The longest week ever - Part 1

Well it's been over 10 months in country now, nearly 8 months at post, and I think I'm finally really comfortable here. The last time I was in my village I actually was reluctant to leave after 10 days. It's like some sort of switch was flipped and now all of a sudden I don't just sit in my house all the time but actually go and wander around and chat with folks, and explore other markets, and eat with my villagers much more frequently. But I'm also coming due for another round of crazy so we'll see how that goes. I have optomistic feelings.

As I mentioned, however, I did have to leave my post, despite the bureaus attempts to chastize me for doing so more often than they felt was appropriate. Anyway, that was about a week and a half ago and I have been going going going ever since, right up until Turkey Day. I'm definately ready to go back to post and crash for about a week. But before I do I should probably fill you all in what I've been doing. So...On with the story!

A long long time ago in a place far far away (Actually it was only about 7 months ago in Konni) a volunteer from my stage bought a horse. While sweet and even tempered, the horse was a burden. It would eat everything and anything. Feeding it got to be too expensive. And it was so sweet, you couldn't even push her into a trot (unless you are a magical Tuareg as we will see later). So it was decided that the horse must go.

Many months later at the GAD auction fund raiser (the same one where two novice musicians were getting their first taste of performing on stage) the volunteer auctioned her horse to the highest bidder to raise money for Gender and Developement projects. Part and parcel of the purchase was that the horse would be delivered to the buyer's door. In addition, as the horse and transporters travelled (by foot, horse, and donkey cart) they would stop in villages along the way to do sensibilizations on a range of topics from SIDA (french for AIDS) and family planning to gardening and fruit tree grafting. Truly a noble endeavor.

Well the buyer happened to be the wife of one of our staff members here in Niamey. Feel free to go check a map real quick. Konni to Niamey. On foot with a horse and donkey cart. They are not close. Natalie (the volunteer who purchased the horse) and Kate from Konni, along with Alkazoum the magical Tuareg and Douwe the donkey cart maestro, actually made the entire journey. It took them about 17 days I believe. Kristen, also from Konni and the same village as Douwe, got as far as the last two days and then bailed for a party in Niamey. Lame.

The reason you need to know all this is that for the first half of my busy week I joined these brave adventurers in Balleyara. Last Tuesday I went from my village to ICRISAT- Sadore, the neighboring village/agriculture research center, to collect some Pomme de Sahel twigs (called scions) for grafting demonstrations . From there I went the next day to Niamey and straight on to Balleyara to meet our intrepid heroes. You would think that stopping at the neighboring village to pick up some twigs and then traveling to another town about a 2hr car ride away would be an errand completable in a single day. But such is travel in Niger (a combination of 7k walks on laterite roads and bush taxi rides on the paved ones) that such activities must be well planned and done well in advance of any deadlines. Kala Suuru.

Well after waiting in the tessum in Niamey for 3 hours to leave for Balleyara I arrived with scions intact. I got caught up on some of the adventures and met the team over dinner. Though I mentioned them in passing already, the team consisted of:

Lola - A lovely young mare who was weary and foot sore but managed to push on and make it all the way to her new home.

Natalie - The former owner of Lola and dedicated PCV from Konni region.

Kate - Another volunteer from Konni and battling a case of Giardia at the time of my arrival. It later cleared up miraculously.

Kristen - A health volunteer from Konni and friends with Douwe and Alkazoum. Also keeper of "the Numbers" and performer of many a breast feeding sensibilization.

Douwe - A fifteen yr old? Hausa boy from Kristen's village. He was responsible for driving the cart for us.

Alkazoum - The magical Tuareg. Also from Kristen's village, except when he is walking to Agadez and back. Addicted to tea and related to every Tuareg between Balleyara and Niamey, he was the only one capeable of getting Lola to move at anything other than a brisk walk.

White Chocolate - An Albino donkey who doesn't like people and had never pulled a cart before. Known to collapse on speed bumps.

Mike Tyson aka Beckham aka Donkey - A mean ass. He bucks, he kicks, he does not want to be your friend. But with Douwe at the helm he can pull a cart, so he replaced White Chocalate.

Come back next time as our merry band sets off.