Sunday, July 31, 2005

Skype

Since living in Madagascar, we’ve experimented a bit using Skype, a kind of Internet telephone, to talk with Kristen’s family. I don’t really have the technical expertise to explain how Skype works aside from saying that you use your computer, the Skype software, the internet, and a microphone to talk to other people. To get a more technical explanation you can check out the review from PC Magazine. The best thing about Skype is that it’s FREE! We had some initial kinks, but our last conversation was clear and the lag was hardly noticeable. Email and the blog are good for keeping in touch, but now we want to use Skype to talk with more of you. If you’re interested in joining the conversation, here are the steps you need to take to get up and running on Skype.

    1. Consider your connection speed. We tried using Skype from home with our dialup connection and found the reception not good. However, with us using Kristen’s office connection and Rob on cable modem, the reception was great. So, we’d say Skype is not recommended for dialup users.

    2. Download and install the software on your computer. Point your web browser to www.skype.com/ and follow the links to the download page. The file is about 6MB in size.

    3. To get the best results and reception you really need a headset with a microphone. Before leaving for Madagascar we stopped by Best Buy and bought a set from Logitech for about $25. The headset has two jacks: one for the microphone and the other for the headset. You really need the microphone close to your mouth while speaking in order to have the clearest reception; however, you can choose to not plug in the headphones and use your computer’s speakers instead to listen to the conversation.

    4. Once the software has been installed, choose a username.

    5. Then you can search for contacts (easily done from the Getting Started Wizard dialog box under “Search for Other Skype Users”). You can enter in our username, kppandedp, and you should find us and then be able to add us to your contact list.

    6. Set up a time to Skype via email. Since we need to plan to be at Kristen’s office, it’s usually better to give some advanced warning. And, we’ve found it’s usually best to arrange something during the weekend, since the office is mostly empty then. (FYI, the time difference to Madagascar right now from the East Coast US is 7 hours.) Be sure, in the email, to let us know your username so we can add you to our contact list too.

    It’s that simple, try it. Hope to be talking to some of you soon!


Thursday, July 28, 2005

FOOD CRISIS IN NIGER!



Hungry children in Niger

There is a food crisis Niger, the country where we served as Peace Corps volunteers. Niger was our home for over two years, and is still home to many people who we cherish deeply. Family members and friends who came to visit us in Niger can attest to the astounding and humbling generosity of Nigeriens. In a country so poor, people share so much. Our friends in Niger taught us what it truly means to give, and to receive. We feel compelled to ask you to consider donating to help the people of Niger. Our individual donations might seem small, but together they can and will save lives.

Niger is the second poorest country in the world. Even in a good year, a sizeable proportion of the population is malnourished. This year has heralded in the worst famine in Niger since 1984. People our age remember the song “We are the World” from elementary school, written to raise money for the famine of 1984, which encompassed much of the Sahel. Of Niger’s 13 million people, nearly one-third are on the brink of starvation: 800,000 of them are children. The lack of rain and locust invasion in 2004 is primarily to blame for this condition; however, Niger is perennially in a state of food insecurity. That there is a crisis this year isn’t surprising. We were working in Niger last fall and in late August, we witnessed the second rain of the season in Tahoua (in north central Niger); the rainy season usually commences in late May. We also heard reports from current Peace Corps volunteers, particularly those living east near the city of Zinder, that in their region the millet grew knee-high, and then stopped, never producing any grain.

To read, see, and hear more about the crisis in Niger, follow the BBC’s recent report on the subject. Friends of Niger, an organization that we are members of, also has information about the crisis.

Until last week, the response from the international community had been abysmal and inadequate. U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said on CNN earlier this week that had the international community responded to Niger’s food crisis when asked, the cost of treating one hungry child would be approximately one dollar; today the cost is 80 dollars. In the past couple of days, some relief activity has finally commenced, but more help is needed. From our experience as volunteers, the “hunger season” between July and October is particularly difficult for Nigeriens. This year it is disastrous. By now fields have been planted, labor demands are high, and food stores from the previous year have likely begun to run out (for those who got a harvest last year), and all farmers can do is watch the skies for rain clouds to come. Assuming that the rains are decent during the growing season, people will be able to harvest their millet, beans, and peanuts in September or October. This is why the timing of relief now is so critical.

Please consider helping further relief efforts in Niger. Time is of the essence. We know that making a choice to donate is a difficult one, especially deciding whether to support the acute problem of today versus the problem of food security in the long term. Also, choosing an organization isn’t always straightforward: Do you choose one that earmarks donations for Niger specifically, or do you support an organization generally and hope that the funds go towards programming that will ultimately help countries like Niger? Personally, we are going to divide our donation between a development organization and a relief one. These aren’t easy questions to answer and we can only suggest that you do what feels right to you.

For those of you who wish to earmark funds specifically for Niger, we can suggest making a donation to one of the following:

U.N. World Food Program

Save the Children

World Vision

Feeding stations for children facing starvation in Niger are staffed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). To make a general donation to this organization, please follow this link.

To help support general development programs in Niger, in order to help the country become more food secure in the long run, we suggest supporting the following Non-Government-Organizations. We got to know the country directors of CARE and CRS when we were in Niger last fall, and trust that they are doing good work.

For those of you living in or near the San Francisco Bay Area, Tiffany Martindale (RPCV Niger ‘98-’02) and Josh Schnabel (RPCV Niger ‘00-’02) are selling bumper stickers at $7.00 a piece that read Kala Suuru and Sai Hankuri (“Have Patience” in Zarma and Hausa, respectively). For a bumper sticker, please contact Tiffany: maycinga@yahoo.com.

And finally, please consider calling, writing, and emailing your elected representatives in Washington, DC to implore them to immediately increase the U.S. contributions of humanitarian and food aid to Niger.

Contact information for your US Senator or your US Representative.

Thank you for helping. Much love, Kristen and Dan

Friday, July 15, 2005

Weekend at Park Ranomafana


Hiking in the forest

We spent last weekend hiking in Parc National de Ranomafana, about 60km north of Fianar. Kristen had been out in the field since Wednesday visiting communities around the park where SantéNet is working. When her plans called for her to spend Friday night, and then Monday and Tuesday in Ranomafana, it made more sense for me to come out and spend the weekend with her in Ranomafana than for her to come back into Fianar, only to turn around and go right back two days later.

The road leading to the park is, by Madagascar standards, pretty good. However, with that said, back in April we took this route to attend a conference on wild silk production, held just outside the park, and on the way back to Fianar I had to move up to the front of the mini-bus to avoid upchucking. Potholes and S-curves truly make for some exquisite motion sickness, and I now understand why many Malagasy travelers do a dose of Dramamine before starting any long journey by car. I found driving better than riding: a top speed of 15mph helps.

Bad for setting land-speed records, the slow speed, however, was perfect for taking in the scenery. At one point, there was park property on the left and non-park land to the right, juxtaposing two very different possibilities/realities. I saw people felling and milling eucalyptus trees to my right. To accomplish the latter, the foresters lay the felled tree upon make-shift scaffolding, and then, with one person standing above and another below, they carve planks from the bole with a 6-foot long saw. As I continued the drive I saw more tell-tale piles of amber sawdust dotting the hills and valleys and wondered how many board-feet of lumber comes out of this area in a year. The other side of the road, by contrast, was a dense mat of vegetation—a mixture of trees, ferns, and other greenery—that looked impossible to walk through. Considering Park Ranomafana is only about 10 years old, it looks like the conservation efforts put in place have had some benefit.

Not to be misleading, though, the park itself is far from pristine, as we found out during our hikes. There are still exotic, introduced species in the forest composition, with wild guava being one of the most aggressive. Lemurs and birds that eat the guava fruit and later disperse seeds via their feces hinder eradication efforts of this species, our guides told us. We also encountered zebu cow-pies in the forest (but none of their authors). Some livestock owners leave their cows in the park to their own devices, and only seek their animals when they need to sell or sacrifice one. And, even when we walked in the primary, old-growth forest, we found an occasional cut tree stump indicating the presence of some recent human activity.

In Malagasy, Ranomafana means “hot water.” The hot springs that surround this area are the inspiration for the name. There are baths and a heated swimming pool in town with a two-tiered pricing scheme for locals and strangers. We had read in the guide books that the facilities, on a hygienic level, were not up to code, so we opted not to bathe there. Others, who didn’t share our same standards of cleanliness, took advantage of a warm bath or swim to help ward off the winter chill. The only ranomafana we encountered came from the shower in our bungalow, which was a welcome blessing after our cold and rainy hikes.




Calm before the storm

We hiked both Saturday and Sunday, with Erica, a third-year Peace Corps volunteer who has extended to work with SantéNet in Fianar. Saturday, we signed up for an afternoon and nocturnal hike, the total time out to be around 5 hours. That afternoon we hiked mostly in the secondary forest, which was full of trees, bamboo, ferns, and orchids. We also visited a small waterfall that was booming with water. It began raining about an hour into our hike and very soon we were pushing the limits of our Gore-Tex outerwear.

We didn’t see much wildlife, unless you count the leeches, which found us quite appetizing. Even with our pant-legs tucked into our socks, the leeches managed to infiltrate our defenses. Erica suffered the worst, her ankle-length socks provided little defense against the persistent suckers. However, Kristen won the prize for most prominent leech attachment: her face. The leeches are more a psychological menace than a physical one, although if they are disturbed or forcibly removed after attaching, they secrete an anticoagulant that makes the wound site bleed spectacularly. (Note: Hi, this is Kristen, sneaking into Dan's story. I'd just like to state for the record--especially if my Mom is reading this--that as soon as Dan saw the leech on my cheek, I wanted it off. However, Dan and Erica insisted that if 'we' just left it on for a few moments until it was done feeding, then it would be easy to pluck it off and my cheek wouldn't bleed one bit. The few moments seemed to stretch on forever, and while everyone else was watching the mouse lemurs, I had to keep prodding them to check my face with the flashlight to see if the leech was 'done' yet. My calmness ran out as the time moved towards 10 minutes and I made Erica remove the leech. Judging by all of Erica and Dan's chuckles, the experience was more fun for the observers. Luckily there is no trace on my cheek of my temporary 'friend')

For the nocturnal hike, our guide told us to bring bananas and meat to lure mouse lemurs and civets to a designated feeding spot. We had reservations about engaging in this questionable practice, but ultimately decided to go along with it since these animals are only active during night and usually reclusive. And, sure enough, upon arriving at the designated spot, we found a clearly habituated civet waiting for a morsel of meat. Eventually another showed up to make a pair, but they were to be disappointed this night because we drew the line at hiking with raw meat in our packs. The guide took our bananas, peeled a couple to rub on some trees, and stuck some others on nearby branches. Soon afterwards we saw movements in the shadows and our flashlights revealed a mouse lemur, the world’s smallest primate. It was cute, and the way it flitted about the branches reminded us more of a bird than a mammal. We took pictures and were glad to have seen these animals, but decided ultimately that the whole experience was a bit sad and disturbing. The civets just looked sad and cold and the lemur appeared jumpy and strung-out. Maybe being so close to the civets--who find mouse lemurs tasty--explains the mouse lemur's erratic behavior.




World's smallest primate

Sunday, we hiked in the morning—again in the pouring rain—but this time up into the primary forest. On the way up, we saw a chameleon, a Grey Gentle Lemur, high up in a patch of bamboo plants, but not much else except, of course, more leeches. Kristen had fun playing in the streams and spent some time reliving her childhood looking for crayfish. She flipped over one rock and found a fresh water crab, about the size of a quarter. The highlight for me was seeing so many orchids in their natural setting. Our guide told us the time to see the most orchids in bloom isn’t until the warmer months of November and December, but we did see a miniature species proudly sporting its pink blossoms. I look forward to going back just to hunt for orchids, which me might do Thanksgiving weekend.