Harmatten

OK, there are times, even when you’re old and wise, even when you’ve been right most of your life, when you have to face up to facts that prove you wrong – as hard as that may be.  Well, that time has come, for me.

You see I have been telling you about all the dust that is here in Niger, moaning and groaning about the fact you wipe a table once and it needs it again a couple of hours later.  Complaining about shoes that have turned orange permanently.  Whining about the orange dust on the ground, on the roads, in the air and everywhere turning the sky orange.

Well if truth be told, that’s not really dust.  It may look like dust, it may kick up like dust, and it may taste like dust, but it isn’t really dust.  You don’t get dust in Niger until Harmatten.  Harmatten is dust.  Harmatten dust starts up in the Sahara and blows south into Niger.  It usually comes toward the end of January, signaling an end to the cool season, and ends in February with the start of the hot season.  It’s the end of January and Harmatten has come to Niamey. 

It started last week when I commented to Sally about the clouds that seemed to have come in.  We haven’t had clouds here for months.  Then you notice, it is not really clouds it is a dense haze that has blotted out the sun.  It sneaks up on you.  At first it is kind of nice not to have the hot sun beating down on you.  You don’t really see the difference unless you look at something in the distance and then you realize there is no distance.  You can’t see it because it looks like fog only there is no moisture involved in any manner.  It is not visible like the dust from a passing car it is just there in the air, in your lungs, and like fog, you can’t get away from it.

Taken directly into the sun.

Harmatten season is a time of year, usually November to mid March, where dry and dusty West African Trade Winds, known as the Harmatten, blow through the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea.  

Harmatten Area

You don’t have dust in Niger until you have Harmatten.  I took a picture from the balcony of the main building on the center last December and then took another yesterday.  I think they give you a picture of Harmatten.

December

Same view, different zoom

Same view, different day.  No sun at all.

One of the interesting aspects of Harmatten is that it doesn’t feel bad up close.  It is only seen in the distance so you don’t really feel it when you breathe.  Yet, you know it is there and that it is going into your body day and night.  It makes me wonder if there is a big pile of mud forming in the bottom of my lungs.  Who knows?

There, I’ve admitted my error-filled ways.  I didn’t know dust but I’m learning.  Fortunately this won’t last because the hot season is coming.  I think the phrase “Out of the pan and into the fire” has some relevance here.

Jours Ordinaires

Ordinary Days

So much of life is just ordinary – things we do that don’t seem like much in the scheme of things – but much of life is made up of what I call just ordinary day stuff.  Some things need to be done.  Some things make life fun or more interesting. Some things are hard.  Some things just are!

One of our ordinary day things that we “count” on is a working Internet so we can get e-mail, do our blog, stay in touch with many of you.  For the most part that has worked even better than we expected.  That is until the past couple of weeks.  We really missed being in touch and are grateful that it seems up and slowly running again.

We have discovered that when you stay in one place for a while as we have here in Niamey, you begin to make new routines – new ordinary day stuff.

Living here at the Center, we have some things we do most days, like the prayer and break time, and taking Florentine and her two children home every evening. 

Break Time

Break Time

Florentine on the right

Florentine's kids are on the left

We have neighbors who also live here and office at the center – most are SIL expat staff or bible translators.  We see them everyday.

We also often have new people coming to stay at the center for one night to two months or in our case six months.  This center is part guest house – like a small motel.  People who have been part of SIL over the years or people who have been on furlough, return and stay at the guest house.  People coming into town for conferences will stay here for a night or two.  People who live here get really excited because “old” friends or new people are coming.  And for us it has been nice as we have had exposure to many people from many different parts of the world.  They add new life around here and frankly sometimes that is really needed.

One of our new “routines” is to grocery shop on Sunday mornings.  We have been going at that time because there is much less traffic than during the week – easier drive!!  I often go during the week too with one of the women from the center.  I’ve included some pictures of the some of the four or five grocery stores that we visit hoping at least one of them will have something on our list. This is not one stop shopping.  I have been looking for strawberry yogurt for a couple of weeks.  None available in any of the stores.

Baaklini is a grocery store

Marina Market

The nearby 7/11 i.e. Talit

I have had I think 6 dentist appointments to both get and check and recheck my temporary tooth – praying to get home to Dr. Steele before I have to do anything more.  I have had 4 x-rays on this tooth and been on antibiotics twice!! 

Almost just like home

Mary and I went to visit Anna – the Nigerien seamstress who had the fire that burned up her sewing machine – to see her recently born baby daughter.  She doesn’t have her new sewing machine yet and with a new baby I think she isn’t quite ready – but she has one picked out so hopefully she will be able to sew again.   

Anna and her baby

Elgin has a new fast food – only it isn’t fast – more like a drive through where you pick it up and bring it home.  Brochettes done on grills right along the street are a culinary delight for Elgin – actually a break from all the rice, pasta and potato diet. 

Fast Food

I continue to take my early morning walks which are really delightful right now as the temperatures are actually cool.  So cool for the African guards who are the only other people up this early, that they are wearing knit hats or turbans and heavy coats!!  The night guards who are still on duty early in the morning speak very little French but like me can say “bonjour” and “ca va.”  The greetings and the smiles are a wonderful way to begin my day. 

None of these in and of themselves is life changing or terribly exciting or making a big difference in the world but through little routines like these we are integrating and sharing in the life here.  And this is good.

Sermon

I gave the sermon at church last night.

Niamey English Worship Service (NEWS)

Our church here is kind of funny.  It is held in the lunchroom of a school, About 150 people come (many of them are children.)  It is the only English speaking church in Niamey.  We sing four or five praise songs then the song leader that day will ask if there are people tonight, who are new or have recently returned to Niamey, to stand and introduce themselves and then ask the same of anyone(s) who are leaving.  There is always someone in each category.  The tone is Baptist.  The sermons are given by men in the congregation, most of whom are pastors.  Women are not asked to speak.  There is lots of teaching in the preaching.  I am sure I was outside the normative style of most speakers. 

The first time Sally and I went to church, the first day we were in Niamey, I knew I wanted to talk and for some reason, I knew I wanted to talk about “hands.”  That was back in September.  What brought on this desire I have no idea but I finally got my wish.

Preparing a talk or a sermon is such a gift.  My mind is going a hundred miles an hour and everything I do is processed through my talk.  For this reason, I will never turn down a request to talk.  I cheated a little this time in that I put my whole talk on Power Point slides and talked from the slides.  I really liked this format.  I also borrowed the idea from Tim Keller to group the talk into key points which you tell people ahead of time.  It seems to help people track with where you are going.  Something often needed in my mental path.

As I said, I talked about hands.  How hands are so important to us, how they appear 1,928 times in the bible, versus just 14 for the word nose, etc.  I think I had them on the edge of their seats with that one.  How God sets His seal on every hand and then inscribes us on the palm of His hands so that we are bound together by our hands.  I told the story about 12 year-old Debbie who couldn’t use her hands because of severe disabilities and yet felt extreme joy when she fed herself for the first time in her life – an Easter Seals experience Sally and I had.  And then, the miracle of hands that can pick up a big rock or a tiny pin. 

Then I noted how that according to Matthew, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth in his first teaching to his disciples were the Beatitudes.  These first words in the first Gospel must be important.

So I drew from Bob Guelick’s book, “The Sermon on the Mount” where Jesus gave his disciples a radical new way to come before God.  Jesus instructed his disciples to come before God with empty hands, open hands… poor in spirit, mourning, meek, etc.  Not proud, nor arrogant, nor in control but needy, helpless, and wanting.  As Bob wrote,

“For Matthew, the poor in spirit are those who find themselves waiting, empty-handed, upon God alone for their hope and deliverance.”

“Those aware of their inadequacies and personal need for God’s transforming activity in their lives are blessed when they turn to him for acceptance and help.”

It is when we come before God, and acknowledge Him as God, that we are blessed, not when we come before Him seeking His favor or worried all the time about our own needs and wants.

I ended with what happens when we come before God with open hands.  First we are blessed and then filled with God’s love for us.  Then Jesus takes us by the hand and walks with us into the world so that we can answer his “call “ for us to, in his last words in the last Gospel, “Follow Me.”  

I then closed with the January 18th message from the devotional book Jesus Calling.

I love the content of this sermon.  I love the symbolism of open hands that Bob talked about, the idea that when we come before God it is about God and not about us.  I love the realization that I need God, I need His “transforming activity” in my life.  I am thankful for all I learned from Bob Guelich.  It was a blessing to me to be able to do this and I am grateful for the opportunity.  I had fun, too!

Food Relief in Torodi

I was asked to go to Torodi with Steve and Brenda (who are with a local NGO here) to a meeting with the local leaders to see if food relief was needed.  I am writing a proposal to a donor for relief funds and early indicators say that famine will be prevalent in the Torodi and Maradi areas this year.  They have a graph that shows the expected harvest this coming year from hundreds of farmers and this year was way under preceding years.  There has been food relief here every two years since 2006.

The questions they wanted from the Torodi people were do they need help? If so, how much? For whom? When and how?  So they picked me up at 8 and off we went for an hour to a town that is on the “main” road.  We took, what I was told was Main Street, off the main road and barely fit between the buildings, stalls, people, and animals.  We drove through the town and stopped at a big tree.  Usually they meet at the tree but the wind and dust were so strong we went inside a building maybe 12’ by 18’ and sat on plastic chairs in an oval shape.  There were 18 of us, seven from Niamey and eleven from Torodi.  I am not sure how many were translators because there were four languages being spoken, English, French, Hausa, and Gaurma… all at once.

We were supposed to sit under this tree for 4 hours.

The meeting in Torodi

I was struck by the fact that these people are so different from me.  They look, live, and speak differently than I do.  They are in a totally different development and economic situation.  They have culture that bears no resemblance to mine.  And yet, in the discussion that followed, we discussed issues that you would have in any food relief setting.  They were thoughtful, intelligent, and unselfish, trying to do the right thing for their people.

The issues that were discussed were very complex fundamental relief issues.  I thought relief was so simple.  You just go give food to those that need it.  Not so.  Brenda and Steve are against food relief unless there is a disaster or an impending disaster.  Relief builds dependency and dependency defeats development.

As I said, first you need to be sure there is a problem.  Some people didn’t believe the government’s assessment.  Some say the president of Niger just wants any and all relief supplies he can get and is willing to make the numbers come out that way.  Others say the signs are clear.  We asked the leaders.  Here are the reasons they thought there was a problem:

1.       More people have left to find work than before.  These include head of household who didn’t leave before.
2.       The cost of millet is at 600cfa’s a bowl.  Usually around 350 this time of year.
3.       The nearest neighbor, Burkina Faso, won’t let millet be shipped into Niger because they are expecting a shortage.
4.       There are people now going out into the fields looking for food to eat.
5.       People are eating only once a day and animals are in jeopardy.
6.       New huts to store grain are not being built and old ones are not being repaired.              Sounds like the road to famine to me.

      Second, is this an inconvenience or a life and death issue?

1.       One question raised was - are we subsiding their staying in this part of Niger when they should be moving to more fertile land?  We know the desert is moving this way every year.  Borrowing from an old story, you can give a man a fish but it is far better to teach him how to fish, but what if the pond is drying up, then what do you do?  Give him a fish or help him find a new pond, if there is one.

a.    But this is their home.  Well not really, they are Christians who came from Burkina Faso many years ago.

b.    If they leave, many will simply be refuges somewhere else.  Is that good?

c.    They are starving.  Well, we haven’t seen anyone starve to death yet.

Third, they said we don’t want our people to get used to begging for food.  This destroys us.  Then they discussed these issues.

1. We told them at the beginning, three strikes and you’re out.  For some this will be the fourth strike, no food for them.  But what does that mean? 
2. We want our people to do their part in working hard to increase production with new improved methods.  Some haven’t done as much as they could have.  Is it fair to give them food?  What happens to their children who didn’t get the chance to work?
3. Will giving relief hurt our efforts for long term development?  Well, is long term development, farming sufficiency, really possible?

They voted on whether or not they wanted relief by getting up and moving to one end of the room or the other.  There wasn’t much room to move but they still voted.  They ended up wanting relief this year because they felt people would die without it and they could not let happen.

They decided on a food for work program (where you get x amount of food for every hour you work) but unlike prior years, the program this year would require work as a community not as an individual.  Building a cistern, building a dam to create more water, improving roads, or buying improved seeds are all things the community needs developmentally and could do.  They would ask the people what they wanted most.

I thought about being a leader of a community that is facing famine for the fourth year out of the last eight and wondered what would I want for my people.  They need to get out from under the outside help but being tough and having them die is not the way to do it.  They talked about helping the people cope.  Helping them to “break the rock” (their term) together or working through their problems, together.   I think they were on to something here.  It is a very complex problem.

We sat for four hours.  Ate a meal together of noodles, sauce, and goat bones.  They give you a big bowl of food and then you eat it with your hands.  I ate it and then went outside and learned how to wash my hands.  First you wet them, then you rub sand (dust) on them, and then rinse them.  The sand takes the grease away.  Not sure it did much for the dirt.

When we got back, I quickly went to our apartment with a fever, chills, and diarrhea.  All the symptoms of malaria, fortunately, my self-diagnosis assigned it to tainted goat bones.  This Niamey diet program is great.

Bible Translation and Bible Translators

I would like to tell you what I have learned about missionaries, who are bible translators, since living at the SIL Center.  I know that living with this mission and the people who serve here has helped me better understand what it really means to translate the bible.

The ones called here to do bible translation are amazing people.  They mostly come from churches who “grow” missionaries – it’s like it is in their DNA.  Many grew up as missionary kids so it is the life they knew and many come from churches and schools that nurture and send people to be missionaries. 

So if I were to give a simplistic overview as to why these missionaries are here, I would say - They felt called, led to this life.

My understanding of the process is that once one decides to be a missionary, one becomes part of a sending organization, i.e. Wycliffe.  Once accepted, one must raise support.  Then comes the preparation for actually being sent to a place to serve.  Learning a new language is often required.  For Niger, it is necessary to be fluent in French.  The missionaries we are with have all attended total immersion programs for a minimum of a year in Belgium or Quebec or France. While they all sound very proficient to me, several have expressed how very hard it is to be really good in French.  The every day interactions are no problem but having to give a talk they say is very difficult.

They also go to “culture” school and learn the realities of the life of the country they are choosing or being sent to.The ones here are college educated in linguistics and language translation and have been to bible school or seminary.  They are very committed to their people groups and their language projects.

I was surprised to learn all that goes into their work.  First is identifying a people group who speak a language that has no written form.  Then the translators have to learn that language so that they can communicate with the people.   Then they form an alphabet based on the sounds that they hear which then become words.  Words are then put into sentences..  The translators are always going back to the people to see if what and how they are saying something is right. 

Once they have the alphabet and a handle on the structure, they will begin with one book of the bible – often Genesis.  They use multiple sources – mainly Greek and Hebrew – to help them be true to the original meaning of the passages but eventually they have to communicate it in a way that the people group will understand.  It is a very long – many years process – like 30 years.  I was told you are never really finished, you just finally decide you have done what you can so you complete the project which is not the same as being finished!!  They spend a lot of time with the people – in Young Life terms – they are earning the right to be heard. 

They also do other communications too – like bible stories in a people group language - on cassettes.  They have Christian radio programming as another medium.  They have missionaries here who teach people how to read.  For what good does it do to translate the bible if you aren’t able to read it?  I get really excited about the literacy part.  I think that is why highlights of my time here are doing Zarma literacy with Mamata and helping Haoua (French spelling of Hawa) to learn to read.

Bible translators are self-described introverts.  The ones we know are faith filled and faithful, self motivated and God motivated.   They want people to know God through knowing Jesus.  They want to make a difference for Christ.  They accept the sovereignty of God.  They trust and obey, trying to live lives that glorify God – lives that honor what they profess. 

They are very respectful of the African/Muslim ways of doing things.  In this country, that is mostly Muslim, that translates into dressing very Nigerien. 

They are very resourceful – know how to change the oil and the tires on their cars.  They make bread from scratch and sew their clothes.  They make do with what they have and never complain about what they don’t have. 

They mostly go back to the states when their children start college.  They “worry” about their third world kids going back into American society.  I think most of them are very happy to raise their families here.

Their friendships are interesting.  The missionary community is not that large, so they need each other.  But they are also saying hello to someone new and good-bye to someone who is leaving for good or going on furlough for 6 months to a couple of years.  So their attachment to each other is “different.”  In fact, at the beginning of our church service they ask who has just come to Niger and who is leaving… every week they ask this and every week someone(s) stands up for each question.

Niger is not an easy place to be a missionary or to raise a family.  Some who have lived in more than one West African country would say that Niger is not their favorite.  And yet they sincerely seem to be glad to be here.

I have come to really appreciate and value the work of these translators.  I know I have taken for granted that I have a bible to read in my language.  Now I realize that some translator translated the bible into English and I am grateful.   

Niamey Roads

Our Internet connection has been down for 8 days. It felt like I lost a friend.  When we came here we found out that we couldn’t use our iPhones.  Oh, no!  But we got over it.  Not so sure about the Internet.  It’s our tie to the outside world.

I have been trying for the longest time to do a blog on driving here in Niamey.  I know I have talked about it many times but I haven’t really been able to show you what it is like.  I wanted to have you feel like you were here, to share the same fears and trepidations that I feel every time I’m behind the wheel.

One of the things that has kept me from writing such a blog about driving has been the fact that the pictures we have taken just don’t do justice to the real thing.  We are not supposed to take pictures of public buildings or public grounds, any embassy, camels, people, or anything interesting. We cheat but we have to do it on the sly and as such, we don’t always get the best pictures.  Also, when the chaos of the roads is 3-dimensional a 2-dimensional picture just can’t capture the reality.

Nevertheless, I am now writing a blog on driving and I am going to show you the best pictures I have.  The best image I can of the road I can give you is think of driving on a go cart race track at 10:30 on a Saturday night in August.  What you have in this situation are way too many young adults each controlling a dangerous object with the sole intent to get to the end, wherever that may be, faster than anyone else.  This is not a perfect image because lacks just a few things that gives Niger its true flavor.  So add to the track a few goats, sheep, holes in the road, speed bumps, dust, pedestrians, and drivers that have no prior experience driving on normal roads and following rules of any sort.  Can you get the picture?  Oh, yes, don’t forget to throw in 40 motorcycles and note; the motorcycles can go wherever they want on the track and can go much faster than the cars.  I’m going through all of this because the pictures just don’t tell the tale.

Let me show you the two vehicles I have to choose from.  Neither one has air conditioning so the windows have to be open despite the dust and they are both stick shift. The truck is nice because it is up high and can be converted to 4 wheel drive if you get out of the car and turn a knob on the wheels.  The drawback of the truck is that the windshield has been scratched so much it is hard to see out the front, which happens to be the direction I usually look when I’m driving.  (The reason it is scratched is that people have used the windshield wipers to get the dust off the windshield and the dust has permanently scratched the window.)  The green Corolla is easier to handle but so low you feel vulnerable to attacks from all sides.

While I have you sitting on the edge of your Lexus seats let me tell you about a driving experience Sally and I had.  I took her to the dentist which is on the East side of town, there really is no downtown but if there was one, the dentist would be on the east side of it.  We went to a nearby grocery store that is always out of things you want and today it was baguettes.  So Sally wanted to go to the bakery.  There is one good bakery and it is on the north west side of town.  So instead of going back to the center, which is on the South west side, and then going to the bakery, I decided to cut across town.  The road I selected took me through the entire length of the Grande Marche, the BIG market.  I mean multiple blocks of a narrow road with people and taxis on both sides and in front and back of you, and no real movement.  I had the truck and I was the only truck on this road… for a reason, there wasn’t enough room for trucks.  Oh yeah, it was noon on Friday, there were other people there too.  I’d like to say it was a fun learning experience but actually we were both terrified for the whole 45 minutes we inched along the road.  We got back to the center and declared victory, bragged to all of the people here who totally understood what we had been though, and I am now wearing a purple heart.

The infamous Grand Marche at lunch time.

Grand Marche

JFK Bridge.  Often stopped up due to donkey carts and truck breakdowns.
One time a camel got it's foot stuck  and all traffic stopped.

This is not a road.  

This is not a road either

This is a road.

Normal intersection.  Notice our car is blocking the other cars.

The craters don't show in this picture

Normal street scenes

Petit Marche

OK, I know, if I am not whining about the heat, I whine about the dust, and if I don’t whine about the heat and the dust I whine about roads.  I can only say I have used a great deal of self control to limit my emotions to simply whining.  What I really want to do is to scream.

Enjoy 35W or the Crosstown.

Elephant Hunt

Elephant Hunt

Some friends from the center here asked us to go on an elephant hunt.  So on New Years Day, we along with three families set out for Parc W in southern Niger.

The first thing you have to know is that Parc W is in French so of course they don’t simply say Park W.  They make it difficult by saying, “Parc du doub lay vee.”  Or, Parc double v, since W is two V’s together.  The other thing is they call it Parc W because the river forms a W on the north side of the park.  Not a real good marketing name but as we say, “Parc du doub lay vee” it is.

See the W?

Anyway, we took off for the park at 8am and had a flat tire in the truck we were riding in right around 8:45.  Seems like having a flat is an expected occurrence so with a lot of waiting around it was fixed and we were on our way again.  It is about 100 miles to the park from Niamey but the last 50 miles are bad dirt road so it took us 4 hours or so to get there.

Don't you just hate it when there is work to do
to have some guy just stand around with his hands in his pockets.

We checked into the 4 Star La Taboa Hotel at the park.  Not sure who is handing out hotel stars but they were quite generous with the La Taboa.  We paid our park fee, got a guide, and left immediately for an observation platform that was by a small river.  There were some crocodiles on the far bank and we saw a few DLT (deer like things) on the way but not much else.  We had lunch there, didn’t see any elephants, which is not unusual, and then the guide suggested we return to the hotel and come back out to look for animals at 4:30.  (Not seeing animals is not unusual at all.)

We did catch this DLT.  We are sending this photo into National Geographic.

At 3:00 we were awakened to the cry of “elephants.”  Half of us piled into and onto a car and we took off elephant hunting.  We found 5 of them close to the observation tower we had been to before.  I have to say that I have seen elephants before and at Disney’s Animal Kingdom they are “out in the wild” sort of.  These five were across the river, big as can be, and absolutely wonderful to watch.  We also saw large antelope horses, more deer, baboons, monkeys, buffalo deer, and some beautiful birds with brilliant colors. 

It was hard to get them to all look at the camera.

We returned to the hotel around 6, and had a delightful dinner outside in just perfect, not too hot and no dust in sight, weather.  Just a great day.

We started the next day a 6:30 am to look for lions and headed off into the park interior.  We drove around 35 miles on single lane, grass down the middle, path-like roads.  Maybe the lions saw us but we didn’t see them and in fact, we didn’t see much of anything but we did have a real hard ride.  Went back to the hotel and checked out then went to the observation platform again.  Nothing going on there so we had our bag lunch again and hung out on hard benches.  After a long time a guy came and said the elephants were across the river again down stream.  We drove there and saw three of them up close and personal.  It was an absolute treat. 

Oh, that feels so good.

Our 50th Anniversary Card

Left to drive home about 2 with two more cars in our caravan and at 3:15 we had our second flat, in another car.  The flat was quickly changed and off we went for another 10 miles and had another flat.  Tired, exhausted, not frustrated in the least, just thankful to be home and to have had a great trip to “Parc du doub lay vee.”  

All but three of our fellow hunters.