Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Village

The following are photos of N'Diaganiao village. It is located about two and a half hours by car over some primitive roads.
First is the dirt road from the village church building to the huts where the people live.





Notice the gourds growing on the roof of the next hut.









This young girl is grinding grain into flour. Almost all cooking and meal preparation is done outside the huts. The huts do not have windows or any type of ventilation. There is no electricity or running water in the village.



One of the ladies from the village church and Jan are standing beside a baobab tree.



The bark on the lower part of the tree has been removed to make rope. The rope is then used to tie bundles of millet or maize at harvest time. Notice the size of the giant root behind Jan.




This is Joseph's home. Arnold and Joseph are talking to Joseph's father about Joseph attending the preaching school. They are not in the photo, but some of Joseph's family members are in the photo.




This is Joseph's brother, Ernest. He has served in the military and is now home. He would like to attend a university, but he has no money. His English is excellent, and he seems to be a very bright young man. He expresses interest in preaching in a village someday.


Following is a picture of Ernest's donkeys. Evidently he had saved enough money while he was in the military to purchase the donkeys, valuable and useful animals in this village. Donkeys are used to pull carts if families cannot afford horses.



Two of these little girls are the sisters of Joseph and Ernest. We did not get a photo of the third son of the family.



These are more children from the village. They really wanted to get close to us, because white people are are real novelty in this village. They may have never seen white people up close before. They were excited to get their photos made and to actually see their images on the camera. When we were in the parked car, the children would crowd around the windows and stick their heads and arms inside! They speak no English, but notice the writing on one of the boy's shirts. Many products from the U.S. end up in Africa. There are at least two of these children who have swollen faces, maybe from tooth infections. There is no money for any kind of medical or dental care, so more than likely some of these children will not make it into adulthood.


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