Niger, being closer to the Sahara Desert (Actually the desert is IN Niger), the landscape and animals are more..."desert-like" :)
Camels....
Donkeys...
A village church we attended before our car breaking down...
I stayed in Niamey, with a missionary family: The Persenaire-Hogeterps. They were great hosts. My goal in traveling to Niger was to see what is going on in the area of Christian Education, meet with key leaders in the movement, and discuss possibilities for capacity building.
I visited SIM Education Department (another missionary agency), who, among many things, is assisting kindergarten teachers in creating their own resources for their classrooms.
Cornerstone is a national organization of Christian teachers looking to apply biblical principles in Education. One of their projects/goals/dreams is to have a model school which provides fully integrated Christian Education.
This is the core group of Cornerstone.
This is Mrs. Halima, the kindergarten teacher. She is enthusiastic and passionate about meeting the needs in her class.
Here are some of the children in her class...
I got to visit giraffes! Just outside of Niamey is the last group of wild giraffes in West Africa. We hired a guide to drive us around, and then got to get a little up close and personal too!
I participated in an appreciative inquiry for a church that had started a school in a village, but has had some problems in continuing the project. This church in Niamey partnered its members with children in a village who then are sponsoring those children to go to school! It was a beautiful picture of how the church in Niger is reaching out.
This is one of the activities of the inquiry. The group was to make a map of the village, plotting physical places, but also trying to highlight relationships between the school and the village.
And, one of my highlights, was the Roundtable follow up meeting. Representatives from schools all over the country, and church stakeholders came together to discuss the way forward for Christian Education. This is what we asked for prayers for. God is faithful, and the conference resulted in good listening and sharing. A committee to look into forming a national association for Christian Schools was set in place. This committee was also mandated to look at the proposal for a Christian teacher training Center in Niger!
This was the group who met....
And a reporting session, where we dialogued about the "sickness" and "remedies" for Christian Education in Niger.
My trip back into Nigeria went like this:
4:30am Leave for bus station
6:00am Bus leaves Niamey for Konni (border town)
11:00am Bus arrives in Konni
11:15am A pastor came to pick me up on his motorcycle. I spent the day with him and his family. I got to sleep under the stars - as it was so hot that night.
7:00am Taxi arrives to take me across the border and into Nigeria to the airport.We spent about an hour at the border.
11:00am Arrived at the Sokoto airport, bought the LAST ticket to Abuja.
2:00pm Flew from Sokoto to Abuja
3:00pm Arrived in Abuja, took a taxi home!
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