twenty-three

It has been difficult to send emails in Niger which I should have expected from the poorest country in the world, but I am available for the time being to write an update on all I’ve seen and done so far.

Our trip into Niger was quite an adventure.  Our flight was supposed to land in Niamey, the capital city at 3:30 PM.  I hadn’t looked out the window much during the flight because we were just surrounded by the Sahara so there really wasn’t much to see.  However, our pilot came onto the intercom and told us that we would be landing shortly so we should take all the necessary preparations.  I looked out the window and was terrified by what I saw…sand, everywhere.  I’ve never seen a sandstorm, but we were flying through one and it was really quite scary.  The wind was loud, I could hear outside and it shook the plane so bad that I though the overhead compartments would empty out.  We kept descending, people were screaming because both sides of the plane were just surrounded in the wind and sand, and as we got closer to the ground I could barely see the runway.  We must have been 500 feet above the runaway when all of the sudden our pilot jerked the plane up to stop us from the landing in Niamey.  The pilot said that the weather was too bad to try and land so we flew around for another 40 minutes (still shaking in the sandstorm) until he decided to land in Burkina Faso where they had intended on landing after Niamey anyway to pick up some passengers.  Eight hours later I arrived in Niger…

Since landing we spent some time in Niamey meeting with our staff there and then traveled to Maradi which is where I am writing this email.  The drive took 10 hours on a “road” through the country and seeing this place is really amazing.  I am surprised how green it is, I’m told the rains have just stopped and so the place looks more fertile now than it will all year long.  Today in Maradi we worked with our field staff on several health issues, but mainly Trachoma.  Trachoma is often caused by flies that land on human/animal waste and then land near the eyes of humans.  It often leads to blindness (there are man blind people being led through the streets of Maradi) and at best can be very detrimental to one’s sight.  Our meetings with the field staff have been great, they are incredibly competent and are extremely qualified…it has been a blessing and honor to sit around the table with them and share stories and laughter as well as attempt to change the lives of some children in Niger.

Tomorrow I will be leaving to visit two of our villages.  My time will be spent at two medical clinics learning about malaria, trachoma, and guinea worm as well as spending time working through an economic/market development project we’ve implemented for women.  So far so good…

Top 10 Quick notes that I wrote while driving today- 09/14/2006
10)  It’s hot, really hot…and right now it is the “cool” season
9)  To: Jon from Blockbuster Video, your shirt and name tag made it here and one of my friends wears it everyday
Everything is red, the dirt, the houses, the sunsets, everything…
7)My French sucks, just awful
6)Michael Bolton appears to be a hit here just like in Kenya
5)I’m not sure if the men work…at all…mostly just the women and children
4)The Hausa tribe scars their children on the face as a custom so most people I see have the same scar pattern across their face.
3)Everybody eats sorghum, beans, peanuts, and millet…mmm…millet
2)Roads are pretty much wherever you want them to be
1)…So are toilets

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