After arriving home from Niger I cannot stop thinking about the women I saw there. While in the Ouallam area for almost three weeks I often felt sad as I watched them walk barefooted or maybe in flip-flops. A baby tied on her back… with a heavy load on her head or pails of water hanging from each end of a stick that sat across the base of her neck something like a 'yoke'…pounding millet… pulling water up from a deep well… cooking over an open fire and hoping it was enough to feed her family…. washing the families clothes by hand…bent over sweeping her hut and 'yard' with a small broom…sharing a husband with another woman and her children. Yet every time I smiled and lifted my hand in a wave… I always got back a beautiful smile!

“How do they do this Lord?” Was a question I was constantly asking myself!

Our last day in Ouallam we went to an outer village and God blessed me so much by allowing me to walk side by side with a woman as she was going for water. While I could not speak her language.. it did not keep her from talking to me… and all the while in between…she was humming the sweetest song. I truly felt like God was allowing me to see (and hear) an answer to my question… “How do they do this?” The answer was…. With a song in their hearts!

A few days after I got home I read a devotional that was perfect for my thoughts that were still so fresh in my heart…. These women are so vital to their culture and society! While their 'value and worth' may seem 'small' by the way WE view what they have to do every day and how they are treated…God sees everything they do and values them greatly! I realized that what I see as a “hardship” or “sad” is most likely what allows this woman's family to survive and gives her great joy.... Why… she is truly Invaluable!

-Debi Howey