Before Linda left California, she received a donation from Sherrill Asador-Waters  (a teacher and garden club friend) who wanted to help out–especially in education.

This very first day of Linda’s arrival a group of Wodaabe from Foudouk with whom we have worked for along time, came to me saying that they have a group of students boarding in Agadez to go to high school.  This is a very dynamic group of nomads who have seen to it that their children have collectively reached a higher level of education than any other Wodaabe.  They said that because so many of their former sources of aid have pulled out–whether due to economic difficulties or security concerns, they had a group of 37 students in Agadez, far from their homes in the bush, trying to attend school, but not enough to eat.  Although we could not come up with the $700 monthly budget we were able to help them through this difficult time and tried to give them some ideas of how better to organize and require the participation of parents to keep these kids fed and their education from coming to an abrupt halt.  Linda felt this was exactly the kind of thing Sherrill would like to support.  So here is Linda giving the the check to feed the kids.   Thank you Sherrill and Linda.

I thought the harvest looked pretty great, except the price is so low this year that onion farmers are committing suicide–this is a rather drastic reaction that I keep hearing about farmers and herders to failing crops or pasture.  I think I’ll refrain from resorting to this.

Aboli our cook and the guy who organizes just about everything with Mamane, the gardener and the next batch of onions waiting to be harvested.

I suggested braiding the onions and hanging them to try to hold them longer until the price goes up, but we are going into the hot season.  I also thought to try drying them, but nobody seems to think that would work.  New ideas are not easily introduced.  Our solar oven for cooking sits there because women prefer gathering wood, paying for gas and sitting over a hot stove/fire stirring their cooking rice or sauce or pasta than sitting in the shade waiting for it to cook itself.  They believe the flavors won’t blend if you do not stir constantly.  Ok I guess every cook has their own way of doing things.

Oh well pretty onions anyway.

Got this photo of their check in from Linda’s husband Bert–

All those bags are full of medicine and every one is exactly at the limit of weight allowance–and stuffed with customs exoneration papers –it isn’t easy being a volunteer.

Here is a picture of Hannah when she came in 2010 with another group of workers at the medical clinic.  She is a far right.  She is a journalist and will function this trip as an interpreter.

The really bright side is “Arnold”  (His real name is Moussa, but no one calls him that.)  He is the most consistent Tuareg who has been at all three trainings and is very bright.  I never gave him a lot of credit before because he looks like a punk.  Always has earbuds in his ears and could be straight out of east LA–except his pants fit too well

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But does he ever solve problems.  First was the pump at the garden which we had sent another one of the students out to find out what was wrong.  The guy came back and said he could not figure it out.  So Arnold gave it a try and the pump is working better than it ever has.

Then I gave him some little solar lights whose switch was not working–he repaired that.  Then he came and said that the method of cutting the cells was not precise enough with one of the diamond cutting discs (which are made for a dremel motor tool–but he did not know that) which we were using by hand.   So he wired one up to a cell phone plug in thing–I can’t figure out how he did it, but it spins and cuts very precisely.  I was impressed.

Then we asked if he could figure out how to charge our fixed phone at the office.  We have a land line (that isn’t actually a land line but a portable phone that needs to be plugged in only to charge the battery.) The secretary who we let go decided not to give us back the charging cable–she had taken it to her house and was mad at us for letting her go for embezzling so she kept it. We went to the telephone company and asked for a new one.  They did not know what to do since each phone has its own plug in charger.  So we tried for 5 months to get a cable for the phone from the phone company—all the while paying $10 a month for the service without being able to call.  They said we could buy a whole new phone, but not a cable, or maybe a cable but it had to come from Niamey–any way nothing happened.  The day we asked Arnold he went to a local boutique and found the necessary charger.  So now he is off to the center to make sure the electric system there is working properly before the doctors arrive.

I know this  is probably pretty boring.  Soon I will actually have some photos and some progress.  I just have to report frustrations so you know how difficult it is to take the tiniest steps forward.

We will go out to the garden to have a picnic and see our onion and moringa harvest tomorrow.  I can hardly wait.

The logistics of getting the volunteers, Bob Skankey and his wife Louine and Linda Lamb from Niamey to Agadez always proves challenging–about  40 emails and phone calls have flown back and forth to accomplish this.  The simplest of tasks here takes on grand implications.  For instance we have been authorized to take a special UN humanitarian flight from Niamey to Agadez, but just learned that they more than doubled their prices.  This is a jolt, but ok since we really don’t want the UN flight program to shut down which would prevent us from going at all since we are not authorized to drive without an escort–this would involve two extra vehicles plus 20 armed men in addition to our own–at a totally prohibitive cost not to mention the 14 hours of horrendous roads.  But with the new austerity of the UN flight they are refusing to accept overweight.  We are allowed 15 kilos and must pay $2 per kilo overweight.  So I paid $120 and decided since there will be twice as many bags of medicines arriving with Dr. Skankey, his wife Louine and Linda Lamb, we needed to find another solution.  So we will have the driver who picks them up take them to the bus.  So the bus decides not to take unaccompanied baggage until our secretary calls a friend and calls in a favor, but we have to be sure our customs list and exoneration papers are well visible so they will not be confiscated by customs en route.  This is after they have been cleared at the airport–not sure why internal transport is a problem except that being a customs agent is a poorly paid salary, but a very lucrative job based on “negotiations”

So then we have to get the volunteers from the airport, but there is no one taxi that can take all three plus 6-8 bags so we have to get two taxis, but no taxi’s know Sue Rosenfelds house where they are staying.  So you may ask why don’t you just give the address or gps –yeah dream on.  My address in Agadez is a post office box.  NO ADDRESSES HERE!  So we have to find a friend that can do it who has a big car and will be in town.  Eureka we found one.  So keep your fingers crossed everything goes as planned which is highly unlikely.

Dr. Skankey instructing Aicha

I have been involved with the responsibility for the health and well being of thousands in different parts of the world, have done complex surgery that has relieved suffering and saved lives, but I think that what we did this trip to train midwives who will themselves then save many mothers and babies lives for years to come giving supportive care in humble Tuareg tents or out in the open in the middle of the Sahara desert far out shines anything I have been involved with before. The word is sustainability.