over and all worked on my roof together. They tore down my old one, beat all of the dust off of the frame and wrapped it with new hay and brush to make it water proof. With the help of a couple villagers I also tore down my old shade hanger and put up a bigger, stronger and better one in the corner of my yard so that the main area of my yard can now be used for a rainy season garden. I just bought two chairs and a table to go under my shade hanger so I am really living the good life now!
I’ve been working on my school project for the last month or so and it is coming along very well. I finally received funding for a classroom renovation project for the primary school in my village along with a world map project. So far I have repainted all of the blackboards, repainted the teachers’ desk and chairs, and begun repainting the classroom walls. With the help of a couple other volunteers who came and stayed at my place for a few days, we painted a huge world map on one of the school walls. It took a good while but looks great! I just finished a large map of Africa on another wall that also turned out really well. Now, I just have to paint the map of Niger and then I will begin teaching world geography lessons, in the local language, to the students. I will then finish painting the walls and hopefully have enough paint leftover for the students’ desks. We will also re-cement the floor of the classroom and repair the holes in the roof. I also bought all new school supplies for the classroom and students which they were all very excited about. The headmaster of the school and I plan on going home to home and speak to the parents about the importance of their children, especially girls, attending school in hopes of increasing enrollment for the next school year.
I have also been playing soccer with the school kids every afternoon and they get a kick out of it! I just recently finished a soccer net for one of the goals at the school yard field. I learned how to make rope out of weaving old plastic bags together. I made several ropes and then weaved them together into a “net” for the goal. I’ll continue to make ropes until I have enough rope for the second net. Now we just need grass for the field…don’t think that will be happening though!
Well I guess that’s about all for now. Hope this brings you guys up to date on my life here in Niger. Take care and keep in touch. Much love, James

Adventures in Niger

Just wanted to let you all know about my latest adventures in Niger. A couple of weeks ago I went to visit a villager in the bush. We took an hour bush walk to this village near the river which is known for its bird sanctuary. The birds migrate during the dry season looking for water in the seasonal lakes beside the Niger River. We were able to take a pirogue (dug out canoe) ride at sunset on one of the lakes and saw thousands of birds on the water. After getting near them, the entire flock took off in what seemed like a cloud, it was incredible!

Last week I went to see another volunteer at her village which is on the bank of the Niger River. In the evening we took a pirogue ride on the river and went on foot into the national park with one of the guides. Elephants! We turned a corner and saw five elephants grazing on the other side of a canal. After watching them for a bit, we headed further into the bush on a path beside one of the canals searching for another heard of elephants. After about a twenty minute walk, we spotted some elephant dung, kept walking and found a herd of eighteen elephants on the opposite bank of the canal! They were amazing to watch. One of the best things about it was the fact that we were able to see them grazing in their natural environment. We were only about twenty feet away from the herd and they were not at all worried by our presence. We sat on the edge of the river and watched them for some time, grazing at the water's edge and reaching up with their trunks to reach the foliage in the trees. At sunset we left the elephants and rode around a bit more on the river before heading back to the village. It was an unforgettable day in Niger. Hopefully next time I will be able to spend longer in the bush and see a variety of animals- there are supposed to be baboons and a wide variety of birds. A few people have also come across lion dung so we'll see how it goes. All is well in Niger and hot season is here. Much love, Jah Bless

Project Play

March 5, 2008

Family and friends-

Hey guys, hope all is well back in the States! Things are great here in Niger; hot season is on its way though. I just got back from one of the craziest road trips ever! I'll give you guys a quick recap of my last week...

I was hanging out at the hostel last weekend since we had a team meeting and the new PCV's on Team Dosso had come back from "live in" where they spend a week at their post. Anyway, this group of white people showed up (I never see white people other than Peace Corps volunteers and staff). They were a group from this organization called "Project Play". The head of the group, Mike Michelle, was w PCV in Zinder, Niger from 1983-86. As a volunteer he began to play soccer to stay sane and ended up playing with the Zinder team and winning the national championship with them! He came back 25 years later with over 2,000 balls to give to PCV's and locals in hopes of encouraging the game.

I had written a proposal and asked for a few balls without realizing how many they had. Well, Dosso was their first stop so instead of receiving the six I had asked for, I received 40 since I was so interested and excited about the project. Mike and the others noticed my interest and invited me to come along and be the liaison between them and Peace Corps. Of course I said yes!

We headed out from Dosso on Saturday morning and went to Konni, Maradi, and on to Zinder, stopping at roadside villages, Peace Corps hostels and PCVs' villages on the way east (look at a map to see how far we went). In Zinder, Mike was able to meet up with many of his old teammates with whom he won the championship 25 years earlier. It was a great moment to be a part of. We were able to donate balls to the current Zinder team as well.

I just now got back from Zinder, tired and with a sore back side. I won't begin to go into the condition of the roads and some of the set backs along the way!

I am now the “in country director/coordinator” for Project Play in Niger. I am responsible for compiling feedback and photos from other volunteers, schools and organizations that received the balls and relay that information back to the Project Play folks back in the States and Brazil, where Mike lives. We were able to give away of most of the soccer balls, bags, pumps and needles (about 600 balls are still in country). I will also be in charge of the remaining balls to give them out according to people's needs.

This has been an amazing week for me, a real landmark in my service here in Niger. It was so uplifting seeing the kids’ faces once they received these shiny new balls. Just as a quick example, one secondary school we went to had over 1000 students and only two soccer balls. You all can imagine how grateful they were to receive over 20 brand new balls. Amazing!

Lastly, I wanted to share a project idea that this adventure sparked for me. Since plastic bags are used for everything here, it has created quite a problem (no recycling, trash collection). The streets and trees are always littered with bags so I decided to do something about it. I will be collecting bags, twisting them together to make thin ropes, tying them together and making a grid which will eventually be made into soccer nets. I am really excited about getting this underway because I think it goes hand-in-hand with Project Play.

I'll need a full week to recover from this road trip but I had the most amazing time. I will try to get some pictures send y'alls way soon. Take care and keep in touch.

Much love,
James

Life in the Bush Continues...

Hey guys, just wanted to let you all know that things are going great here in Niger. I just made it to the capital to welcome in the new stage who is swearing in. It's nice to meet the new group and hang out with old friends all in one place, of course that means that the hostel gets a little crowded. I showed up a little later than other volunteers which meant that all of the cots, mattresses, pillows, blankets, sheets and mosquito nets were taken. I had to settle with a big pink towel which served as my shower towel, pillow and blanket. Hey, it was better than nothing. The first night I pushed two chairs together, trying to make a bed. That worked out for all of half an hour. I'm sure I'll get it figured out at some point.

I took some time off at the pool yesterday, looking to fix up my farmer's tan a bit; too bad I just ended up with a burned body. I'm headed back to the bush soon and plan on spending all of hot season there...we'll see how that works out. I am contemplating the idea of buying cement and making a kiddie pool under my shade hanger to help beat the heat, not sure if that will happen or not.

At least mango season has begun. I experimented with my dutch oven recently and made some really good raisin banana bread. Hopefully I can perfect the technique and start "baking" at post.

Well, I guess that's about it for now; I'm gonna go and find some shade or a fan to sit under.

Much love,

James, aka Zatara

Trip to African Nations Cup

Family and Friends-

Hey, it’s Zatara, aka Jah Bless. Just wanted to let you all know about the crazy vacation trip I took to Ghana in late January to see the African Nations Cup soccer tournament. But first let me catch you up on life in the bush.

Everything here in the bush is just fine. The men have begun clearing the fields and getting them ready for planting. I spoke with some villagers and I will be getting a field of my own to plant beans and peanuts and maybe some millet as well. That should keep me pretty busy throughout rainy season. I’m still working on my Zarma daily while trying to stay in the shade. Hot season is approaching; yesterday it was over 120ºF in the sun at 4 pm and by nightfall it was still in the 90s. Anyway, back to my Ghana trip…

I met up with Alexis and Chris, two other volunteers in my region, in southern Niger and we all hung out at my buddy Jeremy’s place for a couple of days before we left. The bus ticket from Niger to Lome, Togo’s capital, was 15,000 CFA (around $35). The bus ride took us through Benin and on to Togo and then south to Lome, a 14 hour trip. It was quite a long haul with only a couple of rest stops in between. Quickly I noticed the change in landscape compared to Niger; many more trees and hills throughout the countryside. We arrived in Lome late at night, exhausted, so we quickly found a hotel and crashed. We hit the streets of Lome, first heading to the beach to put our toes in the sand and get our feet wet - what a feeling after living in a landlocked country for 6 months!

We stopped by an artisan’s center and then went to a fetish market where they practiced voodoo and sold every type of dead animal parts imaginable - horns, animal pelts, vultures, owls, bats, monkey skulls, elephant bones, pig vertebrae, hyena skulls, porcupine quills, etc. It was pretty wild. The highlight of the day for me was going to “King Burger” and eating a king burger (meat, cheese, fried egg, lettuce)! That night we partied with some Ivory Coast fans who were celebrating their team’s victory.

The next day we took a short ride to the Ghanaian border and then a 3 hour bush taxi ride to Accra, Ghana’s capital. There we met up with a professor that I studied abroad with in 2004. It was great to seem him again; he said that he always knew I would return to Africa. He was able to find us a hotel near the center of town where we stayed for the first few nights in Ghana. We checked out the capital on foot, hung out on the beach, went to several dive bars, saw a few soccer games at the stadium, ate some great local food, and more than anything, just relaxed.

Next we traveled to Kumasi in the interior of Ghana to watch a few more soccer matches. We also went to the zoo in Kumasi and spent a couple of nights with some Ghana PCVs at their hostel. From Kumasi we traveled southwest to Takoradi to watch two more soccer matches and then bush taxied to Cape Coast. We checked out the old colonial town, went to Cape Coast castle, an old slave fort, and ate at a beachside restaurant. We also went to Fort William, an old lighthouse overlooking the town, where I was able to capture some beautiful pictures. We then checked out Elmina castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482, which was later converted to a slave fort.

The next day we traveled to a small beachside town and stayed the night at Fort Good Hope, a slave fort turned into a “hotel”. The views from up top were amazing! We spent most of the day on a secluded beach, enjoying our vacation with not a worry in a world. Our last stop before heading back to the capital was Big Millie’s, a cheap, laid back beachside resort. We ate great food there, swam in the ocean, played beach soccer, and danced to reggae music with the local Rastafarians. It was a great stop.

Back in Accra we were able to get scalped tickets to a semifinal match between Ghana, the hosts, and their rival, Nigeria. As you all can imagine the streets were packed with Ghanaian fans, as was the stadium- not an empty seat around. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere in the city after Ghana came back to win 2-1. Everyone went crazy! That night we met up with a bunch of Niger PCVs at a nice sports bar to watch the Super Bowl. It was pretty crazy watching American football on ESPN!

We headed back to the border with Togo, spent one more night in Lome and then headed back to Niger, arriving there at 5 am. I got a few hours of sleep and then took a bush taxi back to my village. What a trip! Now it’s back to life in the bush. I’ve begun coaching the school children soccer. That has been a great time especially seeing the girls having fun. It has also taught me a lot of patience - keeping 3 teams in order at once is not an easy ordeal.

Well, I guess that’s about all for my trip. The pictures will tell so much more. I hope all is well back home, please keep in touch and continue to write and send pictures.

Much love,
James