The end of the blog and start-up of the email newsletter

These past few months have been very busy and I have been a bad blogger! Sorry about that. I am so thankful for those of you who are interested in the work that I do and are eager to hear what’s new.  Thank you most of all to those who use the blog as a way to know how to specifically pray for me.  By the way, I did update pictures a few weeks back on my flickr site but I didn’t post about it.  Take time to take a look at new pics!

I wanted to let you all know of a change that I’m putting into place.  I’ve decided to discontinue my blog, for many reasons, mainly to do with security.  Instead, I’d like to switch to an email newsletter that I’ll send out from my email  account.  I’ll maintain my flickr site so that you can continue to see pictures of the work that I do. 

If you are interested in continuing on with me through this journey, please email me at jennjourneyafrica@gmail.com (I set up an email account just for this) and write in the subject line something like… “please add me to your newsletter”… or even just “newsletter”.  Providing a subject line concerning the newsletter will help me so that  I don’t delete your email thinking it is junk mail.  I am opening it up to anyone, even if I don’t know you, you are welcome to email me and tell me a little about yourself, your interest in my work in Niger.  It’s just easier to maintain security if I know who all is receiving my email newsletters.

Please pray for the political situation in Niger.  If you’ve been keeping up with Niger in the news (BBC has some featured articles), you’ll know we’re having some political instability regarding upcoming  re-elections.  Thank you for your prayers. 

 

Thank you, and I look forward to receiving your emails!  Hopefully the newsletters will be more frequent as they are easier to update and send than the blog has been.

 

March 2009 Blog Post Extra Long Extravaganza

And the big March 2009 update! Yaya for lil’ Jenni for taking time out to update everybody! Whew! (At least mama will be happy).

 

So today I got to take an office break and run around time with my favorite chauffeur to fill out paper work for my permit de séjour.  Basically it’s a 1 year renewable visa.  It’s more durable than a visa stamp in the passport, and cheaper in the long run.

 

I am sorry I haven’t taken time to update; I have lots to tell!

 

Well, we’ve been doing training in Feb and March for the 9 new supervisors for the child survival program.  March 10-18^th I was in Ouallam (the bush) for training.  We put on training for all the regional health agents (23) in the department of Ouallam.  It was training about child growth monitoring at the community level.  The health agents will work with our supervisors to provide supervision and training to community health workers during the monthly weighing/measuring sessions of children 0-3years old. 

 

All in all the training was a success, despite the challenges that were sure to come.  Most of the difficulties were over money, and expectations on what we as a non-governmental organization should be responsible for paying.  We’re really working hard to increase the chances that these activities continue long after the 3-year financing is gone.  It is a complex issue which I won’t get into right now, it has to do with what previous NGO’s or international organizations have set as a precedent, as well as what they are accustomed to from other outside parties.  It has definitely got me interested in learning more about money matters in Africa.  Luckily enough I have this book called “Africans and Money Matters” that has been sitting on my shelf since I purchased it from a fellow missionary leaving the field.  Needless to say it has moved up on the list of “to read asap” books.  

 

So I posted some pictures of the 5-day training held in the commune of Ouallam, at their district hospital grounds.  We had 22 out of 23 Chef CSI’s (health agents) attend which was great.  The training was conducted by 3 trainers (2 from the regional public health headquarters in Niamey and 1 from the district of Ouallam).  Our SP team consisted of 5 staff from the nutrition program (I asked them to come b/c I knew they could benefit from the training), plus 8 staff from the child survival program, 2 drivers, 1 cook, and me.  

 

1 of the 9 supervisors, Edith, couldn’t come, because she is on maternity leave and should be having a baby any time now! So if you think about it, please pray for Edith.  She’ll have a lot to catch up with when she gets back to work, especially moving out to the bush and taking care of a newborn baby.  It’s not easy for women in the bush!

 

After the 5 day training, we went around to every commune to speak with the leaders of each commune and to do introductions for the supervisors who would be moving to their commune.  We picked target villages and verified them with the mayor of the communes visited.

 

My goal is to learn something new about the lives of the people we serve each time I go to the bush.  On this particular trip, we were waiting to see one of the mayors, and had parked right in front of a well where women were drawing water.  I watched as this one woman kept tugging and tugging until finally, the small black plastic container came back up.  I decided I would time her next time… it took her 2 minutes of tugging and pulling on a rope to get a scoop of water.  I’m not sure how many scoops it takes to fill her two buckets, but it seemed like a lot.  A district health representative was with us in the car, and I asked him, how many times a day do the women come to draw water at the well?  He told me maybe at the least, 5 times in the morning and 3 times in the evening.  And don’t forget to think about the distance between their houses and the wells.  And how many people she is bringing water back to.  Amazing.

 

Quick tip of the day:  The department of Ouallam has around 1 doctor per 350,000, which is basically the entire population of the department.  

 

Besides work, I’ve been enjoying a bit of down time. I took a couple days off after my long trip.  Spent some time reading and hanging out at the American rec center and got sun burnt reading a book around a pool at a really nice hotel in town. Ahh, my kind of fun. haha my shoulders are peeling actually.  I can just hear my dad when he reads this, Jennifer, your sunscreen! Sorry dad. It just didn’t make it into my sack! I can’t remember the last time when I got sunburned. So this past week has been fun hanging out with friends and catching some of March Madness games that play over at the rec center. I finally got to play soccer this past Saturday at the rec. It was so much fun! I really missed playing.  I think I’m actually starting to improve my “game”.  I love playing and having fun things like that to do out here.  I’m thankful for my life here.  This past Friday I had the girls (5) from my church over for dinner, ice cream, swimming and whatever else girls do when they get together. We had a blast.  Right now we actually have the largest number of young people since I’ve been out here, so it’s nice to establish new friendships with people who are going to be here for a while.    

 

A few weeks ago I started a new women’s Bible study on Monday nights.  We’re studying the book of Esther with Beth Moore.  We have discussion and then watch a talk from Beth Moore. That woman is hilarious.  The study has been a God-send.  I’ve really been praying for more mentor relationships with women out here, and for a women’s Bible study to start-up so that I can attend.  Et voila! The lessons are so on-target with what the Lord has been trying to teach me lately. 

 

So that’s the big update! Love you all! Thank you for your prayers I am so thankful!

PS Please continue to pray for my colleague Dr. A.  His wife has had some previous trouble with pregnancies and is now 8 ½ months pregnant.  They weren’t sure that she’d make it to that. But praise God. She’s made it to 8 ½ months! We’re praying that the baby is full-term.  Dr. A. knows we are praying for his wife. What a testimony that would be! It’s already a miracle that she’s already at 8 ½ months. Praise God for answered prayer!

 

Update … after 1 1/2 months back in Niger

Well this has been quite an eventful 2 weeks.  It has been a very emotional week for our staff family.  Two weeks ago, one of our staff lost her baby in delivery.  Both she and her husband work at our office.  She was full-term, her first pregnancy, went into labor, and ended up having complications.  The private clinic she was at was not fully equipped to deal with complications and by the time she ended up having an emergency caesarean section at the maternity hospital, it was already too late. She’s doing really well, at home resting and recovering from surgery.  I admire her for her strength, courage and unyielding reliance on her Lord.  She and her husband are strong believers and have not allowed this to shake their faith. Please be praying for my friend and her husband. 

 

As for the child survival program, since I’ve been back I’ve hired all 9 supervisors, and we’ve started training.  We are fortunate to have two trainers from the Nigerien Ministry of Health leading our nutrition/health training.  I look forward to having a partnership and good relationship with the MOH at every level of this program.  They are doing a wonderful job and the staff is picking up the material quickly.  We have another week of training next week focused on IMCI (integrated management of childhood illness).  This information will help the supervisors reinforce the work done by the health workers in the region that we are working. 

 

After next week, we’ve scheduled training for all the health agents (45) in our region.  This is exciting because we’re basically partnering with the Nigerien ministry of health to build primary health care infrastructure in our region to benefit women and children under 5.  The gov’t can’t afford to do all the training by themselves.  Our program will help finance the training and put in place supervision to make sure activities are happening.  The second benefit of this program is that we are really going to target behavior change through our health messages.  The goal is to have initial trainings several levels (SP supervisors, 45 health agents, 1180 community health agents) on key nutrition/health components, and then provide refresher trainings each couple of months to reinforce 4 important health messages (exclusive breastfeeding until 6mos, appropriate complementary feeding coupled with continued breastfeeding, wash hands (hygiene and sanitation), sleep under insecticide treated mosquito net, etc. Training + behavior change at the local level!

 

They’ll learn about Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) and community-based child growth monitoring.  The health agents will be responsible for supervising a team of community health workers in each of their villages (5 villages each).  The community health workers will weigh all the children in their village once a month and will track their growth and refer sick/malnourished children to the local health center.  Very exciting! Please continue for the training.  We have to revise the budget to adjust for all the training costs that we didn’t foresee. 

 

It’s a lot!  But God is good.  I’m learning that more and more every day.  And this program is a good thing that will help many people.  I covet your prayers. I’ve been pretty stressed, but that is to be expected with my first program start-up, especially for such a large program.  I am feeling better though, I feel I’m getting it, little by little! Praise the Lord. Thank you so much

 

Continuing the journey in Africa: Year 2

I made it back to Niger! I came back from a 4 week home leave back home in North Carolina.  It was such a blessing, I cannot tell you how good it was to be home with my family and see friends.  It’s been a week and two days now that I’ve been back in Niger, and feels as if I never left.  My first week back at work turned out to be quite busy.  I jumped right back into things and went to Bani Bangou for a three day bush trip this past Wed-Fri. It was a good trip- we are continuing to transition the work of the feeding centers over to the community health centers.  There are two levels of health facility that we work closely with: the CSI- regional health center, and the case de sante-local health center. According to the Nigerien ministry of health (MOH), community health centers are required to assume the activities of the feeding center as part of their normal activities.  Before, NGO’s such as SP have provided the work (measuring and weighing the kids, distributing the ration).  Now that work will be taken on at the level of the CSI and eventually at the level of the case de sante.  We have aides (community helpers) who we paid a small gratuity each month to help us with the distribution.

 

As of this year, to be consistent with the MOH, we no longer provide those incentives.  The trip this week was to go around to each of our villages and thank the local team for their work, and to explain that payment would be ending.  All the aides we spoke to voiced a commitment to continue the work for free for their community. This is a wonderful sign and will help strengthen these communities to be able to respond to the health needs of their community. Praise God for this transition! We are excited that this allows us to play more of a supervisory and empowering role and let the community take over responsibility of the distribution.

 

As for the child survival program, we have Tues, Wed and Thurs set aside for interviews to find 9 supervisors. Next week we’ll have final interviews, the next week, God willing, we will take a trip to the bush and try and find housing for each supervisor and their family.  Next, we’ll have training for maybe 2 weeks or so.  This is my first attempt to start up any program, so to say the least, this is a huge learning curve… trial and error and learning from others… There is a lot of unknowns and questions, but I think I’m coming to terms with truly believing the Lord will guide me. I’m claiming Psalm 37:5…“Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass.”

 

Update: While in Ouallam, we took a trip to the district hospital where we evacuated those two kids I told you about. Well I found out that Djamila, the little girl, didn’t make it.  It was so sad. We did all that we could. It just happens.  One good thing though, the other child we rescued, Abdoulaye Aziz, he is now recovered and back in his village with his family. Praise God for restoring health to this very sick child. 

I’m glad to be back.  It does feel different… I am glad to have a year of experience behind me. So much to learn…and to experience.  I’m glad you are on this journey with me! Thank you for all your kind words, prayers, encouragement.  The Lord has used that all to strengthen and sustain me as I am far away from my family.  He is so good to me; has given me a purpose and plan.  His love carries me. And I’m having the time of my life!

Much love and expectations for God to do amazing things in this New Year,

Jenn

 

Reflecting over almost a year in Niger

While in the bush, I read through my journal over the past year.  It is amazing to see just how much I’ve grown and changed since I’ve been here. It was also interesting to see again and again the lessons/themes that the Lord has been teaching me over the year.  A few verses stuck out, I’ve written them several times in my journal.  Each verse has meant a lot to me during this time.  I’ll list the verses below:

 

“Be clear-minded in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”       2 Timothy 4:5

 

 

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work”…  John 4:34

 

These two verses above are helpful for my work.  Even when you are in the midst of a situation, you can take things for granted, lose focus, and getted bogged down with other distractions.  These verses remind me why I am here, what my purpose is, where my priorities lie.

 

“In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength”

 Isaiah 30:15

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable- if there be any moral excellence and if there is any praise, dwell on these things.  Do what you learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you”.  Philippians 4:4-9

 

This verse helps me to remember to give God thanks along with my requests.  The Lord gives me peace that guards my heart and my mind. 

Prayer requests:

 

We are in the recruitment stage of the cs program, so please pray for us as we review tons of resumes for 9 full-time supervisors.

 

Please continue to pray for Charles and the SP team in Congo. 

 

Praise:

I’ll be home for a month two weeks from tomorrow (Sunday)! Praise God. I’m so ready.

 

Bani Bangou- Last bush trip of 2008

November 24-27^th

Last week I spent my last bush trip of 2008 in Bani Bangou where I visited 3 out of 6 of our feeding centers.  It was a good trip. I visited with each village chef to bring greetings, see if they have any questions about the nutrition work we are already doing in their village, and to update them on the status of our child survival program.  The one village chef in Bezaize Koira is always so nice to visit.  He is always so appreciate and thankful, and is not afraid to ask questions.  When I came to visit him the other day, I told him we had finally received funding for the child survival program and could begin in 2009.  I reminded him that we do not see this project as our own; it is the project of the community, not just SP.  We really have to work together for any of it to be effective.  He agreed and told me, “anything that you can help us with in terms of development, we want it, because we are a village that wants to develop any way that we can”.  It encourages me to see that the chief is on board; this will help so much in terms of seeing big improvements in child health in this community. Praise God and please pray for continued collaboration and partnership with each community.

 

When we arrived in Gosso, already at the health center was a very severely malnourished child.  This child is 14 months old, weighed just 4.6 kilograms, 68 meters.  To give you perspective, a healthy 1 year old child should weigh 10 kg.  This child was severely wasted, so much so that it shocked me.  When they removed the blanket and clothing from the child, I was so shocked and horrified that I had to excuse myself.  I think that is the first time this whole year that I cried at a feeding center.  Thankfully we were able to drive the child to Ouallam district hospital, about 2 ½ hours away.  At the hospital they have a CRENI, a center to take care of children who are severely malnourished with complications.  We are only equipped to serve children at the CRENAM (center for recuperation for moderately malnourished child) and CRENAS level (for severely malnourished child without complications).  I told Tanti I wanted to pray for Abdoulaye Aziz, so before he left, we both knelt down, along with Isaaka, and prayed over the child.  Please pray for Isaaka. He is a Muslim, but I believe is interested in the Gospel.  It was neat to see him participate in praying.

 

I told my team this was no coincidence that the woman arrived that day.  We had two SP vehicles so one was available to take the child right away to Ouallam.  This started another discussion where our supervisor, Tanti Tchima mentioned there were two other children in our program that were also needing evacuation to the CRENI, but both husbands would not concede to let the mothers go.  So off we go to Garbey, we located the 2^nd severely malnourished child, Djemma.  Isaaka (supervisor) and I were able to convince the father to let the grandmother accompany the child.  He response was, “it doesn’t matter if she goes to Paris or Texas, she can go”.  Hmmm, must be the mother’s mom. That was interesting. But praise God, on our way back to Niamey, we were able to see Djemma registered in Ouallam, and we got to visit Abdoulaye Aziz.  And before we left, it was Isaaka who asked Tanti to pray for our trip, and for Djemma.  Before we left, we went looking for the 3^rd sick child that Tanti told us about.  We arrived in Bezaize Koira, and we were greeted with the news: the child had passed away a day after Tanti had pleaded with them to let her take the child to Ouallam.  This was disheartening, but a hard truth here in Niger.  Even when we were at Djemma’s house, a group of neighborhood women were arguing, “you’re wasting your time, can’t you see this child is going to die? Why are you going to waste your time and go all the way to Ouallam just to have the child die?”

 

Child death here is the norm, unfortunately.  But that’s what we hope to make an impact with our child survival program.  Please pray that God would do above and beyond anything we could ask or imagine with this program.  We are committing this work to his hands.

 

A happy note to leave off on:

Recently we got new flipcharts from UNICEF to use at the centers to teach the women important health lessons.  We gathered women together in Soumatt and I got to teach the women using the flipchart about how to properly breastfeed while Isaaka translated in Zerma, the local language.  At the end, the women actually clapped for me, and thanked me for teaching them how to better take care of their child. Praise GOD! This makes me so happy! This is what the cs program is all about!

 

Health update- I’m doing great!

Hi everyone! Thank you for those of you who knew I was sick and prayed for me.  Last Wednesday I wasn’t feeling well and went to the clinic to check things out.  The doctor did a blood test and surprised me by saying I had typhoid! Typhoid is a fecal-oral transmission route- basically I ate something from someone who had typhoid and perhaps didn’t wash their hands properly before preparing food that I ate.  I know, disgusting.  Yes, I definitely got my typhoid fever vaccine before I left the States, which obviously isn’t 100%!  But you know what, I do believe it helped me from getting it so bad.  I really was blessed to have a minor case of it.  I took off two and a half days of work, and rested over the weekend.  It helped also that I got treatment soon after symptoms presented themselves.  I am now feeling 100%, and have been for a day or two now.  I’m still taking antibiotics (I’m on the 8^th out of 12 days) and after that, I’ll be finished!  Praise the Lord I amd healed and better since I now have only 3 weeks, that’s right, just 3 weeks before I go home to North Carolina for one month of home leave!

 

I am excited to tell you all that I have signed a new one year contract to work in Niger.   I will continue to manage the nutrition feeding center program but am also now managing our new UNICEF funded child survival program.  It’s a health education program geared toward women with children 0-5 years old.  Our target beneficiaries are 45,000 women with children 0-5 years of age.  We’ll be tracking kids growth by weighing and measuring them every 2 weeks.  If a child is malnourished, we’ll refer them to our feeding centers and to the government run feeding centers.  We are at the hiring stage right now for 9 full-time supervisors.  I’ve already found my project supervisor who will be overseeing the work of the supervisors.  We’ll work together to provide the initial training/teaching for the supervisors. They will in turn use the training they have received to teach the same health lessons (in a more simple form) to our community health workers.  The community health workers will then teach women in their communities both through individual visits and support groups held once or twice a month.  This is so exciting and such an amazing opportunity for me, I’m pretty much beside myself with excitement.  God has been so good to me.

 

I have reason for even more excitement when I go home, because my younger sister Meredith is getting married December 28^th.  I am so happy to be there for her, and to share in this special time with her.  I love my family so much and am already blessed to have an amazing brother-in-law, my sister April’s husband Blaize.  And now I get to have a second brother-in-law, Peter! Praise God for providing such excellent, godly men for my sisters.  I couldn’t be more pleased with them both.

 

Prayer Request:

 

Update on the office: Please pray for our country director, Charles Ibsen.  He was called on by our regional director to serve as team leader for a mission to the Congo (DRC) to respond to the crisis.  Charles will use his French speaking skills to translate, attend government/UN meetings in Goma, and other tasks.  Please pray for the SP team and relief workers who are working in the midst of this war.  Charles will return mid-December right before I go for home leave.  Thank you for keeping them all in your prayers.

 

I have a lot I want to accomplish before I go for home leave, pray that I would diligently use my time during these last 3 weeks. Pray that God would prepare my heart to share my experiences with you all.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! See those of you in NC in a few weeks!!!

 

 

 

October update

As I write this, I am sitting in the SP-house in Tera.  I’ve been in the bush all week, visiting two separate sites where SP manages supplementary feeding centers.  This is a special visit this week, because we have begun to transition the activities of the feeding distribution over to the local health center.  This means that now in Tera, the Nutrition supervisor now just oversees that the distribution is being done correctly by the Major and his team.  We also bring in the food ration and make sure that it is being distributed and taken care of properly.  Our goal is to have all nutrition sites transferred over by the end of the year.  We want to be able to take a step back from doing treatment and focus more on prevention of malnutrition and childhood illness and disease.  It is very exciting to see this finally coming together!  I am so fortunate to have a team with stellar skills.  Isaaka, the Nutrition supervisor for Tera/Ayorou region is incredible.   He has years of training as a nurse and as a former Major for a health center in Tera.  He is very assertive, confident in his work and basically is leading the integration process on his own.  Alkamissa, our warehouse manager is also very talented.  I really enjoy seeing the two of them work together.  They are both such hard workers, very thorough in their work.  And they take care of each other, like family.  Africans seem to know how to do this well. 

 

Ayorou (Monday afternoon, October 20-Tuesday afternoon, October 21^st)

You know I saw a lady in Koutougou (village in Ayorou where we have a feeding center) who had triplets? And they were all in decent health.  The mother was in labor just 6 hours and gave birth to the triplets while at home.  Wow! The courage of these women is amazing to me.  In addition, I saw two sets of twins at the same feeding center.  I was talking to Isaaka about it, and he proceeded to tell me that his friend (a major) in Sanam (a village where SP used to work) one night in 2002, had 3 women deliver a set of triplets each…. In the same night!!!  Can you imagine? Please tell me that should go in Guinness book of records.  Three women…. Each woman giving birth the same night… each woman had a set of triplets! And all three sets survived! That is amazing.

 

Tera (Tuesday afternoon, October 21- Friday, October 24, 2008)

Today we did distribution in Wanzarbe.  Normally the major would do this work, but he had a meeting and could not be present.  I met two women who had each lost 7 babies, and now just had one child.  Both of those children are entered into our feeding program b/c of malnutrition.  One of the children is very malnourished.  I cannot even begin to imagine what these women have been through. 7 child deaths, and now their only living child is suffering from malnutrition and ill health.  Please pray for these women and their surviving children that they would live well and that the Lord would give them good health and safety from the cold season that will be here shortly.

 

Diffa

Last Friday our office submitted a proposal to OFDA to work in Diffa with the nomads living in that area.  We want to drill wells, start-up water/sanitation projects, animal projects as well as a nutrition program using PD/Hearth approach.  Please pray for this proposal, that the Lord would guide us, and if this is what He would want us to do, that we would trust him to take care of our funding needs.

 

NUTS Softball tournament

Well, if I haven’t already mentioned it, I go to the American Rec center just about every Ssaturday that I am in town.  Some people (mostly men) from among the embassy and missionary community come together to play a couple games of softball each weekend.  I started playing a few months back, and really enjoy it (must take after my mom .

 

There are two tournaments a year in which we go play the American embassy in Burkina Faso and they come once a year to play us in Niamey.  Well two weekends ago was our turn to host the tournament. We played games Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun! I had a blast.  Our team, “the Nomads”, didn’t win a single game but oh did we have so much fun.  I had a couple good hits but nothing too exciting.  Although as catcher, I did make quite the catch at home plate.  This guy hit a grand slam out to the back of the field but at the last second, the pitcher through the ball right into my glove right before this guy crossed home.  Yep.  That moment was worthy to write home about. I knew I had done something good when I saw grown men on my team jumping up and down in the outfield, so excited (and I’m sure surprised out of their mind!). It’s not a moment I will easily forget, that’s for sure. 

 

More later! Thank you for your love and prayers! I’m so blessed.  The Lord is taking care of me, rest assured of that.

 

(no internet in Tera, so I actually typed it up last week and am back home now in Niamey)

 

Kenya, Mali, Safari pics posted on flickr!

I have been such a bad poster! Please forgive me!

BIG UPDATE:  UNICEF funded and approved our child survival program… health education program for 45,000 women with children 0-5 years old! Now just waiting to get complete funding from SP US.  Niger needs funds! Thanks so much for your support.

I had an amazing time on my safari and vacation/SP conference in Kenya (Sept 15-Oct 1).  The Lord taught me so much, and blessed me with an amazing, restful, exciting, adventurous trip.  Please check out my pictures on flickr or the link to the right of this post.

 

Much love and more soon!

 

Giraffes

Check out the flickr site, I finally got to see the giraffes in Niger! There’s a reserve about 30 min out of town where you can find some of  the last giraffes in all of West Africa, and they’re right here in Niger! We had a  great time.  The weather was perfect, it had just rained so the temperatures were cool and  there was a light breeze flowing.  I got some good shots.  I love giraffes, they are so beautiful and uniquely made.  Enjoy!