The generation of young nomads heading into adult life with no education, skills or opportunity pose a distinct threat to the stability of the region. The only skill they possess other than herding is their knowledge of the desert. If they have no way of earning a living at home they may be tempted by a […]
Tamesna Festival 2015
The Tamesna Festival, held annually since 2013, is dedicated to young nomads: culture, peace and security. The most vulnerable population in northern Niger are the young people who are heading into an adult life with few possibilities for earning a living. They love their home and rarely want to leave, given the risks: crossing the […]
Theater at Tamesna school
Assadek, the director of Tamesna school suggested that the kids prepare a theatrical performance i.e. skit for the Festival. He decided on the subject of education for girls. The story is: A nomad father returns to his house to tell his wife he wants to enter their daughter Zeinabou in school. His wife complains: how can I send […]
Music Program
Since we have worked so long with musicians–since 1995 when we brought the first African artist, Prince Sissokho, a kora player from Senegal to the US, we have sponsored five music tours of Tuareg musicians. One of our drivers, Alhassane, was part of the group who toured. He loves to work with children so will […]
Earthbag decorations–Art at Tamesna school
I have had great fun in the past years organizing educational projects which I knew nothing about; solar panel fabrication, medical and midwife training, earth bag building. I learned a lot from the experts we brought in. While I was working on these jobs, I turned over the art program to another artist, Linda […]
Nomadgal Jewelry — Nov.29 & Dec. 2-13
I have been making a lot of jewelry while I’m here. The jewelers come to my house—grand central– and I place orders, buy beads at the market and string them. I suppose it is more elegant to say I design them. With our jewelry gala coming up Nov. 29 and having a booth at Mandalay […]
Keeping busy–big plans for next year
I finally got around to painting the new signs to direct people from the highway to Tamesna. Dr. Bob was not happy that I hadn’t added my decorative touch so here you are Bob. This is for you. Hasso stopped by to say hi with his daughters. Since he is one of the invited musicians […]
Earthbag update
The three earthbag buildings that we built last febuary were not yet occupied when I arrived, as school has just started. There is some leeway in the start of the new school year for nomadic schools. When the rains are good and they have to extend their migration time to maximize herd survival through the […]
Staff Party at Tamesna
Since my first trip out to Tamesna I have gone through such internet frustration that I cannot even begin to describe since it would take me as long to describe as it took me to solve–about a week. One day it took me four hours to upload one of the new students photos to the […]
Some Bad Luck
Agadez had some bad luck today and so did we. At 4am the vegetable market burned down. We had our supplies for feeding the dignitaries at the festival already paid for — so it was a loss of $500. Insurance, or a merchant prosperous enough to reimburse us is not a reality so we […]
Education and artisans
Today was another day about education, but in a different place: Agadez. Nomadic kids rarely have an opportunity to go beyond grammar school, but when there is the will of the parents we like to help where we can. The village of Aouedenine we have worked with for many years. It is the hometown of […]
Back to Tamesna October 2015
I arrived at Tamesna School in the car with M. le maire (Mr. mayor) of Ingal known to us as Sidi. This car,(the one the government let’s him use) is a very nice new one—with televisions in the back of the headrests—that of course don’t work). It had a flat on its nice new tires […]
AFRICAN MARKET SALE September 26
Mid wife training follow up mission–turning it over
In our effort to turn things over to the local management in Niger, Dr. Skankey devised a schedule for Achicha and Sidi to visit the remote camps to check on the newly trained midwives. They made their first mission in June to follow up our training of the new midwives and check on the previously trained. […]
Best mission ever!
I want to brag that this has been the most ambitious mission ever—and we pulled it off! Here’s what we did. Trained 23 nomads to build using earthbags giving them a new skill set to build their own or their community structures and giving us three new buildings at Tamesna: boys dorm, girls dorm and […]
Fighting terrorism with opportunity–microcredit for at risk youth
When we saw the large groups of organized youth showing up to support our festival last November–all dressed alike–Sidi and I had an idea. If we provide them small loans to pursue whatever activity they choose they will be able to make a start and this might be enough for them to stay home and […]
Eleven new mid-wife trainees–and the program gets a new director
The midwife program started by Dr. Robert Skankey in 2011 has completely changed the maternal and infant mortality rate among nomads in Niger. In 2011 one in five women in Niger had a lifetime risk of death in childbirth. In 2015 our matrons have assisted at over 300 births with no maternal deaths and no […]
Tuareg kids dance American style…and their own Tinde
Before I left for Niger Benedicte Schoyen gave me a video of a fundraiser her Born to Play dance students did for the Tamesna School in Niger. They also sent lots of beautiful drawings. I also showed them a video of a nephew and niece, Cole and Charlotte, dancing to Bruno Mars. The nomad kids […]
Earthbag building–FINALLY!
This mission was almost three years in preparation and endured two cancellations, but we persisted and it was worth the wait. It was a risky undertaking: teaching the nomads to build??? Nomads don’t have houses! I have always known that nomads wanted and needed structures to store their things while they are on migration, but since we […]
Tamesna festival 2014
Click here to see Niger National Televisions reporting on the Tamesna Festival 2014 It has been a long time building. We have been working like crazy to present our projects to as many nomads as possible. Nomads come to festivals in the season after the rains when their herds are fat and there is some […]
Jewelry
Still in mourning about having to cancel all our volunteers (see two previous posts) and trying to recover. I thought I would be coming home early, but we have decided I am needed to help with the festival and have been granted permission to go with the President of the Regional Council of Agadez (the […]
But not giving up!
The show must go on. I know many of you think I am crazy, but I truly believe that if we stand down in fear of violent people we only encourage their behavior. I cannot become violent myself, but I can resist and gain ground for the peaceful ones. So enough of melodrama… I was […]
Cancellation !%#*#!!
We should be out at Tamesna, well into our earth-bag building project, with foundations laid, 20 nomads participating in the construction of the dormitories and new teacher’s residence for the boarding school. We should be awaiting the arrival of 20 new mid-wife trainees and the 4 previously trained matrons who were to conduct the training […]
Nomad News October 2014
2013 2012
Traditions unchanged–Gerewol Tamaya
After two days spent among the thousands of nomads gathered for the Worso of the Behame’en, Peroji’s lineage, we learned of another festival only a 2 hour drive away. The Worso is a family gathering to which everyone brings their kids, houses and herds. They are celebrating many things like the “humtu” or end of […]
Peroji’s family–then and now
It was 20 years ago when I first met Peroji’s family. Traveling on my first trip to Niger with my new friend Irma Turtle. We were met at the airport by her friends Moneidji and Dula. I saw both of their sons this trip, dancing in a Gerewol. I have gone back to look at […]
Reunion at the Worso
After a discouraging first week when we (the three star photographers) and I were able to find only one festival rehearsal, visit nomadic camps and a rather modern Tuareg wedding with electric guitar and few camels (some well dressed people though), we decided to switch our schedule and go out to the dunes for a […]
Wodaabe festivals
I have been looking, with three very accomplished photographers of tribal people, for Wodaabe festivals–and having a lot of fun with my new camera–taking night shots is so much fun.
Getting through the strikes
It is difficult enough to work in Niger without the added challenges of just getting there. The saga began with driving all the way to LA airport and getting turned away because of an “unconfirmed” reservation in spite of the ticket in my hand. This ticket had been issued only two hours before because of my checking online […]
Tamesna school 2014
The kids came back early from easter break to see me and show off their new skills. We now have two classes but both are taught by one teacher as we have not found a good second teacher–hoping for next fall. There are 18 students in CI (cours initiative) or kindergarten and 26 in CP […]
Construction at the residence
On my arrival at Tamesna visitor’s residence, the masons were hard at work trying to complete yet another round of repairs on our poorly constructed building. We had two contractors do very mediocre work for which we continue to have to recover. Although adobe in Niger is in need of frequent maintenance–the Tamesna residence has […]
Irrigation at the Tamesna Garden
Last trip we tried to get the irrigation pipe installed so a type of drip irrigation could be used to make water use more efficient and increase the potential of the garden size. We will string poly hose and at each plant put a screw all the way through the hose–this makes a hole which […]
Moringa bounty
This is the very best season for moringa so we are starting to harvest from the big garden at ‘Ndoudou and the small one at my house in Agadez. We will pick every month and dry the harvest in the shade to preserve the vitamins, package it in small bags and make it available to […]
Onions!
Our garden at Ndoudou has produced another good crop of onions, but the market is again VERY low. So we have decided to try another tactic. I got Aya and Bahari to chop a 50k sack of our onions and spread them on the roof terrace to dry. We will test them to see how […]
Guinea Bissau–and some
I have finally arrived in Agadez after a tour of no less than 11 west African airports–a long boring story–and not a fun exploration–just trying to get from one point to another–the points happened to be places nobody else wanted to go–so lots of stops in between: Bissau, Dakar, Bamako, Conakry, Lome, Cotonou, Niamey, Maradi, […]
Making a movie
Benedicte Schoyen was determined to make a movie about the Nomad Foundation and travel with me and her husband Ned to Niger to shoot it—and she did. We talked about it for years and it has finally happened. She and Cooper Bates were the cameramen and Ned the sound man. As we travelled and worked […]
Extraordinary volunteers
This trip was made with a group of eleven people: 8 volunteers, (seven of whom were rotarians) and 3 film crew. Front row: Bahari, Aboli, Aghali bob, Sidi, Alhassane, Hasso, Aghali 2 Back row: Linda Lamb, Rene Briggs, Ned Clark, Linda Taylor, Larry Beckett, Benedicte Schoyen, Leslie Clark, Louine Skankey, Bob Davis, Bob Skankey, Dana […]
The Tenere Desert
The Tenere Desert is for me the most powerful place on the planet. It is pristine and dangerous. A voyage there is mostly an inner voyage where your thoughts become clear and unpolluted with distraction. It is a great joy when I am able to show it to my friends.
Iferouane
Iferouane is the gate to the Tenere desert. It was always a prosperous town full of artisans and gardeners. The location was one that all tourists would pass by and so a thriving community of jewelers and leatherworkers grew and a small museum was built. In January of 2007, it was the site of the […]
Party at Aboye
After all our work was done we headed for the desert: a region we had not been able to visit since 2007. On the way we stopped at Aboye, checked on the matrone, and had a party for the people there. When we arrived and they saw who was with us: tuareg guitarists Hasso and […]
