atient rounds so we had time to take a several hour walk outside of the compound to the village of Galmi.Most of the buildings are of an adobe-like material. Some have electricity but running water is rare. In fact, we saw many many people carrying or carting yellow jugs to the place in town where there is a public water faucet.
Along the way, we passed the "bus station" - people tell us that the schedule is unreliable and unpredictable. Also, there were a number of "bush taxis" which tend to be either old Toyota Corolla wagons or else minibusses - all packed with humanity insiude and suitcases
and other stuff tied to the top !!The road here is paved but is not very wide and has lots of potholes. We were amazed at how many big semi trucks pass by - some of these are filled with onions, a major crop of the region.
We saw many small "shops", which had a few grocery items, vegetables, or plastic pots and pans. At one point, a group of kids playing video games on an old TV - like the Ataris of 20 years ago !!
And, of course, since this is a Muslim country, there is a mosque, even in the midst of all this poverty. In the evenings and early morning, we hear the "call to prayer" through loudspeakers that blare music to us.
We walked to the other end of Galmi to get a picture of the sign here. Also, we were surprised to see that we are only 17 kilometers from the Nigerian frontier !! Our
walk took about an hour and a half - we were glad to have a water bottle since it was mighty warm. By the way, we had no fears for personal 
safety - people and especially children were very friendly to us except for a couple old guys who did not want their picture taken !!
Speaking of warm, we learned that "official" temperature recordings are done in the shade - it gets up to 100 degrees in the shade here every day now. A couple days ago, we took the thermometer into the sun and, over about 5 minutes, watched it climb to 110 - WOW !!!
walk took about an hour and a half - we were glad to have a water bottle since it was mighty warm. By the way, we had no fears for personal 
safety - people and especially children were very friendly to us except for a couple old guys who did not want their picture taken !!Speaking of warm, we learned that "official" temperature recordings are done in the shade - it gets up to 100 degrees in the shade here every day now. A couple days ago, we took the thermometer into the sun and, over about 5 minutes, watched it climb to 110 - WOW !!!
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