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.
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.
2 comments:
Post a Comment