Seeds of Hope Africa; Life in a mud hut

Letter to the Editor of the Independent Review;

Waking up to a high pitched little voice yelling "Wayna mai tubshi!", announcing to the village the millet cakes her mother is making and selling, that's how my mornings start. (I can only expect so much from my treasured earplugs.) I stay a few extra moments tucked into my mosquito net, listening to the bustle going on around me and enjoying the cool morning air. As breakfast seekers peer over the millet stalk fence surrounding my yard to see if I'm still sleeping, I quickly close my eyes to savor the last few minutes of tranquility for the day. Once they know I'm awake, the barrage of visitors on their way to the fields and hundreds of curious little eyes eager to watch my every move will descend.

The hut that the chief of the village, my Nigerien father, built me is within his concession/yard. The millet stalk fence surrounding my space is a token separation at best since at any given time I can look up to find each hole in the fence filled with a little face eager to see what Zoulleha is going to do next. I'm excited to say that my latrine is in the process of being constructed and should be done in a couple days. I have just a few weeks left in the village to enjoy this rare luxury in the African bush. There are only two other latrines in my village, one of which was just dug last week. I've been making trips to my friend Muntare's house to use his "facility" when need be.

The Seeds of Hope Africa goat loan meetings have been full of enthusiasm, gratitude, group photos, and irresistible baby goats. We have followed up with the existing women's groups finding that they have taken ownership of the project, solved any challenges that have arisen, and are utterly grateful for the "alheri", goodness, they've received. Many of the groups have taken advantage of the goat loan project caisse, or bank, that each participant contributes to each month. The money is foremost used for goat veterinary needs or replacement in the case of a death, but also for members to borrow for use in income generating activities such as the sale of peanut oil processed from raw peanuts and making/selling millet cakes. The loans are repaid, with interest, and the reserves have grown.

We have named the Seeds of Hope Africa goat loan project Alkawalin Cigaba Mata, a Hausa phrase meaning; women fulfilling the promise of tomorrow.

Ibrihim and Muntare, two close friends from my village, as well as the involved Peace Corps Volunteers, have been instrumental in being our eyes and ears on the ground in my absence. They will be doing meetings every two months with each village and communicating progress reports. The facts that cell phone service is available now, and that Muntare has a motorcycle for transport to each village makes this all possible.

Yesterday, after a less than comfortable ride, three deep on a motorcycle, we arrived at the prospective SoHA villages. We met with the chiefs and gave a brief explanation of the project, then asked the town crier to gather the women. Within an hour, we had the available women gathered on mats under a tree, ready to hear the news. The meetings were met with cheers, blessings, and assurances that they will have the group leaders elected and lists of participants organized by our follow up meeting this coming week. Each group is required to show this initiative in order to receive the funding necessary to buy the goats.

Time is flying by, and sooner than later, I know I will be driving down the lovely, smooth Minnesota roads thinking about these women shouting their blessings and thanks as we get up to leave the village. Each meeting, I share with them that the money for the goats has come from other women, mothers, and families in America who have heard about them and have passed on their hard earned money so that they may live a little better here in Niger. "May God give them goodness and wealth", "May God help them when they need it most", "Give them our thanks", "We thank you", are just a few of the words that follow us as we walk to the motorcycle to pile on and head through the sand to the next destination. So to all of you who have given of yourself to make this all possible, hear those blessings and words of thanks, they are for you.


Sincerely,

Zoulleha



Angela Kieffer
Seeds of Hope Africa
PO Box 50482
Minneapolis, MN 55405
ph# 651-285-4727

www.seedsofhopeafrica.org

To the world you may be one person,
But to one person you may be the world.

To the field with Sayaba

As Ibrihim and Muntari head off in the morning to the market to buy the goats, I trek to the field with Sayaba, Ibrihim's wife of 12 years. She is a fiesty young woman who speaks her mind and enjoys joking around, often at my expense. I love her and find a familiarity in the rare connection she shares with her husband. She is, and has been, his only wife which is not common in this Muslim culture.
Ibrihim and Sayaba got married just 2 weeks after I arrived in Garin Maigari as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I distinctly remember not liking her in the beginning. As I struggled to learn Hausa, her loud brash comments often landed heavily upon me. But over the years, I have learned much about Sayaba, and the Hausa women as a whole. Although they are suppressed and clearly expected to live subordinate to their husbands, they carry pride in their children and their ability to be the women of the house. They joke with each other, laugh loudly at their shortcomings, and quietly support each other in times of need. Most clearly stated, they tell it how it is.
I have learned a lot from these women; learned to laugh at myself and much to their delight, have learned to laugh with them. Sayaba has taken to calling me "Jagwara" which means "divorced woman". And I, in turn, call her "Uwargida" or "first wife", insinuating that I will marry Ibrihim and live as her co-wife. Traditionally, the first wife rules over the second wife and has the ability to delegate household duties to her. In this concept lies the joke as we list off the facts that I can't pound millet, prepare hura (millet porridge)or tuwo (millet pate), and of course, I've voiced my opinion that 2 kids would be plenty.
As we pull up peanut plants and lay them out to dry, we laugh together and move on to discuss serious issues including birth control, domestic abuse, and girl's education. Over the last 12 years, Sayaba has become a wife, a mother of three, and has grown up and figured out a lot about being a woman. And as I listen to her talk, ask her questions and discuss possible solutions to these issues, I realize that so have I.

Zoulleha
(Written 10/10/2008 from the village of Garin Maigari)

Goats Galore!!!

Happy to say that the goat buying is underway! Unfortunately, my presence at the market would artificially inflate the goat prices, so I patiently wait at the village for the new arrivals to be herded home.

The meetings have gone well and we have selected three new villages to begin goat loans as well as doubling the project size in Garin Maigari. The women have been ecstatic about the opportunity and have shown this not only through their words of gratitude, but through their actions.

In the village of Gaden Iyya, we arrived to find the women gathering and getting ready for our second meeting. Following our protocal, we had had the initial informational meeting where all the women gather to get an understanding of how the project works and we announce that our next meeting will be in 3 days to evaluate their ability to participate and sustain the goat loan project.
As they had been advised, these women had selected a president, secretary, and treasurer for each group along with the amount that they would each be depositing into the SoHA savings and loan bank each month. They proudly brought out their notebooks showing us their lists, adding that they had in fact already made their first monthly deposit. Sannu da kokari! Greetings on your effort!
In a culture where women are not allowed to take initiative in most areas of their lives, they have shown that they are able and ready to take the initiative to not only benefit, but make this work sustainable.

As is customary in their culture, each women's group chooses a male representative to oversee the market affairs of buying the goats as well as herding them home to the village. We need to visit 3 different markets to fill our quota and make sure all are getting the best (and sometimes already pregnant) goats. Along with our SoHA representatives, Ibrihim and Muntari, the group reps arrive at the market,choose the best goats, bargain with the owners and decide on a price. When they have selected and bought all the goats, they slowly herd them to the kungiya's (womens group president's) concession where all the women will gather to claim their treasure.

The women are excited as young messengers run from hut to hut passing along the news that the goats have arrived. The group presidents arrive first with the project notebook to follow the list and hand out the animals to women as they arrive.
I greet the women, wish them luck, and answer the myriad of blessings bestowed on me and all who have donated to make this possible with a simple "Amin", over and over again.

It's nearly dark and all the goats have made their way to their new homes when Ibrihim, Muntare and I reconvene. I congratulate them on a job well done, talk about any challenges they may have faced, and go over the plans for the coming market day. As I head to my hut for my bucket bath under the moonlight and dinner, I again smile at the beauty of all of the people coming together to help make life better for a woman and her family in Niger, one goat at a time, and I say a few blessings of my own.

Zoulleha
(Written October 16th, 2008 in the village of Garin Maigari)