The World Ends at Gouré

Africa begins in terminal 2C at Paris’ Charles DeGaulle airport. Walk into this terminal and you leave behind the sleek, carpeted, calmly efficient world of modern Europe. Here the floors are concrete and the ceiling is best described as industrial. Noise, crowds, jostling, and an agreeable energy are abundant.

We four Americans form a pale island in an ocean of darker faces. At first it seems that finding our flight and checking in will be an impossibility. Surprisingly, the long lines move quickly and soon enough we are aboard our flight for Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Clouds cover southern France and the Mediterranean as we fly south. Over the Algerian coastline the clouds break up and we get our first view of the Sahara stretching below us. Except for the bright sand it could be an ocean. The stark blue Air Mountains, rich in uranium and other exotic elements, signal our passage over the northern border of Niger. During the descent into Niamey heat rising from the desert floor produces severe turbulence and as our plane turns west on final approach we are buffeted by heavy winds.

Descending from the door of the aircraft the view and the sensation are otherworldly. The afternoon temperature has reached 115 degrees with a relative humidity of 9 percent. We have arrived at the peak of dry season. The hot west wind has stirred a haze of fine dust which has reduced visibility to about a mile. As we step onto the tarmac our eyes sting from the grit and dust and the walk to the terminal is withering in the hot wind. We are in the Sahel, the flat, stony edge of the Sahara where orange soil, scattered trees, sparse grass and scrub vegetation defend the savannahs to the south from the desert.

The four of us make our way into the terminal where air conditioning has mercifully reduced the temperature to a bearable 90 degrees. The thump of an immigration officer’s passport stamp finally signals our arrival in Niger.

We have come here on a two year medical mission at the invitation of the Republic of Niger. We will be working as volunteers to help reopen and expand the services of the hospital in Maine-Soroa, a village which lies in the southeastern corner of the country, near Lake Chad. Our team is made up of three doctors, Bill Kirker, Orietta Barquero and I as well as Bill’s wife Barbara who is a nurse and nutritionist. In the early 1970’s Bill and Barbara headed the Peace Corps effort which originally built the hospital. Hard economic times in Niger later forced the near-closure of the facility. Now it is our job is to try to get it running again.

So, after months of planning we find ourselves walking from the Niamey terminal with a delegation from the Maine-Soroa hospital, to waiting Land Rovers. Driving from the airport into town we share the road with camels, donkeys, motorbikes, container trucks, old cars and a few shiny Mercedes and BMW’s, most bearing either diplomatic tags or plates from neighboring oil-rich Nigeria. Although downtown Niamey has broad boulevards and several handsome government buildings courtesy of the previously high price of uranium, it is clear that Niger is struggling. The markets are full and food and an array of consumer goods are available, but the desperately poor and sick are everywhere. Beggars congregate at the edge of the marketplace. Most of them are blind, crippled or disfigured by leprosy. Even before the drought and severe food shortage of 2005 the country ranked last on the UN’s Human Poverty Index. Life expectancy here is about 44 years. Before reaching the age of five, almost one of every five children will die, usually of malnutrition, diarrhea and dehydration, or malaria.

There is also cause for optimism here. In 1999 the country underwent peaceful transition from military to stable democratic rule. President Mamadou Tandja was reelected in 2004 with 65% of the vote. There is ongoing decentralization of government. Main roads are good quality, information technology and communication are progressing rapidly and public health is receiving new emphasis. In addition, there may be large oil reserves here and uranium is plentiful. There is interest in investment in Niger, especially by the Chinese, who along with the Americans, Cubans and European Union are also providing medical and other assistance to the country.

We have had much to do here in Niamey before heading 650 miles east to Maine-Soroa. Supplies have been purchased and equipment and medications shipped from the States have been cleared through customs and transported east to the hospital. We have visited the US Embassy and the Ministry of Health. We were also nicely received by President Mamadou Tandja who has taken a significant interest in the work we’ll be doing.

One of our final visits was to the Peace Corps headquarters here in Niamey. We hoped to interest the Peace Corps once again in the hospital at Maine-Soroa. The director was sympathetic to our request. Walking to a large map of Niger he traced out our overland route from Niamey east to Maine-Soroa. “You’ll be going this way… through Dosso, Tessaoua, Maradi, Zinder and Gouré,” he said, his finger coming to rest on the map over the village of Gouré. “The paved road stops here in Gouré, a hundred miles west of Maine-Soroa. We have volunteers working all the way out to this point, but as far as we’re concerned the world ends at Gouré. Not even the Cubans or the Chinese go out this far. I wish I could help you, but right now I can’t.”

The rains and cooler weather should arrive in a few weeks. Tomorrow morning we will leave for Maine-Soroa.


Photos top to bottom:

1. Niamey, sunset over the River Niger

2. Niamey market scene



Steve Humphrey, M.D.
Niamey, Republic of Niger
May 4, 2007