Welcome to Bill & Melisa's Webpage
This page last modified on Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Hello everyone! We are hoping that this will be a great
way to share some of our pictures and experiences
with all of you. Our hope is to update it at least once a
week, but we are at the whim of SONITEL, the
Nigerien telephone company. Sometimes it is
reasonably easy to connect to the internet, other times
it is painfully slow and, far too often, it is impossible
to make a connection.
But anyway, we hope you enjoy!
Weather
Here's a look at the weather here in Niamey, and home
in Oregon and Missouri. Boy, it's hot here!
Click for Monett, Missouri Forecast
Click for Molalla, Oregon Forecast
May 20, 2001
-- Millet Planting Time in West Africa


Since we've last written, it's been millet-planting time in West Africa -- or at least
at the American School of Niamey. Thanks to having a large tract of unused land
behind the school buildings, my 3rd and 4th grade class have spent the last two
weeks mapping out a field, clearing, breaking the soil, putting up a fence, watering
and finally on Friday, planting the seeds. It was a tremendous amount of work, but
we had a lot of enthusiasm going for us.
Millet is a grain grown here in Niger, which is made into pastes and patties and
served with sauces. Usually, it's planted with the first rains of the year in late
May or early June. We've had two or three sprinkles so far, but in order to plant
and see the first shoots before school lets out, we've hedged our bets by
watering heavily. Our hope is to take the kids through the cycle of growing the
plants, harvesting, pounding the millet and making and eating the food we
produced. Through this process, the students learn a variety of subjects:
traditions and customs of Niger in relation to their own, the science of soil,
planting, rain cycles. We used math to plot our costs, map out the perimeter of
the garden, measure the spacing of the fence posts and we drew to scale maps.
It has been so much fun --especially since I've had the guidance of my classroom
assistant, Bio Gado, a local teacher originally from Benin. He has planted gardens
since he was a child and knows exactly what to do. I certainly didn't want to plant
a garden in Africa the way that father did in The Poisonwood Bible who kept trying
to garden in Africa according to what he used to do in the States.
Bill and I have been preparing for the end of school -- May 31 and the visit of our
friend Bodil who will be here for only one week. Our big trip to Kenya and Ethiopia
has been delayed till the 23rd, but we're hoping to see a little more of Niger with
that extra time.
Congratulations to my nephew Jeff on his graduation from high school.
Or, you can write to us the old fashioned
way! Our US address is:
Bill & Melisa Bush
JAO Director ---ASN---
Department of State ---Niamey---
Washington, DC 20521
e-mail us, please!
We promise to
respond!