Tim & Christine News from the Sahara: January 2008

Sunday, January 20, 2008

holidays and vacation

Hi! Yes, Christmas is gone past but here in the land of sand it was

of course an unusual Christmas & New years time for us! Our experience in driving through snow drifts in Canada is helpful as the sand is getting deeper, I've almost had the vehicle stuck in the sand dunes (on the road) on many occasions. Over the holidays we had a couple of weeks vacation and adventure along with...

We visited Bénin - a small country which borders on - yes - the ocean! as well as Niger. Very tropical there on the coast. We took the bus there and back (see photo), cheap on the wallet but hard on the body - 17 hours bumpy ride each way, no washroom on the bus. We spent New Years eve at the bus station, not too exciting but we had a great week of travelling.

We spent a week at a 2-star small resort on the beach called Awalé Plage, in a town called Grand Popo. It was a real nice change to see so much water!! We enjoyed jumping in the waves. Grand Popo is a small friendly town, nice quiet beaches and few tourists, good eats as well.

Benin is known for its mobylette or motorcycle taxis, we took those a lot despite dangers I suppose.

Grand Popo is a fishing village as well, so interesting seeing the local life there too. Photo below shows

some of the

local people pulling in the fishing nets.
They sing songs as they pull on the nets. There was an African music group playing on Sat night.

Our other adventure!?

Visiting the wildlife reserve called Parc W which borders on Niger and Benin.
Very cool experience - you drive through the reserve and wild animals are living and roaming about in their natural state. Including our surprising discovery of a lion which was right next to the road. Yiikes! We stopped, it went and sniffed the truck and looked at us, then walked away. Christine likes the little things - especially the termite hills - see photo. This style of termite hill is called the cathedral. When the queen termite dies, the termites abandon their castle. Nature - bizarre stuff!
We missed out on seeing elephants, but we did see fresh tracks from them.

We're glad to have the chance to see some interesting things while out here, although we missed having the family get toethers at Christmas. We appreciated a lot our Christmas gifts like tea, sweetner, DVDs, etc!

That's

it for now!

Samaritan's Purse Niger

Samaritan's Purse (SP)
has 4 different broad ways in which it helps "hurting" people in the world; Three of these occur in Niger, namely:

1) Emergency Relief and Development projects
(this is the main thrust of SP worldwide)
This is the area Tim works in, as Deputy Country Director.

2) The World Medical Mission (WMM) - placement of Doctors and medical staff and equipment in hospitals. In Niger, SP helps the Galmi mission hospital (SIM) near Maradi.

3) Operation Christmas child (OCC) - gift box distribution to children.

In Niger, SP has projects for:
* Biosand Water Filters; sanitation
* Nutrition and food for malnourshed children; in collaboration with UNICEF and WFP; Health education.
* Livestock projects; agriculture
* Emergency needs (built lodging)
* community development

Also in Niger, SP involved with
* supports projects with local NGOs - Grain banks, animals
* WMM placement of medical staff at Galmi hospital
* OCC gift distribution to children

For more info on SP Niger,
click on this link.

SP has field offices in 22 countries - countries which receive relief and development aid. Niger is the only African Francophonie country among these 22.
OCC distributes gifts to children in over 100 countries.

Note also that all views expressed in this blog are ours, and they do not necessarily reflect the views of Samaritan’s Purse.

About Niger Africa

Niger is a hot dry land locked country in West Africa. It is a fascinating and little known place.
BBC has an updated summary on Niger

The capital of Niger is Niamey where Tim and Christine are based. Niamey is in the southern tropical area of Niger. City population about 750,000. There is also a river called Niger which flows through Niamey and the southern part of Niger. It is the 3rd longest river in Africa and flows through many countries.

Niger is 80% Sahara desert. The southern part of the country is savana grasslands. The scrub grasslands bordering the Sahara south is called the Sahel.

Some interesting stats on Niger:
(disclaimer - info gleemed from the internet and varies between sources)
* Literacy: 10%
* Population: about 14 million (2007), 50% under age 15
* Size: Bigger than Ontario. Largest country in West Africa.
* Economy: 90% agriculture, 6% commerce, 4% government
* Ave annual income per person: $240(2006)
* Life expectancy: 56 years. 12% of infants die before their 1st birthday.
* Religion: Secular state with religious freedom
Approximately 96-99% Muslim or Animist
* Country dialing code: 227

Our Top 10 Best/worst

The top 10 best things about being here in Niger, in reverse order (a la David Letterman):

10 -	You can sing ♫ “I’m walking on sunshine ♫” every day as it’s true, every day is sunny.
9 -	Fish?! There is actually local fish here!! (albeit no ocean or lake). Capitaine is the local Niger river fish and it is very tasty!
8	We have a playful dog! And a sweet cat. No tropical fish though.
7 -	Traveling and seeing fascinating new places like Timbuktu instead of Hamilton Ontario.
6 -	Big treed courtyard – a nicer yard than we had in Canada. (No parks though).
5 -	No rat race! Easy pace of life. Living a simpler lifestyle. More time for spiritual reflection. More time for writing blogs J
4	Strong community. It’s a highly social close Christian community. We get asked out for dinner more often than when we are in Canada. We have a good sense of belonging to a community.
3	I get to work with goats! J Interesting new work – Tim with his director role and Christine with new teaching context.
2	Adventure and interesting things in abundance. There are many fascinating, exciting, scary, and peculiar (sometimes unpleasant) things too see or experience everyday.
1	We are helping people

10 worst/tough things about being here:

10 -	Sweating from just standing still. Hot and dry. No rain whatsoever(not until May thereabouts)
9 -	My feet are strangely orange all the time (from the sand). Sand everywhere. Imagine living on a beach with the tide out about 1000 miles.
8 -	“I’ll come at 9AM Monday” sometimes means “maybe I’ll come Monday some time, or maybe it’ll be Tuesday or Wed, I’ll just show up sometime this week unannounced”. Getting used to cultural differences. Death is also common here too.
7 -	Limited opportunities for playing sports. Having to be conservatively dressed at all times (Christine can only wear shorts or pants in private or when around other Westerners.)
6 -	We have very little for English radio stations and no TV. I do listen occasionally to BBC Africa. However there are places with satellite TV.
5	Finding coffee mugs and hangers was like a treasure hunt. It’s challenging to obtain/purchase many basic household things. Simple tasks around the home take longer (no dishwasher or microwave and the gas oven has no temperature control).
4	Driving. Drivers and driving are a half mad chaos, aggressive drivers competing with donkey or human pulled carts and motorcycles, goats and animal herds crossing the street, little traffic control. Tim drives, Christine is sticking to being a passenger.
3	Plenty of warm frothy camel milk and French baguettes if you’re into that, but little to none of certain foods we used to like eating. No sugar-free ice cream! No sushi, not many other favorite foods or healthy alternatives.
2	The concern of getting sick and about medical attention. Malaria! Taking pills (everyday for Christine). So far we are fairly healthy though.
1	Far away from family and friends in Canada. Communication by phone or computer is tricky. Short power failures happen almost daily!

Tim & Christine News from the Sahara

Sunday, January 20, 2008

holidays and vacation

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