Diamonds in the Rockpile - Class of 2009: Esther Garvi (aka Ishtar News)

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Esther Garvi (aka Ishtar News)
http://esthergarvi.com/

Another lovely Swedish blogger (I swear I'm not collecting them!) Esther is actually an expatriate Swede working for a unique organization on a highly acclaimed and unique project. She works for Eden Foundation in Niger, one of the poorest and least arable countries on the African continent. (The highly oversimplified version of) Eden's mission is to make the local populations self supporting by teaching them to grow enough food to feed themselves (among other things) with enough surplus to store or trade and grow the local economy. Most efforts like this one start with the crops necessary for subsistence farming and then try to figure out how to make them grow in the local environment. This one-size-fits-all approach rarely works in harsher climates like Niger's, and this is where Eden differs from other programs. Eden's model begins with the environment and then figures out what will actually grow there.

But you knew there had to be pictures, right? Yes, there are wondrous pictures, most provided by Esther's friend and colleague Annette. If you have any doubt about the beauty of he desert, you need to stop by Esther's on Sky Watch Fridays.

Seventy Million Rocks.
Only a handful of diamonds.

One look at the West African sunset from atop a leather tough Barb horse, and you'll be a convert. Want to learn how to cook with a solar oven? Make your own goat cheese? These are just a few of the things you can find out about here. Every week Esther takes us into the Zinder bush, or around the Eden compound introducing us to the locals, as well as her four-legged friends, the Nigerian goats, the Barb horses and of course, Sheba the Rhodesian Ridgeback that provides herding services and security for the compound, and no end of amusement for us. Go. Visit. Learn.

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