My village

Guidimouni is a three hour bush taxi ride east of Zinder. It is famous throughout the region for its beautiful gardens and year round water that bubbles up from a spring west of town. An old man in the village told me that the city itself was founded a thousand years ago. People in my community are subsistence farmers and they never have a lot of extra money. Only a few families have enough money to see a doctor and women mostly give birth alone in their homes. Children here are at constant risk from treatable diseases, but health care does not reach out to Guidimouni. I have attended the funerals of two young children in the last two months, dead because of illness. This would be a tragedy in the developed world, but it is common in Niger.
The hardships of raising a family in Niger are mixed with a lot of joy. People have strong friendships and close bonds with their reletives. The children who attend school show up even if class is canceled, because of there desire to learn. When the sun goes down and the heat follows it, kids play and dance, women get dressed up and visit friends, and people crowd around a TV and DVD player hooked up to a generator to watch movies.
The victories of my work are small, but important, and during it all I am sharing with them my life as an American and learning about life in Niger.