Let it Grow

For some reason I always think it's cool when the bloggers I read regularly post while traveling. I like to imagine them sitting in an airport bar typing a something for the blog before jumping on a plane. So this is my own attempt at blogging from the road.
The photo above is a pretty typical of the landscapes in the Maradi region where I've spent the last few days. Millet fields as far as the eye can see, although there's other stuff in there too: especially sorghum and cowpea. What's remarkable about this view if you spend a lot of time looking at millet fields--which I do these days--is how many trees there are dotting the landscape. Over the past 20 years or so farmers in this region of Niger have begun managing the native trees on their farmland (primarily for fuelwood production) rather than clearing them off the land as was customary. The most obvious benefit of this practice is that farmers gain an additional and renewable source of income by selling firewood, but as I described in a previous post, there are a number of additional benefits to keeping trees on farmland. Encouragingly, this appears to be a growing trend in this country and it's attracting a lot of attention. See, for example, this article from the New York Times last February for a pretty good description.

Off to Maradi

I got a last-minute invitation to tag along on a trip to the Maradi region for a week. I'm expecting to do a fair amount of work there during the next year or so, so I'm glad I'll finally get a chance to check it out for a few days. Anyway, if this blog is quiet for the next week or so, that's why.

Because 23 Would Have Been Too Many

ESPN Headline: "Blue Devils build lead, hold on to stop 22-game slide"

The sad thing about this is that the game was at Northwestern, so the Duke fans didn't even get a chance to tear down the goalposts. Still, a win is a win. Aaron and Mark, our names may not actually appear on the Duke roster but nobody could deny that we contributed to this victory.

My Research Excursion

Agroforestry is sort of the generic term for agricultural practices that involve the use of trees. In a country like Niger, people typically clear all the trees and shrubs off of a plot of land before planting their crops, but trees can be beneficial to agricultural production in a number of ways. They protect against both wind and water erosion, their leaves and roots contribute organic matter to the soil, and some trees enrich the soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Additionally, trees can provide other valuable products such as firewood, fruits, edible leaves, and traditional medicines.

When I talk about an “agroforestry system” I’m describing something more specific. Agricultural scientists have developed many different models for how best to combine certain trees and certain crops to achieve the greatest possible benefit. This project of mine involves studying three such systems, which range from loosely defined and flexible (fostering and managing the trees that sprout naturally in a field instead of clearing them) to quite prescriptive (planting measured rows of exotic species including grafted fruit trees at ten meter intervals to be managed according to an specific calendar).

As I mentioned below, I spent last week touring around some rural areas of southwestern Niger. The point was to visit and interview a bunch of the “pilot farmers” for one of these agroforestry systems. These guys are the first stab at taking a system developed at the research center and putting it in the hands (and on the land) of farmers who could potentially benefit from it.

As far as my research project goes, the trip went really well. It was extremely valuable for me to be able to sit down with these farmers in their fields and talk with them about their impressions of the new systems, their challenges in carrying it out, the likelihood of other community members trying to adopt this system, and other topics. What’s really affecting about these kinds of visits, though, is the personal interaction you have with these people. They share their stories with you. They tell you about the founding of the village or the history of their family. With a combined total of maybe five words in common you manage to exchange a few jokes. And although this is kind of a boilerplate observation for anybody who’s spent time in rural Africa, but it’s hard not to be struck by the kind of generosity they show to visitors. One chief gave me two chickens. Another farmer gave me 30 guinea fowl eggs. These are valuable gifts, and you feel guilty accepting them from such truly poor people but there’s absolutely no way you can refuse.

I tried uploading a bunch of photos from my trip but the internet is not cooperating today. Maybe next week.

Direct Trade Coffee

One of the links over on this blog's sidebar is to a company called Intelligentsia Coffee. I used to regularly order coffee from them (I still would if I could get it here) because (a) it's REALLY good coffee and (b) I liked their practice of working directly with individual coffee growers to produce a more valuable, more profitable crop. This practice is becoming increasingly recognized by the name of "direct trade", and there's a good article about it in yesterday's New York Times. Intelligentsia is one of the companies mentioned. I recommend the whole article, but the the main point in terms of how direct trade is different than other efforts to help coffee farmers is this:

[Direct trade] also represents, at least for many in the specialty coffee world, an improvement on labels like Fair Trade, bird-friendly or organic. Such labels relate to how the coffee is grown and may persuade consumers to pay a little extra for their beans, but offer no assurance about flavor or quality. Direct-trade coffee companies, on the other hand, see ecologically sound agriculture and prices above even the Fair Trade premium both as sound business practices and as a route to better-tasting coffee.

Ramadan Begins

On the map above you'll notice there's a small town in the far East of the country called Diffa. Last night somebody in Diffa reported to have caught a glimpse of the crescent of the new moon, meaning the whole country begins to observe the month of Ramadan today, a day earlier than expected this year. The cafeteria here at the research station where I'm based, which is usually pretty lively, was a graveyard today. Just me and a few co-workers from Burkina Faso.

Since I have the map up there already, I'll also point out that I spent all of last week on a trip visiting and interviewing farmers around the towns of Dosso and Gaya. I even took an illegal trip across the border into Benin for an afternoon. The trip went really well and I learned a ton. I'll try and post some photos and more details about the trip sometime soon.

L'Arbre du Ténéré

I guess there aren't that many famous trees in the world. This Wikipedia page lists only four in Africa, so maybe I should count myself as lucky that I can wander on down to Niger's National Museum for a glimpse of the famous Arbre du Ténéré just about any time I feel like it. I checked it out on Saturday, along with the rest of the Museum.

L'Arbre du Ténéré was famous for being a solitary, isolated tree in the middle of the Sahara desert. This highly visible, revered landmark seems to have the curious problem of being repeatedly struck by passing trucks, one of which finished the job in 1973. Seeing the tree today, hundreds of miles from where it once grew, is a little bit like visiting a mausoleum. It's a weathered old piece of wood rooted in a concrete block and enclosed in a metal cage, mercifully inaccessible to motor vehicles.

Some Pictures

The lack of recent posts has been mostly, but not entirely, my fault. My work internet has been down a lot recently, but mostly it's just difficult to find enough time and interesting things to write about to keep the blog updated. But one thing I managed to accomplish this morning was to upload some photos I've taken (a painfully slow process on this internet connection). Most of them are from around the research station where I'm currently based, about 40 km outside of Niamey. Click here to take a look.

Bouger Bouger

Since I got so much positive feedback on the Magic System video (believe me, I did) and since I don't have time for a real post at the moment, here's another Magic System video.

"La maladie du bouger bouger on s'assoit pas!"

Rainy Season

August is the wettest month here. We've had one good thunderstorm since I've been here and a couple days that have been a little drizzly. This is a photo of the Niger river I took on Wednesday evening. Looks pretty full to me.

What am I doing here?

Several people have asked, but I’ve hesitated to write a post explaining exactly what I’m doing here because I’m a little unsure myself. Several different organizations involved in promoting agroforestry in Niger requested, through CHC, a fellow (me) to research the impact of their efforts. So broadly speaking, my project is about evaluating how successful several of these agroforestry promotion projects have been in terms of raising incomes, reducing poverty, and improving food security.

The problem I’m running into as I begin to get into the specifics is that the projects of the different organizations—3 of them, basically—are not really comparable. And because of the differences between them, each organization seems to have a different idea of how they should be evaluated. There seems to be some consensus that I’m to focus on social and economic aspects, but beyond that it’s kind of a mess. So my current challenge, and what I’ll be working with for roughly the next three months, is to learn enough about all of these systems in order to come up with some kind of broad evaluative framework that applies to all of them.

The plan is for me to spend the first year here in Niger collecting information and the second year in Benin, using that information to develop reports, papers, policy briefs, or whatever we decide the products of this research should be. Overall it's a pretty exciting opportunity. I'll probably get to travel a fair amount within Niger, and the fact that I'm working with 3 or 4 organizations (depending on how you count) rather than just one gives me a degree of independence to carry out the project the way I want.

Magic System

As some of you know already, I have a sort of fascination with the local pop music in the different countries I visit. I try to find out as much as I can about the stuff I hear in bars and restaurants, in taxis, on buses, on the radio, and on T.V. One of my absolute favorite “finds” over the years is Magic System, an Ivoirian group who’s now gotten pretty popular in Europe. One of their more recent hits is called "Un Gaou A Oran", which you’d discover has an embarrassingly high playcount if you looked at my iTunes today. Imagine my pleasant surprise when the first time I switched on the Nigerien television the video above came on within the first few minutes. And it’s a pretty sweet video, too!

Writing about Africa

I don't really intend for this blog to be a blog about Niger or about Africa. The point is really to use this space to write "letters home" and keep in better contact with people than I have on past occasions when I was living abroad. Nonetheless, you find pretty quickly that it becomes difficult to write about daily life without a lot of background information. Just in order to get a simple story across, you often find yourself forced to assume the responsibility of explaining "how things are" and "how it works here", which often later turn out to be horribly wrong or naive. Occasionally I come across old letters or e-mails I wrote from Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar that make me cringe. It's not just that I'm wrong about broad assumptions of fact, but even my personal impressions are off: people I describe in glowing terms turned out to be jerks, and vice versa. Anyway, all this is just a long-winded disclaimer to the effect that the role of educator on African issues is not really one I'm comfortable playing, but one I may reluctantly assume from time to time in order to communicate my experiences here as best I can. Please keep that in mind.

On the subject of writing about Africa, I'd encourage people to take a look at this satiric essay on the subject. There's a lot of good stuff like this:

Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.

Two posts in two days! I'm really off to a flying start.

The Eagle Has Landed

I had hoped to get started on this blog a week or two ago, but it’s been hard to find the time. I’m writing this post on my first morning in Niamey, with the day quickly heating up and some rather loud drums and singing carrying over the wall of the compound where I’m staying (it's either a marriage or baptism, according to the guardian). I’m at the guest house of ICRISAT, one of several organizations involved in my project and the one I’ll be working most directly “under” during my time in Niger. Hopefully I’ll be out of here and into my own place within a week or so. I’ve been living out of bags for several weeks now, and although it feels great to have finally gotten to Niamey, I’m anxious to get somewhere I can unpack my stuff and finally feel like I’m done traveling for a while.

I won’t spend too much time summarizing the past few weeks of retreats, trainings, orientations, etc. I really enjoyed the time in Washington getting to know the CHC staff and the rest of my class of fellows, and I also managed to sneak in some quality time with friends from Bates and Duke. My time in Rome with Bioversity (one of the other organizations involved in my project) was also very positive, and it allowed me to meet a number of people who I think will be immensely valuable resources over the course of the next couple years. And really friendly people, too! I was invited to fancy lunches and dinners all week long and not allowed to pay for anything. One last chance to fatten up before the inevitable 15 pound weight drop.

The moment I stepped off the plane I felt good about being here. Although this is my first time in Niger, the experience felt very much as though I was “coming back”: back to the developing world, back to Africa, back to Muslim francophone West Africa. Everything from the initial blast of hot air to the ridiculous “customs” agent to the sights on the road between the airport and here (women effortlessly carrying huge loads on their heads, men wearing boubous, kids and animals running about every which way) made me feel excited to be back. The feeling was reassuring, because after being back in the States for a few years I had begun to wonder whether living in Africa would continue to offer the same excitement, enjoyment, and satisfaction that it did before. Do I really want to live and work in Africa, I asked myself, or does my goal of returning have more to do with foolishly trying to recapture an especially eventful and exciting period in my life? I suppose it’s too soon to really offer an answer to that question, but my initial impression is that my decision to come back was a good one.

After getting to the guest house last night, I took a nap and woke up to found myself hungry and a little bit stranded. I had come straight from the airport, so all my money was in euros and dollars (and still is). Nobody else is staying here, so the building was all dark and quiet. I wandered outside and the first people I could find were the guardians, to whom I explained my situation and asked what I should do. Within about 10 minutes someone had arrived to loan me money, and I went out on the street and bought some grilled chicken with onions and some bread. I had no place to eat, so I went back to hang out with the guardians, who were also just about to start eating their dinner. In no time the four of us had thrown everything together for a veritable feast of chicken, onions, bread, rice, sauce, Fantas and Cokes. A delicious and auspicious beginning to this new adventure.

I’ll try to post again soon with more details about the work I plan to be doing over the next couple years.