Wow, thanks for your email! I'm so happy to hear that you and the Youth Group are interested in helping me with my camel project and learning about the work that I'm doing here in Niger.
I don't know what to say, there's just so much. So I guess I'll just start at the beginning. I've talked about joining the Peace Corps since I first learned about it in college. Before that I had always wanted to go to Africa but didn't know how to go about it. The application process was lengthy - I started applying in November of 2006 and finally received my assignment in September of 2007, then left for Niger in January of this year. I had to write essays, obtain letters of reference, hand in transcripts, and undergo two interviews, not to mention filling out the huge application online. Once I was accepted, I had to get medical and dental clearance and get boosters on my vaccines (yellow fever, measels, polio, diphtheria-tetanus). The medical people in Washington D.C. are very picky about the medical forms and sometimes I had to make multiple trips to the doctor's office to make sure everything was filled out correctly and all the signatures were there. After that I waited - and waited - for about 4 months before I was finally told where I'd be going and what sort of work I'd be doing. So let's just say the application process was long and required dedication.
>
January is part of "cold season" in Niger, so when I stepped off the plane (directly onto the tarmac) I wasn't shocked by the heat (not yet, anyway). I remember going into the airport and waiting in line to go through customs, and I had to go to the bathroom so I found a toilet nearby. However, there wasn't any toilet paper, or any paper towels of any kind, only a water bottle next to the toilet. I was like, "uh, how do I do this?" and just kind of splashed water on myself. Little did I know that I would get used to using my hand and water instead of toilet paper. Anyhow, there are no paper products here so whenever you wash your hands you let them air dry (which doesn't take long in this arid environment) and you blow your nose using the "snot rocket" method and your shirt. Good times!
From the airport in Niamey (the capital), we drove to Hamdallaye (pronounced "hum-da-lie," the Islamic/Arabic equivalent of "Hallelujah") the village where the Peace Corps training site is located. I remember looking out the window as we drove down the road, seeing clusters of people standing and sitting outside mud huts, naked children waving, and lots of trash - black and white plastic bags in huge piles, tangled in the trees and bushes, blowing across the road (now I know that that road goes through a "landfill" and most of the roads don't look that way - thank god!).
>
Training lasted about 10 weeks. We lived with a host family in the village and visited the training site monday-saturday, 8-5. The training was really intense. Our days were peppered with: Learning Hausa (or Zarma) Medical sessions where we were given vaccinations (rabies (x3), meningitis, hepatitis A and B (x3), typhoid) and learned about all the sorts of diseases and infections we can get here (malaria, schistomiasis, AIDS, amoebas/bacterial dysentary, skin infections, bites/stings, mental health and peer support, etc.)Nigerien and Islamic culture, Technical training (where I learned about working with trees and the natural environment to improve the quality of life for people)
> The training site overall was like a mini-America, compared to what came after it. We had three meals a day with meat, salad and fruit. There was running water, toilets, showers, electricity, and TV. The buildings were made with wood materials instead of the usual mud brick. People spoke english.
> We learned about what a Peace Corps Volunteer's job is. The Peace Corps has
> three basic goals:
> 1. To learn about other cultures
> 2. To teach people about our culture
> 3. To help people in some way or another through work
>
> My work as a Natural Resources Management volunteer is to show people how to
> use trees and other natural resources to improve their way of life. For
> example, we use agroforestry. If you have a field of millet, you can plant a
> nitrogen-fixing tree in your field and nitrogen (fertilizer) will permeate
> the soil and over time will improve the quality of the soil. Any tree of the
> Acacia species would be considered nitrogen-fixing. The trees are also good
> because grazing animals and birds will eat their leaves/seeds, and the
> animal's poop/pee further helps fertilize the soil. Niger is windy, and the
> wind can blow away the layer of top-soil in the fields, which is where the
> most nutrient-rich soil is. So a way to stop that from happening is to slow
> the wind down by planting a line of trees on the edge of the field to act as
> a windbreak. When people don't want animals grazing on their crops they can
> use thorny branches to make a fence to keep them out, or they can plant
> thorny trees along the edge of their fields. I help people by providing them
> with seeds and plastic pots to make a nursery, then they can plant the trees
> in their field. There's also a tree called Moringa that's a great source of
> nutrition - it only takes a few months to grow to its most beneficial size
> (breast height), and when you cut off the leaves and eat them, they taste
> like spinach. They are full of vitamin A and I think have protein, too. I
> try to educate people about these trees and with the women's group have
> planted about 160 for them to harvest and sell. The baobab tree is another
> tree whose leaves are really tasty and nutritious - people pound the dried
> leaves and use them to make a sauce, and it's my favorite sauce, it's so
> yummy. The government just built a school in my village, the first one ever
> (yay!), so I plan to work with the kids there to start a nursery and then
> sell the trees before planting season next year. This is a good way to
> educate the kids about planting trees and also teach them skills that could
> come in handy for making money when they are grown up. I was also trained in
> anti-erosion techniques and fixing erosion problems, but in my village that
> doesn't seem to be a problem. Also, I was trained to learn how to tap gum
> arabic, a very important tree. It's like maple trees where you tap the tree
> to get syrup, but with the gum arabic it produces a thick, gummy substance
> (hence its name). If people grow it and harvest the gum, it can be sold to
> an exporter, where it will then go on to the western world. Gum arabic is an
> important ingredient in Coca Cola, cosmetics, and candy, and the market for
> it is huge. If my villagers were able to sell it, they could make some good
> money. However, in order to get gum arabic you need a low water table, and
> my village area has a high water table, so we wouldn't be able to sell it.
> However, the tree is an Acacia with really nasty thorns so it would be good
> to plant anyway around their fields!
>
> Once training was over and I swore in as an official volunteer (March), I
> moved to my village east of Niamey near the town of Konni, right on the
> border of Nigeria. My village is called Korop, and it's a small,
> conservative bush village of about 400 people of the Hausa tribe and Fulani
> tribe. Hausa people are known for their trading, and even in my tiny village
> there are people selling wares such as carved tool handles, rope made with
> palm fronds, ladles and bowls made with dried out squash, beds made from
> millet stalks, and small foodstuffs like sugar, tea, salt, and sauce
> ingredients. Sometimes there are young girls selling cooked greens, fish and
> millet pate (or tuwo in Hausa) with sauce, depending on what's in season.
> The Fulani people as a whole are nomadic but in my village they stay pretty
> much year-round. They are known for their cattle, and herd cows during the
> day and trade milk with the Hausa people for millet to cook for themselves.
> There's a few butchers in my village, too, and about three times a week I
> see them selling delicious roasted meat - either cow, goat, or sheep.
>
> Beautification scarring and tattooing is abundant here. Women have scars
> that go out from the sides of their mouth in a triangular shape, or
> sometimes along the ridges of their cheekbones. It's often in intricate
> designs and is really very cool. Men often have a series of 5-6 lines going
from the corners of their mouth to their ears. Some people just have a
> couple of lines just beyond the corner of their eye. In the old days, people
> used scarring to distinguish what tribe they were in, but now it's just used
> for beautification purposes. The Fulani women in my village make the most
> beautiful, intricate beaded necklaces, chokers and earrings. Even the boys
> wear earrings, which is very uncommon here. Because of their Islam religion,
> women and teenage girls keep their heads covered with a brightly colored
> cloth. They make long wrap skirts with a big piece of fabric, and wear baggy
> tops that cover their shoulders and upper arms. I have been seeing women
> wearing long skirts for so long that if I read a magazine and see women in
> short skirts it's more noticeable than it was before. Of course the Peace
> Corps encourages volunteers to be culturally appropriate, so I wear long
> skirts and baggy t-shirts or tops. I usually wear a hat, though it's more
> because of the sun than to be culturally appropriate. Because I'm white and
> non-Muslim, it doesn't matter if I keep my head covered. The men wear normal
> clothes, though they're a little different from what we're used to in
> America. Many clothes here are from Goodwill or Japan/China, so you might
> see someone in a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt and really funky stonewashed
> bell-bottom jeans. I also see a lot of what looks like dress pants, and
> they're usually plaid. On friday, the big prayer day, if the men have a
> boubou they wear it. Basically it's a Muslim-style knee-length tunic worn
> over pants of the same material. There are also embroidered pillbox hats
> that are considered highly appropriate for prayer. The kids wear
> hand-me-downs. Sometimes just a pair of underwear, sometimes just a t-shirt.
> Once a kid is about 7 they start wearing pants/shorts/skirt. Often the
> clothes are rags, all torn up and faded. When my shirts get too worn out to
> wear I will give them to a kid, who I'm sure will get plenty of mileage out
> of them. Everyone wears cheap-o flip flops from China (the equivalent of
> 50-75 cents in US). My nice Chaco flipflops are often admired ("wow, these
> are strong! How much are they in America? That's a lot of money!")
> The people here are known for their sense of humor. I have so much fun
> chatting with my villagers - we talk and laugh and joke around. For example,
> my next door neighbor and I were wondering where my cat was, so she
> pretended she had a cell phone and held her hand up to her ear and pretended
> to call him. She was like, "Kitty Kitty, where are you? Crystal wants you to
> come home. Oh, you're in the bush with your girlfriend? Well, come home
> soon. Okay, see you later." If I go to the neighboring village (1 km away)
> and there are kids who've never seen a white person they often start crying
> and run and hide behind somebody. But people think it's funny to carry the
> kid over to where I'm standing just to make him cry more. I try not to take
> it personally that they're so scared of me. Despite being ridiculously poor
> and barely keeping themselves fed and clothed, the people of my village (and
> most likely the people of the whole country) are amazingly cool with how
> little they have. If I go to someone's house and they're eating food, they
> will offer me the largest portion and insist I eat it, even if the rest of
> them don't get as much. They can fix just about anything that we in America
> would throw away. At the beginning of rainy season, while this year's crops
> were still growing and everyone's granery was just about empty, all they ate
> (well, drank, rather) was fura, a millet drink of steamed millet dough
> stirred with sour milk and spices. That's it. They drank it because it uses
> very little millet and they can trade with the Fulanis for milk. Since they
> were also working in the fields, just about everyone lost weight. Now that
> the crops are grown, they are eating tome (millet roasted on the cob), tuwo
> (delicious millet pate) and lallame (a sweet, hot millet drink) and
> everyone's happy and hopefully regaining some weight.
>
> There are some definite differences between men and women here, culturally.
> I don't know if it's because of Islam or Nigerien culture or a combination
> thereof. The jobs of men and women are clearly divided - the women tend to
> the house, pound grains, cook food, raise children, and carry water from the
> well. The men are responsible for providing the family with food, retrieving
> the food from the granery, structural upkeep of the house and other
> structures, and providing their family with money. There is really no work
> here in Niger, so the majority of men in my village go to Nigeria or Ghana
> during the off-seasons to find work. I think they go for adventure as well
> as to find money. These men would probably never get a chance to live in a
> city, yet they get to spend a few months in Lagos or another large city in
> Nigeria and make their money selling firewood, meat, or doing street
> manicures/pedicures. They eat rich food (which to them is rice and pasta)
> and get to see something new for awhile, then bring back money for their
> family (including their parents), providing a cushion in case a child gets
> sick or they run out of food. On a personal level the differences can be
> more offensive to us Americans. As a woman some men refuse to shake my hand
> due to Muslim customs. When I did a demonstration the other day about making
> a compost pile, I was informed the men and women would have to come
> separately because they can not go to this sort of thing and stand together.
> The women in my village seem pretty shy about approaching groups of men, and
> I noticed men eat and socialize with other men and women eat and socialize
> with other women (however because I'm different I'm considered kind of
> androgynous and get to socialize and eat with everyone). I wanted to bring
> some women to the nearby town, Konni, for some work with a microfinance
> center (basically a bank for poor people), but the men in my village were
> not comfortable with their wives going there. I think maybe they want to
> keep them isolated so that they can't see how things are better in other
> areas, and maybe they're afraid their wives will run off with another man.
> Male volunteers can't visit the homes of men unless the man himself is home,
> so it is often hard for them to find a way to socialize with the women.
>
> I thought since you're a youth group you may want to learn a little about
> other religions. So I will tell you what I know about Islam, and what it
> means to my villagers.
> Muslims pray five times a day; at sunrise (about 6:30), noon (2:00),
> afternoon (4:00), dusk (around 7:00), and night (8:15). At each of these
> times the Iman will do the prayer call, which is sung in Arabic. In my
> village, since there's no electricity or generator, he just belts it out as
> loudly as possible. It pretty much translates to:
>
> God is most great. God is most great.
> God is most great. God is most great.
> I testify that there is no god except God.
> I testify that there is no god except God.
> I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
> I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
> Come to prayer! Come to prayer!
> Come to success (in this life and hereafter)! Come to success!
> God is most great. God is most great.
> There is no god except God.
>
> We learned about the 5 pillars of Islam during training. They are basically
> what every good Muslim should do:
> 1. Believe that there is only one god (I believe this was more imporant back
> in the day when people had animist/pagan beliefs and believed there were
> multiple gods)
> 2. Prayer
> 3. Giving to the poor
> 4. Fasting during Ramadan (actually occurring right now)
> 5. The pilgrimage to Mecca (Saudi Arabic), only if they are
> financially/physically able to
> Why these things are important:
> It is said that Mohammad is a prophet. Back in the day (the 4th century)
> Mohammad was approached by the angel Gabriel, who brought him the message of
> god. These conversations occurred for a period of time, and they were
> written down and now make up the Koran (the Islamic bible, basically). He
> spread the word about Islam but eventually he and his followers were told by
> God to migrate to evade persecution. For this reason he went from his home
> in Mecca (the holy city) to the city of Medina. Ramadan is a celebration of
> the first month during Gabriel visited Mohammad and takes place the 9th
> month of the year by the lunar calendar. During Ramadan, while the sun is
> up, Muslims are to abstain from:
> 1. Food
> 2. Water
> 3. Intimate relations
> It's hard. I don't even do it, though I can see that the hot Niger sun and
> hard work in the fields makes it difficult for people to do. Of course, the
> elderly, ill, pregnant/nursing women, etc. aren't required to do it and
> those who can make it up later in the year are encouraged to do so. It is
> meant as a means for self purification and for people to gain spiritual
> insight. Also, they are more able to sympathize with those who are hungry
> and will have greater appreciation for what they have. I may try it for a
> week next year, when I hopefully am more used to the climate here.
>
> A few other things: People always pray facing the direction of Mecca (east),
> and the praying involves a lot of standing, kneeling, and sitting (sounds
> familiar, right? ha ha!). The few people who know how to read and write
> write out text from the Koran in Arabic on wooden boards, since paper is
> expensive and rare. They also have a way of making ink using wood ash and
> sap from gum arabic. Conversations are very much speckled with references to
> God and Arabic words have pretty much found their way into the Hausa
> langauge. For example, if someone says they want something to happen ("I'm
> going to the market monday to sell my goat"), you answer with "Allah make it
> happen," as a way of saying you hope it happens and goes well. Whenever you
> enter the yard of someone's house, a store, or a crowd of people, you
> announce your arrival with "assalamu alaikum," which means "peace be with > you" in Arabic, and they will answer with "alaikum salam" which means
> something like "and peace to you." If you tell them something amazing, the
> answer could be "Allah sarki!" which means "God is chief!" If you're eating
> food and you're full, you say "Alhamdallalahi," which like "praise be to
> God" in Arabic (it's perfectly acceptable to belch at this point).
>
> I never mentioned the climate. It's hot. The sun is really, really strong,
> but the good thing is because it's so dry here if you go in the shade
> there's like a 20 degree temperature difference. Also the good thing about
> the heat and sun is that things dry really quickly - if I spill water on the
> floor in my house, it will disappear in 5 minutes. If it's a sunny day, my
> laundry will dry outside in an hour or less. If I wash things like flour,
> rice, beans, etc. and need to dry them out before storing, I can lay them
> out in the sun. Also it's a good way to dry fruits and vegetables, and they
> make a delicious sun-dried jerky here called kilishi. There are basically
> four seasons here:
> Hot season (120 degree days), April-July
> Rainy season, July to September
> Mini hot season, September to November
> Cold season (gets down to 50 at night!), November to March (really strong
> winds and very dusty)
> The hottest month is May, the rainiest (and most mosquito and therefore
> malaria-infested) month is August, and I've yet to see what the coldest
> month will be. Some areas of the country are hotter than others, and
> fortunately my village is nice and cool (in comparison). For example, during
> hot season some people don't even sleep on a mattress because it's so hot at
> night, but I was able to use mine and still survive. We also have to drink a
> LOT of water and for this reason Ramadan would be very difficult for me.
> My daily life: I get up around 8:00 from my millet stalk bed covered with a
> mosquito net. I go to the bathroom in my latrine (where you squat over a
> hole), then wash my face and hands. I take down my bed (it's outside and the
> sun will eventually ruin my stuff if I leave it out), drink water, and eat
> breakfast, which is either oatmeal with sugar and powdered milk or bread
> with peanut butter, if I happen to have bread. I leave my house and see my
> neighbors, my best friend Rabi, who is an amazing woman (will describe why
> in a bit) and my neighbors Ige and Isa, the old couple who take care of
> their deceased son's two daughters and whose other son, his wife, and their
> three kids live in their compound (very normal to live with your parents
> here). Around 10 someone comes over, usually young men, and they play cards
> or we listen to American music on my mp3 player with speakers, and when it's
> not Ramadan we sometimes drink tea. We chat, I ask them questions about
> Hausa or work or just Niger in general, sometimes they help me fix things in
> my house (for example, if my mud roof leaks they will climb up on it and fix
> it by hammering the mud back into place). Lately since it's rainy season
> I've been pulling weeds in the area of my larger compound. You have to pull
> weeds because they are home to mosquitos, and you don't want mosquitos
> infiltrating your house. Wow, that's back-breaking work that really makes
> you appreciate lawn mowers. I do laundry, wash dishes, put things away,
> sweep (using pieces of long grass tied together as a broom), etc. At noon I
> go inside my house and rest until 2, then I make my other meal of the day (a
> huge portion of rice with oil and salt, macaroni with oil and spices, or
> spaghetti with tomato sauce if I'm feeling motivated). I pay my neighbor to
> bring me water (the well is pretty far away and I'm too much of a wimp to
> make repeated trips that far carrying a heavy bucket on my head), so she
> usually brings it over in the afternoon. I then fill up my water filter and
> fill my bathing bucket so the water can warm in the sun. If I don't have
> work to do I'll sit in my house and read or just chill, since the afternoons
> are hot. In the evening before the 7:00 prayer I try to go out and see
> people, but sometimes I get distracted and don't make it. Then after the
> 7:00 prayer I hang out with the men outside the mosque (which is this area
> where the village store is and where people sell food) until the 8:15
> prayer. Then I bathe (using a bucket and a cup to dump water over myself),
> set up my bed and mosquito net, close my windows and put things inside if it
> looks like it might rain, and go to bed.
>
> Speaking of going to bed, it's getting late and I realize this email is
> HUGE, so I'm going to wrap things up. It's very sweet that you guys want to
> help us. It's difficult to say what would help my villagers the most,
> because their main concerns are staying fed, having a little money for
> emergencies, and keeping themselves clothed and healthy. One thing that I
> think would help is condoms. The birth rate in Niger is something like 8
> kids per woman, and the population is growing fast (food shortages now and
> in the future are a huge concern). Also, with the huge number of men working
> in Nigeria, a country with the second-largest population of AIDS in the
> world (I think), if those men are less than faithful to their wives, which I
> hear they are, and aren't safe about it, they could easily contract
> something. Another need would be medicine, and though they sell tylenol in
> my village, not everyone can afford it. And maybe antacids, since people are
> always complaining about having indigestion. Just a few suggestions, though
> I know they would be grateful for any sort of help. Photos of America, such
as people, animals, houses, towns, etc. are also very exciting (I try to
explain that the sheep in America are raised for their fur rather than for their meat, and they get a huge kick out of that).
>
I am looking forward to hearing from the students in your youth group! Any sort of questions they have or certain things they want to hear about, I'd be happy to help with. Take care, and tell Father Nalley hi for me!
>
> Crystal
> (aka Zeina, my Nigerien name)
