17 November
Not as long as yesterday but still a long day. Many from the biki were still here this morning (which feels like ages ago - here the hours drag like eons and the days fly by). Ate my biki meat or at least part of it - gave the fat and skin to spoiled Ghanima. Retreated to my house around 10, having been out drinking tea and doing coloring books since before 8. Kids still don't understand the 'only bring me lizards once a day but bring them every day' rule. They brought Ghanima 8 this morning at least, and she's still noticeably round - it's almost 6 pm. Around 1 I went to verify everything was set for today's meeting with the Yammata women. When I went by Sa'a's they said she was in the field, though next door said biki. I hoped for the best and went and told the Yammatawa I'd be there around 3, then headed back. 3 rolls around - Sa'a's still gone, not to the biki in town, to which I will haul my asleep carcass to this evening for walima (yay fanke and not having to cook…) but to one in Tam Roro (alternatively, she may have gone to Dakoro, where the Belgian MSF still operates, the French one having been kicked out of Maradi and possibly all Niger for suspected assistance of Tuareg rebels in the North). In any event - she's not here. So, I screwed the remnants of my nonexistent courage to the sticking place, grabbed my dictionary and headed back to Yammata alone. I did ok. They either speak anasara Hausa really well or I'm getting better - somehow we managed to get through basic set up, who's holding the money, no the anasara will NOT be buying you a caisse with her own money. The basics. The actual meeting part was, of course, a bit chaotic - I may have Hausa but I am far from being able to corral Hausa women into some sense of quiet order. I'd have better luck herding cats. Oh, and, lest we forget, Hausa women go nowhere without at least one, often snotty nosed and filthy, squalling child. I'm surprised BoyzIIMen wasn't playing close by just to help my sensitive ears give me another headache. But, despite the furor, we made progress, which is really all that matters, and now I'm back at home, bathed for the second time today, and wondering if I really have the kokari to put outside clothes back on and go to the walima, especially as whichever nerve it is that runs to your pinky is acting up again. I miss my chiropractor.
18 November
Didn't end up going to walima, stayed up reading Shelters of Stone until 9ish. By now Ayla has invented/discovered everything except sliced bread and the wheel, thought that may be in the sequel. Showed up bright and early for the biki itself this morning, sitting for a couple hours with Maryama greeting people, eating tuwo and just being brightly visible in my flaming orange fancy mayahi, as opposed to the much-abused purple one I bought back in Hamdy and which serves when I want to go sit in the family's concession in a tank top - like now :). All my other clothes, or almost all of them, are either hanging on the line or still soaking - huzzah for laundry day. Watching now as Jacoba uses actual sandpaper to try to fix the calli on his feet. **later** There is a reason you're supposed to take Doxy with food. Ugh. There went my afternoon - wiped out by nausea. Kader made me tea though :)
19 November
Even nicer, it turns out he'd waited tea for me, and as we sat drinking he explained that here, wives bring a tea kettle, 2 kilos of sugar and tea, and a set of metal tea cups as part of their dowry. Issaka's big pot came from Tchad - I wasn't clear if he'd bought it from a traveling salesman or if it was a dan belagro (gift from a trip), Issaka having never been to Tchad. I asked about the one Hassana would have brought to the marriage, and it turns out that some evil jerkbunny stole it soon after they were married, hence why we always use Issaka's.
This morning was spent making a clean copy for the Yammata Asusu, alphabetizing and writing legibly - of course I'm assuming they have someone literate in their group - Sa'am wasn't their to make sure when I dropped it off with her kishiya (cowife), but one of her neighbors can, as can Sa'a if she has time to go next Monday.
Knowledge forbidd'n? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord envy them that? Can it be sin to know, can it be death? And do they only stand by Ignorance?
Satan. John Milton, Paradise Lost, IV: 515-9
20 November
I hate insomnia - woke up every hour or so last night after not even getting partially to sleep until midnight. Napped the morning away and started to pack in prep for Maradi tomorrow, only to find the evil gara (termites) had eaten holes in my pretty new scarf where I'd hung it on the wall to stare at its prettiness. I sewed them up and it looks fine, but I'm still far from Zen. Plus, turns out that candy is a far more effective lure to get kids to bring Ghanima lizards. Almost too effective… prices range from 3 tiny lizards per candy to 3 candies for a big lizard, and I'm seeing a bag of 60 candies lasting me maybe 4 days, tops. Part of the problem is that they know I'm a sucker - I'll tell them shikenan, sai gobe, ya issa but they know if they come back with more later anyway and Ghanima meows plaintively I'll still buy them, which is how I went to bed last night with a pile of lizard corpses waiting to become kitten breakfast at the door of my concession, and why there's a huge lizard even now in the door of my house, with an obviously glutted ball of fur asleep nearby. Should stock up on more penny candies when I'm in Maradi, since all Ghanima seems to do when she goes out at night is fight and get trounced, rather than hunt. Maybe she'll get the hang of it while I'm in Germany and there's no one to buy her lizards - somehow I doubt it, though. I'll probably cave and leave money/candy with Kader to make sure the lizards keep coming. They're a little stricter with the kids though, so maybe she'll look less like the abominable snow kitty. Unlike the cat, the Tabaski goat is resisting fattening, or maybe she's just having all her food stolen by the pesky red goat that wanders in from someone else's house every day - now that the harvest is in they've started freeing some of the livestock to graze the empty fields.
22 November
Got into Maradi, and an incredibly full house yesterday. Showered - real hot water without breeze and freezing - then headed to the market for Thanksgiving goodies. Read emails and it looks like S is going to support me in the whole INRAN mess (YAY) though I'm worried it's too late, between the Germany trip and Tabaski I don't have much time. Not that I'm sure I would have if we'd gotten this sorted earlier - some places are still harvesting their beans, and after that they still have to process them to separate the seeds - no clue how K expects the project to be over in December, unless he meant the end of December? Argh, but huzzah for S backing me up. Now to see how to swing the measurements, given zero response to emails/texts sent to Team Z - kinda worried there.
At the moment am chilling in the corner of the hostel's main room. The place is packed - at least 75% of the Team is in, and we're a big team! Spent the morning typing the first half of a massive blog update, then to the net café to get it sent. Talked to parents and B from back home yesterday - very cool. Good to hear from friends back home (HINT) and jealous that you all are playing the WoW expansion without me. Looking forward to Germany. Didn't sleep well last night either, surprise surprise, and I'm looking forward to some real rest. The big day's tomorrow - turkey and newbies, but I'm going to go find someplace to curl up and sleep so I can be alive tomorrow.
24 November
1:27 am. Am cross-legged on the floor of my trunk room in the hostel, hoping that my double case of stomach upset and insomnia resolve themselves soon so I can crawl back to my bed and pass out. I think my birthday was the last time I slept well. It's been a long day. I was up around 7:30 am and Barkatou and Gado had thankfully already killed the turkey and were well on their way to plucking and gutting it when I woke up. I brined it, then proceeded to spend the next several hours getting on everyone's nerves worrying that, as there was only one functional oven at the time, the turkey wouldn't be cooked on time and I'd single-handedly ruin Thanksgiving. Unless the upset tummy is a result of the turkey, I'd say I avoided that. In fact, the turkey got tons of rave reviews. Lots of rosemary and some of the fattest meat I've seen in country, or ever. Plus, everyone else was also busier than bees whipping up all kinds of delicious goodies. A feast. The newbies seemed happy and all 6 of them seemed really cool. All in all a good evening, though I could wish they weren't followed by insomnia…
25 November
So, yesterday did turn out quite a bit better. Got up at a decent hour and headed first to World Vision. Idigine's been promoted to a post in Tahoua and the new guy seemed to think that he'd be able to get us some help with the pumps, just no idea on the time frame. Still, good to know he thinks it's possible. From there it was over to Asusu Cii Gabba, which was less useful. They can't/won't help us until we get 50k, but oh well. Tried to get to the internet, but the power went out after half an hour and remained off the rest of the day. It worked out ok, though. We all sat around in the dark and split chickens and fries from down the street for dinner (we were also out of gas for the stove) and sang Christmas carols accompanied by a child's toy electric piano. It was, after all, the day after our Thanksgiving.
Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches. Yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.
Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam
26 November
Sitting now with Zeinabou at the Sonitrav station, waiting for the bus to Zinder. She's going sightseeing before she leaves Niger while Ibrahim, her replacement, is in her village for live-in. I'm going for the bean project. That's right - after all the insanity it's back on with a vengeance and I have less than 2 weeks to get as much data as possible or pass out trying. My day began around 10am, heading over to INRAN once S called to tell me that Dr. B was trying to call me but couldn't get through. I hate Zain. Hopped a kabo, which led to the 1st bit of news for the day - I had my first ever motorcycle accident on that evil deep sand pit they like to call a road. It happened rapidly but almost in slow motion - I knew we were in trouble when I felt how deep the sand was but figured we'd be ok because it was one of the larger 'real' motorcycles as opposed to the little baby scooters. No such luck. I had enough time to register a string of curses and a sense of impending doom as the tires slid to my right and I fell with my left leg pinned. I remember feeling incredibly disjointed from reality as the driver pulled the bike off my shocked form. I wasn't really injured. I ended up with a blister on my right foot and a series of precisely spaced scratches on my right knee that look like they could have been ritual scars from Clan of the Cave Bear. Not too bad, though I was definitely shaken and the blister hurts like a b****. At least I was wearing my helmet like a good girl (I always do, don't worry). No real harm, no foul. Got back on the kabo and headed the rest of the way to the meeting, where they kindly gave me a couple minutes in the women's room to clean up and slather myself with Neosporin. Love that stuff.
27 November
Stopped yesterday when the bush showed up. Now am waiting for the bush taxi to pass another control point on my way to K-, Mamansani's village. But I get ahead of myself… Once I got my owies tended it was back to the meeting with Dr. B, Dr. H, and a woman from SNV, a Netherlandaise NGO. It went really well - they assured me all my expenses would be reimbursed, provided I could get the data for them and totally forget/get over the K debacle - done! Sweet! Then we got down to discussing upcoming projects. There's one project being funded by Gates Foundation, Tropical Legume 2, which seems to be focusing on marketing. Sounds good. Need to give SNV a call when I get back from Zinder. From the meeting I headed back to the hostel and packed for Zinder. Zeinabou and I hopped the 5 pm bus and arrived in Zinder around 9. We had a good time chatting. **later** There were a bunch of Zinder PCVs in the hostel for their upcoming AIDS bike ride and it was good to see my stage mates and vats again. This morning I got organized with Chamsia, the RR, and headed off to Mamansani's village. 3 hours later I arrived at his door. We're done now with the meetings and I'm chilling in his amazing screened in porch while he cleans his house in prep for going in - he's going to VAT for the last 2 weeks. One of his villagers is trying to curry favor with him and brought me these amazingly delicious tiny green bananas. Hopefully the ride back to Zinder (Damagaram as they say here) will be as uneventful and unsmooshed as the ride up.
28 November
LOL. Now that was an unfulfilled wish. Mamansani and I waited forever to get a taxi, then, when we finally found one it was far from a healthy vehicle. For me at least the ride was fairly comfy, smooshed into a corner, but poor Mamansani kept getting wedged off the seat by the hadji next to him. The main problem, though, was the radiator apparently had a leak and we had to stop every few km, empty the front bench (where we were sitting) and open the cab up so they could add more water, resulting in massive clouds of steam. A ride Mamansani said normally doesn't take more than 2-3 hours took close to 5, including the hours we waited, on a main road, for a taxi. The road itself was also awful. This country needs to spend more on transportation infrastructure. Arg.
29 November
I'm taking a day off, vegetating in Zinder. It was awesome to see Halima again yesterday, but the trip totally tried to do me in. Getting out there wasn't too bad, though it took me two confused kabo drivers to find the tasha (station) to get to Z-, her market town, though the taxi itself happily let me out in B-, her actual village, where Halima and her mom were waiting for me. Her village seemed pretty neat - her area is very New Mexico, mesas and desert scrub. We talked pretty much non stop for 6 hours. It was really awesome seeing her again. Plus, we stopped in Charifa's village whish is only a couple of k away. Her villagers were at market but they're going to give their info to Halima's counterpart to get to me once she's back from the bike ride. Halima's counterpart rocks. We tracked him down in the market, which is a fantastic market and close and I can totally understand how she's bush ratting, and he had memorized the yields for himself and all the other farmers in her village on the project. Awesome. Plus there was ice and sodas from Nigeria (sooooo much better than American soda. I think it's that they use sugar cane instead of corn syrup for sweetener.) and we indulged. I earned it - I calculated I walked >6km yesterday and spent >7.5 hours in a bush taxi, the majority of them on the way back. Total nightmare. But, again, worth it to reconnect with Halima and see Charifa, and guarantee that Halima's going to come visit me in January. Two days of hellish bush taxis, though, convinced me to take a rest day here in Zinder, which works well as the volunteer I had planned to go see today came in to the hostel. Tomorrow I'll try to get to Chamsia's old village, then hopefully back to Maradi on Monday. Not sure how to work getting to Hadiza's village as there's currently no cell rezzo to check on her with. Spent the morning watching Lucky # Slevin and going to the place where they sell kaki, these amazing honey cookie things that I'm bringing back to my villagers as dan belagro, especially since they've texted me asking where the heck I am. Now I'm going to go crawl back into my PJs and watch Becoming Jane and then Underworld Evolutions. (Note: that was then followed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. ZOMG, what an awful movie.)
1-3 December
The next day I waited around in hopes of catching the shuttle, which was not to be but waited with two other Zinder vols to catch a taxi to Matameye and thence to Kirou Haousa, Chamsia's old village, where theoretically I would be able to sleep in her house… nope. The school director's taken it over, but the mai gari was totally nice and let me sleep in a big comfy bed in his house. Then the next morning Sani, the mai gari's son and one of the project guys got me his data and his friend's and walked me to the other village that did the project. Then I literally ran to catch a bush taxi going back to Matameye, then caught another to Zinder. Tried to get on an afternoon bus to Maradi but for whatever reason they weren't running and so I went back to the hostel, watched all of season 4 of Lost (ZOMG. I love that show. The mist. The orchid. The temporal displacement. Sawyer. Shirtless. Leaping into the ocean. What the devil did he whisper? Sacrificial bad boy with a heart of gold (or at least silver?) Daniel. Geeky. Socially awkward. Brilliant. Hope he's still alive. Said. In suits. The accent. The guns. Ben. Moriarty incarnate. A villain you've just got to admire. Locke. Jacob. Kate. Can I be her? Please? Sun. Awesome. Takeover scene. Respect. New villain? Charlie! Can I look that good when I'm dead?) And now that my stream of consciousness fangirl babble is over… Watched Lost until it was time to head to the bus station around 3:30am, then hopped the 5am to Maradi. Got in around 9am. Headed back to the hostel then ran errands. Blasted tailor's still not done with my clothes. Grrrrrr. Collapsed exhausted in the TV room and woke up around 6. Made pizza. Gossiped with Rakia and Soba and Ramatou, then zonked out again. Woke up this morning, got data organized and sent off. Going to try to go out later and go visit Hydrolique to get info for the pumps but as it's almost 2 and I'm still half asleep… **later** So, I did, in fact, get off my rear and get to Hydrolique, where the really helpful director (being an anasara hath its benefits) got me the data I needed on the pump, including the fact that it's 57m to water, or approximately 171ft, even deeper than the water at the well. Gee, think I live in a desert? But, again, got the info so now I can go to World Vision tomorrow - I've been living today as if it were Thursday and it turns out it's Wednesday so I have more time than I think I do to get stuff done. After Hydrolique I headed to the tailor, who had finally gotten all my stuff fixed for me. My swear-in outfit is awesome. There will be fights over me it's that awesome. I'll take lots of pictures. I also managed to get to the net cafe and post more pictures - the stupid machine had apparently rendered the file folder hidden, which it isn't normally so I still had my photos, just not where I could see them, so I fixed that on the PC computer. In any case, new photos! Check the link and head to the November folder. This I'm posting with the email your blog post option, so lets hope that it works. Now to post this and then go pick some braindead movie to fall asleep to.
HUGS
M
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