Battle of the bugs

News from the battle front - African bugs - mosquitos actually...

Several things can keep us from sleeping at night, namely high temperatures, farm animals (roosters, goats...), the neighbourhood mosque, dogs howling over intruders, wind storms, but surely the worstof all are ...

Most every living organism agrees, except for possibly dragonflies and bats, that mosquitoes are annoying little creatures that somehow passed through careful inspection when God announced at creation that “It was good”. These blood-thirsty beasts must have sided with the devil early on, for they are nothing but evil incarnate with 2 wings, 6 legs and a razor-sharp siphon for a mouth! Their sole purpose is to torment any warm-blooded organism in an attempt to suck the life-blood out of it. These skilled demons have continued their moral decline and corrupt lifestyle over the centuries by making unwise alliances with equally evil elements of The Fall called “viruses”. Together, they collaborate to pursue their own selfish interests while making life miserable for warm-blooded organisms and spreading diseases such as West Nile virus, Dengue Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, and Malaria.

The mosquitoes in Niger are even more irritating and elusive than those of Canada. Whereas Canadian mosquitoes like the warm spots near the neck and the backs of the knees, Nigerien mosquitoes tend to go for the ankles, although they will bite any exposed skin available. Nigerien mosquitoes have a way of gorging on your blood without you even feeling a sting. It isn’t until they are flying away or are long gone that you notice an intense itchy sensation. At night while in bed, they fly around your head and emit a very high pitched hum, higher than the low drone of Canadian mosquitoes. It reminds me of a small dentist’s drill. The sound seems to surround you from all different directions so that sometimes it sounds like the hum might be coming from within your head! Unlike the mosquitoes in Canada that are large and rather clumsy, the mosquitoes in Niger are small and react quickly when they sense they are being pursued.

One strategy the mosquitoes use to evade capture is to drop instantly out of eyesight and fly low to the floor. Another strategy is to fly next to a dark or busy background where they get “lost” in the motif, such as near a bookshelf or a bedspread. The only sure way of killing mosquitoes is to spray the house with an insecticide before you go to bed. I prefer not to use this method since the intoxicating fumes will no doubt give me cancer one day. Tim and I have found using a fly swatter is healthier than spraying and more effective than using your hands, since often the mosquitoes fly right through your fingers! Frantically waving the flyswatter in the air may kill the mosquito, but usually your best bet is to patiently wait for it to land on the wall. Our bedroom wall has black spots in numerous places as testaments to battles waged and won!

The pesky insects hover eagerly at our door, like our hungry adopted cat, waiting for an opportunity to sneak in when the door opens. We have screens on our windows to keep the mosquitoes out, although for several months a few screens had rips in them, allowing free access to mosquitoes and moths. Recently, our apartment complex was redone with new screens having finer mesh that is supposed to keep even the smallest of insects out. That was a big improvement. Unfortunately, the daily battle with mosquitoes isn’t over. So before we go to bed each night, Tim and I scan the room for mosquitoes. We check behind the curtains, in the corners, on the ceiling, and under the folds of the sheets. No mosquito must remain alive! How miserable a night for Tim and me if a mosquito escapes our flyswatter! When we have peacefully fallen asleep, it will come out of hiding, find our warm bodies and start hovering around our heads with that annoying high-pitched hum. Who will deliver me from my misery at 3 in the morning? “Timmmmm, it’s your turn to wake up and kill the darn mosquito.”

Class Camping Trip Niger River

February 26 and 27

It seems to be turning into a tradition for the grade 5/6 class to go on a yearly camping trip. I was more than eager to continue this tradition, to the delight of my students. I wanted to give each student the opportunity to experience the adventure of camping in Niger and the thrill of being immersed in God’s amazing creation. And of course, the outdoor enthusiast and camper in me wouldn’t pass off this opportunity!

There would, no doubt, be an educational component to the camping trip. We had just finished reading a novel about a boy who was very knowledgeable about surviving outdoors. Many of the students were inspired by this story and were interested in learning some camping skills, such as making a fire and setting up a tent. In science, we were studying about space and our solar system. This camping trip would give the students the chance to study the moon and the constellations at night, hopefully with a telescope or binoculars. In social studies, we had been learning about famous explorers of the past and present. Before and during the trip, we would practice using navigational instruments similar to what some explorers used, such as a compass, an astrolabe/quadrant, and a sundial.

“Be prepared!” The Girl and Boy Scout motto. We spent two weeks preparing for the 24-hour campout! Deciding the food, making a packing list, learning about fire safety and fire building, learning how to set-up and take down a tent, studying constellation charts…the list goes on! The students were divided into 3 teams of 4. Each team would be responsible for planning a game for the trip, presenting a campfire skit or story, leading a few songs at the campfire, and helping cook or clean-up. Teamwork, leadership, accountability. These are qualities I was trying to develop in my students.

The day we were waiting for dawned hazy and hot! So much for trying to avoid camping in the hot season! Fortunately, the nights are still cooling off nicely, so we slept quite comfortably. We managed to pack all our camping gear (backpacks, sleeping bags, pillows, tents, food and water coolers, guitar, telescope, firewood) and 12 students and 4 adults into two land rovers!

We camped upstream along the Niger River on a piece of property that the school director rents along with a couple of other families. The small riverfront property is enclosed with a grass fence, contains a round hut for storage and a nicely designed latrine, and has four large mango trees growing on it.

The first thing we did upon our arrival was head straight for the shade of the mango trees. Seconds later, the kids were up the mango trees and hanging from the leafy branches! After setting up the tents, we settled down to the game that quickly became the card game of the trip: “Apples to Apples”.

"What time is it Mrs. Mattimoe?”

I don’t know, Lachlan. Why don’t we check on the sundial?”

Sure!”
Make sure the sundial is pointing north.

"Approximately what time does it indicate”

Wow, it’s already about 4:30pm!”

Then it must be time for the “Saturn’s Rings” team to lead us in a scavenger hunt.”

After the scavenger hunt, we did the fire-building competition that the students had been gearing up for all week. The objectives were straight forward: gather the wood needed to build a small fire, use only 2 matches to light the fire, get a small can of soapy water to boil over. This activity was aflame in creative chaos resourceful problem solving as each team struggled with similar problems: a broken match, the wind blew out the match, thorny branches, the string on the can got burned and the can of water spilled.

One team tried persistently, although unsuccessfully, to light the fire using a magnifying lens. Another team learned through trial and error how to keep their fire going without smothering it.

How fitting that the “Super Survivor’s” team were the winners of the fire competition. Coincidently, they were also in charge of making the fires for our supper. Hotdogs accompanied with cooked veggies in tinfoil.

I was really impressed by how well my students played and worked together. There was little arguing during the games, and each team willingly took their turn to cook or clean up. The aptly named “Bubble Buster” team was certainly the most cheerful group of dish washers!

The stars weren’t as bright as I had seen only a couple weeks earlier in a village. The sky was a bit hazy, mostly due to the harmatan (sand) in the air. Even so, we did manage to spot Orion and the Big Dipper. The North Star was too low on the horizon for us to see it very clearly, so we didn’t get to try out our “homemade” astrolabes to calculate our latitude. It was also rather disappointing that we never had a chance to use the telescope that Mr. Golde had set up for us to observe the moon. The moon was waxing after the full moon and lunar eclipse a week earlier. It didn’t appear in the sky until much later in the night.

After a number of popular evening running games, we gorged ourselves on roasted marshmallows, Smores, and banana boats (banana with chocolate chips and marshmallows and wrapped in tinfoil for the fire). The campfire program followed, and lasted until close to midnight! All of us were tired and by 12:30am, we were all drifting off to sleep to the tune of croaking frogs and buzzing crickets.

Favorite Campfire Memories

Funniest skit: “Bring me my royal papers!”

Silliest song: “Making Melodies in my Heart”

Most creative new song lyrics: “If I were a Firefly”

Scariest moment: Hearing the grunt of a hippo nearby

Breakfast was pretty fancy for a campout! We had fresh fruit, plenty of home-made muffins and a never-ending pile of warm French toast! Mr. Bliss and Shelley had 2 pans going on the fire pit. Christina and I mastered the art of cooking over a buddy burner (upside-down can with an opening for a small fire under it). Those who preferred a fried egg were invited to come and cook it themselves.

After a time of devotions, we broke camp and started to pack up.

Meanwhile,

Mr. Bliss was taking three students at a time out in his canoe to get a look at the hippos on a nearby sandbar. It was reassuring to learn that even though the hippo’s grunting sounded close by the previous night, it was probably several hundred metres out past the island of grazing cows.

We arrived back at school tired, thirsty and hungry, but full of great stories to share with our friends and family. The students and I have all agreed that it takes too much effort to organize a camping trip for just 1 night. Next year, we would suggest a 2-night camping trip!

THE END →

Learning to Bake in Africa

I tried baking pumpkin/squash during our first month in Niger. What an adventure! It took about 1 ½ hours to bake it! Here are the instructions. Who knows when you just might need to use a gas oven....during the next dump of snow or ice or a province-wide power shortage.

1. First of all, try to locate where to light the burner. Lift up the metal cover at the bottom of the oven. Turn on the gas. Light the burner with a long gas BBQ lighter. Replace the cover. Don’t expect to get access to the burner at any other time during the baking process! Once the oven is lit, keep it lit since you don’t want to be fiddling with a hot element later on.

2. The dial shows only a picture of a “large flame” or “small flame”. Somewhere between the two is “medium flame”. Translated, that means: “Hot oven”, “Not so hot oven” or “Somewhere in-between”. There are no temperatures on the dial.

3. You will need an oven thermometer if you want to keep track of the temperature, especially for baking desserts. A thermometer is also useful to see if the oven is losing heat and needs more flame.

4. Without a thermometer at your disposal, use your nose to check for smoke or burning! Use a fork to check the squash for “doneness” and use your eyes to look for browning or burning spots.

5. CAUTION: The entire oven (door, dials) gets very hot while the oven is on. Use thick oven mitts for safety.

6. Reminder: There is no door handle. Open the oven from the edges. Be careful not to slam it closed.

7. Unless you want a sauna in an already hot and poorly ventilated kitchen and you don’t mind emptying your gas bottle, you might want to forgo using the oven and find an alternative method (e.g. steaming or boiling on the stovetop ) to cook your food in the future.

8. Remember: there is no microwave in your apartment. All leftovers have to be reheated on the stove.

Happy baking! :-)

Since my first experience, I have cooked squash two other times. The second time I steamed it. It was okay, but not as flavorful as using the oven. The third time I tried the oven again. Success with less frustration this time! Our guests enjoyed my cinnamon-flavoured specialty.

Postscript: I thought you might be interested in reading about my first experiences with our gas oven. Since then, I have made banana bread/cake/muffins, apple-cinnamon muffins, pumpkin muffins, and an egg casserole in the oven. We bought a used microwave in December which has proven to a big lifesaver and added to the convenience of re-heating leftovers. Thanks also to my mom for sending us an oven thermometer in a care package. :-)

Ethiopia - different than you think

Hi there - March has been an intense travel month for me (Tim), as with travels to Ethiopia and Cameroon (and Mali and Benin). News on on the east first...

Ethiopia, East Africa – I have arrived in the capital city Addis Ababa, it is March 1.

I'm here to participate in a training conference with Samaritan's Purse .

The SP staff in Ethiopia are quite friendly and cheery (photo on right - training class). They have some programs similar to Niger, they also have a large HIV/AIDS awareness program (called MET and Prescription for Hope). Their project sites are quite far off, some are more than 10 hours driving from Addis. As a result they do have a staffed remote office in the south Somali province.

But - rather than bore you with too much work stuff I'll share about my adventures. As flights within Africa are not so frequent or convenient, it was convenient for me to have some extra days to explore Ethiopia a bit - very nice!

FOOD - now that I have your attention. An important part of any country, and so much so in a country like Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a very unique traditional food not found anywhere else on the globe and it is quite delicious. The meal is comunual, buffet style, and consists of many sauces which are scooped up by a chunk of dough called “Injera”. Traditionally Injera is a very large pizza-like dough baked over a pit fire, but in the city people often make it in pans and then make rolls of the dough (As you can see in the photo). The dough is moist and flexible and fairly strong, so one tears a piece off the roll or platter, and use the piece of dough like a mitt to scoop sauce. I must admit that Injeri can only be eaten with your hands, fork and knife just wouldn’t make sense. I ate many different sauces, usually I have no idea what I’m eating. I know that one sauce was raw meat (ground beef), I didn’t eat much of this. A typical good restaurant will have more than 20 different sauces.

Surprise is a word that comes to mind for visitors to this city. In some ways as you look around Addis you might think you are in a US city, in an African-American neighbourhood. The capital is well developed, however there are malnutrition and many other needs in the rural majority of the country.

Even so - living in Addis is quite unlike the US due to its distinctive culture and religion, and as well as you look deeper you find an eclectic mix of African and Western life going on. From my hotel room window, I took the photo of this cathedral in the distance. As it is the Easter lenten season, there are throngs of Ethiopian Coptic Christians at the churchs everyday, as you can see in the photo. Notice the white garments. This was a regular workday morning.

Addis Ababa (which means “New Flower”) is a flowering city, prosperous and modern, good paved roads with much traffic, and a substantial availability of goods and services. You can find many modern things here including smog :-)

Notice the photo of the food and the "fasting" sign. PUZZLED? READ on.

March 2 is a significant day and time of the year for Ethiopia. For starters, they celebrate the Adwa Victory, which was their victory in defeating the Italians. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was not colonized, and was for a few years occupied by Italy in the region now called Eritrea.
The other thing kicked off in this country is the Christian Coptic lenten fast, which is a 40 day fast following up to Easter (Orthodox date), and is taken quite seriously and performed by a large proportion of the population, basically most Coptic Christians.

This food photo above has a good closeup of the injera dough, the beige rolls at the bottom. The “fast” is actually a vegan diet, an abstention from meat of all kinds and all dairy. It is significant enough that many restaurants immediately stop offering meat or dairy dishes in their menu. Alternatively restaurants will separate “fasting” food from “non-fasting” food, as is the case here. Of course fasting generally means to abstain from eating food, so the idea of "fasting food" is an oxymoron. Personally I enjoy the wide variety of tasty healthy vegetable sauces and foods that you find everywhere.

Coffee connoisseurs know well that Ethiopia is highly sough out for its coffee. And no less so in Ethiopia which has well entrenched coffee traditions. In the photo I'm in the restaurant next to the lady taking care of making coffee for all the patrons, as a meal normally is followed by coffee.

In the local coffee shop, the coffee menu includes “fasting hot beverages”, meaning coffee drinks with non-dairy milk substitutes like soy. Effectively a Soy cappuccino is called a fasting cappuccino. Interesting.

I took 2 photos which also would raise some eyebrows on some people –
One is of a throne seat near the front of the church, a special large luxurious chair reserved for the king or honored guest.

Apparently many of the Coptic churches have such throne chairs. The 2^nd photo is of the church ceiling fresco, on the right side you see Christ on the cross and on the left adjoining it a picture showing a troop of armed soldiers saluting the King. For Anabaptists this association with the military would be quite disturbing, alas the reformation.

Mountains, exploring - On Thursday we had the great opportunity to visit the Ethiopian country side, and some beautiful natural scenery. I took a lot of photos!
Ethiopia is quite mountainous, and Addis Ababa is on a high plateau, one of the highest cities in the world. As a result the weather is actually cool and comfortable (a bit chilly at night). I'm standing here with two of our SP colleagues, at the edge of a cliff.

While we were sitting having lunch, a large herd of monkeys came down the mountain side and walked in front of us, about a 100 monkeys, at a safe distance from us. My photo on the right was fully zoomed.

We went up a plateau to visit two famous monasteries. One is active with pilgrims attending everyday during the lent period.

We were allowed to visit, with a guide, during the mass service, and so I have some photos inside while people are praying. The participants there are on the floor, either sitting or kneeling in prayer, head to the floor.

The church has a replica of the Old Testament Ark that Moses had. Ethiopians have a strange fascination with things like that, a leader in the church said that all the Coptic churches in Ethiopia have an Ark, they wouldn’t be a church without it.

A guide brought us up a steep hike into the mountains, where we encountered a small “chapel” built into a cave in the mountain. I enjoyed the opportunity to hike and get some exercise, two of our party were pretty exhausted once we arrived. The chapel is simply a cave with a wooden wall and a light inside. The history there is that a famous monk from centuries ago used to pray and fast there for many years. His left leg fell off (amputed?) and so he is depicted in a painting there standing on 1 leg, with the other leg lying on the ground. Saint Terry Fox? Water is seeping from the roof of the cave, and this water is diverted into big drums as it is revered as holy water. There were 8 large drums in the cave and a hose filling one of them. Pilgrims will come from afar and pay good money in order to get this holy water, which they would use to apply to their faces or drink.

Personally I like drinking tonic water, they have 3 flavours/brands here and most places provide 2 or 3 brands.

Being here in Ethiopia is a treat, but not a treat in the way Canadians would think. Niamey does not have much of many nice things readily found in Addis Ababa, and so I feel spoiled. These things include: flush toilets and nice washrooms are common; people can understand English; there are bookstores with English books; there is often green grass growing on the ground and the soil is black; high of 25C in the day; you can find fresh brewed coffee in cafés; also cappuccinos, lattes, café au lait etc; the streets are not strewn with garbage (not as much); and a few others.

Shoulder bumping! Many cultures I notice have their unique ways of greeting friends and family, and Ethiopia most certainly is unique! Ethiopians on the whole are physically affectionate; people embrace and kiss each other if they are close friends or relatives. However the common greeting here is something quite unique – I supposed it is a more subtle or abbreviated form of physical contact. It involves bending your right shoulder towards the other person’s right shoulder and touch shoulders. This is often done while holding hands during the initial hand shake. So the right hands clasp for the hand shake and then you do the shoulder bump! You will not see this in Niger. In Niger you hold the person’s hand for a few minutes while going through a long series of greeting questions (not intended to be nosy) where you ask how is the health, then family, wife/husband, work, heat/cold, dust, tiredness, sickness, …

My flight back to Niamey was delayed by over 3 days! So I spent some extra time in Bamako.

Building desks for a village school

Christine's Journal - Mission to Inatés

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Morning:

Tomorrow is the big day we have been gearing up for. Our team of 8 high school students and 4 adults has been meeting twice a week since early January in preparation for the outreach trip to Inatés, a small Tuareg village only a few kilometers from the Mali boarder. Today at lunch we have one final planning meeting. This trip is a joint venture with Samaritan’s Purse (SP) and Sahel Academy. We heard through SP, which works on nutrition and livestock projects in the area, that the village school is in need of new desks since their present desks are falling apart. Samaritan’s Purse was able to get funding for materials to build new desks. The Southern Baptist Mission provided some of the manual labour in building the metal frames. We all spent a Saturday at the shop cutting, sanding and drilling holes in the wooden desktops and seats. Our job in Inatés is to assemble the 60 desks. We are all ready for the 6 hour drive tomorrow. The food team has enough ice in the freezer for the water coolers and all we have to do is pack everything tomorrow.

Afternoon:

None of us was prepared for the news that awaited us at lunch. Pastor Dave informed us that Ralph Sauers, one of our adult leaders, had just become very sick overnight with malaria. He is an important member of our team; not only is he the only one on the team who really knows how to assemble the desks, he is also the only one who speaks the local language of Tamashek. On top of that news, we learned that the truck that was loaded with supplies and sent to Inatés ahead of us had been in an accident. Luckily there was little damage to the desk frames and the wood. After much concerned prayer, it was decided that we would put off the Inatés trip for 2 weeks. This seemed to be for the best anyhow, since many of us were running low on sleep over the past few nights and could use some time to re-energize. We all prayed that Ralph Sauers would be restored to full health before then.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Morning:

Today is the big day we have been gearing up for since early January. The day has finally arrived! The two week delay has dampened our spirits somewhat, but yesterday’s lunch meeting renewed our enthusiasm. We are eager to serve the Muslim Tuareg community and also have a bit of a camping adventure in the process. J

Afternoon:

More unexpected delays! We had planned to have the 2 land rovers packed by 11am so that we could leave immediately at 11:15am when the students got out of classes. It appeared that things weren’t going to go quite as planned when by 10:30am we

were still waiting for the 2 trucks to arrive! There had been traffic delays due to student demonstrations at the traffic circle near the ONLY bridge that crosses the river. By noon, we were finally ready to hit the road! We arrived in Inatés well before sunset, by 5:30pm. We had made excellent timing despite the initial delays. Half of the trip was paved road. At the town of Ayorou, we turned off on to a dirt road which later become a rutted track. We traveled through as many kinds of semi-arid landscapes that one could think of: dry grasslands with scrubby acacia trees, barren gravel hilltops, dry sandy riverbeds, seasonal “ponds” or lakes surrounded by leafy trees, rocky moonscapes with large termite mounds resembling the stone statues of Easter Island. It kind of felt like we were on a safari; large herds of goats and sheep were roaming free like wild herds of antelope. Camels were wandering around and grazing on acacia leaves just like giraffes.Squirrels and birds darted in front of the trucks. Donkeys stood patiently for their owners in dry fields or else stubbornly in the middle of the road! In some places, we drove through sand tracks that were about 1 foot deep! At times, it felt like we were fishtailing through deep snow! We passed by a number of villages or “camps” along the way, but you would never notice if you didn’t look hard, for the straw and mud huts blended in with the sandy surroundings.

We were warmly welcomed by the community as we drove into the school’s yard. The school director had organized the students and they were singing as we got out of the trucks. We politely greeted the school director, the village chief and some of the other important men of the village. In no time at all, the curious children started to crowd around us in an effort to shake our hands. At first we stood around awkwardly with our limited language abilities, but soon we were also eagerly shaking grubby hands and snapping pictures of the cute kids.

Mr. Sauers and Tim went off to visit with the important men of the village and have a customary round of Tuareg tea while the rest of us set up camp. We had quite a few curious onlookers as we set up the tents right in the middle of the school yard! We had a choice of 2 latrines: the closest one was a shallow hole in the ground encircled with an old straw mat located in the corner of the school yard.Most of us preferred the newly dug latrine on the other side of the schoolyard wall which had a decent mud wall around it for privacy. It also had a nice west facing view of the “mare” or seasonal pond if you stood up and looked over the latrine wall. J

Supper was bread dipped in delicious peanut sauce as we sat around in the glow of flashlights. Tim and some local boys got a campfire going later that evening. John had brought his guitar and some music, so we sat around the campfire singing worship songs as a small group of boys listened and watched from the other side of the campfire. We involved them in a Tamashek song that Mr. Sauers and Daniel taught us. A memorable moment was watching the boys as they listened with fascination as Mr. Sauers read them the story of David and Goliath in their own language. We drifted off to sleep with a glorious starry sky above us and the sound of donkeys braying in our dreams.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The morning began at around 5:30am when the roosters started crowing and the donkeys began their awful bawling! Mr. Sauers was the first one up at about 6:30am. The rest of us crawled out of our tents not long after. The sun itself didn’t peak over the horizon until around 7:30am. It was a chilly morning! Some of the girls huddled in their blankets around the little Tuareg charcoal burner as Mr. Sauers handed out little shot glasses of sweet Tuareg tea.

By 8:30am we had finished breakfast and were already starting to assemble the first desks. There is no electricity in the village, except for the health centre where they have their own generator. Thankfully, Dave Ceton had loaned us his generator so that we could use the power drills to drill holes in the metal desk frames. We had quite a system going between the 12 of us: a few people drilled holes while the others screwed on the bolts.

Three people could drill at a time until 1 drill sparked and died on us.Of the two remaining drills, only one of them really worked very well. That slowed things down a bit, but by lunch we had completed 20 desks out of 51. It looked like a daunting task, and some of us were getting sore backs and hands, but we managed to up the speed and efficiency after lunch. It wasn’t all work and no play. There were dramatized scenes of the dentist drilling teeth , and other creative childhood moments finger painting with varnish. J Hafsa, Aagje and I got ourselves covered in sticky varnish from one too many varnish fight! It wasn’t fun, though, bathing in gasoline afterwards! Our last desk was completed by about 5:15pm!

The community presented us with gifts of decorated pens, leather pouches, wooden spoons and bracelets. We in turn thanked them with a colourful soccer ball which the boys quickly blew up and started playing with.

That evening, we invited the entire community to watch the “God Story” film translated into Tamashek. Mr. Sauers hooked up his computer and the projector to the generator so that we could show the film on the school wall. Around 60 or 70 eager children and interested adults came for the entertainment under the starry skies. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine Abraham looking at the stars of the sky long ago and wondering how God would make his offspring as numerous as the stars.

Sleep came easily, for most of us that is except for a few hyper teenagers, for we were all exhausted!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Again we were up before the sunrise. Mr. Sauers had a nice fire going to warm up the chilly morning air. Our first visitors began arriving just as we were eating breakfast. We girls weren’t quite prepared for visitors so early, for some of us were still dressed in our cozy pajamas and didn’t have a head scarf on yet. There wasn’t much privacy as we started taking down our tents and packing up. The school director and other important men were there to greet and thank us before we left. Kids were peaking over the school walls, climbing the thorny trees nearby, playing soccer in the school yard, or standing nearby. Goats and guinea fowl were wandering around the yard. Donkeys and women were at the village well next to the school. Imagine brushing your teeth,
doing your hair and putting in your contacts with almost the entire community watching you!

Before leaving, we wanted to get a picture of all the kids sitting in their new desks. We asked the director if he could round up the kids. News spreads like wildfire here. The director only had to tell one boy who was listening nearby, and in less than 5 minutes all the kids were assembled at the desks.

We had a 2-sided colouring sheet for the kids along with a dozen boxes of colouring crayons for the school. I explained in French which Bible stories the pictures were from while Mr. Sauers translated into Tamashek. Then we passed out a handful of crayons to each student to colour with. It appeared that many of the kids had never seen crayons before (or maybe they aren’t given many opportunities to colour in school), because it took them a few minutes to understand what they were supposed to do with the crayons. So we went around showing the kids what they could do with the crayons. After an exchange of “thank yous” and “goodbyes”, we were on our way back to Niamey. We left Inatés feeling a special bond with the people. They really appreciated all that we had done for them; that we had cared enough about their little village to drive 6 hours and make them new desks to replace the 40-year old desks. In sharing with them God’s love, we had also been richly blessed by their friendship.

Wild animals! C'est bête

Despite so much sand and dryness, we encounter many strange and wonderous beastly creatures here in Niger. And we wanted to share some of that with you! Many photos in this blog! You can click on any photo to expand it.

We will start with animals found in our front yard!

Our faithful protector and companion Missy, is very curious and attentive, I saw here wagging her tail quite excitedly at a bush in our yard one day - alas these photos show her discovery. West meets east?

The large brown nose is Missy our dog and the grey creature is a Chameleon lizard. The Chameleon changed colour to green later, but it is in distress at the moment.

Missy was trying to put the poor thing in its mouth, so I held back on her to let the creature escape.




Another closeup photo of the Chameleon. Chameleons hiss when in combat mode.




Another creature found, this time by Christine in her compost, was a small hedgehog. Upon discovery it currled up into a very tight spiny ball, see photo of the prickly baseball. The ball is perfectly round and spiky, no signs of life or body parts except you can tell it is breathing somehow.


We put the prickly ball on the ground and waited.
I (Tim) waited an hour while sipping lemonade and reading, keeping an eye on our visitor.




After an hour it got tired of hiding and unravelled itself! Unravelling took a couple of minutes.
Then it calmly crawled away.

Our next photos, as we stay in Niamey city, are creatures at the office! Actually animals we see in front of the yard at work, starting with the office of Samaritan's Purse.

Right in front of the SP office is where a herder keeps about 25 cattle, some donkeys and a camel.


This is a picture of our neighbour's camel, along with it's saddle sitting in front of it.


There are many small creatures too of course. A common and not-so delicious meal here is fried grasshoppers, a bowl of which was bought and shared with the staff.

See photos of the bugs and snack time.

MMmmmm, well ..., edible and nutritious but ... not so tasty.

There are creatures at the Sahel Academy too, particularly noticeble is the large tortoise - here's a repeat shot. There is another one wandering the grounds of at the American rec centre, and it likes to eat the nice green grass in the baseball pitch.

Now as we venture out in the country...

A common site in Niger are "vehicles" pulled by animals, typically donkeys or bulls. You won't see any horse pulled carriages here.


So the term "cow power" would make more sense that horse power, as in the photo. You will see wagons pushed/pulled by Africans themselves as well. These vehicles are not too quick, a challenge for motor vehicles amongst others.


There are some pretty ornery looking bulls too! Various types of horns can be seen on different bulls.





Niger is home to the last wild giraffe herds in west Africa. Herds of giraffes roam freely in the wild in certain parts of Niger, near Dosso which is not far from Niamey.
And so we drove out in search of them - with great success!
We drove the 4x4 through the bush while our guide stood in the truck box. The guide would give directions to the driver (Tim) via a very long stick/tree and by tapping it on the front windshield, and by this we'd scout for giraffes and then head off to catch them.

Donkeys! These are marvellous animals, and they live a HARD life here in Niger. These photos below are taken from my SP trip to Tchin-tabaradene in northern Niger, where we have partnership projects for grain banks and goat herds.
In these photos, donkeys are used for pulling water from a well. The well in this area is 100 metres deep! With water beginning at a depth of 97 metres. The well has a pulley and rope, with the rope attached to a group (4) of donkeys. The donkeys are driven out 100 metres to pull up the water catch basin (large leather pouch). You can see that there are a lot of camels in this area as well.

Heading further out - here's some birds we saw in the wild at the Parc W (highly zoomed in!). We also saw unique birds near the river, but birds are always quite difficult to photograph, they are fast and shy.





Camels are a very common sight here!
Camels walk on the street in front of our home in Niamey almost every day.

They can often be seen carrying very large loads, particularly for carrying large straw walls which are used for building huts or as a roof.

And last but not least (unless you ask the dog) is the furry beast prowling inside our apt at times, here seen at its favorite spot on the couch in its usual position.

The cat is often seen snuggling up to the dog, or fleeing from it in sheer terror, depending on the mood of the dog.

that's it for the animal show for now!

No doubt we will add some more as other "things" make their appearance.