School

I was never particularly fond of school. If I had to go to school here in Galmi I think I would despise school. Not long ago a friend of ours, A, took us to the school he teaches at. The experience was an eye opener. There are about 600 students attending the school. In North American terms it would be a junior high school. Called college here.

There are 4 teachers for 600 students, in 4 levels, and all the various subjects they teach. The teachers use the students text books to teach from. There are no teacher guides. There is 1 single set of text books for each subject. The books are extremely old and worn out. Students did not have text books either, which is more a case of families being unable to afford the books.

As we walk through the school ground, which is on a bit of a barren, wind swept hill we look at some of the classrooms. A number have partial walls and no ceiling. A wall is painted as a blackboard. In one room there are a few desks with actual writing areas, except the wood is old, worn and warped. Same with whatever seats there are left.

A couple of classrooms have no desks. The children sit on rocks. No writing desk. Can you imagine sitting on rocks through class, all day.

It was a hot and windy day and a number of classrooms had absolutely no protection from the elements.

After completion of the college level these students would write exams to try to qualify for entry into the next school level which would be the equivalent of North American high school. Of the 600 students about 5 will get that far. The conditions are difficult, the resources are lacking, and the people do not see value in education. The teachers frequently go on strike because they do not get paid.

We hope that we can help alleviate some of the problems that exist by helping repair or make school desks and by providing better quality text books for the instructors. A was quite excited when he heard we would like to help. This is a public school, not the local Christian school. We feel we can show the love of Christ to these people by helping them get a better education.

Please pray for us as we make plans in this area.

Time to post again

It has been a while but that happens with a crazy schedule, tiredness and inconsistent internet. I have lot's of excuses it seems.

Our hope is to get back to regular postings.

I will start with a tale from our trip to Park W. A very interesting park that borders on three countries - Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso. The park is 150 km out of Niamey which makes it about 650 km's out of Galmi.

The park is known for it's wildlife. One of the most spectacular sights was seeing the gigantic African elephants by the Niger river. Adding to the excitement was seeing them while in a pirogue (boat).

At one point we were driving through the park when a herd of African Buffalo passed through. There was hundreds upon hundreds of these beasts. For the most part they just meandered on by. Some gave us a stare down but we never felt threatened.

At the beginning we stopped to see a monkey in the trees. We wanted to get out to take pictures but our guide firmly insisted we stay inside. Seems we are not allowed outside the vehicle. More on this later.

Another fun part was the warthogs. These guys were big. They also gave us a look but after just continued digging through the dry earth with their snouts.

Closer to the river we saw lots of baboons and other monkeys. Interesting to watch a monkey with a baby sitting by the river. Not far away a crocodile slowly drifted by.

We saw lots of monkeys and lots of varieties of antelope. One of the interesting characters was the Guine fowl (not sure of spelling) running all over the place. If I were to give a comparison they reminded me of the dodo birds in the movie Ice Age. Especially when one took it upon itself to charge our vehicle when we got too close.

Towards the end of the trip I (Orest) was bugging our guide about seeing Lions or other predators. He said that seeing them was by luck alone. On the last day our guide tried to find us some lions. He directed us off the road a ways and then we stopped at a remote location. Here it was that he told us to get out and follow him. As I was about to lock the vehicle door he told me not to in case we had to run back to the vehicle. After being momentarily stunned by his comment I slowly followed at the rear thinking I would be the obvious choice if a lion attacked, or if we had to run back to the vehicle would we make it back. When we told others about this afterwards, their comment was - "he had a gun, right" - nope, he did not. We actually had two stops like this.

We had an experienced guide who had 1 wife and 10 kids. He told us all about how hard it was to keep his family fed. Yes, we gave him an extra gift and a ride back to his village, since it was on the way.

At on point on our drive to the park we stopped to take a picture. As I (Orest) was taking the picture I saw a stream of children charging out of a village about a hundred yards away. I know there was at least 20 of them and they were coming right at me. My eyes just bulged when I saw the number and how quickly they recognized the white people and came a running. I mean it was only seconds. I know there was no danger but I could not handle the onslaught of begging that would occur. I jumped back in the vehicle, told Grace to just drive and not look back.

We had a great time and would definitely go again. By the way, the 150 km drive from Niamey to Park W takes at least 3 hours.

Blessings to all

Minister of Health

Yesterday the Minister of Health for Niger, plus an entourage of about 30 people visited Galmi Hospital. It was quite an event. Grace had to set up a reception for them, plus numerous people from the hospital. Most of the missionaries chipped in by making cakes for the event and providing refreshments. They set up a head table for the honored guests, there were speeches and even a local TV station had a camera crew on hand.
They were taken on a short tour of the hospital and the hospital redevelopment. They were able to see first hand the great work the medical team does here in Galmi. I believe one of the major issues that had to be resolved was the idea of where the funds for the hospital redevelopment are attained. All redevelopment funds come strictly from donor contributions, for which we are extremely grateful.

My wife - she saw that there was no signage behind the head table when pictures are taken so she came up with a plan. We then ran out and stripped off one of the magnetic Galmi Hospital signs from a vehicle. We scrounged around and found a decent piece of wood, found some tape, and made a sign. Worked out great.

When one considers that in the last year there were approximately 110,000 patients processed through Galmi Hospital, and when one looks at the extreme level of deterioration in this some 60 year old hospital, there is no doubt as to the need for the redevelopment. All of us here were called by God to serve the people of Galmi and we are so grateful to those who have contributed through prayer and finance, and continue to contribute, to the rebuilding of this hospital. Galmi Hospital is so vital to the total health needs of the people in this area of Niger.

On a totally different line of thought we are looking forward to this weekend as DB and some other missionaries are providing a Valentine's Day evening for Galmi couples. They are also doing this all again on another weekend for those who could not attend this weekend. So cool and such a blessing.

The other day Grace indicated that there is a total of 69 people on the Galmi compound - adults and children. Wow, that is a lot. No wonder Grace is so tremendously busy. Seems like this level of activity will remain for a while. Again, so grateful that Grace has the trike that was donated to us. This has been invaluable in her work.

Blessings to all of you.

Picnic Heights

Here is a slide show of our visit to picnic heights this past Saturday.

Trip to the country with Saratou

The other day Saratou and I went out to the country to purchase some fresh tomatoes for making sauce and salsa.

I waited under a tree while Sara went off to negotiate the purchase of the tomatoes. She thought negotiations would go better without a white person being involved. As I waited I found a very long tail feather which I put in a bucket to save. When Saratou returned and saw the feather she promptly broke it off 4 inches from the tip. So I watched in anticipation to see what would transpire with my special feather. She then proceeded to strip off the rest of the fine feathers except for the final 1/3 inch from the tip. Then, surprise, surprise she proceeded to use it as an ear cleaning tool. An African Q Tip. I just chuckled to myself. What was on object of interest for me was of utilitian use to Sara.

While visiting the farmers in the field we had an old man who was our guide from the local village. What was interesting was how he just picked tomatoes and ate them. He must of ate at least 20 while we were there. It was just humorous to watch him grab and eat.

After we got the tomatoes loaded we were returning when we had a flat tire 1 km from home. We called Galmi and Orest and Chad came out to help. The tire was blown and could not be re-inflated, as was the spare tire. The same truck we had 4 flats on when we travelled to Niamey last year. So Chad threw the spare into his truck and went back to town for repairs. Since Saratou had to return home Orest stayed with me in the countryside.

We were amazed at the traffic that flowed by. Goat herders, camel herders and cattle herders streamed by. People walking, people on motorcycles and people on donkey pulled carts. In most cases it was men on the motorcycles and the women were walking, carrying big loads. They loved it when you could great them in Hausa. Grace had so many tomatoes she was able to hand some out to those who looked like they needed them.

It was market day in Galmi and all these people travel great distances to get to and return from market. Some with big loads and some with meagre loads being all they could afford.

As we waited one armed official passed by and checked us out. He then went a little further up the road and just watched over us until we were safely off.

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Giving of Christmas gifts has been interesting so far. First of all, there is no such thing as Christmas wrapping paper. Gifts in a plastic bag are great. Gifts in a zip lock bag are even better or maybe you can utilize an old rice bag.

Grace made banana loaf which was used as gifts for Orest's staff. The one fellow was so happy and grateful he had to take it home immediately to show to his wife. You would not think it such a big deal, but people were excited about receiving blankets. That was a common gift we gave this year. That is what is in the rice bags.

Grace also completed seven more quilts which were given to the evangelist this morning for him to distribute to needy families. He had been given a total of 15 to distribute. She will continue this project in the future.

This morning Santa Grace hoped on her bike and distributed some gifts.

Christmas eve there is a service at the local church. There will be a local group recording a CD - The Ebenizer Group. Our hope is to attend. We were told that the Christmas Sunday service typically goes for 3 hours. 3 hours on benches made out of metal channels - I am so excited.

Here is a brief look at our Christmas decorations. We had purchased a Walmart post Christmas, Christmas tree, complete with lights and a wreath for $14.00. It survived the trip and we are quite pleased. We made up some paper ornaments, using water colors, and hung them from the tree. We are quite pleased with the results.

For unto us a Child is born....

Keep the spirit of the season.

Blessings to all.

Christmas Shopping

What a blast it is to go to the local mall just before the holiday. Today was actually payday for the hospital staff because this was the last market day (Wednesday) before Christmas. We needed a few gifts for staff and others so we headed to market. The place was jammed with people and it was very difficult to find a parking spot. It is certainly a lot easier if you have a moto or a camel.

Like a typical mall you can find clothing, jewelley, spices, shoes, perfume and the like. There is the local butchers, fish mongers and fast food outlets - make sure your stomach is ready.

Here are some pics