Some pics from Galmi village. Here's a pretty standard building, sans surrounding wall.
Donkey cart carrying water from the well
This is a bin used for storing onions
A woman carrying something or other on her head
A herd outside the village. The herds sort of all mix, but Salifu, our guide from the hospital, says the animals know which home is theirs and head there at the end of the day.
The son of our driver from Niamey to Galmi, testing the depth of a puddle between us and the home of missionaries we were to visit. The driver stopped at the puddle and said something to his son, to which his son reacted with some surprise. Once we figured out what was happening we started laughing, and fortunately the son was laughing, too.
Boy in Galmi village
The kids liked posing for the camera
This girl acted all shy when I gestured at my camera to ask permission to shoot her, but then she didn't try to hide. I wasn't able to get a shot of her hands, which had henna tattoos on them.
Every shot I took of this girl she was making a funny face
This woman turned especially so I could see her baby, too.
These kids thought the digital camera was the coolest thing once I showed them the little review screen in back.
Drum played in the women's choir at the evangelical church in Galmi.
Another drum, made from a steel barrel.
Two metal percussion instruments. The one in the foreground is beat on the spongy thing; the one in the back is played by beating the pillow-thing on the jar's mouth.
Issa, an employee at the hospital, sitting in a shelter on the compound made of millet stalks.
A gardener on the compound
One of the original missionary houses on campus
A middle-stage missionary home
This is our room. Pretty simple. There's an essential fan on the ceiling that didn't make the picture.
Bob (left) and Parker at the table in the guest house. Again, pretty simple, but not uncomfortable.
They call this little room the Internet cafe, though there's not cafe to speak of, just two computers hooked up to the net. Here Stephen is trying to find information on how to fix his laptop, which fritzed on him our first day in Galmi. He eventually was able to fix it after 3 days or so.
They're remodeling/rebuilding the hospital, changing it from an E-shape to a square with an inner courtyard. Here you can see where the old building ends and they've got some of the foundation/basement in of the new one.
These heavy duty wheelchairs come in handy when wheeling around the compound. The aid pushes down on the extra-long handles and puts it up on the two rubber tires to deal with the gravel.
Mud hut pharmacy in Galmi (one of them)
The screen in front of the evangelical church in Niamey. They keep these garlandy decorations up all year, though they look like Christmas decorations to me.
Abraham planing crutches in the hospital shop. He also sings in the EERN choir.
Dauda fitting crutches. Dauda is Hausa for "David," as he told me in decent English.
Salifu took us through the village on Saturday, the 14th. The shots of the kids and the women were taken at his sister's place. He's been eager to take us back ever since.
A mijin kunama, "scorpion's wife," so named because, though scorpions usually eat spiders, some people swear they've seen a mijin carrying away a scorpion, which makes it a pretty formidable spider. It was apparently a medium-sized one, about the size of a woman's compact, and quite hairy. I haven't been able to catch a photo of the locusts here - when they fly you can see their legs hanging down and they look like ugly fairies.
A vendor at Galmi market who asked to be photographed. The market at Galmi is every Wednesday - the vendors make a kind of circuit of neighboring villages.
After the guy in the tan jacket, this guy came up and posed for this shot.
A stereo vendor at Galmi's Wednesday market. You can get a lot more than just food and clothing, as you can see.
Another guy in the stereo stall. He asked to be photographed, and I began to get him and the guy next to him, but that guy gestured that he didn't want to be, so I just shot this guy.
Some more "Western" stuff you can buy: baseball caps, belts, fireworks, candy, etc.
This woman was sitting in back of a cloth stall.
The big mortars they grind their grains in.
A pile of corn. This is the Galmi version of bulk foods.
Some grain. At first I thought rice, but it could be millet
I thought these were dates, but Bob said someone told him they were figs. They don't look much like figs to me, but I don't eat many figs.
Big trucks frequently drive through the village, but some people still pack camels.
Eli Zoolkoski getting her hair braided by the women at the C.R.E.N. (a residential clinic for mothers and their children).
She said it hurt a bit, but not as much as when she got cornrows.
A close-up of Eli.
A Touareg merchant who frequents the hospital compound. In the back is Elishiva Zoolkoski, with her braids. Next to me is Bob Mead, our photographer. Photo by Wes King, an MK here with his father Doug (a short-stay surgeon), his mother Margie (trained as a nurse, but mostly just helping around with guest house stuff), and his three brothers.
This guy was insistent that I buy a silver jewelry set for Katie - he even said he'd throw in a ring for free. He was asking about $30 for it, which was more than I had or was willing to spend. But then he pointed at my watch, suggesting a barter. At first I wasn't about to give him my watch, but then figured it'd be a good story. We eventually agreed on the watch and about $8, for a total value somewhere between $18-$24.
This is to give you an idea of the thorn that got me in the foot a couple days ago. I was wearing cheap flip-flops at the time, and one went right through and nailed the sandal to my foot, which hurt like the dickens. Within a few seconds I noticed blood pooling between my sandal and foot, so I rushed to the pharmacy, where some five or six Hausa women cleaned and dressed my wound.
One of the few shots of ourselves we took - we just weren't thinking in terms of tourist photos. Here we're interviewing Peter Jackson, an OB/GYN who comes to Galmi for a couple months every few years. I'm holding the boom mic, Stephen is asking most of the questions, and Parker is working the camera.
A storm brewing in the south. Friday afternoon, July 20.
This woman was walking into the C.R.E.N. (well-baby 'camp') as we were walking out and wanted to have her picture taken
A woman in the C.R.E.N. pounding millet. She had actually finished just before I came over with my camera, but she obligingly went back to do some more, which make all the other woman laugh and make fun of her.
A Hausa girl outside the admin building, I have since learned that she's a nurse, or nurse-in-training.
Another Hausa nurse outside the admin building.
The SIM Air plane we took to get back from Galmi to Niamey. The drive to Galmi took 10 hrs; the flight back took one and a half. It was a little strange to fly in a plane that was shorter than me.
A sense of the close-quarters inside the plane.
A shot of a village from above - actually quite a bit smaller than Galmi.
At the Cherif household. Chako Cherif is a former minister and current professor at the university in Niamey. His wife, Baala (pictured), is working with a Christian radio ministry. On the right is Bert Haaga, Parker's father and a missionary in Niger, with his wife, Elaine, for some 20 yrs. We all met at the Cherif's for lunch after church our last Sunday in Niger.
