I Might Be A Redneck, but the Cereal Bank's funded!

I sure do have a sunburned neck, at least. I spend the rare cool days weeding my millet, sorghum and beans, but West African sun shines through the clouds. Realizing that one day I do have to go back to the land of Bath & Body Workses, I have tapped into my precious supply of Lush and Aveda soaps, send by loving sisters and friends. But today, for example, my feet look rather gangrenous. Don't worry - it's just the acid-black henna dye fading in green splotches.

I do behave like a "child of the bush" sometimes in Niamey, with the loud voice and exaggerated gestures of an ill-mannered, uneducated "hick" - forgetting that the difference between bush Niger and city Niger is not to be underestimated, and that as a foreigner, I'm supposed to be super educated (aren't I?). Bush Nigeriens and city Nigeriens are worlds apart, and the divdes are apparent at prickly points when they interact, particularly in commerce and when working together. Wallahi (swear to Allah), it's something to see. To realize the PCV in the village has an easier time getting around Niamey than most of the village men - you wouldn't think that's the case during your first year, when Niamey bewilders you - but even then, you have an easier time navigating it than your village's head honchos do. It's then you realize your power.

Wield it with care. Your grip is tenuous. I've been in the bush for three weeks (hence the dearth of posts for more than a month), and that rollercoaster ride continues. I feel great about it at the moment. Of course, I just got the news that THE CEREAL BANK HAS BEEN FULLY FUNDED. Can you believe it? All of you who wanted, meant to, intended, tried, really tried, several times, to donate, and were frustrated because it had disappeared from the Peace Corps website, I commend and thank you, and I apologize with a humble smile. We got very lucky, and after only a few of you threw in your chips, a big fish came in and took care of the rest in one swoop. I know there are several of you who wanted to participate in the sustainable development of Tamtala and haven't had the chance. But fret not! There's more developing to be had - as it appears that way from where we stand, dusty, shiny-handed, in our parched fields with their scrawny millet plants, there is no limit to the development projects we could use.

This must be done carefully, and it's apt to get out of control if we aren't careful. I read somewhere a quotation that begs the case of sustainable, meaningful development: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." That's the source of a lot of my frustration these days - begging people not to use chemical fertilizers, but being unable to offer an acceptable alternative, haranguing men for taking extra wives when they should be buying animals (which act as bank accounts, to sell in times of hunger), knowing but being unable to convince my neighbors that one of the biggest roots of their problems is the fact that they (and all of us) are having too many children. Amirou keeps asking for me to go to Nigelec, the national electricity company, and ask for power lines to be brought to the village. No matter how many times I tell him it'll be no good - we're an hour's walk from the road, there's barely a dirt path to get to us, it would be far too expensive - he insists my whiteness will make it happen. And I suggest our resources could be used better to improve the village's access to water and support the health hut and a million other things - and he agrees. But he adds I should go to Nigelec anyway, since I'll be in Niamey.

About the cereal bank. There are at least two more opportunites for you at home to support Tamtala and Tamtalans - and to do so wisely. I have only a few months before my Close-of-Service (COS), and I'm working on my projects for posterity. First, I'm writing a big proposal to my home Rotary club* on South Whidbey Island to double the size of our Moringa plantation next year, and to make it possible for at least half a dozen volunteers to do the same thing in their villages. If you want to donate - please send money their way, and earmark it for this project. More information on this is to come by mid-September, insha'allah.

Second, I'm searching - carefully - for a market for my women's group to sell their tabarmas (woven grass mats). The traditional big mats are a bit unwieldy and I couldn't fathom a use for them Stateside; here the Fulans use them as walls. So I had the women make some experimental table runners, placemats, and coasters - see the photos at left and tell me what you think (leave a comment or email me). At the moment I've only got the tablerunner-sized examples. Niger PCVs want them - they'll use them as decorations for their mud walls - so I could sell some here, but if there's an opportunity for a larger market, I'll go for it. But PCVs are sorely out of touch with what's fashionable in America. I myself haven't been there for more than a month (at a time) since 2006. I don't know what people are doing over there. Would having dried grass mats on their dinner tables be cool? How about making these into shades for windows (send the measurements of your windows and we'll custom make them)? And - IMPORTANT - if any of you dear readers have ideas about how I might hope to ship this stuff, or to sell it in larger quantity in the US, let me know. Niger, landlocked, stranded, is a seemingly terrible point of origin for export. As if it needs one more point against it.

In my wildest dreams, the sale of these tabarmas would not only provide the women with a decent income, but might allow us to one day bring my best friend Maimouna (the head of the women's group) to visit the US. Unlike the random Nigeriens I meet - walking along some obscure bush path, riding in a taxi in Niamey or up and down the Tillaberi road - Maimouna has no interest in coming to the States to seek her fortune. She just wants to see my "people," and use the few words of English I've taught her. After all, I got to see her people, learn her language... why not vice-versa? There is so much about the States that she could explain better than I could hope to.

A short post for today, but there's much to be done in the city, as always. There are so many stories to tell: my battle with a bat, the sad tale of the fattest baby I've ever seen, the wild success of the August 3rd tree transplantation, Djamila cheating on her 40 days, how best to (unintentionally) numb one's mind in Tillaberi, realizing the world is not a playground, getting cheated at Katako and taking it on the chin, an old man's "convenient" second wife, my favorite Mediya's malaria, why I don't close my door during nighttime storms, forgetting how to play checkers... but you'll have to wait for the book!

A parting thought, a song stuck in my head these days - both appropriate and calming.

Jason Mason hears the sound
of whistle blows in Congo town
and the mail boat's in
Mail boat's in
Brings in things from oh so far oh,
magazines and Snicker bars
A simple man
A simple plan
The world's too big to understand

Be good and you will be lonesome
Be lonesome and you will be free
Live a lie and you will live to regret it
That's what living is to me
That's what living is to me

On a timeless beach in Hispanola
young girl sips a diet cola
She's worlds apart
worlds apart
Spirt of the black king still
reverberates through Hatian hills
he rules the sea
and all the fish
What if he had a TV dish?

Be good and you will be lonesome...

(-Jimmy Buffett, because who else? With help from Mark Twain)

Oh, and Happy Ramadan. It starts today (aka last night), which means - for us - it's harder to get street food in Niamey, and we'd be wise not to try to hold big meetings or work parties in our villages.

*For those who haven't heard, Rotary of South Whidbey sponsored me for a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship this year... and I won. :-) Thanks to those guys! I'll be studying sustainable development during the 2009-10 scholastic year, but I don't know where yet. Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji, India, or somewhere... Insha'allah, I'll know in December.