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Published: June 14th 2006
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Farm Tools
These are an example of some of the tools the villagers use in their fields. The donkeys pull contraptions like this to make the lines in the hard dirt for planting seeds. Heya everyone!
I hope you're all doing well and that the crappy weather Ottawa got on the weekend has improved somewhat. My mom told me it was something crazy like 10 degrees over the weekend.... I seriously think I would die at that temperature now. I'm getting very accustomed to the 37-40 degree heat here! 😊
So, funny story:
I was out in the field on the weekend making another trip up to the villages where I was last time. I needed some details on their needs (how many books of how many pages for the school? What type of tools for the farmers? etc). Anyway, I was driving up through the fields in my truck toward one of the villages and I see an old man from the village working his crops. I recognize him as the same man who wanted tools for the farmers at my last visit, which makes sense since he is a farmer himself. Anyway, I get the driver to stop the car, and I get out to say hello. This old farmer is VERY excited to see me, and he clearly remembers me from last time. This is not surprising considering I am
Refurbished Well
This is a well outside a mosque that we refurbished last year because it was broken. As you can see, it works now! Refurbishing local wells is a good way to get some bang for your buck in terms of projects because you still are providing a water source but at much less cost than drilling a new one. probably one of a handful of white women he's ever seen (maybe even the only one). Nevertheless, I was flattered by his enthusiasm to speak with me and we had a good chat (via interpreter) about what tools farmers need and things like that. At the end of a few minutes we shook hands and said thank you's all around, and continued on toward the village where I had a series of more formal meetings scheduled, none of which were as helpful as this improptu one with my farmer friend.
At the end of my meetings, we're leaving the village through the same road that we took to get there, and we see my farmer friend again. This time he's waiting for us and flags us down. So we stop the truck. As my interpreter rolls down the window, the farmer starts smiling and talking a mile a minute and hands us a big bag of unknown contents. The translator doesn't have time to tell me what's going on before the farmer is madly shaking my hand and then we're driving away. So I turn to him and say "what the heck was that!?", and he tells me that the farmer was so happy that we consulted him and spoke with him that he gave us this gift of fresh peanuts from his field. I admit, I got a little choked up at that point. After a second I thought about how inappropriate it felt to accept a gift of food from someone who clearly needs it more than I do. But my translator assured me that refusing it would be much more hurtful and rude, so we did the right thing. Whew!
Anyway, the driver and the translator were very happy for the gift and promptly dug in. I tried some of these peanuts, and they're really good, but really different than peanuts you'd normally eat. Since they're fresh, they're still in the shell and everything, but they're not roasted. So they're kind of soft and taste a little green. They're good though! Try raw peanuts sometime! When I got back to town, I managed to get ahold of my folks and tell them my story and how pleased I was to have made someone in the village to happy. And it was then that my mom pointed out to me that I now am a student working LITERALLY for peanuts. 😊
In other news, things here are going well. I'm not getting sick anymore (knock on wood) so I'm pretty sure that the bugs and I have finally made a truce. Hopefully it keeps up! I'm heading out into the field on Friday morning and a colleague is heading to Ghana tomorrow, so tonight we're going out to have some dinner and drinks on the town. Should be a good time. Next week I'll be in Niger (capital city is Niamey) for a meeting with an NGO that's doing work in the desert region where we have properties. Hopefully we'll be able to partner with them on a program they're running that aims to combine food security with environmental sustainability. After that I head back into the field to work on livelihood restoration programs for that same desert region with a Canadian consulting firm from Toronto. I'm excited to work with them and learn whatever they can teach me.
I just got confirmation that I was excepted to that hygiene and sanitation course in Mali I mentioned a few weeks ago. So I'm heading there for 2 weeks at the end of July to learn how to train local people to run hygiene and sanitation issues in their communities. I'm really excited about this, particularly because it means empowering local people to help each other rather than relying on outside support.
Last of all, I booked my trip to Kilimanjaro and because of the way the flights work out (we take for granted we can fly wherever we want any day we want! These flights leave once a week!!!) I will be spending a night and a day in Ghana (capital city is Accra). This is good news because I really wanted to check out Accra, and I have some work colleagues that are in town there who I can drink beer with when I arrive. 😊
In case you're keeping track, these travels are taking me quite a ways around West Africa. I've had to get travel visas for all 3 countries, so I'm very glad I chose the 48-page passport! The African visas you need take up a whole page each, too, and I'm not sure why they do this. The bigger the stamp the more important the country?
Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. Congrats ladies of the Scottish for your default win against the Irish on the weekend. A win is still a win! 😊 I'll be thinking of you this week when I'm up running at the crack of dawn... Have a great game this weekend!
-Brownie
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Peanuts eh?
Gee - I thought my pay was low. : ) Not much new here this week. Look forward to reading about your adventures - keep on keeping us up to date. We'll be thinking about you Saturday as we face Kingston. love w