Women's literacy in the village

The estimated literacy rate for women in Niger is just 9%. In my village it is even lower, less than 1%.

Women's Literacy: And by women, I mean Two Women. Mariama and Rasida, my two sister-like girlfriends, have been bugging me for a year to teach them to read. Rather, Mariama has been bugging me. She is hilarious and full of antics, and I cannot get enough of her or her son Oweli (another child of my heart).
Why did it take me so long to start this??? For the last week and a half we've met every night for an hour, from 8-9pm, to learn our letters. So far they know M, A, S, O, R, D, I, B, K, and N. Now we're working on recognizing syllables- MA, NA, DA, RA, etc.
It's a lot of fun, and as my Dad observed, possibly the most radical thing I'm doing here. True that.
Next: Young girls' education