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!

One Month In

So Ive been in my village for 3.5 weeks and Im in Maradi for the weekend! Im getting my bike and was going to go back out on monday morning but my APCD (head of the Ag sector) was suposed to come out to my site last tuesday but never showed up but he wants to go out tomorrow so Im going back out with him tomorrow because hell bring my bike with us so i dont have to wait for the next PC shuttle to bring it out!



So as for my last month! So far so good! I havent gone insane yet and things are getting better!



My land lord, Mamane O. (the mans whos house my house is in), has been in Kano Nigeria for the last 2 weeks because they needed money! Hes a realy nice man, hes about 25 years old (most adults here dont know exctly when they were bornbecause of a lack of a birth certificate and they dont celebrate b-days here) has 3 kids and his wife, Maramia, is nice too. Shes about 23 and they got married when she was 15, their oldest kid is about 7.



I hang out a lot with the men, 'studying' Hausa with Mamane S. , and playing cards and drinking tea with Sani, the market man, and his brothers. Sani is kewl, hes about 27 and, I think I figured out 1/2 the kids who bug me are his...... he has like 10 kids....... having 2 wives helps with that. The old men found out Thursday night that I have cards so I may be playing cards with them now some too!



I plan on buying some chickens next market as me and Mamane O. talked about me buying some and him feeding them and some other things in Hausa I dont remember. My village has so,e kittens theywant to give me and I told the, to wait till I get back from Niamey at the end of May.

So im at an internet cafe so let me cut this off here. I'll be in Niamey starting the 15th for 2 weeks of training so I'll update more then and add some pictures.