Dear Niger....

Oh how you are ingrained into my heart. I left your sandy roads three weeks ago tomorrow, and every day since have thought of you. I have tried to process my visit, to figure out  how to share, what to say, what to show. You are so different from home, from all things familiar. How do I explain, how my time with you changed me, how deep the impression you made on my heart.  I have been at a loss for words, but yet know I have to come up with some, then it hit me, words.  

2 or 3 days after I was home a friend asked me for one word to sum up my experience and I came up with HUMBLING.  So why not one word to match one experience, that will work. Over the next few days I will do just that, match one word with one experience.

FUN  relaxing  creative   FRUSTRATING

Humorous   startling   Rewarding

sights sounds   

one thing for sure it was all uniquely African! Niger, I will ever be thankful for our time together and I look forward to the next time. Thank you for sharing yourself, each and every experience, but most of all thank you for sharing your people, they are forever and always in my heart.

One word....

I was asked yesterday by a friend to sum up my trip in one word.

One word? Seriously? 

Try it, one word to sum up the last month of your life.

It is not easy!  I did manage to find one word to sum up this experience that took me from home, for almost a month, to the other side of the globe, via 4 different airports, 6 planes, several time zones, way too many languages to count, to a totally different culture, HOT climate, to work with people you have never met, to see one of your best friends on her turf, to do things you have never done, eat things you have never eaten, and just plain a long way from home...... One word....   HUMBLING

I live in a country listed as one of the richest in the world, with listings as the best cities in the world to live in.  Yet all around I see discontent, people wanting the next newest this or that, not really sure of what is of real value.  A country where many people do not know their neighbours, where family is not valued as it should be.  A country with more options for groceries than we truly need, with soil that will grow almost anything, and a climate that makes it possible. 

I visit a country listed 3rd from the bottom of UN's human development list , the people have next to nothing, the streets are littered with garbage, goats, cows, sheep and young children roam the streets at all hours, a country where people rarely have the opportunity to travel, where even basic education is a luxury.   Goods are available on every street corner, but funds to purchase such goods is scarce.  However in the midst of this extreme poverty the people are gracious, kind and generous. Family is valued and communities are depended upon. They have joy. in the midst of it all.   Experiencing and being on the receiving end of that was truly HUMBLING!
 I will never be the same after Africa......

The girls.... MY Girl!

I have left a smattering of heart pieces all over the city of Niamey, Niger, West Africa, that is no surprise as part of it was already there.   About a year ago I was asked if I would like to be a prayer partner for one of the girls attending the Niger Vocational Training School (NVOC for short) and I accepted.  I received an email containing a photo and a brief blurb about MY GIRL, her life in  etc.  So for the past year, I have prayed, for health, happiness despite hardship, that she would be a good student, that her family would have food to eat, and her parents would have work. I have prayed extra hard that she would follow through on her commitment to the school, and complete the 2 years, and NOT marry.  I have prayed that she would discover her worth as a young woman, and that she would not believe that the only worth she has as a young woman is when she marries and has babies as is the custom  in the area.

I prayed for this somber faced girl who looked so serious and almost sad, and when I met her she was none of the above.  Zeina is full of life, a little cheeky, laughs easily and later in the week poked fun at me.  She takes charge and works hard, sometimes getting in others way while doing so.  What a blessing to be able to meet her in person and to invest in her life up close and in person.  On our last day there she came into the classroom and gave me a little hug, this was HUGE, hugging is not something that is done in their culture, and for her to take the first step was way out of her comfort zone.  I love this girl, she has one of the fragments of my heart for sure, she had my heart even before I arrived there.  I continue to pray, now I pray that the time I spent with her would be something she values as well.

Home since Monday

4 days home, and I miss Africa.  I miss the people I met, I miss learning and seeing new things, I miss being able to help, I miss the energy of the girls, I just miss it.  I guess what 'they' say is true, you either love Africa or you hate Africa!  Don't get me wrong, I am happy to be home to all that is familiar, to my family & my friends, to my life here, but processing the whole trip is tough.  Finding perspective when I have been, only by luck of the draw, born into one of the richest nations in the world, and my new friends, by that same luck of the draw, have been born into one of the poorest.  Where is fair in that? 

That is where my head is at processing all the things I saw, heard, learned and experienced.  This trip was so rich, there is so much to share, I had hoped to be able to write more while I was there, but I was too busy living the experience.  So now I will write in retrospect, picking pieces from my journal, adding a few of the 1000+ photos  &  fill you in on all of the adventures.  I hope you enjoy it just the same. 

First impressions....

Here are just a few of the sights





Can you tell who has the right of way?







Visitor at breakfast - thankfully outside the screened in porch




Garbage piles everywhere, crazy huge piles. People

living by them, scrounging in them & goats & sheep

eating from them.





Street market.
Typical African road -
hard packed, washboard,
sandy streets.

 

Working with my first set of girls.  What an amazing
privilege to be here and share this time with them.



Do you hear what I hear

What I hear when I just sit and listen....


Languages I do not understand

Car horns

Children playing in the streets

Babies crying

Doves cooing

Goats or sheep blatting

Donkey's braying

Cows mooing

Roosters & chickens

My dear friend chatting.... Oh how I love having the chance to be at her house having a chance to visit, to hear her world. To share breakfast on her screen porch and just simply listen.

A strange thing happened on the way to London.... they lost a terminal. Wel,l I guess they did not loose it, but demolished it instead... the terminal I had listed for my flight to Morocco, is no where to be found. So the question is now where to go? Thanks to the very helpful Heathrow volunteer I found where I was supposed to go only to find that I can not check in untill 3 hours before my flight, which is 6 hours from now.

The other thing I noticed that flights do not get assigned a gate until 2 hours before a flight. I am told this is a security procedure. Makes sense I am guessing, cuts down on bad things happening to big planes... less time to plan, that works for me.

So here I sit... watching people, listening to babies cry and wondering where the other 2 gals who will be on the flight to Morocco are. Given lack of gate number I guess we will not be getting to know each other in the 6 hours of waiting.... So goes the adventure.

I am here in London safe and sound. So it's all good.

Oh and on a side note the people watching is great... so is my chex mix!



P.S. I did eventually meet up with the other 3 gals that shared the flight to Morrocco. 2 by random walk by, the third had smartly plunked her self down in a coffee shop, knowing that in all likely hood others would opt for food at some point.