Merry Christmas

So santa came and visited us at the hostle!


And he brought us all stockings!!


I decorated our lime tree for our christmas tree! Some ornament improvising was done!



Maradi Family Picture!!


And Ousmane petite with a christmas tree hat on!


We woke up sunday morning (some with hangovers) and opened gifts sent from home and then cooked all day getting ready for our hamburger x-mas dinner. We did secret santa before dinner each opening the gifts one at a time so everyone can see what everyone else got! We had a 2000Fcfa price limit and had to be bought in Niger (not from a care package) and a LOT of realy great things were bought!


Thought id add some more pictures

Heres 2 pictures of my village tailors.
Abdou


Chietou(Shy-e-too)




Its watermellon season in my area of Niger. This is what i call my Bush Fridge. Its the clay thing i keep my water in so that its nice and cold all year round.

Well heres a picture of the New kids and all the Maradi people that went to swear in!


And to the COSers!! Well Miss you guys!



Maradi!


Ag/NRM '07

I've desided to take a page out of the Flat Stanely book and take pictures with this lovely pig Cousin Sue gave me at my going away party! This is the inside of my house door!





Here is my chicken and some of the guinea fowls she raised. The redish ones are mine and the black ones are my landlady's. Unfortunatly the chicken is no longer with us as according to my villagers someone hit her and an egg died(broke) inside of her and she died.




Heres a cute little hedgehog someone caught for me. They eat them but i let this guy go.
Theres a saying here like the american "Its a peice of cake" that goes something like "Its like catching Hedgehogs" Because you just touch them and they roll up in a ball and wahlah you have dinner....




Chamillians are everywhere!!! I keep saving them and putting them out in the bush as kids kill them because everyone is scared of them.





Heres my big roster crowing in the morning.






This is a local land moniter lizard. They caught her for me and we ate it. YUMMY!!!!



Dodo playing in a bag in my house. Nigerien cats like bags too!!

Well never mind on the pictures....grrr mabey in Niamey which ill be there dec 6-14th.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we are having dinner tomorrow after the new kids get here because they will be in their villages for the actual day. We have a turkey wondering around the Hostel yard right now which i will be plucking and butchering tomorrow after the guard gets it killed and then one of the other girls will be cooking it.

I've started the work on a Grain Bank project in my village and need to write a preposal for the money we need. Their village contribution is the building of the building and a small part of the grain. I'll be writing a Peace Corps Partnership proposal so when that gets aproved ill be asking yall to donate!! :D

My animal count right now is up to 2 hens(use to have 3 but one got sick) 2 rosters 3 baby chickens (i think my other hen is setting on eggs somewhere in teh village she hasnt come home in a few days) 6 teenager guinea fowl and Dodo my cat. I'll be buying a ewe after Tabaski when the prices go back down.

Team Maradi!

The "New Kids" swore in yesterday and heres a picture of all of Team Maradi that came in.




And the view from the Ambassador's House!!!

More Pictures from the Bush

Chickens!! The grey one in back isnt mine!


Dodo and his CRAZY eyes


Millet Field near my house its even higher now!!


My field..again plants are higher and the sorgum has heads now.


My garden in my house....the corn has flowers now....and isnt much taller.

Niamey!

It’s been a while since I last posted here but I’m in Niamey till Sunday the 14th so I decided I should post something and post pictures! Life’s still going good in the bush. I’m finally starting to find out what my villagers want and after a visit from PC people the women have stopped asking me for medicine, my cloths, my water…..etc etc ….. All my animals are in heath; Dodo the cat is growing and starting to learn to catch his own food! My chickens are great though my rooster now that all the hens in our house don’t “need” him right now has wondered off, one of my hens when I left was setting on eggs, she laid 9 and I took them away and gave her 10 guinea fowl eggs and after she sat on those for a week I gave her 6 of her own eggs back but ones gone missing since then so she’s setting on 15 eggs. My other hen I think from the sounds I hear is laying eggs in my neighbors house so after I get back if she’s setting on them by then I’m going to move her and her eggs over to our house one evening because I’m afraid if I did it before then she’d just forget about the eggs I moved and continue to lay eggs next door. I plan to buy a ewe next month and get her bred and Insha Allah if she gives birth to two boy babies I have plans on ways to raise them so show my villagers different ways to raise meat animals (I still have plans for other combos of babies but boys are what I would prefer) and later on when they are older sell them to my villagers for a much reduced price for whatever reason they need a sheep (naming ceremony, holiday, etc).

And new pictures

Heres my landlords dad's grainry where he keeps his millet. My landlord is IN the structure putting the rope around the bundles and his brothers are the ones in the picture.

Here my landlord, counterpart and friend are putting more mud on the South side of my house so when it rains from the south water dosen't come IN my house. 5 bulls desided to attack my wall after all this and punched big holes in my consession wall...

Here me and my landlord are walking out to the fields.

Here's him working in his field weeding around the bean plants.

And he told me to work so he could take a picture and show everyone in america me farming.

And drinking tea with Malam Ousman and some of the younger(~30s) guys.

So life goes on in the Bush! I'm up to 3 chickens and a cat. My tomatoes are coming along but im having trouble with Dodo(cat) eating my corn plants before they get big enough to survive his chomping... My field is looking good! I planted Sorgum and had to replant a good chunk of it last Friday( 7/18) because of ants and planted a little Okra with it. We tilled up and thined out the sorgum that had grown. I wasnt able to do the tilling because i couldnt see the sorugum for the millet that had grown in my field. So in my field I have Sorgum and hopefully Okra and Mellon, Millet and some kinda plant they eat the leaves all that i didn't plant.

Last monday was so weird! My land lord came home from the field limping and i was thinking his hip hurt because he had mentioned it Sunday when he was helping me in my field. Well come to find out while knealing to pray the 2nd prayer of the day a scorpian crawled up his pants and stung him twice on thigh. I joked with him that Allah was mad at him and we all laughed. Well last saturday I bought a 4th chicken, a realy old one that was beyond her egg days. She was huge. So Monday I planed to slaugtor her and share the meat with my landlords family and my counterparts family. So 2 of the guys killed her and not even 2 mins later it started raining and one of them made the comment "Barkatou you kill a chicken and Allah brings us rain" I had to laugh and make the comment "Yes and Mamane prays and a scorpian stings him" we all laughed about it and it was talked about for 3 days.

I have loads of pictures but dont trust these internet cafe computers to not have a virus to infect my thumb drive so those'll have to wait till im in Niamey.

I always have so much to say when im in my village but by the time I set down to type theres not much i can think of.

I'm not so great about writing letters ill try but idk what to say. So the best way to get a letter from me is to write me one and ask questions or what not.

Another day in Niger

So life is great. I have 2 new chickens. For those who dont know while i was in Niamey for training one of my chickens died and the other 2 got real sick so my villagers ate them so they wouldnt just die and the meat go to waste. So the 2 villagers who's families at them bought me 2 new chickens. I'll get pics up some time. My cat is good! My corn, tomatoes and watermellons are growing in my yard! I need to plant my fields!!! I'm going to be planting Sorgum and peanuts! I plan on saving the peanuts i grow this year and giving them to some of my villagers that help me throughout the year to plant next year so we'll see. I have to come back in to Maradi on the 16th for my last HPV and HepA shots so hopefully I' ll beable to get online then. Now that im setting at a computer I cant think of anything to say on here. I guess thats about it for now.

The Story Continued

To, now for the story...

Our counterparts got her Sunday the 18th and we spent Monday and Tuesday with them at Hamdy learning Peace Corps stuff. Tuesday evening they were suposed to be leaving for Niamey to leave back to our villages Wednesday. Well late that afternoon a HUGE sand storm blew in me and some of the other girls spend 10 mins bringing in all the mattresses and mosqueto nets so they wouldnt blow away or rip (pic below is AFTER we did all this). Then after the storm....the skys opend up and it POORED!!!! It rained all night


Here is Me my friend angie's counterpart and my Counterpart Mamane.And heres a picture of all of us and out counterparts and the formatures(teachers)


So I'm done with training now and heading back to Maradi tomorrow at 5am I'm not sure what day ill head back to my Village because i have to do my first Triyearly report before i head out. Ill try to get to one of the internet cafe's before i head out but no promises.

WOAH!!!

Look what rolled in last Tuesday May 20th.





I have more pictures but this up load session was cut short and i dont have my pictures with me so this'll have to keep yall till i get online with pictures again...the whole story will come with them

Home

The view through my concession door.

Here's a picture of my house from next to my latrine.
Heres a picture of my house from right behind my shade hanger wall Ive hung my hammock sence this picture was taken..it hangs from the log next to my door to one of the logs thats about in the middle of the millet stalk wall on my shade hanger

Chickens

So now that i have some time let me post the pics I have of my chickens. I have 2 hens and a rooster the Rooster is the whiter one in the pic of them up on my concession wall.





And heres a Charriat Spider or Rozo Rozo as my villagers call it Suposatly they carry scorpians on their back but none ive seen have had one!

More Pics

Magari, Ousman (setting by the flag pole) his brother, the butcher and one of Ousman's sons
My landlord Mamane and his youngest Seragi and Mamane one of my counter parts is just out of hte picture
My landlords 3 kids (I think he has another one from a previous marrage but not totaly sure)
Look what my village gave me two saturdays ago before I left for market!! I also bought 3 chickens the same day at market!
Midday Prayer(~2pm) (taken from inside one of my schools class rooms)


Little girl in the school for World Vision's data collection stuff

Back for more training!

Well I'm back in Niamey for 2 weeks of training so im on LAN here in the hostle because the wireless broke so I'm try and put up some pics. I'm only posting a few pictures right now because somene else wants to use the internet! I want to give a great big shout out to Chay's mom Mary! I'll post more later tonight

This is Mamane my land lord


Nigerian School bell
My Magari (village cheif) If you click on the picture you can see his facal scaring he has full on whiskers!