Meeting with the Mayor

Today is a beautiful day nice and sunny 31 degrees just the way I like it ;) after our staff meeting with the board of directors we will have the opportunity to meet with the mayor of Nikki. An interesting figure who has traveled a lot even to Brussels! Very entertaining character. There is a lot of shaking hands and smiling and nodding even when you don't understand a word of his French. I think I pulled it off cause he kept missing back and smiling too lolol 

The things I did understand were very interesting. He was explaining how because of the location of Nikki within the Borgu region which borders to different nations there is a steady flow back and forth across the borders even Nigerians come to the local hospital for treatment. He presides a committee that oversees the collaboration of the entire northern region and says it goes very well. Different people different cultures coming together and blending together as one.  I asked if there are no ethnic tensions between the different groups but he claimed there are no issues.

 After the formal meeting the mayor took us to the archives. I could  not believe my eyes! There were hand written colonial archives from 1900!! All preserved so well stacked in a little bookshelf right by the entrance of the room. The lady overseeing the archive was an elderly lady dressed in traditional african wear was proud enough to show us all the birth records, death records and other records of interests. She quickly got a cloth and started dusting off a few panels to show us. She was smiling from ear to ear as she showed us the list of kings of the area dating from the 1800' until now! Amazing!! We couldn't get enough and were looking in all the archives, I think they saw our delight and welcomed us back anytime we wanted. Oh and we will be back! What a surprisingly fun experience!!