Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Niger, I missed you!

Good morning! Here, it's 8:55 am and where most of the people that will be reading this are, it's probably like 3 am--so, really, good morning.

I really don't have anything profound or pithy to say (then why write a blog, right?). But I've been back in Niger for about 3 months, and it's taken me this long to open up the old blog--basically, I just wanted to 'break the seal' so to speak.

I arrived in Niamey in mid-September and am living not too far from the old Peace Corps hostel. I have a 6-ish month fellowship with an NGO, where I have, so far, been managing a small projects fund for local NGOs, grant- and newsletter-writing, and occasionally translating things into English.

Travel restrictions are a little bit tighter than they were last summer, BUT I did get to stop in my village (MaiLafiya, 10K north of Dakoro) for 10 minutes back in October. I was on a 'mission' with a group of US funders (and an armed escort) to visit an emergency livestock project we implemented in Soli, which is about an hour north of MaiLafiya. The group of funders were kind enough to stop on the return trip, even though we were pressed for time.

But 10 minutes is not a lot of time to greet a whole village, so I jumped out at the Chief's house and greeted his family; meanwhile, the soldiers with us took up positions along the edge of the village (it was kind of surreal and a little goofy). Then I ran around from house to house greeting people. At least three women had had babies within the last week--one had been named already so she had to be at least a week old, but two hadn't so they were probably only a few days old.

I also saw the new grain bank, and it looks great. It also has a great name--Jessica. The Chief told me that more people had planted and purchased improved beans (cowpeas) this year, so that's what they keep in there I guess.

The tricky thing about cowpeas is that they get buggy--totally infested with these little black bugs that chew holes in the beans, which makes them hard to sell and nasty to eat (though people still do eat them). Fortunately, when I got here in September I found out about a new bag 'technology' called SAC PICS. It's basically 3 plastic bags that hermetically seal in the beans and suffocate any bugs or larvae, thereby preserving the quality. Of course I had to buy some.