Life in the Vill...

Just wanted to let you all know that bush life is great and I made it through mini hot season and am now enjoying the transition into cold season. It's still amazingly hot during the day, but early mornings and the evenings are perfect and late at night it has begun to get a bit chilly (upper 60s)! I never thought I would think that was cold but I'm so used to the heat here. Crazy.

I spend the majority of the last two months in my village, mostly spending time with my villagers, tending to my garden and trying to survive the post rainy season heat. It looks like my villagers had an excellent harvest this year as the rains came late but were plentiful. When I left my village, the men were harvesting beans, wild wheat, sorghoum, and hibiscus fruits. The women are harvesting peanuts and ground nuts along with all of the daily chores that keep them busy from early morning to late night- pounding millet, taking care of children, washing clothes, cleaning up the compound, getting water, etc.

Working with the headmaster of my school along with a local NGO I recently did a school enrollment project that turned out quite well. Last school year we only had two classes for the primary school in my village and 59 students, 42 boys and only 17 girls. With a village of approximately 1500 people, this is pretty pitiful, especially with the number of children in the village. Our goal was to increase the enrollment and ideally we wanted enough for a third classroom. I was able to get funding for an NGO to come to my village and hold a village meeting where they spoke to the village parents on the importance of children, especially girls, going to school. There are so many taboos and reasons why children aren't in school so these Nigeriens were able to explain things and answer questions on a level that my villagers could understand and relate to. The meeting went very well and we even went to the neighboring village to have a meeting there.

From there it was up to the headmaster, some parents and I to recruit the students. For several days we went from compound to compound asking parents to put at least one of their children in school. It was like pulling teeth as they had many excuses for not being able to send their children to school- not enough hands to do the field work or herd the animals, not enough help around the home, too young, sick, etc- but with patience and perserverence we slowly recruited one student after another.

In total we recruited 37 students at last count, but are not finished. We have 15 new girls and 22 new boys. With the help of some village men we built a third classroom, a millet stalk "shack" like the second one, but enough to keep out the sun and wind.

I was also able to get a new teacher for our new class. We now have three teachers and three classrooms, first, third and fifth grade. I am out at the school daily to see the children and observe class. I will soon begin to teach weekly health lessons as well as world geography lessons. I will also continue to coach soccer each afternoon once school is out.

After being in Niger for over a year, I have begun to realize a few things that are a necessity for development to occur and I firmly believe that education is of the most importance. It is sustainable and that is the type of work I'm trying to focus on in my second year here. God willing the children will stay in school through high school and then doors will open for them. There is not one villager other than the teachers that have more than a primary school education and I am determined to change that.

Hammock Camping in the Bush

For those who haven't heard about my recent adventure or misadventure (however you want to look at it), in the bush, it was quite an experience...

About a month ago I decided to go camping out on a mesa not far from my market town. I biked out from my village on a Saturday about 15km to a beautiful mesa not far off of the main road. Arriving in late afternoon, I went searching for a good tree to set my hammock up in. Finding one that would serve me well, I made several trips carrying my belongings up the tree and set my hammock up on a limb about 20-25 ft above ground. I got all settled and watched the sun set from the comforts of my hammock. I went to sleep around 9pm, quite content to be there and enjoying the silence of the African bush.

Around 1am, the fun (or something like that) started...

I woke to strong winds and looking back to the East I saw a storm quickly approaching. Damn. There wasn't much I could do to prepare as I did not bring a tarp or any kind of rain gear. I decided I would brave the storm in the hammock, hoping it would quickly pass. As the storm got nearer, the winds were so strong that I was forced to hold on to the tree for fear of getting blown out of the hammock. Once the rain hit, all hell broke loose. I just curled into a ball in my hammock and tried to stay warm as the rain poured down for an hour and a half. By 2:30am, the storm had passed and only the cool wind remained, somthing that I am usually greatful for. As I was completly soaked and all of my gear was as well, I just covered myself with my wet sheets and shivvered myself into something resembling sleep.

By 4am I couldn't stand the cold any longer so I decided to climb down and try to start a fire. With a small box of Nigerien matches and just a few scraps of paper, I was unable to get a fire going with everything saturated. I gave up an hour later and climbed back up into my hammock, waiting for the sun to rise.

It wasn't until the sun came out and began to warm things up and dry my gear that I was able to get some real sleep. I woke to birds singing and a beautiful view, promises of a better day...

I definitely can't say that I regret going on my solo camping trip, it was just a combination of bad luck and me being unprepared. I got some great pictures and a good story out of the trip! Ironically, I was dripping in sweat on my ride back when just hours before I was miserably cold. So it goes in Niger. "Kala suuru" or "have patience" as they always say here...