Tagalalt

Tagalalt was the village where I lived with Erica and Linds for four days of the week when I lived here in 2001-2003. When we first arrived at Tagalalt, all the men were at the well. It was a little bit of a suprise visit, they didn't know we were coming. I think the element of suprise makes for a better visit. This is Mallum, the chief of the village. I tried to get a candid shot but everytime he would see me he would pose.

I don't recognize this young guy at the well with his turban on, but he was probably one of the little kids I once knew six years ago. This well is around 100 meters deep, all hand dug. They twist the ropes by hand, they're made from the strands of plastic that are woven together to make the sacks that millet and rice come in. They use teams of donkeys to pull up the water.

This is Ali, one of the believers here at the site. He's been through literacy classes, and can kind of slowly read words and laboriously write them if he wants to, but because he reads so slowly, it's hard to put it all together and understand. Steve bought a bunch of these tamper-proof, Niger-proof, solar powered MP3 players that have the entire Bible recorded on them in their own dialect of Fulfulde. Donnie and Steve are showing him how it works.

We were getting ready to move on to Mini-Mini after lunch. Moussa's helping Larry put his turban back on.