A “Start up” gift

A few weeks ago I told you the story of Amaka, the young lady who was a refugee from Libya who was abandoned by her husband when she arrived in Niger. You can read the story here: The shattered life of a young refugee

I have been over to visit with them several times since then and one time I brought them the “start-up kit” that several of you generously donated for. We plan to buy more of these as we hear about families in similar situations who have started to settle and re-start their lives here in Niger after fleeing Libya.

• 2 sleeping mats
• 2 blankets
• bag of clothes for both kids and mother
• set of 3 food pots
• 2 large metal cooking pots
• local stove
• metal cooking spoon
• fake tupperware canisters to hold sugar, salt, spices, tea, etc from rain and insects
• large bowl for washing laundry and children
• large wooden mortar and pestle
• large serving platter
• soap
• treated mosquito nets

Cost= $94 Canadian

Impact = Priceless

 

In this culture, when a gift is given, they usually say thank you, don’t open it, and put it away. You never see them open or enjoy it. With Amaka, it was different. Her face was beaming when we gave it all to her and she sat down on a mat on the dirt and started to go through each and every item. She kept repeating that this was just like her wedding dowry, that we were replacing her dowry items that had been lost forever. I was so touched to see how deeply she felt this joy and was so thankful. I told her many times that this came from people in Canada, that I was just the messenger of other people who cared for her and her situation. She thanks you all very much.

One thing that really struck me this morning was when her uncle stopped by. Her uncle is a well dressed, French speaking Tuareg man who is very friendly and I have met him several times. This is what he said to me, in front of all the other people present as well -

“ You know, this is what Christians do well. You see a need and you meet it. Many of us Muslims see the need, and yet we will not meet it. It is not a lack of money, because there is money out there. But we want to keep our money because maybe we will be the ones in need tomorrow. We can’t ever give it away for something like this. But you people, you see the hurt and you give easily. Amaka will always know and remember that it was the Christians who cared and who gave to her. This is a really good thing”

 

Hedgehog

Strangely enough, we actually found this hedgehog in my hedge!

I came home from work to find Bennett and our guard had found this little guy in our yard and had thought it would be great fun to introduce him to our turtle Harriet!

I don’t think the Heddy (the Hedgehog) was ready to make friends yet. When we took the turtle out Heddy finally unfurled and started to walk around the wagon. He was fast. And believe it or not, almost faster than my shutter speed! I set my camera on high action fast shutter and was shocked when his instantaneous reaction to any sound (my shutter) would lightning fast duck his head and start to curl. It took me almost a dozen tries to get this on where you can still see his head!

He was trying to find his way out!

And here he is, cute as a button, all curled up! Just another one of the great visitors we get to see here in Niger!

When it rains…it pours figuratively and literally!

 

It has been a rough few days in Niger! A few days ago there was some major rain and there was a big water leak into the Girls School, as well as a substantial leak in the roof of our Director’s house (who is currently on vacation). So Paul was working on that. Then today, when we went to back out of our driveway, our rear tire dropped down in the middle of our driveway, having fallen through the septic tank area! Apparently the initial construction was shoddy (shocking i know!) and over time underground all the sand was getting washed away, leaving a large hollow under a foot of topsoil and hard packed gravel. Well it was just a matter of time until that came to light and it collapsed! So all day today Paul and 2 Tuareg men were doing major excavation and trying to find the edges of the cavern, which they will now have to fill.

 

Then early this evening (around 530pm) a major storm blew into Niamey. We could see the orange of the sandstorm approaching and closed all our windows up tight. It was still bright daylight out when it hit, and in just moments the sky turned deep orange like this:

After maybe 20 minutes of severe winds and sand, the rain started to pound down. I went out to take a video quick and realized, OUR TREE HAD BLOWN DOWN!  Ack….make that TWO trees! Our two big nice trees in the yard were both at extreme angles. The worst was our front yard tree which had completely fallen onto our gate and fence and was pulling over the electrical lines! Our guard was trying to prop it up with a metal rake! The picture is all grainy because it was really dark and high winds!

After another 20 minutes the rain let up and light returned to the sky.

Here is what my tree looked like as the guards starting hacking down the pieces that had broken off and were stuck on the electrical wires.

The other tree in my side yard.

I am really hoping to salvage the trees significantly. Our yard is depressing and dirt anyhow and I really love those trees!

Just another day in the desert I guess! I will try to get the video to load in the next few days and show it to you!