Ok, so it seems that Crystal is wanting to raise money to buy a camel for her village. She will use this camel to transport large/heavy items for her tree planting project, and if she is able to buy a female camel (they are more expensive) she will have it mate. Of course she will donate the camel to the village once she has finished her service with the PC.
My mom (Ruth) is collecting money for those that are interested in donating. She will send the money via Western Union. You can send a check or money to my mom:
Ruth Pilon
1175 AuSable Trail
Grayling, MI 49738
Thank you!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
letter from Crystal 8/6/08
Hi mom and dad! How's it going? I got your second and third packages, the ones with the Hausa book (awesome!!) and delightful baking items in it, a couple weeks ago but haven't had a chance to email you 'til now. I don't make it to Konni very often and even when I'm here there's usually other people using the computer and also the power sucks. There were protests in Niamey with Nigerlac, the power company, because of all the power outages we've been having. Now a nice company in China will be in charge of providing us with power so maybe it will be more reliable (?). A new package from you just came in today, along with one from Aunt Sue and Uncle Ron, but I haven't opened either of them because I am saving it for tomorrow. I like to prolong the excitement. I got a letter from Grandma and a package from Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue (lots of chocolate! yum!) and also one from my friend Liz in Madison, so I am feeling the love big-time. Also my former colleagues at the Lab want to collect money to help me buy my camel. It's something like $300 so if you know anyone willing to make a contribution I plan to send the Lab ppl a list of email addresses to contact. It's just too hard for me to email a lot of people from here. We can't do multiple-recipient emails because the computer gets all jacked up or something, so it's just easier to do it from America.
I want to start a chicken coop (bird flu? what bird flu?) so am asking Joe and Mary to research it for me. I want eggs. Also want to make cheese so am going to ask former colleagues from lab to visit dairy school at the UW there in madison and see if they can collect info for me, and even the correct enzymes to make something like cheddar. :) I've made a compost pile in my yard, planted some beans (black-eyed peas to you), planted the awesome flower seeds you sent me, though they haven't come up yet, and would like to plant some tomatoes. I love my village, but have to admit there are times where I don't feel like hanging out with people or speaking in Hausa, and on those days it is best to do my own little projects.
My health is great. No bacteria now for something like 2 months! Yeah, baby. And no colds to speak of. Just bug bites and heat rash. I take some kind of steriod at night because the bites are so itchy I can't sleep (Aerius, I think it's Allegra tho am not sure).
Found some nail polish at the Peace Corps hostel in Konni (that's where I am using this computer) and put it on some of the girls and young women in my village. My friend Lamirra is this spunky, 17-year-old married girl who makes the best fura and gives really decorative henna. One day I am going to bring some "American" clothes to the village (tight jeans and a tank top) and have her put it on (in her house, of course) and then she will probably dance around and we will laugh about it.
How was your trip to CA? How's little Angela and Christopher doing? How's Becky and Fonsi? Is Myra still there? I hope everyone is healthy and happy. I would love to see some pictures. I need to send them a letter to congratulate them on the arrival of their newest family member. :)
Below is a portion of an email I sent my colleagues. More stuff on village life.
Thanks again for the packages! You have been so awesome about it! Perhaps you could send an LED accompaniment to the mini mag-lite you sent me? The batteries only last 2 nights with the current bulb. :) Thanks so much!
Love always,
Crystal
The weather is nice now. Since it's rainy season it does get down to a nice, chilly 80 degrees! At night I use my sleeping bag, so it must be down to 70 at that time. The only problem with rainy season are all the darn bugs! There aren't many mosquitos, but when they come out you have to be careful not to get malaria. It breaks my heart to see kids so riddled with fever that they can't even talk, they just lay in their mother's arms and whimper. Fortunately people can usually scrape up enough money for medicine, so that's good, but it's still so sad.
Village life is good. Hausa is coming along and while progress seems slow I feel like I am more able to understand what people are saying and that makes me feel good, especially when they're talking about me and I can eavesdrop! The millet and sorghum plants are getting nice and tall so hopefully we'll have a good harvest next month. Oh, and next month marks the beginning of Ramadan, so my villagers will be fasting from both food and water for the entire cycle of the moon. I think I'll try it for one day as a "cultural experience" and see how it goes. The old people are already fasting, though I'm not really sure why. They still work in the fields, too. It's crazy.
People are hungry. Since their graineries are getting low, they only drink fura. Fura is a drink where first you add water to millet or sorghum flour to make a dough, then wad the dough up into a 8" ball. The dough is cooked in a pot with a couple inches of water to steam. Then it is pounded to separate it, then put in a big calabash bowl where sour milk and spices like cayenne pepper are added. Millet, sour milk and pepper... not my idea of a tasty lunch, but once you drink it a few times you get used to it and it's not so bad. So yeah, my villagers drink fura and go out into the bush and find leaves and cook them. Some of those cooked leaves taste bitter and nasty, but just add a little MSG and if you're hungry enough you'll eat it.
The men work hard in the fields, hoeing the soil around their plants for 8 hours a day, and it's back breaking work. I know this from experience because I did it for, like, 10 minutes. The women and children pick grass and other tasty greens for the animals at home. The animals can't go out in the fields because they'll eat the crops. Some kids go out and pick grass and sell it to people.
The women's group I work with is growing peanuts in the garden area. We also planted 160 moringa trees from seed (it's the amazing "you eat the leaves and they're full of nutrients" tree and it will grow to the perfect size in about 3 months), have our little pau plastique nursery going (80 dan tahoua trees, an Acacia, which is N-fixing and so is good in fields and you can also eat the seeds like millet, and 20 baobab trees), and hopefully the gum arabic we planted in their fields will come up. Also I am working with the Ministry of Environment to get some fish for our seasonal lake. It would most likely be a type of tilapia that would grow to full size in 2-3 months. The money for the fingerlings would come out of the women's group's caisse and then if they sell some fish they will make a profit. Fingerlings should be 5-10 CFA each and full-grown fish are sold for 100-150 CFA each. Also working on paperwork so that women's group can get an account at a microfinance bank so that in the future they can get a loan to buy their own piece of land. Right now they do their gardening on a piece of land "donated" by the chief of the village, and the last volunteer in the village applied for grants to get funding to build a fence around the land and dig a well in the center, and then the chief went ahead and planted mango seedlings everywhere. Way to take advantage of the fence and well. So the women won't be able to use the land for very long. The lesson learned is that whenever someone "donates" land make them sign a document and bring it to the mayor's attention (the mayor is in a larger village).
Now that I've been around for a while the kids aren't so scared of me. Whenever I go somewhere a group of kids will yell my name "Zena! Zena!" until I turn and greet them. And sometimes they come to my house. Any sort of empty box, bottle or bag makes a great toy for a kid, and I let some kids go through my trash and it was like Christmas for them. Empty pasta bags, soap boxes, a used razor (which I saw like 6 people using later on), anything with a label on it that had a picture, all of it was exciting to them. Sometimes kids come to my house and refuse to leave, and I've learned the best way to handle it is to pick up a stick or a millet stalk and wave it in a threatening way and they will scatter like flies. Works every time.
I want to start a chicken coop (bird flu? what bird flu?) so am asking Joe and Mary to research it for me. I want eggs. Also want to make cheese so am going to ask former colleagues from lab to visit dairy school at the UW there in madison and see if they can collect info for me, and even the correct enzymes to make something like cheddar. :) I've made a compost pile in my yard, planted some beans (black-eyed peas to you), planted the awesome flower seeds you sent me, though they haven't come up yet, and would like to plant some tomatoes. I love my village, but have to admit there are times where I don't feel like hanging out with people or speaking in Hausa, and on those days it is best to do my own little projects.
My health is great. No bacteria now for something like 2 months! Yeah, baby. And no colds to speak of. Just bug bites and heat rash. I take some kind of steriod at night because the bites are so itchy I can't sleep (Aerius, I think it's Allegra tho am not sure).
Found some nail polish at the Peace Corps hostel in Konni (that's where I am using this computer) and put it on some of the girls and young women in my village. My friend Lamirra is this spunky, 17-year-old married girl who makes the best fura and gives really decorative henna. One day I am going to bring some "American" clothes to the village (tight jeans and a tank top) and have her put it on (in her house, of course) and then she will probably dance around and we will laugh about it.
How was your trip to CA? How's little Angela and Christopher doing? How's Becky and Fonsi? Is Myra still there? I hope everyone is healthy and happy. I would love to see some pictures. I need to send them a letter to congratulate them on the arrival of their newest family member. :)
Below is a portion of an email I sent my colleagues. More stuff on village life.
Thanks again for the packages! You have been so awesome about it! Perhaps you could send an LED accompaniment to the mini mag-lite you sent me? The batteries only last 2 nights with the current bulb. :) Thanks so much!
Love always,
Crystal
The weather is nice now. Since it's rainy season it does get down to a nice, chilly 80 degrees! At night I use my sleeping bag, so it must be down to 70 at that time. The only problem with rainy season are all the darn bugs! There aren't many mosquitos, but when they come out you have to be careful not to get malaria. It breaks my heart to see kids so riddled with fever that they can't even talk, they just lay in their mother's arms and whimper. Fortunately people can usually scrape up enough money for medicine, so that's good, but it's still so sad.
Village life is good. Hausa is coming along and while progress seems slow I feel like I am more able to understand what people are saying and that makes me feel good, especially when they're talking about me and I can eavesdrop! The millet and sorghum plants are getting nice and tall so hopefully we'll have a good harvest next month. Oh, and next month marks the beginning of Ramadan, so my villagers will be fasting from both food and water for the entire cycle of the moon. I think I'll try it for one day as a "cultural experience" and see how it goes. The old people are already fasting, though I'm not really sure why. They still work in the fields, too. It's crazy.
People are hungry. Since their graineries are getting low, they only drink fura. Fura is a drink where first you add water to millet or sorghum flour to make a dough, then wad the dough up into a 8" ball. The dough is cooked in a pot with a couple inches of water to steam. Then it is pounded to separate it, then put in a big calabash bowl where sour milk and spices like cayenne pepper are added. Millet, sour milk and pepper... not my idea of a tasty lunch, but once you drink it a few times you get used to it and it's not so bad. So yeah, my villagers drink fura and go out into the bush and find leaves and cook them. Some of those cooked leaves taste bitter and nasty, but just add a little MSG and if you're hungry enough you'll eat it.
The men work hard in the fields, hoeing the soil around their plants for 8 hours a day, and it's back breaking work. I know this from experience because I did it for, like, 10 minutes. The women and children pick grass and other tasty greens for the animals at home. The animals can't go out in the fields because they'll eat the crops. Some kids go out and pick grass and sell it to people.
The women's group I work with is growing peanuts in the garden area. We also planted 160 moringa trees from seed (it's the amazing "you eat the leaves and they're full of nutrients" tree and it will grow to the perfect size in about 3 months), have our little pau plastique nursery going (80 dan tahoua trees, an Acacia, which is N-fixing and so is good in fields and you can also eat the seeds like millet, and 20 baobab trees), and hopefully the gum arabic we planted in their fields will come up. Also I am working with the Ministry of Environment to get some fish for our seasonal lake. It would most likely be a type of tilapia that would grow to full size in 2-3 months. The money for the fingerlings would come out of the women's group's caisse and then if they sell some fish they will make a profit. Fingerlings should be 5-10 CFA each and full-grown fish are sold for 100-150 CFA each. Also working on paperwork so that women's group can get an account at a microfinance bank so that in the future they can get a loan to buy their own piece of land. Right now they do their gardening on a piece of land "donated" by the chief of the village, and the last volunteer in the village applied for grants to get funding to build a fence around the land and dig a well in the center, and then the chief went ahead and planted mango seedlings everywhere. Way to take advantage of the fence and well. So the women won't be able to use the land for very long. The lesson learned is that whenever someone "donates" land make them sign a document and bring it to the mayor's attention (the mayor is in a larger village).
Now that I've been around for a while the kids aren't so scared of me. Whenever I go somewhere a group of kids will yell my name "Zena! Zena!" until I turn and greet them. And sometimes they come to my house. Any sort of empty box, bottle or bag makes a great toy for a kid, and I let some kids go through my trash and it was like Christmas for them. Empty pasta bags, soap boxes, a used razor (which I saw like 6 people using later on), anything with a label on it that had a picture, all of it was exciting to them. Sometimes kids come to my house and refuse to leave, and I've learned the best way to handle it is to pick up a stick or a millet stalk and wave it in a threatening way and they will scatter like flies. Works every time.
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