What's happening? Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. Hopefully you all got your fill of corned beef and cabbage and perhaps a Guiness or two. I'm currently in the capital having just attended the 'swear-in' ceremony for the new volunteers in Niger. It's a chance for the new kids to meet all of us, and also a chance for all the current volunteers to be in one place at the same time. It's a semi-annual thing. But alas, that time has come and gone so I must return to the village.
The past few months have been pretty busy. The women's garden is doing really well. There are over a hundred rectangular irrigation plots filled with cabbage, onions, carrots, and tomatos. The women have made the most of the garden and should make a large profit to invest in seeds and materials for next year. Also, the chief has given us a permanent piece of land to use so we can plant fruit trees and live-fencing (e.g. thorny trees that livestock won't walk through) for next year. I've got my fingers crossed that the garden really takes off. It's a good soure of income generation.
The other big thing I've been working on is the construction of a new well. I'm not in my village to see it, but it should be just about finished. I was lucky enough to find some grant money from Rotary International that was intended for use in the Birni N'Konni area, but ultimately went unused. So after I got my greasy fingers on it I went running around making contacts, getting estimates on costs, and finally getting the materials and laborers out there. And now I can proudly say there's a team of 5 men constructing a new well in my village. The villagers have a big role to play in the construction as well. They're responsible for providing sand, water, and rocks to add to the cement. And they're also providing food and shelter to the workers. Once again, I've been greatly impressed and inspired by their hard work and motivation. Men have been getting up at dawn to help with well construction before they head out to their gardens. And the women have more water to pull and more millet to pound for the well masons. If money and materials are left from this project we're planning on fixing the preexisting two wells in the village. So, I need to get back to Rawfi to sort all that out.
I'm off to Europe for a month come mid-April. Look for me in Paris, Barcelona, and Sevilla. And also keep your eyes open for a trendier, more liberal blog.
CHEERS,
Matt
P.S. PHOTOS!!! and even VIDEO!!!!
This is where the big guy rests his bones - that would be me. Sorry about the funny angle. You should be able to enlarge it and give it the ole 90-degree treatment. That's my bug-net hanging from the ceiling. Ciment floor, mud brick walls, and a log/mud roof. Dig it.
This is the daily afternoon routine at the women's garden. It is irrigated completely by hand. Next to the wells they construct water ways which carry the water to plots. After a plot is flooded they simply take a handful of mud and close it off, allowing the next plot receive water. It's not the most efficient process invented, but it's inexpensive and it works.
Kids hanging out in Konni. The girl in the middle is one of our guard's daughters. She's probably about 10-years-old. She's Fulani/Tuareg/Hausa. The boy on the far left is a Hausa boy. And the rest are Wadabi (a certain group of Fulani) kids. There's a large Wadabi family that lives next to our hostel and this shot was taken on the street, just outside their walls.
Three young men in Konni hanging out drinking tea. That's a small radio in the man's hand on the left. And that's a tea-glass in the man's hanf on the right. They look like American shot glasses here because they drink their tea super-concentrated with a ton of sugar. Drinking a full shot glass will make your head spin a little bit.
Here's a glimpse of the women's garden in Rawfi. It was a pretty dusty afternoon, so the light is kind of dim. Most of the green you'll see is cabbage. This was taken several weeks ago and the garden has grown substantially since then.
This is Saratu - one of the chief's countless kids. We were cleaning up my hut and listening to tunes when the music took us over. That's Curtis Mayfield's "Move on up" in the background.
Here's a video of several women pulling water for the garden. Pretty uneventful, but thought you might like to see some Hausa ladies doing their thing.
P.P.S. Now that I've figured out how to get video on the blog expect some more in the future. Adios.
