Food Aid and Food “Security”

 

SO I finally have my computer back from the “computer expert”. He said nothing was wrong, he couldn’t see a problem, etc. Yah right. Well at least I can prove to Dell that I tried their “recommended dealer” first and am just praying my computer will hold out. This heat is awful on it.

Anyhow- back to the story.

Last Monday we decided to go and visit our school feeding program. We had our National Director of Compassion and Justice in town for meetings and she also sits on the board of the Canadian Food Grains Bank on our behalf, and they are one of the major funders of this school program. We really felt we needed to get out there and see for ourselves the work, the delivery, school inscription,etc. So off we went!

Now most of you are aware that there is a deteriorating security situation in Niger. Most groups follow this map from the French Embassy to delineate zones for travel. The green zone (teeny tiny on the left) is considered safe and normal. Orange is travel only for “serious need” and with security precautions in place. I can’t go into our protocol here online but suffice it to say we have procedures and rules in place. Red is no go. Well our village is in the orange zone. Not a long ways into the orange zone, but orange none the less. That’s a big part of the reason it is now uncommon for us to go there, rather than every week like the Marineaus used to. We miss the village! (and the Marineaus too!)

One thing I will say is that we required a security escort. We actually even got stopped right on the main road into a town and told by the police that all aid workers in this area now required an escort. We knew this and were planning on getting one, but they never used to stop you and insist before.

So we went and picked up our escort. We expected one or two military guys to get into the vehicle and head out with us. That has been our experience before. However, this time they informed us we needed a minimum of 6 guys and their own vehicle! So off we went with 5 soldiers and a captain and a big blue truck leading the way!

While driving down the road we had a flat tire in Tim’s truck. It was surreal to stop and change the tire as per normal but have the military guys fan out all around us. We felt perfectly safe the entire day. Sometimes I thought- is this for real? Why do we rate an escort like this? Is this how Angelina Jolie feels when SHE does humanitarian work? LOL!

Arrival in the village was awesome. They only heard we were coming an hour before hand (again a security precaution) and we were thrilled to arrive just as the lunch meal was ready and to sit and enjoy the children. Many from the village walked over to greet us as well. The huge grin on Maimouna’s face when I pulled up was priceless to my heart!

This program is designed around food. We provide 2 hot meals per day for the children. The response and results have been wonderful! We have seen school inscription double, school success increase and the inscription of girls more than double!

The kids sit in circles of ten and share a giant platter of food. In the mornings they share two to a bowl of porridge, and there is usually enough left over for a 10:00 am snack.    

School just began a few weeks ago and there was 130 students present this day. (Up from 79 one year ago). Many more students are expected to pour in in the next few weeks as the harvest ends and their parents don’t need them in the fields anymore. We are hoping to hit 200! Dare to believe!

We spoke to the teachers and students together and told them how proud we were of their success and how happy we are to partner with them. How excited we were by how they were working together as a village to improve the education of their children.

The students, staff and us three visitors. Can you spot us?

After the noon meal the kids scattered home and to friends house for the afternoon siesta break. We took advantage of this time to visit their fields to get a look at how their crops fared this year and to seek out the chief who was working out of town 5km in his own field.

Reports from the village say that they had a really good harvest this year. Their millet and sorghum crops were good enough that they as a village were all able to pitch in extra bundles of millet to give to people who were either elderly or who had trouble with their crops. They expect to have enough food in their granaries to make it through the dry season! Praise God! Many parts of the country did not fare so well!

Millet

Sorghum

Hide and seek in the fields

We also enjoyed our own meal sitting with the teachers and discussing the school and the village. All around the platter, eating with our hands!

We visited some friends in the village and were really thrilled to hear how well they are doing!

 

We talked stock and food management with the school staff and were happy to see how well it was being run and how confident and excited they were to manage and run this program since we couldn’t be present very often. Great empowerment!

The supply room stocked with rice, corn,millet, sugar, flour, oil, spices, dried vegetables and many other items – enough for 2 months of feeding!

Then at 3pm we headed back to the school to see the kids in class as they came back for afternoon session. During this period of time we became aware of some unique challenges they are now facing, and I will share those with you in my next blog.

It was great to see the students learning, hear them reciting numbers, reading passages, etc. What a great change to see so many girls too! The school is now almost 50%-50% for their gender split.

 

Finally it was time to get back to the city before the sun went down. Amidst many handshakes, smiles and shouts of thanks, we left, military escort leading the way once again. And as a special gift for Joanne- passed through herds of camels wandering around on their own!

 

A wonderful day in the village. I praise God everyday for this awesome group of people and their desire to work hard to improve their lives and it is an honour to partner with them!

Sneak Peak

I am posting you a little picture. I will explain more in a few days! These guys were our "escort" for the day.


I will blog about that experience in a few days when my main computer gets back from the "Computer fixer" since the heat and dust is frying it. It is a Dell that is one year old and thankfully I bought the full warranty! And supposedly Dell says they even have a "recommended agent" here in Niger! Be still my beating heart!
After dropping off my computer last Monday, i gotta say- I really don't hold out much hope that this guy knows what he is doing. His "shop" looks like a run down motel 8 room with bigger bugs. His phone calls have simply been along the lines of "I'm not sure what you mean or I don't know what is wrong with it". But that's the way I roll baby, taking risks :P Its either that or put my computer in the freezer everynight. And that humidity couldn't be good for it either....

See you in a few days for the story and more photos!

A week away

This past week our whole team was away at a hotel for meetings. We had a speaker come in from Canada to spend time with us and many things to process. While the week was still very busy, it was a great to be able to have time to learn about growth and direction and to reaffirm our work here.

I have added some pictures from a recent trip our family took out to the dunes. We didn't go there this week, but they represent time away and beauty, which we also got to take advantage of this week.

There are times when getting away is important. I said the week was very busy. The kids still had school too. But we were away from the normal. There were not people knocking on our gate, no employees around, we enjoyed air conditioning, we had a tv to watch the rescue of the Chilean miners on which was fascinating, and we had meals in restaurants in the evening. It was good to be away from normal. One thing I have learned living in Niger is the SELF care is very different from being SELFish. We have to care for ourselves and make sure that happens or we will burn out.

Paul and the kids enjoying sand boarding and crazy carpeting down the sand dunes








We talked about training ourselves. In not just the educational and vocational ways either. We talked about taking our relationships with God more seriously, and ourselves a lot less seriously. I loved the comment

You are as close to God right now as you want to be

He is not the one drawing away. He is not too busy or unwilling. We are as close as we want to be. Like most relationships, it is a product of the time we commit to it. The more time we spend seeking, reading, praying, etc the closer we will grow. Yet it is only us who sets that limit or barriers in our way.

We talked about 4 different things that keep us from growing. In a nutshell they are:

1) Comparing loves. What do we love more than Him? Money, our family, our friends, our Pride, our comfy homes, easy access to amenities, our job, our own self imaage of what we should be? What do we put before Him?

2) Competing failures. Are we chained to our past and failures and constantly telling ourselves we can't do it or will fail again and thus afraid to go and try?

3) Compromising Mission. What pulls us away from our calling?

4) Comparing paths. How often do we compare our journey with that of others? Our fortune or misfortune against others? Our carnal nature makes us want to either have the ease that others are experiencing or for them to have the same difficulty that we deal with. Comparing with others is a slippery slope my friends.


And we also got the chance to talk specifically about our development work with our National Director of Compassion. I will ponder more on it in a later post, but one thing we were all reminded of was that our development work is not to OPEN a door through which to share God's love or his stories. We should never view it as a means to another end or another goal. This work IS His love, it IS His story. All by itself. It is ENOUGH for us to show His love even if we can never vocalize more. Not that we will never try or succeed to share vocally, but that is not our end goal. LOVE is enough.


As the sun rises for another day, I am hoping you all get the chance to take some time for SELF care. Draw nearer to your source of strength, put on His armour, and prepare for battle.