More village

my house is in the second picture from the top, behind the trees, i'll put up better pictures later. The white building is the mosque, and the last picture is the school house. The little huts are individual houses

Liz's village

So I asked Liz if she had any pictures of her village. She said that she had included some. But all I saw were vast open landscapes like the one at the top. When I magnified them about a million times, however, the pictures revealed some buildings like the the ones at bottom, hidden behind the big tree in the seemingly empty picture at the top.

Going Native--"Its just so wrong"

There's a difference, however, between "African appropriate" dress and full-on native garb. As Liz (top right) put it "Westerners wearing African dress look so wrong"

Before and After

Here are "before and after" pictures of Liz's Peace Corps group. At bottom is how they looked when they arrived (dazed and confused). At top they are seen in more "Africa appropriate" garments.

Sleeping Outdoors

For anyone wondering what Liz's outdoor sleeping accommodations are like, I'm including this shot showing the basics--box, mattress, sleeping bag, and the whole thing enclosed in mosquito netting.

Hut, Sweet Hut Part 4

This, I'm guessing, is Liz's yard. A little lean-to for shade, and in the foreground an outdoor sleeping platform. You can she the old, falling down fence that used to surround the compound. Not only didn't it provide any privacy, but it didn't even keep the animals out. One morning Liz was awoken at about 6 am by a cow who was butting that wooden platform with it's head. Liz finally gave the headman an ultimatum--fix my fence, or I'm leaving. He fixed the fence.

Hut, Sweet Hut 3

Through this classy archway you can Liz's bedroom (for those nights when it is raining, or cool enough to sleep indoors--i.e., almost never). You can see her deluxe chair to the right, and a cot next to it. Those hooks are about as close as she's getting to a closet.

Hut, Sweet Hut part 2

The kitchen area. I was surprise to see she has a couple of gas burners. I don't know what those big plastic containers are for. (that's my water filter)

Hut, Sweet Hut

This is Liz's dad posting. We finally got some pictures from her on a DVD that another volunteer created. I'm just guessing at what they are, and I'm sure she will correct me if I am wrong.

This one appears to be of her luxurious mud hut--the front door (curtain), window, her storage area (the chest on the floor), and some of the scrawny cats she has taken in.

To the right is the kitchen area, and I'm guessing those clay jugs are what substitutes for running water.

6 months!!!

It's been over 6 months that I've been in this country, which means due to my early close of service date, I'm 1/4 of the way done!!Time has been flying here, and I'm back in Niamey with yet another case of amoebas and bacteria, blah. I'll be heading to Benin next week, which I'm really excited about, I need a break. I've had a few reality checks with the possible projects in my village, and have come to the realization that you can't make people do anything that don't really want to do, even if it will better their lives, and let alone if you want it to be sustainable. I'm hopefully going to start some radio work soon, and I've planted and started to cultivate my field of millet and soybeans. I've also hooked up with a gardener in my village, and have planted tomatoes, parsley, cabbage, and peppers for now. I'm also working on some diagrams for animal husbandry presentations, and maybe some other presentations to families in the community why they should send their daughters to school, but it's all in the works now for that project.

I also just had a meeting with my villagers and one of the peace corps workers to discuss the advantages to projects that don't' involve money, which they seemed to understand. Since my village is also a Fulan village they speak in Fufulde to themselves all the time, and although they understand Zarma, it's hard to learn a language when the people around you aren't speaking it. And although i am slowly picking up Fufulde, Zarma is my primary language. I've also realized that NGO's here in Niger, although some do good work, have led villagers to adopt a mentality that everything will be handed to them, and that they don't need to really work for themselves. A sort of backlash to relief work. This is not true with everyone, but enough to make a difference in village work.

Anyways, I'm going to ask my dad to put up pictures from a c.d. that i sent him, sorry it's taken so much time to see photos, I'm using the excuse that it's hard for me to get access to the Internet out here.

Hope all is well in the rest of the world, pictures will be up soon!!