arrival in niger...

Hello everybody!

News from Maradi. One week ago i arrived in the middle of the night (the evening starts at 16 h over here so 21 h will be called ' in the middle of the night' i guess) in the airport of Niamey. Luc, my coach was there to pic me and Henri (the othere volunteer)up. He brought two bottles of water for us what was a very clever gift i noticed the day after, sitting in the car in 39 degrees drinking from that bottle of water and feeling very happy it was there!

I arrived well, the flight was ok, the luggage arrived with us! The first impression of Niamey: hot and poor. Saturday we climbed on the tower of the big mosque build by Kadafy good for 5000 man and as much women! and looked over the city, so small and one could count the big buildings on one hand, the ministry of mines, the congress building and two more if i remember well. Most of the roads are dust roads, people in huts living nexto the rich people in cement houses, goats walking everywhere on the street (very dangerous to drive!), dromedaries in the city, lot of children everywhere at every hour of the day (is also big holiday here)... donkeys for transport of water or other goods... and lizards everywhere one looks, very nice onces with blue and yellow (i like nice colours he ;-))
sometimes the sound coming from the minaret gets through the noise of the city, shouting for a moment of silence...

Thursday and Friday Luc introduced us at the office of the BTC in Niamey and at the ministry. Saw all my big bosses the first two days! Saturday was a day off, weekend. Henri, Severeine (another btc volunteer) and me, we went for a walk in the desert just outside Niamey. So peaceful and quiet and beautiful !! we walked along a river without water but still the environment was little green and red and yellow ... The horizon was like the see, endless nature! I can assure, one is quiet confronted with that kind of nature.

For now, i am in Maradi (9 hours drive from Niamey), the place where i will work, already 4 days, living with my coach and his wife, very nice people, they take care so much for me, unbelievable! it feels a little like home already. Monday visited the selectioncentre for goats where i will work and one of the villages where the project works. So yes! I saw the red goat and no i didnt count them!
I was impressed by the poverty and i still am, it made me very quiet to see the conditions people live in or better, the conditions they try to survive in. this is so out of reality! I cannot imagine even a little bit how it must feel to live a life like this. I can be wrong, this is my first impression but it seems that the even primary need of food is not a gift, not evidently satisfied.

Yesterday visited another village where woman of different womangroups were trained in animalcarestuf, how to prevent sickness and so on. The problem here, like i understand it for now, is that women have goats already long time but they dont really manage them. Most things like breeding and selling happens coincidentally. One of the goals of the project is to teach them how to breed the goats in a more controlled way so their income can raise.

In the mean time i try to get used at the heat, it is harder then i expected, the body gets very tired... i wonder what it wil be when the winter of 35 degrees is over and it becomes summer of 43 degrees!
This week also looking for houses, Luc found me a very nice house with a mangotree and lemontree! But is only free the 20th of august so not sure yet what will happen now...

so I end with thanking my family for the beautiful saturday evening, i really enjoyed every moment and thank you for the beautiful wishes and presents !! it was nice reading them and i am sure i wil read them again! And i want to thank my friends for understanding that i spend a lot of my last time in belgium with peter, thank you for your warmth and love!

So, soon i write more...

take care al of you!