Christmas in Galmi

Merry Christmas, everyone! It has been an incredible experience celebrating Christmas here in Africa. We feel we can identify much more closely to the way it must have been when Jesus was born by being so close to markets, traders, camels, and donkeys ourselves. The camel caravan you see in the picture was taken on Dec. 24 near our compound. This is something that is quite common to see, although not always so close to our place. The picture of the boys with the trader illustrates just how my family enjoys shopping - the mall comes to them, with no parking problems! They have had lots of fun attempting to barter with the various traders, and have loved looking at all the wares for sale. They are learning that when a trader says they need to buy it right now because he won't be back for a long time, that might mean he's back tomorrow or the next day!

Christmas is a very special time here in Niger for the Christian Church. Each church picks out their "uniform material" - which means that all the women and the men have something made out of the same material specially for Christmas Day. 2 of the churches got together to celebrate, and what a celebration! Lots of singing, lots of rhythm, lots of laughter and joy, with lots of neighborhood children peering in the windows to see what was going on. No room left for them to sit down - it was standing room only. We participated in the event, and had outfits made by a tailor here as well, as you can see from the picture. In order to get the outfit made, one must draw the design (no pattern), take your own measurements, and hand it to the tailor. He then sews the outfit and returns it to you most often as specified. Quite an amazing accomplishment. And this time of year he is especially busy. The evening of Dec. 25 was spent with all the people on the hospital compound, with a potluck supper (what a feast), a program and a gift exchange that brought much laughter, and great exercise trying to get the coveted chocolate bars and hang onto them without someone else snatching them from your hands. It was a wonderful time.

Toms Corner(3)-Well digging

Today I went to a well that was being dug by hand. This well was already 11 meters and going on 12. The well is being funded by SIM so we went out with a lady from the compound named Jeannie. She took us on the main road and then we turned off on into village. We went through the village, and up and over a big hill, down the other side and off onto a road which lead to the well. The well had been dug by the meter which meant that they would dig a meter and then they would pour a cement ring to seal the walls off from collapsing down and ruining the project forever. The 4 workers had been called in to build the well. They all are not from the village in which the well is being dug. The piles of dirt represent every meter that has been dug. The lightest dirt is actually a hard clay which took the workers a long time to dig and get through. To get down to the bottom of the well, you are lowered down in a bucket that two men pull up and down. This well is very hrd work and the cement is all mixed on the ground behind the well. Then, stones are added to harden and make the cement stronger and more firm. They have to dig the well untill they find water.

Thomas

Trip to Madaoua

On Thursday, Dec. 21 we went to a city called Madaoua, which is about 35 km east of Galmi. Along the way, while we were driving, we saw lots of camels, little huts the Africans use as granaries to store grain in, mud huts for homes, and people selling onions. There were big piles of red onions along the roadside in each village we passed through, and you could even smell them without any windows opened in our vehicle! We saw a hobbled donkey (its 2 front legs tied together) crossing the road without any owner around, and it looked like it was trying to make a break for it! When we got there, we played games with the family we went to visit that have been in Niger for 12 years. We also got to see all the animals they own. They have 3 dogs, 2 hedgehogs, 1 parakeet and 2 lovebirds. It was a very fun evening except that it ended too soon! The trip home was interesting because in Africa, it is very dark and the roads have no paint for lines. This makes for a pretty slow drive home, because you need to watch out for donkeys, camels, people, buses and potholes.

This is a picture of the hedgehog our friend Joey caught on the way home from games night. He found him near his doorstep and brought him into his house and put him in a box to keep him. Hedgehogs are really neat because you can let them run around or you can make them curl up into ball. Joey named him Moe and found out later that they aren't always wanting to be played with when he bit him. This hedgehog was almost fully grown which meant that he wasn't used to humans and was very timid. Because of this he would always curl up into a ball and go to sleep in the darkest corner he could find. He let the hedgehog go the next night because he wasn't co-operating that well.

In Madoua, Micheal and Ariana also had two hegdehogs. Their names were Henry and Henry-etta. The first one they found in Henderson's mouth, which is their oldest dog out of the three they own. The younger one, Henry-etta their dad found in a little burrow. The dogs really hate hedgehogs because no matter wht they do, they can't get a good bite at the hedgehog.

The top picture is of the one Joey caught the second is of Henry

School time!

Not only do our boys do their own schoolwork, but they get to go to the Christian school here in Galmi and help on Monday and Friday afternoons. School hours here are a lot different than they are back home. Here they begin their school day at 8 am, and go until 12 noon. The children then go home for siesta break from 1-3 pm, and then come back to school from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. Our kids are going from 4-5:30, and are doing 3 different "stations" - English instruction, crafts, and games outside. We have quickly realized that these children love anything to do with balls! They have 1 ball in the whole school and it is in need of repairs. So when we brought 4 balls to play with, they were overjoyed. In the picture above, the game we tried to teach them was frozen tag - the older students caught onto it very quickly. The children quickly run outside and promptly drop their sandals off to run barefoot. The school is from ages 6-11. They are trying to add a new class each year.

Viper Hill tour

We headed up Viper Hill on Sunday afternoon for a look around. It is located just outside the hospital compound, and is named as it is due to the Vipers that tend to come out and lay on the hot rocks in the afternoon sun. Thankfully God was looking out for us (me!) that afternoon so that we saw no snakes. We began the trek up on our own but quickly gained some tour guides! These little boys knew some French, mainly Hausa, and so in our limited way we communicated with them as best we could. The hill is not that high up, but it does give a lovely view of the village below and the outlying area around. It is really a beautiful area with some trees, red rocks and soil all around. The top of the hill is a plateau, and they have begun to dig trenches all along it, as shown in the picture. The boys explained to us that this is to become a garden of sorts - we understood it to mean they would plant vegetables there, and the trenches were for catching rainwater during the rainy season. All the trenches are dug by hand, and as we were looking around, saw in the distance some men doing just that. What very hard work, particularily in the hot African sun. The effort required to grow anything here is amazing. The trees located on our compound are strong and beautiful, but the gardeners have to soak them in so much water daily. We are extremely thankful for all the shade we can get!

Just keep Grinding

These are pictures of us grinding our own meat. This meat is bought from a man on a motorcycle that comes around the compound once week. Grinding meat not only makes you lose your appetite but also is hard work. It is hard work because one person has to push the meat down with spatula and the other person has to turn the crank to push and grind the meat.To grind 4 kg's it takes about 45-1 hour. This really showed us how hard the people before us had to work to get a meal on the table. After we were done all the meat, another person from the compound came by and told us that she was the owner of a electric meat grinder!

Building with Bricks

The pictures show how homes are made here in Galmi. The bricks are fashioned by hand, and laid in the sun to dry. It reminds me of the way the Israelites must have made their homes thousands of years ago. Each brick is quite heavy. The homes in the village are all made out of these bricks, with mud as the mortar. Apparently the heavy rains in rainy season do not damage the homes much because it comes down so quickly and the homes have drainage pipes built into the tops of the roofs. It is in the extended slow rain that comes down and soaks into the brick that causes quite a lot of damage. Everything built here is done by hand, and watching the men build a new addition at the hospital shows just what hard manual labour is. The afternoons here in their cold season have been getting up to 90 F so digging foundations and pouring cement becomes a very long afternoon of work.

At work and play

The African people are amazing to watch. They have so much fortitude. The boys playing soccer run barefoot hardly without flinching when they run over rocks and thorns, and the women carry extremely heavy loads on their heads while carrying a baby on their back. It is simply the African way of life. Quite humbling to see. There seems to be an acceptance of the hardships they face, and they carry themselves with such dignity. The women especially walk so gracefully, having to balance so much on their heads without a hand to steady or balance it. The children seem to always have a ready smile on their face, and they will come up as we go walking and put their hands into ours. They are very well-behaved, for the most part, and from very early on have learned how to care for one another. Even in church, the older children help take care of the babies and younger ones, without much prompting (from what we could see).

Let the games begin!

Soccer in Africa does not need a common language to begin - as soon as the soccer ball comes out on the airstrip, it seems to send an invisible signal to any children in the area. Today they came from the field beside the airstrip, and in between playing soccer, they would have to go back to herd their goats and cows. This was all done in either flip-flops or barefoot. And the soccer field is made of gravel, large rocks and thorn bushes! These kids are so resilient. They can run like the wind without getting very tired; when a flip-flop is kicked off, it is ignored as they run to get the ball first, and no matter the size of child, they all play. It has been so much fun watching our kids get in the mix, and giving the high-fives to boys that they can communicate with only in sign language - big smiles, lots of laughs, and sweat pouring down their faces.

Mark's African Adventure

We have seen a few of these cuddly guys in our house. The gardener has also found some under some rocks. My mom found one walking across the floor by the dinning room table.They have a really strong sting from their tail, so you don't want to get stung by one! They are pretty shy and stay under rocks and dark places.

I've been enjoying looking at all the new things, like new bugs, new towns and villages that the Africans live in, and I like all the different kinds of animals that are around. So far, I've helped by taking the clean clothes down from the line outside, shining the light on the path at night while we walk so that we can see snakes before they see us, and eating all my mom's cookies. Friday we are starting to go to a Christian school in the village to help with English classes, crafts and games. We are going to do this every Monday and Friday afternoon. On Tues and Thurs. afternoon, we are going to play soccer outside our home with any of the village children that are interested. After that, we usually jump in the pool quickly to cool down before supper. That's all for now!

Chameleon Time

On Wednesday December 13th, we found a Chameleon. Dr. Rob found it crossing the road when he was coming home to have lunch. The Chameleon is really cool because it can change colours(light and dark green, spotted, yellowish, and brownish). Also it can see in all directions with it's two eyes. We saw it eat a Praying Mantis. Sometimes he hisses at us because he is tired or scared.

A Day in the Life...

While this may look and sound like all we are doing is play, actually our kids are having to put their noses to the grindstone and get their school work done, also. The picture at the bottom is of the school house that is here on the Galmi compound, used by other missionary children over the years. Currently we are it, although I believe another family is on its way here, and has children school age. We not only do the school work brought from home, but we are currently taking Hausa language classes for 1 hour per day, for 2 weeks. There is a lady here at Galmi that has lived in Niger for 50 years, and is fluent in Hausa who is taking the time to teach us all. We are learning the basic greetings, the customs of the Hausa people, and some very simple phrases to enable us to communicate with the people here. Niger is a country that values taking the time to greet one another, and the greetings can go on for a long time. Not only does one enquire after the other's well-being, but also the well-being of the family, how the "cold" is affecting them (we are here in cold season - it only reaches around 32 C in the day and hits a low of about 20 C at night), how the work is going, and so on. The only trouble is that the national people speak this language very quickly, so we have got the one phrase down pat to give when all else fails - "Lahiya" (which means "fine"). The soccer you see above was played on the airstrip that is very close to our house. The dust you
see in the background is the Harmattan winds blowing the Sahara desert right onto our doorstep. These past two days have been very dusty. In fact, the dust was so bad that the compound lost its internet connection for a period of time. The wind seems to be the worst in the morning, and by evening it has calmed down somewhat. But these past 2 days the dust remains in the air constantly. This is apparently what happens in their cool season, which lasts until the end of Feb. Except for this, the weather has been beautiful, and the sky has been very sunny and clear.

On Sunday we went to the local church here and all our kids joined the Sunday School, which just happened to be practicing for their Christmas program. So our children are now part of the Christmas program here in Niger! And can these Nigerien children ever sing! All they need is a drum and the music begins. It was a wonderful thing to see our kids interacting with the local children. And they were not shy to help our boys get the movements and words down! The choir conductor just happens to be one of the fellows that works with Jerry at the dental clinic. He also writes much of the music that is used for the children's choir. The first practice the kids had was under a tree in the shade in a yard just down from the church - what a great sight! So as you are getting ready for your Christmas programs in the beautiful snowy weather, we will be doing the same thing here, except we don't require parkas this year! 

Our House

These are some pictures of our house. Our house is in the Galmi hospital compound. This compound is to the right of the hospital where Dr. Rob works. Dr. Janzen is in a dental clinic closer to our house, right on the side of the hospital. His dental clinic is about 50 meters away from our school house and so he visits often. Back to our house. This house is farely spacey and has more than enough room. I will briefly describe the layout to you. When you walk in the front door, pictured above, you come into a living/family room. Then it leads to a table and on your left is the kitchen. You can also tun to the right, into a hallway,pictured above which leads to first room,Matthew and Marks room. Next the is the Bathroom and then Thomas' room. At the end of the Hallway is the Parents room. And that is a brief overlay of our house.

Matthew's Moments-Praying Mantis'

On Thursday, we found a Praying Mantis. It is really cool because the tail looks like a leaf. When it is just standing in one spot it usually looks like it is, "waving in the wind." They really can camoflouge on leaves because they are green. On Tuesday december 12th we found another praying Mantis that could fly. He was bigger than the first one and was harder to catch. The picture on the top is the first one, he can't fly. The picture on the bottom is of the flying one, he can fly.

Matthew's Moments

This is Genevieve's dog. She is from Singapore, Malaysia, and she named him Won-Tzi (english name: Emperor). There is another dog named Callie, who looks like Won-Tzi. The dogs like playing with people. Whenever someone wants to catch a lizard, all you have to do is show the dogs a stick and they know you'll want to try to catch a lizard so they try to find a lizard. He knows how to shake-a-paw without you having to say it.

Mark's African Adventure

This is the house that we live in. The fence is made of mud, and it has lots of lizards running on it. There are many lizards that live here, and they are very shy - they will run up the side of the house or across the yard and up the tree as soon as I come close. So far we have caught some lizards and a praying mantis, and we've seen lots of camels and donkeys, hippos, giraffes, a hedgehog, a baby viper, and many different kinds of bugs. Matthew caught a gecko last night and when it tried to get away the tail came off in his hands and off the gecko went minus his tail. The tail wiggled for a long time after.

We went to the market place on Wednesday, and saw so many different things you could eat. There were fried locusts (just take off the wings and legs before you eat!), peanut balls (crushed peanuts squished until all the oil is out), live chickens hanging upside down around necks of the boys trying to sell them, and vegetables grown here. There were lots of people and lots of noise and lots of dust.

We started to go to school again. There is a little schoolhouse here on the compound, that has school desks, a blackboard, and English books in it for any missionary children here. We are going to go to the village school on Monday and teach them English and maybe even football. That should be fun!

Watch for more of Mark's African Adventure! 

Camel Power

This is a very typical scene out the vehicle window wherever you travel in Niger. The Nigeriens use both camels and donkeys for carrying anything and everything. And in order to get into the market place here in the village by Galmi Hospital, you must first walk through a maze of resting camels, donkeys, and goats. Did you know that camels have 5 legs? While they are resting, they have
another "leg" underneath their stomach, that gives their stomach and chest area support while lying down. Some are more obvious than others. And by the way, stay far back from these camels, as they have been known to take nasty bites out of people!

We went to the market here near Galmi. So many sights, sounds and smells! It is divided up into the various sections, like materials, vegetables, meats (including fried locusts-just make sure you take off the legs and wings before you eat!), and dried goods. It was extremely busy, with narrow lanes in between the stalls, and the bartering takes place while crouching down to speak with the merchant. If bartering was interesting in an English-speaking country, the interest just doubled by throwing in the Hausa language! This is quite a tonal language, and they speak it very quickly. To the untrained ear, it is difficult to even guess what they may be referring to. Something our boys have enjoyed watching is how they sell their chickens here. Boys our boys age often walk around with chickens strung upside down by their feet, hanging them over their necks (still alive) in the hopes of attracting interest in bartering for their chickens. The harvest has just ended here, and so there are many onions available. Niger is known for exporting its red onions to France and other parts of Europe. Something we have been enjoying very much is the pineapple they grow here. Delicious! 

Tom's Corner(2)

We found this lizard in the place where we do all our work, the school house. This guy we found in the bathroom . He wasn't that big but felt really cool. His feet felt sorta sticky and felt like a weak velcro. The lizard was really fast and quick but we still managed to catch him. Once we caught him we had a good time because he settled down and just sat and let us play with him.

Matthew's Moments

Gaisuwa(Sannu) This is greetings in the language of Hausa, one of the main local languages in Niger. After a week in Niamey, we drove northeast in a taxi Toyota van. We piled all of our bags (10) on top of the roof and left for full days drive to Galmi Hospital about 400kms away. Galmi Hospital is about 100kms west of Maradi on the main highway. On the way, we stopped at a park and we made a deal for a guide to come with us to find Giraffe. It costed 2000 cfa's(5 dollars) per person, plus tips for the guide. We took the guide in our van to show us where the giraffes were. When we got close to where he thought they were,he crawled on top of the roof with an old stick to show us where the giraffes were. At first we couldn't see the giraffes they were hiding behind the trees. I didn't think giraffes could hide behind trees, because there weren't many trees there like at home. At first we only saw 2 giraffes, but as we looked harder we saw 10. There are only 60 of these giraffes in Western Africa. We were glad to see 1/6 of them.
Hi! to all of my classmates back at school.
More of my moments later...Matthew

Tom's corner

Hello from africa!

In Niamey we went with Gord and Judy Evans to a spot where their were Hippos to watch. We had to hire 2 guards to keep the kids away from our vans. The boat we went in had a offical bailer and a motorist to guide the boat. It was the Bailers job to keep the holes in the boat stuffed with clean white cotton and to bail all the water out of the bottom of the boat (there was at least 2 inches of water in the bottom of the boat at all times!!!). The Hippos were amazing and they were very cool because they were very quiet and secretive. The guide said they had their babies on the shore and were watching out for them. Thats why we couldn't get that close. The stats say that hippos kill more people than lions. That made us cautious and a bit scared!

First week in Niger

Giraffe hunting and Hippo hunting!! We've seen both in the first week of our African adventure! The hippos were seen from a boat on the Niger River, and the giraffes were on the trip to Galmi. They are the last of the wild giraffes in West Africa, and we took a guide who found them for us while we were driving. There were 10 giraffes in total and the guide showed us how to carefully and quietly approach them. We got so close!! Two of the giraffes were pregnant, and there were 2 babies.

We are now in the Galmi Hospital compound. It is very windy and dusty here, and the temperature is about 30-35 C in the day, and it cools down at night. On Monday we will be starting school again, along with working in the village schools, and on the compound. The trip from Niamey to Galmi was rich in sights - camels on the side of the road, African villages with women pounding millet for their suppers, markets filled with people bartering, goats everywhere, and women carrying anything and everything on their heads. Niger is an amazing country to experience. We are so happy to be here.

Pre trip

just getting ready for the big trip .Only six more days left until we leave. Only all the suitcases left to pack.

good luck God Bless