Come for the heat, stay for the milk.

I wrote Jim Dickey, the Nurse Practitioner currently running the clinic in Niamey, who has been so helpful to us. I asked him about milk. Here was his reply.

I did visit the Niger-Lait factory (The owners daughter, Fatimata, is a friend of my daughter, Zaria.)  They seem to be handling the milk safely and hygienically, and they do pasteurize it.  I was quite impressed with their modern facility and equipment.  My biggest concern is that there are no modern dairy farms here.  They buy their milk from small, really subsistence type farmers, who do not have access to hygienic milking facilities or to refrigeration.  Niger-Lait does test the milk when it comes in, though, so that’s reassuring.  Another factor, if it bothers you, is that Niger-Lait couldn’t really guarantee that the milk is all cows milk.  It wouldn’t be surprising if some of it was goats milk, and possibly even camels milk, since both of those are common milk animals in this country (you’ll have herds of goats living on the street outside of your house).  Some people have expressed concern about what the milk animals are eating, because it’s very common to see them eating garbage in town – goats in particular are an integral part of the solid waste management system here.  Household trash is spread out in the street where animals graze on it.  What’s left is eventually raked up into a pile and burned, and once a year or so the ashes are hauled off to a landfill somewhere.  I think Niger-Lait sources their milk from rural areas outside of town, though, where grazing animals on trash is not likely to be a common practice.  They make most of the yogurt from powdered milk, and I think it’s really good. If you don’t like the fresh milk, imported UHT milk is readily available in whole, part skimmed and fat free.

Uh, thanks Jim.