All I Want for Christmas...

... is a millet grinder for my village.

(Never mind that they don't celebrate Christmas. They will if they get a millet grinder!)

Good news, folks, that project proposal I've been writing about for the past eight months has finally been approved! I know you all have been itching to donate, so HERE'S YOUR CHANCE. It's easy, tax-deductible, and safe from corruption! I researched and wrote pages upon pages of detailed narratives, timelines and budgets, and you can be sure your money's going where I say it is.

I don't think I need to reiterate the importance of a millet grinder to a village like Tamtala. Women in Niger work incredibly hard, all day, every day. Having a grinding machine would save precious time and energy currently spent in the endless food-acquisition-and-preparation race-against-the-sun run day in and day out. Hopefully, this will save girls from being pulled out of school to help with chores (yay, girls education!), and it will empower my village women's group to take charge of its finances and invest money made from running the machine wisely (yay, empowerment for women!).

So let's give these ladies a break! Here's how:

Go to www.peacecorps.gov.
Click on "Donate Now" on the yellow left-hand side column.
Under Donors, click on "Donate to Volunteer Projects."
Choose a Region: Africa
Scroll down until you get to "NIGER: Millet Grinder for the village" - click it to learn a bit about the project, or just enter in a dollar amount in the space to the right to donate.

There are other millet grinder proposals going in Niger, so make sure you get the right one! (Even if you don't, Lulu and Joey's villages need them, too, so it's okay...)

It's that easy! Shap, shap, paht!

In other news, I'm just back from Dosso, where we finished the 2007 SIDA Bike Ride on Saturday. At some point soon (maybe after I see some of you dear readers have thrown some money our way), I'll regale you with stories of spending a week on top of an SUV filming 25 of my friends on bikes, biking a bit myself, playing DJ, sleeping on the ground, an old man with a megaphone, dancing like an idiot, losing my toothbrush, Mr. Poopy Pants, who-stole-my-Thermos-woman, and teaching "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" in Zarma. It was a trip. But, like a streetcorner performer, you've got to throw a coin in my millet grinder case before I tell you about it. So pony up!

For now, satisfy yourselves with a few photos to the left, all taken by new volunteer Jeremy K, whose fabulous camera I have a crush on.

Love, peace and freshly ground millet,
Brittany

P.S. I feel obliged to mention that Thanksgiving was awesome. We had a lovely party in Niamey, everyone cooked (even me - I mashed squash), my buddy Greg's buddy Matt from Florida showed up after wrestling alligators in Parc W, the embassy gave us a turkey AND a ham (not that I care), Michelle made the best chocolate mint pie in the world, we had a dance party that left my legs sore for days, THEN we went to the International African Fashion Festival - holy crap! A fashion show! In Niamey?! I swear it happened, and that it was cool.

Now go donate to the grinder project already!