Local Middle School

The local Middle school serves a district of 6000 inhabitants. There are a total of 189 students at the school, 70 in the equivalent of american 6th grade, 42 in 7th grade, 49 in 8th grade, and 28 in 9th grade. There are 10 girls in 9th grade of which 2 are from my village of 3000 inhabitants. Yearly middle school tuition is 30 $ US dollars, making it quite a burden on families with as many as 10 kids going to either Elementary (4 $ US dollar tuition)or Middle school. Nearly always, the financial burden results in having to choose which children to send to school. In addition to the problem of money, student pregnancy and marriage cut short the education of many.

Pile of harvested Sorghum

Pile of harvested Sorghum
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Before transporting harvested sorghum back to the house and processing it (beating the grains out with tree branches), it is piled up next to the field being harvested. If you check out the "more photos on flickr" link on the right-hand side of the blog you can see the harvesting process itself.

One motivated gardner

If you look back in the photos, you can see a shot of a freshly prepared garden bed. That one bed has become 20 or so, with tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, green pepper, carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic, local vegetables, and Moringa trees. The man you see here is the owner and keeper of the garden, it is often hard to keep up with his thirst for new techniques and information.

20 km talk

A 20 km long talk with a student from my village brought scenes of pregnant women carrying huge loads of fire wood out of the bush on their heads, young Togolese men returning home with a motorcycle after a season spent working on Nigerian farms, slash and burn farming techniques destroying more hectares of forest and 10 year old boys who spend the whole day working in their own fields, among other sights. The student also told me a few things: that it is the money brought back by Togolese migrant workers "that is developing our village." That the motorcycles brought back by the migrant workers help transport sick people in our village to the hospital, and that the money brought back by the workers puts roofs over heads in our village. He lamented having to say that he doubts there will be much if any forest left near our village 20 years from now, but on a brighter note hoped that one day he could go to Europe, Incha Allah, adding that parents of children who have gone to Europe don't farm much anymore, they wait for the monthly money wire.

World HIV/AIDS day events

The canton (county) nurse and I put together AIDS talks for 7 villages in our canton. Here a community health agent evokes correct condom use.

Fulani head south for dry season

During the dry season the nomadic Fulani (Peul) head to the wetter south. They live in the bush and sell the meat of their injured cattle, as well as fresh milk and cheese, for money. Recently, a number of disputes have arrisen between stationary farmers in village and the Fulani, who's cattle often consume the corn, sorghum, or other crops before or during harvest.

Neem, sewing workshop, and volunteer.

Neem, sewing workshop, and volunteer.
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi.

Walking down to the center of village, I am often greated by the apprentices at this sewing workshop. The Imam often sits at the base of this neem tree to observe the activities at the market which is opposite the workshop.