tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32727567279335269202024-03-14T09:31:07.506-07:00A Geek Princess in NigerBlog of the experiences of a Peace Corps Volunteer.
All stated opinions, facts, mutterings, etc. are entirely mine; the Peace Corps neither supports nor denies them.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-15011848512080791052009-12-15T09:12:00.000-08:002009-12-15T09:14:35.538-08:00Morocco to TunisiaHi! Just a (very) brief update. Am now in Tunisia, have been for a couple of days, and will be for another week before heading onto Turkey. After that...? No idea, but I think my parents are despairing of me ever coming home... ;)<div><br /></div><div>Met up with Liz in Casa just fine, we then headed south to...</div><div><br /></div><div>Marrakech - everything that you expect from Morocco's most tourist town. It honestly felt a little Disney, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the Dar el-Fna or the 17th century hammam. DID, however, keep me from getting too close to the live cobras and monkeys on the square...</div><div><br /></div><div>Essaouira - LOVELY town, shitty men. Seriously. I actually elbowed one idiot in the sternum because he got too close to me to whisper 'sweet nothings' in my ear. Jerk. Of course, his friends thought it was the most hysterical thing they'd ever seen. Hmf. City was very pretty, on the ocean, with really good seafood. Walked on the beach and took pictures of this neat stranded boat.</div><div><br /></div><div>Casa - hung out with some friends of Liz' friend.... Moroccan men are...? Don't think I could stay there that long but the flattery was appreciated...</div><div><br /></div><div>Rabat - wandered around the old parts of the city, couple of nice museums, including one housing all the stuff they'd pulled out of Volubilis in the north. My favorite was the neolithic carving of a human surrounded by waves and circles, but the Roman goodies were also fun. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then on to Tunisia at disgustingly early in the morning. So far:</div><div><br /></div><div>Carthage - OMFG. You can walk in/on Carthage. It's huge. And the Romans certainly knew their real estate - the portions of the site are plop in the middle of the area now used to house ambassadorial residences (yes, yes, I think the timing was the other way around... :P) Seriously, though, beautiful sites on the water and then on the hill. We spent an entire day just poking around. Good stuff</div><div><br /></div><div>Dougga/Bulla Regia - just got back from a couple of days wandering ruins over in the northwest of the country. Beautiful but cold. Dougga was definitely the more imposing of the two, perched on a hill with the capitol and huge amphitheater still standing, but Bulla Regia had some neat murals and a few larger structures of its own still standing.</div><div><br /></div><div>And now it's freezing and my fingers are icicles and Liz and I are off to brave the cold (and jerky men who think that western women must == prostitutes, I blame the western media...) to find some food. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ma'sallama (sp??)</div><div>M</div>Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-59481406581436945552009-12-03T05:23:00.000-08:002009-12-03T05:47:31.076-08:00Marhaba to MoroccoHey!<br />So, let's do a brief catch up:<br /><br />Peace Corps decided that, in light of growing security concerns, to boot my stage out of the country a bit early. Screwed with everyone's plans but we dealt with it, and so now I'm out into my COS trip, starting in Morocco. At the moment I'm all on my lonesome but Liz'll meet up with me in a few days and we'll continue on through Morocco then Tunisia, then Turkey.<br /><br />So, Morocco so far: AMAZING. I love it here. I could totally live in Chefchaouen or Meknes. But I digress<br /><br />Day 1: get into Casa, immediately hop the train for Tanger (not a mistake, that's how they spell it here...) Get into my hotel - Hotel Mamora. Simple, but clean and nice. Wandered around the mostly-closed medina (it was Eid al-Adha, feast of the sacrifice), got some dinner on the Grand Socco, and crashed<br /><br />Day 2: Morning again on the grand socco drinking hot tea and snacking on the ubiquitous fruit. Hopped a bus to Chefchaouen just as the rain came in. Pulled in to Chefchaouen in late afternoon, still raining, but huddled in the hotel's common room and drank tea with a couple of nice Dutch women. The hotel was Hotel Mauritania, right next to Hotel Suika (which has easier-to-follow signs). It's a great little place with bright tile and nice staff (and one super cute desk guy, but I digres...) Then I braved the rain to head to a hammam. Fantastic! I don't know that i've ever been so comfortably warm and clean in my life, for all that I provided grand amusement to the women also using the hammam. Having spent 2 years in Niger, I'm used to the 'look at the strange anasara behavior' so it was fun.<br /><br />Day 3: Wandered more around Chefchaouen, alternately hanging out with the Dutch girls and poking around on my own. It's a beautiful town - painted blue and white. Kind of like I think greece must look like with the whitewash, but blue. Everything blue. Poked around my first kasbah and had my first shopkeeper give me mint tea. A good day.<br /><br />Day 4: Sadly must eventually leave Chefchaouen, this time for Fez. This trip sucks. It's 4 hours by bus through the mountains, and requires me to take 3 drammamine. I get to my hotel, Pension Talaa, which is clean but very institutional. I get a cell on the roof that would be great if it were summer, but unfortunately it's winter. The blankets are thick, though, so I figure no problem. Then I hit the medina. Problem. It's beautiful. Everything you think of when you think of a 1001 nights medina. Carvings. Mosaics. Neat little alleyways filled with shops selling everything. Unfortunately it's also home to 1001 rude men. I'd gotten used to the attention elsewhere, apparently Moroccan men like curvy, large-bottomed women. A whistle or two, no problem. No, these jerks<strong><em> follow</em></strong> you. And continually harass you. They don't stop. 'Hey sweetie...' etc. Infuriating. I finally rounded on one guy and told him he had no shame. Ah, Hausa. For all that Fes was lovely I couldn't enjoy it because I felt I had to duck and cover to get away from the @$$holes. So, the next day (yesterday morning) I packed up and headed to Meknes. I haven't looked back.<br /><br />Day 5: Having escaped Fes I immediately collapsed in my room in Hotel Maroc. A great hotel. Very warm. Clean. And, at 90Dh per night, a steal for a double bed single. I slept until 1pm under nice warm covers, then braved the city. SO much nicer than Fes. I wandered around the main square, Place el-Hadim, had a sandwich while staring at the big gates (Bab el-Mansour (Question - if Bab is gate than was the Tower of Babel somehow a gate to Heaven that was being closed??)) then succeeded at getting myself lost in the medina while attempting to follow the guide's planned walk. In this medina, mind, I was only called after a couple of times and NO ONE hassled me, let alone followed me. In fact, when I did give up, after seeing the tomb of a saint on the outskirts whose followers are apparently immune to snake bites, and asked someone directions, he went out of his way to show me back to the main square, free of charge. Nice guy. Snagged tea in a cafe overlooking the square then dove into the covered market where I was unable to resist more olives and sweet pastries (yah yah...). Back to my room and out like a light<br /><br />Day 6: (today) Began the rainy morning early with my fingers crossed hopping shared taxis to Moulay Idriss. From there I hiked the 5km or so down to Volubilis, a set of beautiful Roman ruins. Apparently it used to be the capital of their Mauritanian province. Wandered for several hours as the sun came out over the hills, taking lots of pretty desktop-worthy pictures, then began the hike back up. Somehow it was easier going downhill... BUT! A nice couple picked me up about halfway and dropped me at the base of Moulay Idriss' hill, saving me a good couple of k, then Omar, this random guy who'd walked the last few hundred meters down to Volubulis with me, miraculously appeared in a car with his friends, and carried my lazy self up the steep part in comfy asian compact style. Thence to the main square, where I intend to return and have an overpriced tajine, and then back to Meknes. A good day, even if it can't decide whether it's going to rain again or not.<br /><br />I LOVE MOROCCO!!!Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-18136476149022086872009-10-22T03:25:00.001-07:002009-10-22T03:43:20.563-07:00Scarlett Syndrome… I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think<br />about that tomorrow…<p>So, it's mid-October, two months until I'm out of Niger for good. Time for a lot of navel-gazing, head-scratching demanding of answers, or at least half-truths, from the universe. A brief synopsis:</p><p>Murals: essentially at an end. With the installation of the newest pump (finally) it's possible that the pump walls will be up and dry before I leave, enabling one more on not giving your infant the (dirty) water – mother's milk only until they've passed 6 months.</p><p>Water: The newest pump was finally installed on Monday, then promptly locked up until Friday, when there'll be a fête to officially open the pump. Of course, even had I stayed out until Friday I would have missed it, as I have to catch the morning bush taxi. A shame, but I'd rather they not associate the pump with anyone other than World Vision, lest they think that the next volunteer (if there is one, see below) is in charge of repairing the pump, rather than the committee that they've installed to pay for it (anasara does mean 'rich foreigner' after all…) They've also fixed (again) the older pump. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they're all still working by the time I get back. Allah shi yarda.</p><p>Women's' Groups: The one unqualified success story of my village. The women, led by Sa'a and Sa'am, continue to be the forces of kokari in the village. They so rock. The next fantastic thing that the Sarkin Hatsi women are doing is taking advantage of the impending food crisis (see below) to make some money. They're paying back all their loans and using the fund money to buy millet, which is now around 350F per tiya, or 75¢ per 2 kilos, which is high for this soon after the harvest. However, it's expected to get much higher – while I don't normally approve of capitalizing on suffering, in the end I suppose this is for a good cause. Which brings us to…</p><p>The Food Crisis: this year is not a good year for harvest. At all. Rain was patchy when it bothered to fall at all; there were periods of three weeks or more when no rain fell in my village while the crops were growing. Then, when it did fall, it was highly variable – we'd sit and watch the rainfall around us, the hole in the donut. Recent stats given to us volunteers in our newsletter were approximately thus: out of 10,000 villages surveyed, 2,000 didn't have sufficient harvests to feed their villagers, meaning that over 2 million people in a country of a bit over 10 million won't have enough food to feed themselves, leaving them to rely on the government or outside aid. Well, the government of Niger isn't an entity I'd ever want to rely on for my continued nutrition, and the external community isn't that much better. WFP is closing food sites, and Millennium Development Goal funds are way behind pledges, gee thanks global recession. Doesn't help, either, that shitty weather in the rice basket in Asia, where food aid likes to come from, has helped screw over their yields as well. All hail global climate change. To misquote my dad: Niger's pretty well pooched. My village has reverted to the most feared of approaches – ask the anasara. I left my village two days early because I was worried that the next person to ask when I would bring them the buhus of rice/beans/millet – not even asking <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">if</span><br />I would, but<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> when </span>I would - would be the recipient of one of my patented temper tantrums, and I wasn't sure if it would go to angry tirades or, worse, tearful sobbing. I have to admit to myself that even if I were to pull all my money out of my account in America, and use it all to buy my<br />village millet, it still wouldn't address the problem: they'd still be dependant on external sources, they wouldn't be any better prepared for the next year, it'd be mis-distributed because that's just the way village politics goes, and it wouldn't address one of the underlying problems – the<br />farming system. So, rather than cry at the next person who couldn't figure out why the rich white foreigner couldn't/wouldn't just magic away their problems, I left. Which brings me to the next issue:</p><p>Replacement: So, when my group came in, there were 34 of us. The group replacing us only has 18 people… You guys do the math. Barkatou's village isn't being replaced, and she also opened her village. Others I'm pretty sure aren't as well. Me, I've been lobbying to be replaced with a health volunteer (22 of those…), as that's what my village needs rather than another agriculture volunteer – all that the village wants with an agriculture volunteer is free seed; a health volunteer could actually improve the situation. But I've been lobbying forever and we still don't<br />know – the newbies come in on the 22nd, tomorrow as I'm writing this, and I don't even know if I'll know by the time I leave.</p><p>The Solution: The Go-Til-the-Money-Runs-Out World Tour (other names will be considered). One of my stage mates and I are headed to Morocco, then Tunisia, and then I'm on to Turkey, then, if there's still money, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, (I have to work the precise path out), all the way to Dublin, where I've heard that there are cheap flights back to the<br />States. It's irresponsible, given that I have no job lined up, and limited funds. But, Peace Corps will give us cash in lieu of our plane ticket home, plus a bit of our readjustment allowance when we leave, and anywhere has to have a cheaper flight out than Niamey. So, setting aside a chunk for a new laptop, I've got a bit to wander on, and besides, you're only (semi)-young once, right? Time to adventure. Get while the getting's good, etc. I've always wanted to see North Africa and the remains of the Ottoman Empire and this seems the time to do it. Morocco I hope we'll be able to hit the highlights – Marrakesh, Tangier, Rabat, and maybe Meknes or Fez, time determining. In Tunisia I want to visit Carthage and Bulla Regia, then trail down the coast to Matmata, where they have a hotel in the old Star Wars set of the Lars' family homestead, then back through sand and neat architecture. Those each should take a week and a half or so. Then Lonely Planet has a three week itinerary going from Istanbul down the coast to Cappadocia,<br />stopping at all kinds of lovely places, including ancient Troy. From there…? Mostly I'm looking forward to the scents of the souqs and the beautiful architecture of what I was thinking of when I was told I was coming to muslim Africa two years ago. Also, the hammams, Turkish bathhouses. I'm almost afraid to think how much aggregate filth will be scrubbed off of me after two years in the bush.</p><p>After that? No idea. Looking at going back to school for another masters, or going to work. I really want to focus on improving farming systems and food security. No one crop or technology will fix the mess, or prepare us for the mess to come. Solutions must be adaptive; we can't just monoculture the globe. It won't work. But that's for another ramble.</p><p>In any case, if anyone knows of any good places to stay/eat/be on my trip, drop me a line on here or Facebook, I'll appreciate any assistance.</p><p>Until next time…</p>Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-31910590481203478622009-09-15T04:39:00.000-07:002009-09-15T04:47:19.750-07:00Life…Well, life’s been interesting recently. Mom just left a couple of weeks ago. It was a good visit. The loop was a great trip, if a bit too short. The good news is that, the way Peace Corps works, it may be to my advantage to leave from Accra rather than from Niamey when I head home, so I may get a chance to go back through the Loop a bit. I’ve set up a website, <a href="http://theloop.wikia.com">theloop.wikia.com</a>, to help people get information on the places to go, or not, on the trip. Please, put any useful information there. I’ll get back to the trip in a second…<br /><br />Having mom in my village was certainly neat; the villagers loved it and she got a first hand look at the insanity that is daily living here. She wore a complet and everything. It was awesome. We taught local women to bake bread and painted a mural on handwashing. Mostly, though, it was good to finally have someone from outside peace corps get a first hand look at what we’re dealing with, from the overall shittiness of the soil to the problems the culture throws in the way of development. Not that there weren’t good points, there were. We had a great time at the market, eating corn tuwo and sitting with the fabric lady. We also walked around and saw how well the millet was (or, at the time, wasn’t….) doing. Mom got to see how the trees were doing and eat delicious moringa crepes. It was a good time. Now that she’s left, however, it’s been incredibly frustrating. She had brought little gifts of soap for a few key women in my village, and tea for the men. Even while she was there the men were giving the tea away to people I didn’t want them to (but, hey, it was their tea to give away, right?) but then, after she left, I keep getting asked by men and women where their tea or soap is. I’ve made a big thing about not giving out gifts in my village for the past year and a half, and now I’m worried that all that’s been spoiled. Not mom’s fault – it makes sense to bring things to people that you’re going to meet and live with for a bit, host gifts etc. But the culture here is such that giving anything is a lesson in the benefits of becoming Scrooge. Plus, that she could come here has reopened the whole ‘take me to America’ can of worms. As in ‘hey, you’ll pay for me to go to America when you leave, right?’ And it’s not just as a joke, they really get annoyed when I say no. Finally, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m incredibly blunt – ‘No, I will not take you to America. Not only is it too expensive (I can’t even pay for the ticket, the government pays for mine) but once we get there you have no skills that will be useful. No, you can’t farm like you do here. No, you can’t herd like you do here. No, you can’t open a shago (small general goods store). We farm with tractors. We have feedlots. We have grocery stores bigger than the village (literally. You could fit a hamlet inside CostCo, easy). You would end up washing dishes or doing crappy manual labor somewhere. This would not be the American dream you see on TV. No, I will not take you to America’ Shikenan. <br /><br />N.B. Take everything I say with several grains of salt. It’s probably not as depressing as I find it. I’m 3 months from COS and focused more on the next stage of my life than trying to wage Sisyphean battles against hunger, poverty, illiteracy, disease… Being here in Niger has taught me a LOT, albeit not what I had thought it would. I feel much more grounded in knowing what the problems are, and what the problems with the majority of the world’s solutions are. Knowing the actual solutions… um… not so much. It’s going to have to be a ground-up change adapted locally to individual situations and I just don’t know that any external force is going to be able to affect that. There are good programs out there, SIM’s agroforestry model among them, but even that model wouldn’t be adapted to a few hundred kilometers south. On the plus side, now that I know what the problems are, I’m even more motivated to try to solve them, pretty much guaranteeing that I’ll be involved in ag for years to come; yay for my education not entirely going to waste J <br /><br />So, the future… hmmm… I’m of several minds on the matter:<br />1) Go to work in mainstream development<br />2) Go back to school for something along the lines of sustainable farming systems<br />3) Go off the beaten track and WWOOF and get into sustainable ag that way<br />4) Some otherwise nebulous future<br /><br />Everything has its pros and cons…<br /><br />In any case, I promised a bit more on the trip, so here you go<br /><br />Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso): AMAZING!!! It’s a beautiful city with ice cream and cleaner streets, and my first taste of FanIce, which is so amazingly delicious I can’t describe it here. Think semifrozen cake batter, but better. We stayed at a lovely B&B – Karite Bleu – recommended to us by local PCVs while we waited for our visas to get processed and wandered around the artisanal centers.<br /><br />Kumasi (Ghana): Not my favorite but a necessary stop to get a break after the horrendous drive from Ouaga. Met nice people who helped us out later on.<br /><br />Cape Coast (Ghana): We got there right after Obama did, and it was packed with Obama goodies. Obamamania may have subsided in the States, but it certainly is still going full force there. We actually stayed here twice – coming and going from Green Turtle. Both times we stayed in the Mighty Victory. A great hotel, but they need to nuke their neighbors – an EXTREMELY loud church that had a wake going on one of the nights we were there. I was NOT happy. The city itself was a little empty – probably packed in slightly warmer times. We had a great tour of the castle and then indulged in Guinesses at the nearby restaurant watching the waves break on the beach. Later on we tried a bit more ‘native’ food – Chic Heb’s – run by Henrietta, an incredibly effusive warm woman with really good chicken. She even drove us back to the hotel when the area started looking too sketchy after dark. Near CC is Kakum National Park. They have a canopy walk. I chickened out after the second bridge (out of 7); even repeating the Bene Gesserit Mantra Against Fear (yes, I did. I really am that sad) couldn’t get me out on the third one. I had thought they’d be more… Wide? That the nets would be higher? Somehow I’d thought they’d feel sturdier. But, I’m a coward. At least I got two, right? The views were lovely and then we went on a neat nature walk with a guide telling us the native uses/myths about the various trees. Fun fun. <br /><br />Green Turtle (Ghana): Situated on one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on, GT is paradise. Jesus loves cocktails. Had a great time vegetating with mom on the beach, drinking more STAR than I should have, and meeting a bunch of nice people. Mostly, though, it was just good to have some 100% down time with mom to shoot the breeze. <br /><br />Accra (Ghana): we went back through Cape Coast and then headed further east to Accra, which was an ok city. The Christian mission type guesthouses were all full (and really unfriendly!!) and we ended up staying in what looked like a totally scary hotel but turned out to be really nice – Beverly Hills something. Plus we ate at the Orangerie – AMAZING! I had smoked salmon pasta. So delicious and western and clean and… It was a good stop. <br /><br />Kpalime (Togo): After one night in Accra it was up to Ho in a crammed taxi, then from Ho to Kpalime in an incredibly sketchy taxi on an awful road eclipsed only by the one that’s on the way to Green Turtle. It was torture. But then we ended up at Chez Fanny, which is this beautiful hotel/restaurant in Kpalime run by a French/Togolaise couple. The food was to die for. Shrimp flambéed in whisky. Avocados everywhere. Local coffee (the owner was kind enough to sell me some…) From Kpalime we went on a nature hike and the guide drew a butterfly on my arm with local plant dyes (don’t worry, it washed off). The area is known for its butterflies and even though we went after peak season it was still lovely. Lots of cocoa and banana plantations and lovely GREEN everything. And avocados. Cheap. Bigger than my head for a quarter. Mom mocked me for hauling them around but they were soooo worth it. Yum. Kpalime also has a lovely artisanal center; I got a beautiful batik of a woman pouring water off her head. Yes, you can get batiks in Niamey, but nowhere near this quality and detail. <br /><br />Lome (Togo): In Kpalime we decided to make a run for Niamey so that we could squeeze a full week in my village. Lome was interesting for a night, we stayed in a good hotel and walked on the beach (scary undertow!) and slept and ate fondue. Yum. Plus knowing Hausa helped me get a bus that was leaving later… not that that turned out to be much of a great bonus<br /><br />The Bus: So, we picked this bus as it was supposed to be faster, skipping Cotonou and all. It was ~36 hours of hell. The road was awful, they tried to turn the music on to the threshold of pain. I’m not ashamed to admit that I used tears to get the music shut off. I’d already put up with that nonsense on the bus from Niamey to Ouaga, and that at least was a nice bus. This was a shitty bus. I wasn’t about to tolerate headache inducing music on a shitty bus. Nope. Then it stopped for 6 hours at Parakou, and they really couldn’t figure out why we didn’t want to get off the bus and sleep in the heavily lit, extremely noisy concrete floored sleeping area when the bus at least had cushions of some sort. And it was nice and quiet and dark… Africa… Then there was some sort of insane line of transport cars lined up for miles at the Benin-Niger border. Our driver and his helper got us navigated through that, but then wanted to make up time by leaving the Americans at the border to get the visas sorted and have us take a motorcycle to catch up. A universe of no. Tears again. Embarrassing but effective. They rushed us through and we were back on our (long) way, with pauses for prayer of course. Then, once we got to Niamey and were on our way to the hotel (Terminus. It’s lovely.) our stupid taxi driver tried to make us wait while he went and had a conversation with his friend, after I’d already explained how tired we were… ‘You Americans lack patience’. Yes, but that’s why our country works – we don’t put up with this nonsense. **sigh**<br /><br />We stayed at the Terminus a couple of nights to get sorted and settled and rested, then it was onto the bus again out to Maradi and a week in the village. <br /><br />A good trip. <br /><br />So, life in the village now:<br /><br />Gardening: our community garden is caput – people stole everything the second it got ripe so the owners stopped watering. I still have my little garden; it’s full of eggplant and, now that I dumped Miracle grow and other fertilizers on it, I think the tomatoes may start producing. I also am now up to 15 moringa trees. Yum.<br /><br />Murals: The total’s up to three now – nutrition, conjunctivitis, and now hand-washing. I’m waiting for World Vision to finish the pump skirt so I can put another one on it on not feeding your infant dirty water – milk only until they’re 6 months. Yes, that means no hura, either, in case you were wondering… <br /><br />Water: I’ve got some hope for the pumps ever getting fixed/installed. Last week WV came through and started cementing the area around the pump – a sure sign of progress.<br /><br />The Women: the two women’s groups are going strong – they’re much better organized and motivated than the men. I taught the women’s leader of my village how to bake bread – she says she’ll give a demo later. I hope so. It’s an easy income generating activity. <br /><br />The rest of it: well, it’s Ramadan, which means no food or drink from dawn until dusk, which in turn means that everyone is asleep and really cranky. I’m not doing it this year (I did one day and was dead sick) and so that’s an issue for the village. For all that this is supposed to be cultural ‘exchange’ they’re convinced that, having seen their wonderful religion/culture I’ll want to adopt it myself. Oh. Hell. No. So, I get this long conversation frequently on why I’m not a muslim and how there’s no way I’ll cover my head in America. I’ve explained that I have every intention of wearing shorts and tank tops and talking to boys and not living with my parents and driving a car and… they’re horrified. It’s great fun. I feel like I was too polite the first year and a half. Now I’m telling the truth and it’s very liberating. Here’s real American culture – I don’t have to listen to you just because you are male. In fact, it decreases the likelihood of me listening to you. Bwa ha ha ha. Having mom come, again, really helped – a married woman traveling by herself on her own money, and explaining that dad is not, in fact, the ‘mai gida’ (owner of the house) but that they share it jointly. A couple of my fellow volunteers are all ‘we should respect their culture and outlook’ – my response: ‘if we respect it too much we run the risk of this being it for them – there will be no progress here if nothing changes.’ Harsh. Cruel. True. <br /><br />It helps, too, that I talked with an NGO worker whose NGO used to work in my village 10 years ago. They ran into the same problems I do and eventually quit working there – the villagers were only interested in using the NGO cars as transport into Maradi, not in the health work they were doing at the time. The NGO also works with trees and agro forestry - ten years later there are maybe 10 of the trees they planted still growing. I asked the villagers why they didn’t have the trees any more. ‘They died.’ And it didn’t occur to them to replant them without being paid to do so. And yet, Peace Corps felt this was a good village to post a volunteer in. **sigh** I gave the NGO worker my women’s leader’s number – she at least has the kokari to get things done. The men… even Issaka, my host dad… I’ve lost all hope for them. They’ve been ruined by the culture of NGO handouts. There’s no drive to improve the village themselves – the NGO/Government/Allah will fix it, or bring it, or do whatever it is needs to be done. There is no ownership concept because so much has been given to them in the past. Honestly, I think that most aid programs need to be pulled, with only programs that don’t give money, rely on villager motivation, and generally are sustainable, should be let back in. Yes, villages will suffer, but at some point, it is no longer the west’s water to support these people. <br /><br />Again, I’ve been here probably too long and have become too jaded and negative. There are programs and people that work. My village just isn’t inclined to be one of them. The women have hope but until they’re fully free of male domination there won’t be enough freedom for them to progress. Right now my host mothers aren’t even allowed to go to the market – and these are full grown women who, in the west, would be in charge of all the marketing and running of the household. But, because of Islam and a culture of shame and patriarchy, they can’t do the simplest tasks without risking Issaka’s stern disapproval. It’s not a pretty picture. And yet there’s still smiling and laughter and good times to be had. Drinking tea or playing around. It’s not all bad. It’s just, now that I’m looking more to the future, it’s certainly far from good.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-8815456806442619512009-07-27T04:02:00.000-07:002009-07-27T04:08:32.100-07:00Kende Ne WaongoMom and I are now in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. It's AMAZING. So incredibly green. And friendly. And my phone works, so I'm happy. Volunteers are super helpful here and we've found some great places to stay. The ride here was a bit nuts - they played music videos at volumes well beyond the threshold of pain teh entire trip (starting before 6am) ]<br />Just a quick update<br />Hi all<br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-33760148883932182752009-07-01T07:03:00.000-07:002009-07-01T07:09:47.829-07:00Maradi BoundGreetings all<br />For those of you with my number I'm in Maradi for a while - feel free to call or email or... I should get it. Our valiant RR, Rakia, had to head home for a bit, so I'm sub-RRing. So far, so good, despite crazy politics, power outages, and just general Niger-ness. I'm using the time wisely - reading trashy novels, watching movies, and trying to sort out life after peace corps. I figure 6 months should be enough time to get something organized. As it is, I'm totally idea-less. Tempted to buck responsibility some more and try <a href="http://www.wwoof.org/europe.asp">WWOOFing</a> around the world - they have sites in Slovenia!! (I miss real soil)<br /><br />So, just a heads up, more as it happens<br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-5543476472275231732009-06-26T04:39:00.000-07:002009-06-26T05:16:17.769-07:00Life on Planet Earth...... because I haven't figured out how to get to Vulcan yet. <br /><br />Yup, you guessed it. I've been spending time obsessing about Star Trek, primarily because I can't even watch the trailers out here - the connection's too slow. So, instead, I drive myself insane with J.J. Abrams' edit of WIRED, which is AMAZING. I love it. Plus, I get to try to explain puzzles to my villagers. I think they get it; they may just smile and nod and write it off as another example of Malika being a bit nuts. Still, gotta love hidden puzzles! <br /><br />Life in the village continues... <br /><br />IT'S PLANTING TIME!!! We planted once, and that was fun. I'm trying to promote an agroforestry approach, using acacias from SIM. Unfortunately, despite the fact that we're now well into rainy season, we haven't had enough rain and our first planting died. This is, obviously, not a good thing, as it's already hunger season, meaning food is scarce/expensive, and that replanted seed we can't eat. Also, the delayed planting means a delayed harvest. Not good. <br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/marika.olson/Murals">MURALS</a>: Well, finished two now, the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/marika.olson/Murals#5328987299225168242">anti-conjunctivitis</a> one first and lately a <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/marika.olson/Murals#5351606025872608658">nutrition mural</a> (yes, I realize that step 1 is getting enough to eat, but I want them to start thinking that tuwo (millet/sorghum grain mush) isn't enough from a vitamin/mineral/protein standpoint. So I now have a care-bear baby on my wall. <br /><br />THE PUMP: Well, there's been some progress on the organizational side - Barkatou and I went to a (horrendously boring repetitious) World Vision training on how a pump committee should be organized. I need to add the caveat that to us it was boring, for the villagers it was a good thing. Being raised as a Western person, you're inculcated with a sense of how business should be run - roles of committee members aren't things that take days to delineate, they just 'are'. **sigh** So, while each member of each committee from each village stood up and explained, almost verbatim, the duties of their particular role, we played dots after listening to it the first time 'round. Still, it's encouraging that they've gotten them organized. Of course, I still have a big blue plastic borehole and no pump...<br /><br />GARDENING: I, too, have had to replant. I don't know what's going on, but suspect ants, caterpillars, and bunnies! (j/k. Zara will get it if she reads this, the rest of you go watch Buffy) are undermining my attempts to secure a pretty green garden. Drat them all. The moringas are doing very well, though. I regularly enjoy bush florentine crepes - just sautee the leaves with onions, garlic, and add some laughing cow. I also add bouillon to the crepe batter because I've lived here too long. <br /><br />WOMEN'S GROUP: Well, now that Sa'a, my women's leader, is now the leader of a group of groups in different villages, she's rarely there, and possible thoughts of teaching bread baking and mango jamming but there's still hope to get it done before I leave. Also, they now say they want a new grinding machine; apparently the 2 we already have are not enough and they want to start making peanut butter and other goodies. Fair enough, and yay, really, but this is something that should have been brought up ages ago, so I could maybe get it done before I left, NOT during the beginning of rainy season when no one has money and no one can build anything because it's rainy and they're all out in the fields anyhow... Poor timing, but I'm working the numbers up for the next vol if they choose to do it. Or, who knows, if the job situation doesn't look any better by the time September rolls around, maybe I'll stay and do it. Could be fun :) <br /><br />Hadjia House: The gutters are up, the water flows into the barrel, all is right with the world. Just in time for Ghanima to have her kittens (she looks like a balloon, any day now).<br /><br />Life is good. We ARE Cylons. Star Trek needs to be on DVD now. That is all.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-35770370342286651282009-05-22T08:39:00.000-07:002009-05-22T10:11:26.650-07:00Future???So, greetings all<br />I've been in town for about a week, what I call my vacation from the village though I'm actually running around a lot here like a headless chicken. Huzaah for work! It's hot season, so, beyond my <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/marika.olson/Murals#">murals</a>, there's not a lot of work going on in the village at the moment; it's just too darn hot. At the moment I'm enjoying the Guest House's lovely A/C and higherspeed internet. Trying to figure out the rest of my life - no pressure. Torn between loving ag and wanting something that will give me psychological payback faster than the decade it can take to produce a good seed line, which will then take another decade to get to the people who need it most, at which point it's no longer relevant... and yes, I'm prone to hyperbole. So, breeding plants and living abroad that way, or ag econ, which is less hands on and concrete, but instead gives you real numbers you can actually get your hands on... Decisions. So no bloody idea. What I'd really like to do is run away to Slovenia or somewhere in that area, down into the old Ottoman empire, as far south as Turkey, get a rambling old house, renovate it and turn it into a production center - gardens, fruit trees, etc. Of course, though, I'd have highspeed internet and all the modern amenities installed so that I could do outstanding analysis by contract. Yes, I've been reading <u>Under the Tuscan Sun</u>, <u>Blackberry Wine</u> and others. A woman can dream, yah? Fresh fruit, fresh air, WATER, GREEN. Just a few requirements. **sigh** Of course, I want to work on African issues... For all that I'd rather live in Slovenia they don't seem to have any problems with ag (I still remember that deliciously dark soil every time I look at the fields around here...) So, retirement only. I'm 27. Why the heck am I thinking about retirement??! Granted, a few grey hairs here and there...<br /><br />What I've liked most about living here in Niger is not, surprisingly, the weather (jk) but the opportunity to farm and get my hands dirty. I like my gardens, my tree nursery, and planning my field (I'm going for an agroforestry/regeneration of really crappy marginal farmland approach. I'm planning on planting rows of acacias (nitrogen fixing, fast growing, good firewood and nutritious seeds) 10m apart, with 2 rows of zogala (VERY nutritious leaves) in between those, and planting the ground around with cowpeas. I'm doing this, insha'allah, in two new fields - my old field is too close to the site of the new pump, where they're planning on expanding the village eventually, so there's no real point in planting field trees there. I'm hoping that the next volunteer will continue to take care of the little plots in my host family's fields, so that people can get the idea and expand and eventually reclaim this crappy marginal soil. That's the plan. Of course, said plan requires rain for it to work... It has rained once... we're still in hot season. I'd hold my breath but that might make me sweat even more. Ick. <br /><br />Hugs from Niger to anyone still reading this ramble.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-82151561321495977002009-04-24T05:21:00.000-07:002009-04-26T05:54:39.995-07:00A semi-massive update<P><FONT size=2><blockquote><EM>In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take a way</EM>.<BR>-Antoine de Saint Exupery Wind, Sand, and Stars<BR></blockquote><BR><BR>And on that note, I ditch the thought of trying to catch up the last few months of journal. Here's a summary of what's been going on:<BR><BR>Garden Project: The gardens looked great. The gardeners put in a lot of money (they have to buy water from the well women) and effort and we had a good crop of vegetables. Unfortunately, the rest of them couldn't seem to keep their hands off of the veggies. Every time a cabbage or tomato or carrot was ripe and ready to harvest, it was gone the next day. I suspect children, but the gardeners say it's probably the adults, too. With the garden being so close to the well, and thus so far from the town, it can't be policed efficiently. The gardeners were very disappointed. We're going to try again once World Vision finishes working on our pump, which is closer to the village and thus we can have people guard it effectively. Apparently the same thing happened over ten years ago when an NGO came through and tried to start a school garden - all the veggies disappeared. It's really frustrating to see peoples' hard work be destroyed so casually. My mai gari and host family assure me that if they find the people they'll take them to the sarki in Chadakori and have them fined/punished. It is, to me, so ridiculous that they would steal from the garden - they KNEW it was a trial garden - I told them that if it went really well I'd start trying to get a big garden project funded. Now, they get nothing. Frustrating.<BR><BR>Tree Nursery: Hopefully better fated than the garden, whose space we're now using. I'm hoping that the larger number of people participating will increase the psychological buy in and thus reduce the thefts. Plus, black plastic bags with trees are a bit bigger than tomatoes, and thus harder to conceal theft. The set up is as follows: for 250F they get 15 black plastic bags and seeds of kuka (baobab) or zogala (moringa). A lot of them are also going to use bedi (neem) or dan tahoua (Acacia colei) seeds which they can get in the village from trees we already have. I've invested the initial 6000 to get the project off the ground. Once that's paid back any further profit will go towards upkeep of the fund and the tree nursery area. The villagers can see a profit of 1250F, minus whatever they pay for water, which should be much less than for the garden as the trees are smaller and don't require as much water as vegetables. Trees sell for 100F in my village market and they're a rarity - hard to bring from Maradi. The seller when he had them always seemed to sell out. Also, the nearby bigger market doesn't have a tree seller - they definitely have a market to sell the trees. Personally, I'm hoping they'll keep at least a few of the trees to plant in their fields and around their houses. Any tree around here is a good thing - they reduce the wind and runoff. But even if they're used as purely profit, profit is something my village could use. So, yay. Here's hoping.<BR><BR>Pump: World Vision came out and put in the pipes for our new pump. The water was approximately 75 meters down, the well itself I believe goes to 100m. Just a bit deep, yes? Getting the work done was a lot of fun to watch - they made holes for the drilling mud and spent several days drilling and getting the piping in. Now we're waiting for them to do tests on the water and come back and put in the hand pump. That's been a couple of months, but they've put the one in at the village up the road, so I suspect we should see ours before I COS, which is good.<BR><BR>Womens' Groups: The two womens' groups I've helped start have taken off. I checked in with both of them recently. The one in the nearby hamlet has about 50 women and they're borrowing and paying back almost the entire fund every week. I'm really impressed. The one in my town is going a bit more slowly - the pay in is half as much as the hamlet, and because it's larger, around 100 women, there are more squabbles over who gets what when. But, they're both going and people are using them to pay for bikis or to make food to sell at market. It's really neat that they're continuing all by themselves. Plus, it's a great source of change for when the bank gives me ridiculously large bills - I try to explain that I live in the bush, and sometimes they get that I can't do anything with a 5000F bill (~$10) in a village where 100F is a lot of money.<BR><BR>Hadjia House: I finally got my ridiculously expensive shade hangar installed this past week before coming in for team meeting. It's tall and lovely and there will be no more evil termites and stuff falling on my head and leaking water and. It's great! Next step - cementing the floor so it'll be even for me to sleep on - I hate my cot and I sleep on the floor on mattresses on a mat. I've also got all the fabric on the ceiling so no more mud/termite dirt falling on me, and I don't have to look at the spiders I know are up there. Yay. My garden died before producing anything of use - hot season came really early this year, and much stronger than it did last year. I should have planted it before I went on vacation in December, but oh well, hindsight 20/20 and all that. It's now serving as a place for my own personal tree nursery of acacias for my field this coming rainy season. I have a. tolurosa and a. colei from SIM, a great NGO that I like a lot. They work sustainably for ag development. At the moment the tree nursery people really wanted bedi with a smattering of the others - I'm hoping that when they see how awesome the acacias are they'll want to plant them for the next round. They provide firewood and windbreaks and nutritious seed and they fix nitrogen. Yay.<BR><BR>Life in general: Pretty good. I think I've figured out what I want to do after service. I'm interested in looking into the effects that current agricultural policies in the developed world (i.e. US/EU Farm Policy) have on the agricultural sector (i.e. over 75% of the people) in the developing world. I'd like to focus on the Sahelian area, but not really sure yet. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up studying underwater basket weaving. or extend service to go teach in China. Anything could happen. We could be Cylons.<BR><BR>:)<BR>M<BR><BR><BR>P.S. Current book read count since 22 January = 31 If anyone reads <U>Pride and Predjudice and Zombies</U>, could you send it? It looks VERY fun.<BR></FONT></P>Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-89950054823460494912009-04-01T05:40:00.000-07:002009-04-01T05:41:00.571-07:00QuickieSo just updated the Dragons in Niger blog, if anyone's interested. <br />:)<br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-84081645253968610822009-02-11T06:15:00.000-08:002009-02-11T06:29:42.467-08:00Evil Red Lectroids from Planet X by way of the Eighth DimensionThis makes me happy:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3069"><img width= 400 src="http://sinfest.net/comikaze/comics/2009-01-30.gif"></a><br /><br />Although, really, it needs an oscillation overthruster to be 'interesting'. <br />Duh.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-52501668930543008502009-02-11T05:11:00.000-08:002009-02-11T06:14:41.501-08:00Better Living Through ChemistrySo, I have strep. And Amoebas. Joy. Other than that, life's good.<br />Came in on Monday to get some work done and put in the order for my (inordinately expensive) new shiny shade hangar that will be used to demo water harvesting (and because I'm sick of spiders and the sound of termites munching). I had a bit of a sore throat, upset stomach, and mild fever - figured it was nothing. Oops. So I'm here until Friday, working on getting handouts set up for the newbies' upcoming IST and trying to keep the fever down (it maxed at 100.6, approx 3 degrees for me) and sleeping a lot. A lot. I'd also like to draw your attention to today's weather report: Dust. Dust doesn't even begin to cover it - try nasty evil haze and coughing and blah - and that's the people without giant lumps of goop on the back of their throat. This is why Niger needs more trees.<br /><br />The garden's going well in the village, though some brilliant person let the goats in and a couple people lost their lettuce. We planted enough that it will be fine, though. I went by the metal place this morning and for all that it's ridiculously expensive, the quality of work is phenomenal. I was expecting flimsy, but I'd feel comfortable using his work in the States. 163000F well spent. (No, I don't want to do the calculation into USD, it would only depress me). I'll put up pictures when it's done, but basically it'll take all the water from a 6m2 area, plus a portion of my roof, and funnel it into a barrel to which a spigot has been welded so that I can use it to fill my watering can for my garden. <br /><br />Why go to all this mess? Because I want them to come to me and ask me to help them do the same thing. I want the motivation to come from them, so that they'll contribute, which is something that doesn't really happen around here all that much - the white people just show up and give them stuff and it's great. La la la. So not sustainable. So, to get them interested in gardening I made my own. To get them interested in water harvesting... you got it :) We'll see how this works. Ultimate goal: School garden with water from harvesting off the school roofs. Of course, I expect that there'll be flying pigs present at the opening ceremonies, but hey, we can hope, yah?<br /><br />:)<br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-90261445446992767302009-01-30T01:05:00.000-08:002009-01-30T01:13:47.167-08:00QuickieHi<br />So, I'm a horrible person and forgot to bring my old journal in to give everyone a blow by blow of my life for the past months. So, you'll have to just settle for the knowledge that I had an AMAZING time in Europe with my parents. We we went to Munich and Regensburg and Prague and Vienna and Salzburg and I gained 5 delicious pounds from eating amazing food and drinking fabulously dark beer. (Though, the situation here has been remedied slightly in that there is now Guinness available in the hostel). I took lots of photos, so enjoy those :) The stuffed animal is Chloe, I've had her for ages and she works really well for when I don't have people to take pictures of. <br /><br />This I stole from a letter to my aunt, as it covers pretty much the rest of life since:<br /><br />Life here is... well, it's Niger. Coming back to Africa was... difficult. Extremely. I was in the Paris airport thinking it wouldn't be that hard to change my flight back to America instead of Niamey. And then one of my stage-mates, John, waltzed up, coming back from the states. It was sort of like confirmation that I was doing the right thing. And even then, convincing myself to leave Niamey for Maradi, Maradi for the bush, eep. Not easy at all. But then I got back and they were all 'Maraba Malika, Maraba' (Maraba=welcome, stole it from Arabic. Hausa is half-arabic it seems. Islam's been here a long while) and my cat was still alive and my house wasn't too termite ridden. <br /><br />Tossed myself back into the swing of things to take my mind of not being in a Marriott and so now we have a cold season garden going with 8 village families. It keeps me busy and reminds me that hey, contrary to my boss' opinion (I'm convinced the country director has no idea about any of her volunteers' abilities - we're just warm bodies to fill villages) I do, in fact, have useful skills that can help people. It's a good feeling. Plus to know that it really is because of me that they got off their butts and got the garden. Previously they'd determined that water was just too much suffering to get - the well when I got there was approx 35m, it's now somewhere around 45m, and the pump on the other side of the village they apparently had to drill to 50+m to hit water. I look in the well and get vertigo. But they saw me, granted I bought my water rather than pulling it myself, and I had a garden. A few people started asking for transplants, and since I'd overplanted, having no idea what, if anything, would grow, I gave them to them. Granted, they all died because they didn't protect them well enough from the nasty grazing beasties, but it got the idea started. Eventually my mai gari (mayor, kind of, except more than that, socially) got together 8 families and, using fencing from an old NGO project, we set up a garden. I used my own money (told them it was from the parents so they won't ask me again ;) ) and bought seeds, but they know that after this it's all on them - they're starting a fund to be able to pay for seeds, plastic bags for a tree nursery, an oil drum, etc. It was tempted to pay for all of it, but then it wouldn't be at all sustainable, and they're used to anasara handouts. Getting their own money involved gets them to take better care and make better decisions. Which is pretty much what changeed my mind about putting in a water tower. They're a small village, they don't really NEED a water tower. They just want one because they think that because I'm white I have lots of money and I HAVE to give it to them. Just started reading Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux. He makes a good comment about what we face here - the weird sense of entitlement that a lot of Africans have. I liken it to the old 'teach a man a fish...' thing. Here I am, teaching them to fish, right? The men come back the next day and say 'well, yah, that's great, but now you have to give us better fishing rods and stock the lake for us.' the women come back and just demand I give them more fish - I'm rich, I can afford it. It's ridiculously frustrating. I'm hoping the garden doesn't turn into it. So, that's that, and now I'm in for team meeting and a party to congratulate the newest stage on their first month in the bush. <br /><br /><br />And thus my life. I'd like to thank everyone for keeping in contact with me, via emails and facebook and all the insanity that is communications in Africa.<br />Thanks <br />:)<br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-47965026381478172532008-12-03T12:35:00.000-08:002008-12-03T13:21:26.299-08:00Another Massive Update<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3429" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><FONT size=3>17 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Not as long as yesterday but still a long day. Many from the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">biki</I> were still here this morning (which feels like ages ago - here the hours drag like eons and the days fly by). Ate my <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">biki</I> 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">biki</I>. 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">biki</I> in town, to which I will haul my asleep carcass to this evening for <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">walima</I> (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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">anasara</I> Hausa really well or I'm getting better - somehow we managed to get through basic set up, who's holding the money, no the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">anasara</I> will NOT be buying you a <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">caisse</I> 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kokari</I> to put outside clothes back on and go to the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">walima</I>, especially as whichever nerve it is that runs to your pinky is acting up again. I miss my chiropractor. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><FONT size=3>18 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Didn't end up going to <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">walima</I>, stayed up reading <U>Shelters of Stone</U> until </SPAN><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="9"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt">9ish</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt">. 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">biki</I> 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 :)</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt">. 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 :)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><FONT size=3>19 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">dan belagro</I> (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. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>This morning was spent making a clean copy for the Yammata <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Asusu</I>, 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kishiya </I>(cowife), but one of her neighbors can, as can Sa'a if she has time to go next Monday. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><FONT size=3><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">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?</SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Satan. John Milton, </SPAN><st1:place><U><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Paradise</SPAN></U></st1:place><U><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> Lost</SPAN></U><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, IV: 515-9<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>20 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>I hate insomnia - woke up every hour or so last night after not even getting partially to sleep until </SPAN><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="0"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">midnight</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. Napped the morning away and started to pack in prep for Maradi tomorrow, only to find the evil <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">gara</I> (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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">shikenan</I>, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">sai gobe, ya issa </I>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 </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Germany</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> 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. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>22 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>At the moment am chilling in the corner of the hostel's main room. The place is <U>packed</U> - 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 </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Germany</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. 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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>24 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN></SPAN><st1:time Minute="27" Hour="1"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">1:27 am</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. 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 </SPAN><st1:time Minute="30" Hour="7"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">7:30 am</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> 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 <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>25 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>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.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>Khalil Gibran, <U>Sand and Foam<o:p></o:p></U></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>26 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Sitting now with Zeinabou at the Sonitrav station, waiting for the bus to Zinder. She's going sightseeing before she leaves </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Niger</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> 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 </SPAN><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="10"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">10am</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kabo</I>, 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 <U>Clan of the Cave Bear</U>. 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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kabo</I> 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. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>27 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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 </SPAN><st1:stockticker><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">SNV</SPAN></st1:stockticker><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, 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 </SPAN><st1:stockticker><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">SNV</SPAN></st1:stockticker><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> 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 </SPAN><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="17"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">5 pm</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> 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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>28 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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. </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Arg.</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>29 November<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kabo</I> drivers to find the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">tasha</I> (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 <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">very</B> </SPAN><st1:State><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">New Mexico</SPAN></st1:place></st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, 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 </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Nigeria</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> (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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kaki</I>, these amazing honey cookie things that I'm bringing back to my villagers as <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">dan belagro</I>, 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.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>1-3 December<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">mai gari</I> was totally nice and let me sleep in a big comfy bed in his house. Then the next morning Sani, the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">mai gari</I>'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 </SPAN><st1:time Minute="30" Hour="3"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">3:30am</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, then hopped the </SPAN><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="5"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">5am</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> to Maradi. Got in around </SPAN><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="9"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">9am</SPAN></st1:time><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. 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 <EM>anasara</EM> 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.</SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>HUGS<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>M<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-35906112537946194462008-12-02T03:39:00.000-08:002008-12-02T03:42:13.630-08:00NightmareSo, the nice long post I'd written, along with my edited photos, and everything else I had on my thumbdrive, have now disappeared - wiped by an evil, vicious, and poorly kept computer in the internet cafe. This is sooo not good. I have backups, but aie. It's been a long week.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-13237112760323053322008-11-22T04:14:00.000-08:002008-11-22T04:18:02.188-08:00<center><i>If the Milky Way were not within me how should I have seen it or know it? </i> Khalil Gibran, <u>Sand and Foam</u></center><br /><br />Fair warning: this is a long blog update. Feel free to skim :) <br /><br />5 November 6:31 am. <br /> We won. I haven’t slept since Monday night. I’m exhausted, or would be if I weren’t so far past that. We won. We huddled in our blankets watching CNN via Kenyan satellite TV, shivering, beset by weird interruptions at KTV decided to show glimpses of African towns instead of Cooper and Blitzer and in the hour before dawn we were rewarded with our very own new hope. And then, as dawn was upon us, he spoke to us as our new President elect. I cried. A lot. Here is what a president should be. We’ve defeated the Jabberwock. We won. And now we sleep.<br /><br />6 November<br /> Yesterday was pretty much devoted to sleepily wandering around, going ‘we won’ occasionally, and reading <u>New Moon</u>. I finished it today - enjoyed it, but again the images in my head don’t go with the casting at all, Edward especially, but we’ll see how it goes… still… crack. Today was for the market, though market day’s tomorrow. Tagged along with Christina and Angela and ended up spending <i>much</i> more than I should have - 2000F for dark linen for the shade hangar, nails to hold up the fabric - a lot of nails and we named the seller’s cat Barkatou as she loves cats - and then, on impulse, this amazing blue green pagne - 3 actually, what’s called a <i>turmi</i> - with butterflies in relief. I want to get a full complet (shirt, skirt, <i>kalabi</i>(trad. head wrap)) for <i>layya</i> (Tabaski - the holiday where each family slaughters a ram and shares the meat with trick-or-treaters in honor of the sacrifice of Isaac?? (I should have paid more attention in Sunday school…)) It’ll also serve well for swear in, though I may get my fancy not-very-Hausa one fixed as well - will post pix either way :) Not sure I want to go home tomorrow - between being sure to hear about Obama every 5 minutes and not looking forward to explaining the water tower project didn’t get chosen (I can’t blame them - the villages they chose needed help more than we do) I’m not looking forward at all. They don’t seem to quite understand or believe when I explain that Americans are NOT made of money. Maybe they’ll get the clue when I explain that I’m also not going to be buying a sheep all by myself for <i>layya</i>. I don’t have a spare 35,000F (~$78) lying around and I may not even be here for all that. Given that I still have my aversion to meat after the salla - I couldn’t even eat the lamb at Ousmane’s going away party before the election, no matter how nummy it looked. The smell… They will not be happy with me I suspect. But, as they say in Strictly Ballroom, watched while waiting for the election party to get going: <br /><center>A Life Lived in Fear is a Life Half Lived</center><br /> And so I shall be brave and go back tomorrow having only bad news on the local front to tell them somehow I suspect Obama’s win will only make the rest worse - the concept of delays and stages doesn’t always go over here, and thus now that we’ve elected Obama everything must magically fix itself in America, the land of milk and honey, and I, being from there, should have all the money and supp… **Distracted by Atonement. McAvoy would have made a much better Edward**<br /><br />8 November<br /> Back from Maradi yesterday. Found stickers which I pasted onto my water bottles and got rave reviews on. Listening now to World Fusion music from Dad and wondering how to solve Sarkin Hatsi’s water problems - all pumps are broken, there’s not enough money to fix them, and the water table’s dropped such that it’s now 30 <i>gabas</i>, 40-45m deep at the well. I wonder if World Vision would be willing to fix the wells and train the people to fix them themselves. Of course, that’s still not entirely sustainable but at least it wouldn’t take three hours of hard labor to fill a couple of 25L <i>gerkas</i> (usually old plastic oil bottles). Will ask Issaka for more details then add WV to the list of people I need to contact when I go back - Ousmane also gave me the name of a woman at CARE to contact for money counseling for the <i>garka</i> (garden) and women’s <i>asusu</i> (group fund). Here’s hoping that all works out. Am back under the family shade hangar having swept all kinds of <i>gara</i> (termite) dirt out of both rooms of my house (scary) this morning. Kader and Issaka are back from the fields and Nana’s off to sell <i>haki</i> made from bean leaves - surprisingly yummy, especially when powdered <i>kulikuli</i> (dried peanut paste after oil’s been extracted) is added. I’m also hoping that Kader can fix my solar charger adapter - the Nigerien sun has worked its evil and now the pins have come unstuck and I can’t charge my flashlight any more. Have just broken the no chateau news to Issaka and he’s taking it rather well. I told him I’d be trying to find other programs to ask for money and/or assistance, but the first step for me now is getting the busted pumps back in operation. 45m is insane to have to be pulling by hand. Of course, the pump’s not much better - inspiration for the Stairmaster I suspect. In other news, gave the family the pictures mom and dad had printed out and sent - they were beyond thrilled. Now Issaka wants a big one of the one of me and him - I explained while it was cheaper to get them printed in America (here it’s several USD per copy) that it’s still not cheap. <i>Sai Hankuri</i> (Have Patience)<br /><br />9 November<br /> Ah Niger, the only country, I suspect, where sharing a snack of roasted locusts (<i>hwara</i>) with your cat can be considered even remotely normal - actually, it implies a very spoiled kitten. Tastes kind of like spiky potato chips. Today was market day and for 2900F (~$6.50) I got myself fabric and a shirt made from it for the biki next weekend- very Hausa. It manages somehow to be both lovely and hideous. It’s red and has gold trim…<br /><br /><br />10 November<br /> Spent the morning getting the new panels nailed onto my shade hangar. Either the wood is exceptionally hard or the nails are extremely weak - bent over half trying to get them in. They are holding the panels up now, so I guess that’s what counts. Nice and shady, plus I now have an extra panel blocking falling grime from the millet stalk roof. Pavilion in paradise or some such drivel. Speaking of, finished the 3rd Eragon book last night, <i>Brisingr</i>. He names his sword fire… Totally hokey escapist literature; I enjoyed every moment of it. I’m sure the family wondered what the giggling was about last night. I’m such a well-trained fangirl ;) <br /> In other news, Issaka helped buy a goat for us to share for Tabaski. Technically it’s supposed to be a sheep, but they are waaaay too expensive. So, we’re splitting a goat, 10,000F out of 16,500F being my share. It’s black. Kinda cute. Hopefully tasty. It’s also helping me dispose of all the <i>garin rogo</i> (cassava flour) I accumulated back when I determined it was the best solution to not wanting to cook in the heat. I’ve since determine that the improvement of couscous is worth actually heating water, but that left me with several <i>tiyas</i> of <i>gari</i> just lying around in my old milk tin from when I first got here. Two birds with one stone - fatter goat, less clutter. Plus, it seems I now have chicks - 9 of ‘em. Issaka moved the chicken back from Barmao’s house and they hatched. The chicken herself is tied up in their cooking area, lest she go wandering again. I don’t know long it takes for them to grow but maybe we could eat them when I get back from Germany? I want edible breakfast eggs, not fuzzy little cheepy critters. <br /><br />11 November<br /> Later on yesterday was the women’s <i>asusu</i> - I bought more grasshoppers from Hinda so that she had enough to pay in - a habit I do not wish to get into. Talked to Sa’a and we’ll go to Yammata next Monday to help them set up an <i>asusu</i>of their own. I also told them I’d be going to Asusu Cii Gaba (an NGO) when I’m next in to check on the prices of real boxes for keeping the money in, rather than the piece of cloth they’re using now. Something they can lock, as they’ve accumulated over 15,000F and I’d hate for anything to go wrong. <br /> Today was interesting. Began slowly - haven’t been sleeping well - doing laundry and reading <u>The Mote in God’s Eye</u>. Then around 12:30 headed out to where Kader, Issaka, Bukari, and another friend were <i>tanka</i>-ing - sewing an outer, water proofing covering onto a new <i>rumbu</i> (grain silo). The <i>rumbu</i> is turned upside down, looking like a grass hut without doors, tall grasses are stacked tightly around it, then cut green branches are sewn in loops around the <i>rumbu</i> using strong grass ropes. Harder than it sounds, but kind of fun to use my muscles and help out. Plus, there was tea, which, as everyone knows, I’m a total sucker for. In doing so, however, I proved I had neglected to put sunscreen on, so I’m now nice and lobster-y. Oops. Came back around 4 to shower (kind of - it’s cold season now and even warm water is freezing when the wind blows). <br /><br />13 November<br /> Am beginning to be alarmed by the amount of time I spend sleeping - like a large portion of yesterday, 1-6ish. Morning was fine - washed dishes, read more <u>Mote</u>, ate <i>tuwo</i> (got to love good food for 5¢). Meant to go wander and greet in the afternoon but sat down on my bed for a while to read <u>Guns, Germs, and Steel</u> (having finished <u>Mote</u>), and lost all will to get up. Sign of not enough magnesium? Not sure. I keep trying to think up catchy facebook-esque statements of my current status - I am:<br />• Wondering why I’m always tired<br />• Not where I thought I’d be at almost 27<br />• Wishing I had a clue what to do with large portions of my life<br />• Craving Chinese food<br />• Tempted to go eat more street food to slim down before Germany<br />• Watching her host brother do a 50 piece puzzle<br />• Wishing tea took less time to cook<br /><br /> I’m sure I’ll come up with more. If the world were all online I’d drive people nuts with status updates. Ambled around a bit this morning - got photos of the drying <i>rumbu</i> and of the crappy pump in case I need to show World Vision when I go in. Again, hoping they’ll work out the logistics to replace/fix the pump and teach us how to. Then came back and helped Kader clean the yard for the <i>biki banda gobe</i> (celebration day after tomorrow). At least, I swept out where my goat used to be and carried the <i>taki</i> (manure) to my garden. The goat got moved into the sun with the others - annoying. I considered asking to have her staked in my garden area but given the frequency I with which I go to Maradi, this seemed a better plan. She’s only here for another 20 days or so anyhow, then she becomes <i>nama</i> for Tabaski. I’m doing my best to fatten her up - easy access to a mix of manioc flour and bran, but water’s tricky, and being staked out in the sun doesn’t help - makes me think of the scene ni Jurassic Park with the Tyrannosaurus Rex - “Where’d the goat go?” **crunch** Trying to explain puzzle-solving skills to Nafiza, as critical thinking skills leave much to be desired here - they certainly aren’t encouraged in schools. And speaking of schools - I was informed that yesterday Nuwaru got kicked out of kindergarten because he’s too smart. He knows hes alphabet and numbers to at least 11. So, instead of encouraging him, getting him started on further schooling, they kick him out. It’s too late today but tomorrow I’ll try to get Issaka to go with me and track down the principal and see if we can either get him back in kindergarten or into the first year real school class, as they’ve just started and he hasn’t missed much. <br /><br />14 November<br /><center><i>Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain</i> Khalil Gibran, <u>Sand and Foam</u></center><br /><br /> Listened to <u>Nights in Rodanthe</u> last night - should have come with a warning for diabetics. Also for people stuck in Niger that don’t have access to supermarkets - they talked about cooking and I ended up starving for foods I have no access to here. I will wipe out Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s when I get back to the states. Still, a fair alleviation of insomnia-induced boredom. <br /> Today should bring interesting news - we find out which of the newbies we get - somewhere between 6 and 8. Team Awesome is becoming Team Ginormous (and still Awesome). Came across an interesting thing this morning - Hydrolique, the governmental water people, is here to deepen one of the two wells. What Rabo, the man in charge, explained there is dropping in concrete rings, ~1m high, then pounding the underlying sand, with the water theoretically then pouring in from holes in the concrete rings. Of course, still doesn’t fix the overall problem of too-deep water. Ugh, wish I could stop sneezing long enough to write this. The winds are back with a vengeance, blowing dust everywhere and darkening the sky to a hazy grey. All the blowing debris is driving my allergies nuts, to the point where I take Benadryl 2-3 times a day. <br /> The text with the newbies just came in - I then got nearly simultaneous texts from Barkatou and Sa’adiya going ‘oooh, almost all men!’ Lol. We develop one track minds out here. <br /><br />15 November<br /> Am tempted to call dibs on cooking the turkey. I could do it pretty well, I think. Rosemary and sage and butter (hungry now…). Today’s more prep for tomorrow’s <i>suna</i> (naming ceremony). Timing works out well - Happy Birthday Me and Happy Belated Birthday Malam Shaihi’i. Starting to read <u>Paradise Lost</u>, probably a bad thing as I’m empathizing with Satan. Interesting to see how many of the names of Satan’s compatriots have ended up in video games - here treated as real where now we use them for sport. Seems designers put a bit of thought into their games - I appreciate that :) . I really ought to stop sympathizing with the Devil <i>”Please allow me to introduce myself…”</i> <br /> Issaka’s compound is still a beehive of activity and the new constructions rare almost ready. They’ve put in new millet stalk fencing to block off the goat area from the entrance and renewing the partitions in other areas. Unfortunately my favorite change - the expansion of the family’s public shade hangar where I spend much of my time - is only temporary; they borrowed the materials for the expansion and they’ll go back after the <i>suna</i>. Tempted to see how much they are - given how much time I spend under the hangar it’d be worth it. Mostly now I’m just staying out of the way and making the busy bees sugary mint tea. I’ve also got a mat full of boiled and mashed <i>yakwa</i> (hibiscus) seeds, apparently mixed with ashes (?) and smelling vaguely fermented, drying on my yard - safer here than the beehive at the moment. Sa’a convinced me to try to taste some - quite possibly the most vile thing I’ve ever tasted, barring the rotted meat at <i>salla</i>. Vaguely reminiscent of the pickled plums in sushi. The plums win in texture, though. Blech. I did manage to wait until Sa’a’s back was turned before giving into facial convulsions. Apparently once it’s dried she’ll put it into tomorrow’s sauce. Here’s hoping it tastes better then. <br /> Uhoh, turns out <i>walima</i>, the night time tea drinking session before the <i>suna</i>, goes until 3am. Time to dig out the ear plugs. It starts around 7:30 after prayers are done - Kader’s convinced me to try to stay awake until 11 - a hard task since I’m normally asleep by 8. Good thing we’ve already started the tea drinking. Of course, they are also setting up the speakers so staying awake may not be the problem. Not sure if my ear plugs will be enough. Loud is an understatement. And the Toni Braxton has started - my reading of <u>Paradise Lost</u> has transported me physically to Hell. <br /> *Later* Talked with the parental units - thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes. 32 days and counting until Germany. Excited to see them and feel real cold (not that today’s shower wasn’t freezing in the wind, mind). Sounds like dad’s also been able to load my games onto the laptop so I can count on sanity-saving amusements when back in Niger. **Zombie Voice** Gaaaames…. <u>Paradise Lost</u> keeps getting better, if perhaps worse for my immortal soul. God comes off like a bit of a jerk, toying with Adam and Eve. Whoever read this copy before seems to have had the same idea - there are amusing penciled-in comments to that effect throughout. Keep getting a line from <u><a href="http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emerson/11987">Brahma</a></u> running through my head:<br /><center><i>But Thou, meek lover of the good,<br />Find me, and turn thy back on Heaven</i></center><br /><br /><br />16 November<br /> Happy Birthday to Me… Earplugs worked fairly well last night, so woke to the first day of my 28th year (having just completed my 27th…) feeling rested for once, if a tad chilly - cold season is definitely here. Warm purring kitten helped with that though. Scurried inside and boiled water for the breakfast I’d been hoarding specifically for today - freeze dried scrambled eggs and ham (bolstered with onions and cheese!) and hot Hershey’s cocoa. Then it was time for presents, flopped on my mat in my kitchen with Ghanima on my knee. Can hear the madhouse outside already in full swing. I’d best got put on my biki gear and brave the outside world. <br /> Later (5:15): Long day. Spend the morning being a good biki-goer, greeting and drinking tea and sitting with women and babies. Gave Hassana 200F and a bar of the nicer soap; she was pleased. Ate more fanke. Took brief nap after the prayer and goat slaughtering. It squealed a lot beforehand, as if it knew it was done for, but the bubbling screams as they cut its throat were horrifying. Thankfully it died quickly. Went to the market around 1 - bought my favorite corn <i>tuwo</i> from the fanke lady as well as the usual staples: sugar, flour, salt, onions, kulikuli. Tried the bread as a treat - not bad at all. Spent an hour or so there, then back home, wehre the <i>biki</i> had thankfully calmed down, to read <u>Paradise Lost</u> with the door open until it was time to get more fanke at the market, search for reception, and wait for my parents to call, which they did like clockwork. Really am looking forward to Germany. <br /> Am back inside my yard now with the door closed, fighting exhaustion (guess I’m not as well rested as I thought…) and wishing there was a graceful way to shut the door for good this early. I know they don’t get why I don’t want to go sit with the women (and only the women), or even understand that I don’t. Gonda’s been a pain today, trying to keep shoo-ing me back to where the women are to chat every times he sees me hanging out in front with the men, who, mind, invited me to drink tea with them. I don’t want to spend all my time with women. I barely want to spend any time with them. All they do is ask for gifts: <i>dan kasuwa, kudin goro</i>, for me to take their picture, my camera itself…Oh, and ask why I’m not married. The men are much more interesting - on average they’re more educated and we can talk about more things. Of course, if Gonda & Co. don’t shut up about Obama and how now I ‘have’ to throw a huge party and buy buhus of rice and maca, I may scream. It was funny the first time, but it’s seriously getting irritating, especially that they don’t understand that the rest of the world, myself included, couldn’t care less which candidate they wanted, beyond a generic ‘that’s nice.’ <b>I</b> voted for him, <b>America</b> chose him - the men of Niger had zilch to do with it. Shikenan and shut up already. Seriously. I’m thrilled he won, but their constant ‘look what we did’s are sucking the life out of my joy. I’m ecstatic he won, joyous that America has a chance to redeem itself, but couldn’t care less about their expectations now that he’s won - he’s not their president; if they want shiny progress, they need to take a close look at their own (extraordinarily messed up kleptocratic) government. If they’re so happy he won, they can buy their own cow and their own rice and throw their own party instead of cheapening the absolute amazingness of his win into just another attempt to get money out of the <i>anasara</i>. Infuriating really. They have no concept of the scope of this election - its potential for so much good - nor of their own, and my own, relative inconsequence. <b>Please</b> make them stop asking me to greet Obama for them, or asking if I’ll see Obama when I’m in Germany, since it’s so close to America, or demanding(!!) to borrow my phone so they can call him (he’s black, he obviously speaks Hausa and I’m American so of course I have his number). **Sigh** Hmmm… guess I know why I’m exhausted….<br /><br />17 November<br /> 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 aeons and the days fly by as instants). Ate my biki meat, or at least part of it - gave the fat and skin (with some hairs still attached) to Ghanima. Retreated around 10, having been social since before 8 drinking tea and doing coloring books. Around 1 I went to go verify everything was set up for today’s meeting with the Yammata women. When I got to Sa’a’s they said she was in the field. I hoped for the best and went and told the Yammata women I’d be back around 4. 4 rolls around, Sa’a’s gone - not to the field, but to a biki in a town down the road, where she’s been all day apparently. So, I screwed the itsy bitsy bit of courage I have to the sticking place, grabbed my dictionary, and headed back to Yammata alone. I did ok. They either hear <i>anasara</i> Hausa really well or I’m getting better - somehow we managed to get through basic set up: who’s holding the money, no the <i>anasara</i> will not be buying you a caisse with her own money. They’ve got 44 women and are starting with a weekly 50F. They’re meeting weekly and I’ll be in Maradi for the next one, so hopefully Sa’a will be able to go. The actual meeting part was, of course, chaotic - I may have Hausa but I’m far from being able to corral Hausa women into some semblance of order. Not to mention that they all felt it necessary to bring their squalling offspring, rather than leaving them at home with a sibling for a few minutes. Despite all the madness we made progress, and I made it back home with the remnants of my sanity intact.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-47070877560220817652008-11-03T07:41:00.000-08:002008-11-03T07:49:50.573-08:00Life in Detail26 October<br /><br />Well, the training’s done, over, shikenan. I think it went petty well, though the ulcers it gave me have probably shaved a few years off my life. We managed to have bedding for everyone and came in under budget (though that’s mostly due to no one being able to come from Zinder). Friday was a bit of a panicked mess, due to miscommunication somewhere between me and Dr. B. I’d spoken to him that morning and asked if he was ready for the training -I had thought he was going to give us a tour of INRAN and tell about the seed storage and entomology work they do there. Then he left for Mayahi, a couple hours away. I panicked. Turned out to be no big deal. He got me hooked up with Ilia, one of the scientists, and, once it got explained to him, it turned out really well. He took us around, explained everything in Hausa, which is really cool as you find a lot of the educated people don’t want to speak local language any more - only French. He took us around and answered questions and taught them how to use the PICS bags (the airtight ones) and it went really well. The crisis was averted. Then it came time for bed/dinner. INRAN has a couple of guest houses for trainings and visitors. They’d pointed out the one we were going to be staying in ahead of time but I hadn’t been in yet. No worries. So, we get to the one we’d been assigned and there’re people in it - 3 guys on their way to Diffa. Okay, I’m now totally confused, but INRAN has other guest houses and I figure they’ll put us in another one. No big deal as long as wherever we are has two rooms - men and women can NOT share sleeping space. So, I call the guy in charge, he comes over and convinces the others - one of whom has malaria for crying out loud - to move into the other house. I felt like such an evil hadjia/colonizer. It was awful. They didn’t seem too upset about it - which makes it that much worse. Being white should not be enough to make them move. They kept calling me ‘Madame’ as if I was more important or some nonsense. Mortifying. I tried explaining that it wasn’t necessary - we needed a house to sleep in, not that house particularly. I tried to make it up to them with food - typical me which they seemed to appreciate. Then it turned out that one of the three was a Japanese scientist who needed to room with AC so we gave him the smaller of the two rooms in our house, where we had been planning on putting our guys and our guys went and slept in the other house with the other two Nigeriens. All in all it was probably a good set up as far as kumya (shame) was concerned and it let us women - 4 PCVs and one counterpart - chill a little bit. Literally - the house had AC and fans and we cranked them as high as possible. Plus, real toilets! Always a bonus. Then called mom for her ??th birthday, finally collapsing into a stupor until the next morning. <br /><br />The next day was a lot better. We got tea and breakfast (bread + sweetened condensed milk == crack) and off to a bit of a late start, which was actually ok as it was, I thought, only me presenting. My spiel went really well - they all said I had Hausa so yay on that. The presentation itself was a PowerPoint on Jody’s computer that I’d put together, all by myself, in Hausa. I sort of felt like a kindergartener at show and tell ‘look at my pretty presentation in local language!’ The presentation basically says pick the best seeds from the best plants in your filed and keep them safe until next year when you plant them. If they repeat this year after year their crops will improve and they’ll get bigger better harvests. They got that, no worries, but then we got to the hard part - hunger season. Hunger season is the period before the new years’ harvest when the last of the prior year’s food is gone and people eat maybe one meal a day, if they’re lucky. I was lucky in that hunger season in my village was unpleasant and everyone got painfully thin, but no one actually died. Other villages weren’t so lucky - in some places not everyone was even able to make hurra, the watered down millet drink that most of my villagers lived on. So, keeping buhus (50-100kg grain sacks) full of edible seed out of their stomachs just so they can plant with them seems an unnecessary hardship. I feel that every other phrase out of my mouth was ‘saboda gobe’ (lit. Because of tomorrow.) My solution was that they start caisses in their villages and only tap into them when the grain runs out. Better the money go for grain than more wives. Issaka I just told to give me his buhus and I’d store them because he knows I’m stubborn and wouldn’t give them back to him until planting time. All of them I told to imagine me brandishing a large stick if they even so much as thought of opening their bags before planting. 5’7” of pure intimidation I am. A lot of saboda gobes. Then, good timing, just as I’m wrapping up, Dr. B arrives with an exercise examining the different varieties of beans available to them, followed by a neat PowerPoint on the science behind PICS bags and the nasty little bugs that like to eat beans. We then ate tons of lunch - shinkafa da wake (rice and beans with oil, Hausa style; our intestines are probably reminiscent of those of seabirds after the Exxon-Valdez) - and they all went home. Barkatou helped me haul the last of the stuff away and we caught a ride with a nice INRAN car back to the hostel. The end. <br /><br />Of course, this being me, I then almost immediately had to catch a kabokabo (motorcycle taxi, the only ones that will willingly go all the way out to INRAN) back as I realized I’d left my Leatherman there. I swear I’d forget my head… Got it back alright and got to tour INRAN’s housing more - the guy guarding it for me had gone home for lunch (in his car, to his A/C’d home, with satellite TV…) so the kabo guy and I toured all over. I am soooo getting a motorcycle when I get home. <br /><br /><br />28 October<br /><br />Spent most of the rest of Sunday and Monday vegetating and watching movies, finishing the report for the training and trying to schedule visits for the villages that have bean projects. Not, after all that, that it turns out I’ll be going to those villages - Dr. K has managed to foul the works up again and I’ve had it. After I pointed out, with O (our regional head)’s backing, that our agreement was for data only, he declared he wasn’t going to pay for any data collection and stated that I was being deliberately troublesome because of A, the last volunteer who had to work with him and whom he eventually made so fed up that she ET’d. Insulting and unprofessional. So, I forwarded all his texts to Ousmane and Sangare and headed to my village. Shike nan. <br /><br />As it stands it’s 3:30 Tuesday and I’ve heard nothing. It’s been a busy morning though. I began the day by ripping down the millet stalk wall of my shade hangar, sweeping it and my yard out, and burning the accumulated debris. Then I killed 10+ spiders inhabiting the hangar and set up my bed and net. It’s so nice under there with the open air - much better than the stuffy ickyness it was before. With the two linen pieces I installed for shade I’ve got my own little pavilion - Ghanima makes it Michael Parkes’ <a href="http://www.herndonfineart.com/images/Parkes/parkes_persepolis.jpg">Persepolis</a>. Next stop was a full sweep of the front room (quite scary) in preparation for setting up the new trunk I picked up from the hostel cleanout - slowly but surely it’s looking more like a home and less like a hastily constructed tent. Then it was time to weigh the millet. Turns out I have over 20 kilos (50ish pounds) of grain, over half of which is to be used for planting next year. The rest I gave to Issaka’s wives for cooking tuwo. Oh, and lest I forget, coming back yesterday I was just in time for the meeting of the womens’ asusu. They’ve got a lot of kokari and now that the harvest is in and people have money they’ve upped dues to 50f/week. I’m really proud of Sa’a - she’s organized everything very well. I’d love to get her one of the big fancy ledgers teachers use to keep track of attendance/grades - right now she’s got an abused little 50-page notebook that you pick up for 100f at the market. In a perfect world I’d get her a fancy laptop with Excel - so not going to happen and would only cause more problems if it did, but an amusing thought. Mostly the amazing thing is that they’ve got close to 70 women, over half of whom are paid up, working together. A little push towards collective action. Next up: 40 hour work week and paid maternity leave… ;)<br /><br /><br />29 October<br /><br />Spent the morning sorting beans after my walk - Abdu had harvested the two improved varieties together (sigh) and I had to sort them to weigh them. Sat in front of the small mosque near my house with the men and they helped me sort red and black ‘noses’. Got around 2.5 kg total - most of them the red varieties - crappy harvest thanks to all the bugs (thanks to us not getting the promised pesticide in time thanks to Dr. K…) Didn’t have enough of the black to even make a full half kilo. Talked to maigari and apparently the Yammata women want to start their own asusu. Sa’a’ comes back tomorrow or Friday - will try to talk to her then. <br /><br />30 October<br /><br />Began the day much too early, tromping out to Mai gari’s field in the daggi, getting covered in evil pokey stickers for my trouble. The field had been pretty much destroyed by bugs - approximately 0.1 kg each line, though the local cultivar was still putting out fresh leaves and flowers. The improved varieties were finished. Headed to Yammata next, where Adamou got results more in keeping with Abdou - 2 kilos fo the red beans, 0.05kg of the black, zero local. Shitty year all around and Adamou was one of the ones that managed to get some insecticide, albeit apparently too late to be of use… **sigh** started making a collage of life here - tea and camels and sai hankuri. Should fill the page by the end of service. Also trying to improve my pathetic drawing skills - I certainly have the time. <br /><br />2 November<br /><br />When night comes and you too are dark, lie down and be dark with a will. And when morning comes and you are still dark stand up and say to the day with a will ‘I am still dark.’ It is stupid to play a role with the night and day. They would both laugh at you. <br />- Khalil Gibran Sand + Foam<br /><br />Spent most of Friday and Saturday in a vegetative state on my bed either asleep or reading. Guess my body wanted a break. Came back from the last bean guy in Kahuta Friday morning, did laundry, flopped down for a ‘quick nap’ and woke up around 6 pm. Saturday I managed to go as far as Abdu’s down the street to greet them on their biki but then scampered back to lay down. Not a terribly exciting couple of days. No fever but general overall achy ness. Still have a bit of head and neck ache but nothing compared to the past two days. Already went to the market once today for tuwo and a pagne - needed to break a 5 mille bill and I want to get a shirt made while I’m in Maradi. Turns out the fabric lady also goes to El Coelta, Barkatou’s market town and so got to see what she’d apparently just bought. I got a red and gold fabric to pseudo-match the one I already have a skirt of. Will head back later for fanke. <br /><br />3 November<br /><br />Came in this morning for the election party tomorrow. We’ll be taking over a local restaurant and watching the results into the wee hours of the morning. It’s the first time I think everyone’s been in for a while, so I’m excited to see everyone. I’m more excited, though, to vote the bastards out of office and install a new, forward-thinking President that we can all be proud of. And now to go put on my Obama button and head to the net café to post this. <br /><br />:)<br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-50048247881606543392008-10-23T07:50:00.000-07:002008-10-23T07:52:21.044-07:0010 October 2008<br />Just back from Maradi, again. 5 nights turned into a week working on sorting out work with the bean project and the upcoming seed saving training. Dr. K (the Maradi ‘head’ of the bean project) is in Niamey - which, from the sound of it, Dr. B (Head of all Maradi INRAN), didn’t know. If I ran work like this in the States, I’d be fired. C’est la vie Nigerienne I suppose… <br /><br />In any case, from the beginning… Friday last I went in, both to work on projects and get errands run, and to go to a SIM (Serving in Mission - a religious NGO but I really like the work they do.) thing on agroforestry on Tuesday. In that time we lost two of the newbies - R from Dakoro and R from El Colta. They will both be missed, but I do understand the call of life in the outside world, and Niger not being a fit for everyone. Heck, not even sure why I’m still here most days, other than a stubborn streak a mile wide and a healthy dose of masochism. I also watched all of season 6 Buffy, thanks to S, whose parents rock & who was in on her way to training of trainers for the new stage along with K. Had stopped watching after season 4 so it was great fun. Can’t believe James Marsters was close to 40 filming that. I wanna look that good in a decade! So, that, plus a trip to the tailor’s and general errands on the weekend. Monday was spent trying to get things sorted at INRAN. Seed saving is now October 24th-25th, which is unfortunately shitty for Maradi shuttles but worked better for everything else. The bean project is still up in the air. Loathe as I am to work with Dr. K, I’d still do it to get the job done. Unfortunately the jerkbunny’s in Niamey for the entire month, which Dr. B didn’t know, but somehow the ECD here did. (Our ECD is awesome!!) **sigh** But, progress made, so going in the 20th to get everything set for food and final presentations. Tuesday was all day at SIM learning about acacias - dan tahoua in Hausa. I really like their program of FMNR - farmer managed natural regeneration - teaching farmers to plant trees in their fields and husband them for resources both nutritional and financial. They pair two ore three types of acacia with alley cropping. The acacias provide shade, windbreaks, fix nitrogen, and provide highly nutritious seed meal. For me, the highlight was the acacia fanke - I’m a bit of a fanke addict… I’m hoping to get involved with their work come spring, when they hold tree nursery workshops. I’d love to use my teensy field as an example of getting nummy food and improving the soil. Especially the nummy food part - this is me, after all. I'd love to get a community pepiniere going with moringas and acacias. Will be going pack and picking their brains more. <br /><br />11 October 2008<br /><br />Note: I have “Proud to Be in that Carebear Company” stuck in my head from watching Kader do the 2nd Carebear puzzle. Parts of it are morphing to “We Are Family.” When are the nice young men in the clean white coats coming to take me away (ha ha he he ho ho)?<br /><br />Harvested my millet today, such as it is. The trial didn’t go particularly well - only one really came up and I haven’t got local variety data as when the others failed to germinate I gave the local var space back to Issaka and it got planted with dawa and wake, which the others didn’t’. Harvesting was fun - crazy me wielding the saw blade of my Leatherman (need to get knife sharpened). Plus got a leg workout kicking over the stalks once I’d harvested the head. Once the dry I’ll pick the grains off and measure tiyas. Now I’m chilling out under the family shade hangar as Kader and Issaka play Carebear puzzles. So much fun. Plus I brought superstrong tea back from the Maradi Store - which is now my favorite place as it has real Lady Powerstick deodorant and Ajax for dishes. Oh, and Mott’s applesauce! I hate the stuff back in the States, but here it’s amazing - gobbled a cup last night for dinner and was in Heaven. Huzzah for the Maradi Store! It wasn’t even that expensive - 200F a cup (or a whopping 50¢). A and I split a pack, but I suspect I’ll be stocking when I’ve more disposable income. I’ll also be getting more shelves. The two I got - 1m across, palm-to-fingertips deep - are great, but I need more! Apparently I overpaid - 1000F v. 750F - but seriously it’s just great to not have my cooking table overflowing and no more leaning tower of Quaker Oat cans. I’m still far from neat, but it’s progress! The coolest progress, though, is the litter solar charger I found in the grab box. It has settings for charging phones and, while it’s proving temperamental, at least it seems to work. <br /><br />12 October 2008<br /><br />Market Day! (Sunday) Millet wasn’t dry enough yet so couldn’t take it off the stalks - left it to dry in the sun and get eaten by bugs for another day. Instead I went home, showered, ripped out more dying tomato vines, and headed to the kasuwa (market), which I am lucky to have in my town between hamlets. Ed note: Mehdi, my host brother’s son, just handed me another rotten battery. If I’ve done one thing it’s to start kids understanding that batteries!=chewtoys. Now they usually bring them to me so I can dump them down the latrine - need to find a better disposal method. Certainly far from sustainable… Napped after coming back from the market - stocked up on oil (450F ½L), sugar (200F ½ kg), 100F worth of fanke, and a long-sleeved mostly cotton dress shirt for 700F (assume 1USD = 400-450F). Getting the fanke was fun - the mai fanke knows me and told me a little about how they’re made. Basically, mix flour, water and yeast, let rise, beat it down, and then drop it by teaspoonfuls (or finger flicks in her case) into boiling oil. Then feed to hungry anasaras and whoever else is around. Not as completely wonderful as tofu (which I adore and which I load up on in Maradi) but I’ll definitely take it. Got asked today when I’m going back to Dakoro. Given that the bean project’s still up in the air and R’s gone, I doubt I will. It’s a nice town, but after the ordeal getting back, I think once is enough.<br /><br />Have been thinking about grad schools - I don’t have the degree for the work I want to do, it seems. I need more of an economics/general ag program to balance out my lab science background. Have been trying to write my statement of purpose and/or cover letter to get going. I alternate between pompous ass and lost lamb. One of these days I’ll get to where I want to be and still want to be there when I get there. The grass is perpetually greener I suppose. In any case, market then nap then more garden mayhem. Watered what’s left, through running low on water - Sa’a just got back from a biki in Maradi and she’s the water bringer. Then planted 3 of the 4 moringas I’d judged least likely to die into the back wall of my newly-spacious garden. My poor moringas were one of the sad things greeting me when I got back from Maradi - worm-killed moringas, dying tomatoes, and a kitten with a limp. Apparently she’s been having to defend her territory; a feat I would imagine to be much easier if she’d stay in said territory and didn’t wander off. Silly kitten.<br /><br />14 October 2008<br /><br />Yesterday I solved one of my biggest problems in the bush - change. Being an anasara I get my money from the bank, in the never-very-helpful form of 5 and 10,000F bills. These are about as useful in my village as a $20 in a penny arcade with a broken change machine. I can occasionally break a 5,000F at the market buying fabric or oil, but it’s a hassle. Until… the women’s asusu (group savings fund). The weekly pay-in is kadago or 25F, and they’ve got around 65 women and have been going for 7 weeks so far, meaning they theoretically have over 10,000F in small change. Very heavy, unwieldy, pain-in-the-arse-to-count small change. Soooo… I managed to reduce the wahalla for all of use - they now have 7,000F in easy-to-count-and-manage bills, and I have enough change to keep me out of trouble for a while. Win-win! <br /><br />Yesterday was also the first outing of the men’s shirt. I had been worried I might get crap for it like the pants and my sporadic use of the headscarf. Nope. Tossed it on over a tank (work in concession only, mind you, but a blessing in this heat) and headed out. Issaka was thrilled. Yayi kyau’s abounded. Wore it out again today-so useful. Will have to stock up at Maradi’s deadman’s market (the equivalent of Goodwill and where I suspect most of the US and Europe’s clothing goes when Goodwill etc. doesn’t want it anymore. Come to think of it I seem to remember reading articles on the effects our castoff clothing is having on the domestic clothing markets in Africa…)<br /><br />Today’s a slow, hazy day. The millet is finally dry enough to remove the seed and chaff from the head - a process called karta. The millet’s from the remnants of the seedtrial so I’m carefully keeping each group separate. Plus, I’m using it to demo seed selection - choosing only the best heads to keep to plant next year from each of the three varieties. Only two, really, as one of them was weedy and the farmers were unimpressed. That we’ll just eat. But first, to peel the seeds off the stalk. Time consuming, but that’s what BBC is for. Peeling doesn’t take much brain power. I will, however, probably end up with blisters and/or calli on my thumbs. Once I’ve got all the seed off the stem I’ll have one of the moms show me how to winnow out the chaff (kaykayi). From what I understand you pound (daka) the seed lightly then let the air carry the chaff away as you pour it back and forth (susuka). We have machines for that back in the States… <br /><br />15 October 2008<br /><br />2 months until Germany!!! Woohoo!! Here’s hoping that times well, too, with the new stage’s swear in. I can’t believe they’re already here. We should have the 1st trickles of info on them by the time I get in next Monday (Ed note: we do - 26 newbies, evenly split AG/NRM, complete with most photos. No idea on Hausa v. Zarma yet though) I’ve spent yesterday evening and this morning susuka-ing. I know now why the same word is used for the chaff and the verb ‘to itch’. It gets everywhere! And I’m apparently allergic. Argh! Once you’ve karta’ed the millet, you pound it (while everyone laughs because it takes the anasaras two hands to pick up the large stick and pound the millet, which any of them could do one-handed with a baby on their back. Again, we have machines for this…) Then you use the wind to blow all the chaff into a pile by pouring the mixed seeds and chaff from high up into another koriya (calabash). Strangely enough, we still do this in the States, just with nice machines. I remember using a miniature blower back in the States working for Dr. O, though I can’t remember the name of the plant species we were working with. Small and black and orange… V something? Chaff, being lighter, floats away and you go from a full bucket of fluff to a 2/3 full gallon ziplock. Will end up storing the good stuff in a PICS bag, as the evil bugs ate all the beans. All of ‘em. There needs to be a way to increase access and decrease costs and increase safety of pesticides out here. Would love some Bt beans or millet around here - we know it’s safe given that we’ve been dumping it by the plane load over California and elsewhere for the past 50 years. I can’t even imagine how one would institute a crop dusting program around here. The money would probably get diverted 300 times and only succeed in getting some hadji a 4th wife. Not that I’m cynical… <br /><br />20 October 2008<br /><br />So, I spent the rest of the week grating my fingers off (blisters galore) and pounding millet and sneezing and developing runny eyes, but finally succeeded in processing all of my millet by the end of Saturday, meaning I could take a break on Sunday for market (yay!) My garden is now completely gone except for three basil plants that I pruned, and 5 moringas saved (hopefully) from the ravages of the evil worms. I saved the best for my host family to plant so they’ll do that while I’m in town, which I will be until next Monday if anyone wants to shoot me an email or call me or… Hopefully everything will go well with the seed saving training. Haven’t been sleeping so much in the village with the allergies from hell and the full moon and who knows what else, so taking today to chill out - going to tailor to get my new skirts (yay!) and gorging on tofu and watching movies with friends. Tomorrow I’ll hit INRAN full force and hopefully get everything set to go. <br /><br />Market yesterday was fun. I was adventurous and hung out with the mai fanke for a couple hours just watching people go by and trying out her tuwo - surprisingly good. It’s amazing how cheap you can eat if you’re willing to eat non-American food. But now I’m tired and going to go crash out for a bit.<br /><br />HUGS!<br />M <br /><br />23 October 2008<br /><br />I just read Twilight in 5 hours. Actually, if you consider the time out to have a conversation – less. Talk about wonderful escapism. Looking forward to the movie now in other news, so far so good on the getting set up for the training. Nerve-wracking, but progressing. I am not designed to engage in roles that require me to organize anyone other than myself. Aie.Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-52249638511712416742008-10-08T03:01:00.000-07:002008-10-08T03:05:38.916-07:00A little help for my friends...Hey :) <br />So, my friend Jenn just got her Peace Corps Partnership application approved, which means if anyone wants a tax writeoff, go to www.peacecorps.gov and go to donate, then pick Niger and look for a J. Blouin, project 683141. She's making a garden for her community. (I'm trying to make one too but mine will be much smaller and can be funded in country.) Thanks for your help :)Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-41466960777549615572008-10-04T03:52:00.000-07:002008-10-04T03:55:48.078-07:00Extremely long post...Have decided to use journal instead of writing letters - write the same thing over and over, get a handcramp, then pay kudi dayawwa for letters that either never get there or get there so out of date that it’s pointless, or write it once, type it in Maradi hostel and copy/paste at netcafe… Hmmm… <br /><br />2 September 2008. 1st day of Ramadan - Azumi.<br />They saw the new moon last night, so we’ve begun the month-long salla (prayer) - fasting sunrise to sunset. I set my alarm for 4 am to make sure I wouldn’t sleep through the morning call to get up and eat. <span style="font-style:italic;">Tashi! Motsa! Sha!</span> (Get up! Move! Drink!) and thus be forced either really suffer, or not azumi with the rest of the town. Not all the women, though, as they can exempt themselves if they are breastfeeding. At the moment I’m chilling (unfortunately not literally) in my house, starting to feel the first pangs of thirst and hating the heat. The rest of the village, what little I’ve seen as I spent the morning cleaning and trying not to think about water, seems asleep. (Later on) Fasting’s not so bad when all you do is sleep… Eventually headed out around 5pm and got 5 more moringa trees planted. Greening the desert, etc. Then home for shower and sitting and waiting to be able to eat/drink. Shared strawberry Fosters’ Clark (nectar of the gods) with the family, and tea. Tea was probably not the wisest at this time of night, but so tired from the heat and fast that I doubt it’ll matter.<br /><br />8 September 2008.<br />Back from Maradi and a training on using improved bags for storing cowpeas. Entirely in French. Huzzah for practice (Je suis un ananas...). In theory the bags are airtight, putting whatever critters are infesting the beans into a coma once they’ve consumed the available oxygen, thus saving the beans. In practice, I can’t find the bloody things in the market! Maradi was fun while I was in - vegged a lot in front of the T.V. catching up on pop culture I never got into in the States - watched the entire 3rd seasons of the O.C. and The Office. I prefer the Office, though wouldn’t be despondent if the blond one from the O.C. joined Team Maradi ;) Fasting again now that am back in the village… I just can’t bring myself to pass up tofu in Maradi…<br /><br />10 September 2008<br />Rained a bit last night, making the morning pleasant, thought the heat of the day is still miserable. Especially with the fasting - this can’t be healthy. The entire city is shut down, the menfolk at least, all of whom are in clusters in the shade around the mosque sleeping. Women still have to pound and draw water, though they have a little bit more down time than usual. The kids, however… This must be their favorite time of year - they can run amuck and no one has the energy to bother to stop them. <br /><br />13 September 2008<br />Have given up the fast. Have been getting miserably cranky and irritable - how to tell the difference, right? Alternately bingeing and starving oneself just can’t be a healthy pattern, especially in this heat. Even if I do spend most of the day crashed out inside (again, healthy?! Seriously!?) Will keep up the pattern, though - breaking evening fast with the fam and drinking lots of tea. Last night there were fanke - my favorite. It’s nice to be out with the fam at night, usually I’m exhausted and out cold by then on the days when I’m out working in the field but the whole cessation of work for a month is working in my favor. The nights are so pretty. So many stars. Have moved my bed outside to sleep under them. Will probably tear down the outer shade hangar wall once the tomatoes are done using it for a support and replace it with fabric - cut down on termites and increase the breeze. Also see if I can’t reaise the roof a bit - I feel like I’m in Alice in Wonderland sometimes - where she eats the cookie (drinks the potion? Can’t remember…) and takes up the entire house, elbows out windows, etc. Comes from living with the Engobrawa - known for their shortness throughout Hausaland. <br /><br />20 September 2008. <br />Back from Maradi yesterday. Not sure why I take journal to town, seeing as I never seem to write in it when I do… Pretty much a waste of a week. Went in for team meeting and byebye to newbies for their first month out (toss baby in the pond to see if they can swim sort of thing…) but really wanted to get all set for INRAN upcoming projects, the ones I’ve taken over since Angie escaped back to the States (Ed note: 10/03 got note from her, she’s got a fantastic job in Miami and is ridiculously happy. I’m jealous.) At which point, the man I needed to talk to wasn’t back when he had said he would be and my boss hadn’t believed Angie really would ET, so wasn’t prepared for the backlash. So, 2 days turned into 4 waiting for the guy to come back and my boss then to tell me to put a hold on all planning until he’d talked to INRAN (despite having given me go ahead earlier in the month…) So frustrating… Spent the interim talking to other PCVs, showing the new Maradi PCV the Petit Marche (yay veggies!), waiting around for the situation to sort itself and/or for there to be a bush taxi home…<br /><br />29 September 2008. <br />Exhausted and sore. I will never go on foot from Gidan Karo home again. Especially not in the heat of the day with only ½ a liter of water and a handful of Jolly Ranchers. Were I writing a book it’d be a chapter titled ‘There and Back Again: Mad Goats and Anasaras’, as in only the latter two would go out in the African sun. Went up to Dakoro on Friday was a very simple process; getting back was not. Hopped a morning taxi to Kadata, caught the 2nd taxi going up the road and was in Dakoro by 10am. It’s a nice town, jealous of J for having it as her market, and R for living their (free internet!). Had a great time up there - ate a ton of good food, including freezedried smores (nummy), talked a lot with Team Dakoro (minus K, who actually had work, unlike us hooligans) and spent the evening in a sugar high hysterity playing gin rummy. I came in 2nd. Bought a pretty pagne (Ed: you can see it in my photos - blue with yellow flower things) theoretically for salla but mostly just ‘cause. The next morning dawdled around, talking more and eating eggs. Hit the road around 2, which would have been fine but… a) longer wait for taxi than I anticipated b) 2 flat tires c) possible engine trouble or issues with the 2nd one d) picked up another passenger from a broken down car, and his goat. So, was approximately halfway home by the time they called magariba (evening prayer). Thankfully, we had just pulled into N’s village, so he let me stay with him. We ate the berry cobbler I’d brought for Dakoro that we hadn’t gotten around to eating (too much sugar as it was…) which was nummy and he cooked us curried couscous. So two good days of food The trip was amusing, in spite or because of its issues. Took pictures like a tourist and it was good to have another anasara to talk to. Then yesterday hopped a taxi around 9-10 for Gidan Karo, where I should have arrived well before the heat of the day… Should. About ½ way there, still N of Sabon Mache, we blew a tire. They fixed it, but then, after we were all back in the car, the engine wouldn’t start up again, so we got to wait 1 ½ hours for another car to come get us. I got into Gidan Karo at 1:15, as the day’s heat was getting going. I should have just ridden into Maradi and taken a taxi back on Monday, but noooo… I had to be stubborn… or masochistic… I walked back, hottest part of the day, ½ liter water left in my Nalgene, maybe 10 Jolly Ranchers. 10 kilometers. Idiot. Arrived half dead. The story of the anasara gulping market water (in the middle of Ramadan…) will probably be told for ages. Managed to hold together long enough to buy the onions and sugar I needed, no fanka lady , and stumbled back home, where I promptly gulped sever liters of electrolyte-packed water and showered (or sat under the water… showered makes it sound active; I was dead). Then, to make matters worse for my dehydrated, shaking self, mom starts calling, like 10 times, unscheduled, and when I do get a little rezzo, she sounds panicked. I’d just talked to them yesterday - something had to be wrong. So, I, of course, am thinking ‘oh shit, something’s happened to Dad.’ So, exhausted, shaky, and panicked. I text my RR to call them please and see what’s going on. Then I finally get sufficient rezzo for a 2 minute conversation - she was just checking to make sure I’d made it home ok… the day before… < Insert exhausted hysterical laughter… > Called off my RR, finished collapsing, did dishes, made it through 2 of the normally 3 cups of tea with my host fam, and was out cold before 8 pm. That was yesterday (Sunday). Today, I’m tired, sore from 3 consecutive days of bush taxis, and achy from unstretched exercise. Need to get back into yoga. Lazy bum. Today I’ll chill, read, and work on translating presentations for the seed saving trainings. Tomorrow I’ll harvest a majority of the garden for use during salla - eggplants and peppers and tomatoes and the last of the zucchini - kayan miya galore. <br /><br />1 October 2008. My hands still smell of rotting meat, after 2 washes with Hibiclens. I hereby refuse to eat non-packaged meat for the rest of my work here (or at least until I forget the smell… ugh…) Backtrack: It’s the 2nd day of Jajibr (Hausaization of Eid al Fitr). They didn’t see the moon when they ‘should’ have last night, so they fasted an extra day. The last day of fast you’re supposed to break it with meat. Lots and lots of meat. So, expecting the fast to end yesterday, animals were slaughtyered everywhere (I have pictures). Approx 170 people chipped in to slaughter 2 cows, with the meat being separated into equal piles on huge grass mats. I bought 2 portions of goat meat. Given that we didn’t see the moon, one of the portions was kept for tonight. They said if I put it in lots of clean water and salt it would keep. I must have screwed it up. Last night was fine - meat was fresh-ish and while I snuck Ghanima the intestines and bones and unrecognizable bits, it was still tasty. I know I messed up the storage - pretty sure I saw fly larvae, like the experiments I taught back in Bio Lab. And the smell. They swore it was fine. I figured maybe the submerged bits would be ok. The smell. Even Ghanima wouldn’t touch it. Everyone else dug in. They ate the head of the goat as well (not part of the meat I bought, thankfully). So much for integration - I spent most of the night trying to keep my stomach then declared that I was full and gave the rest to the kids. The smell. Ed note: Next day everyone was fine - must just be an anasara thing. The smell…<br /><br />2 October 2008<br />Barka da salla. It began way too early this morning, a little bit before 7am. At the moment am out on the mat (opened up buhu), watching the fam play with puzzles. Watching the puzzling is fun. I gave them one of the 50 piece Care Bear puzzles as a salla gift. Like Winnie the Pooh, Care Bears are aljinni - mystical creatures. I can’t quite get the whole concept of cartoon across, but I did reassure them that these aljinni are nice and teach kids good manners. The puzzle that took me 2 minutes max is up to 15 and still going. I blame the school system. There is no emphasis on creativity or problem solving. Learning is rote memorization. The 1st form kids can’t read basics but they know what each page of their learner says because they’ve memorized what their teacher said - on pain of thwacking if they don’t. So, in any case, introducing puzzles is a godo thing, though repetition ad nauseum of ‘don’t force the pieces - they don’t belong together if you have to force them’ and ‘look at the picture - make it look like the picture’ does get to you after awhile. 8:18am - am a bad bad person. Too funny. 2 kids came by from one of the other hamlets (everyone else is used to the anasara) and wouldn’t get closer to me than 10 feet. Issaka tried to get them closer, then gave up and shrugged ‘yah, she’s pretty strong…’ at which point I suggested that maybe I should eat them, as anasaras eat children all the time… Issaka agreed. The kids took off running. Great fun but am a VERY bad person. 6:06 pm. LONG day. Took nap. Somewhere around 3 emerged a bit. Cleaned house until 5, showered, then headed to the womens’ dancing. I have video. How they made the music is really cool - they get a big dish of water and a coriya (gourd bowl) and hit the coriya at different levels of submersion. Gives a great sound. Got some stills as well. Then I gave it a shot. Oy am I out of shape. No DDR or elliptical, and too darn hot even if I did have them here, cardio’s not big on my list. Walking, sure, dancing like a crazy woman… nope. My feet are filthy (I can’t dance with shoes on in the States, certainly can’t do so here). Definitely fun, though, and the women thought it was hysterical. Anasaras CAN dance!Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-65376974889402072192008-07-19T12:39:00.000-07:002008-07-19T12:49:43.873-07:00An Update!First, and possibly most importantly, I've uploaded a few more pictures. Check the right side of the screen. Now, for the news...<br /><br />So, I'm currently in Maradi, working on the INRAN computers to make them not suck (who the hell still uses Yahoo? Or Exploder? Or...you get my point). We actually ended up having to reinstall Windows on the machine I'm working on now, so I'm enjoying having a not entirely sucky computer to play with for free, if I don't mind having bugs fall on my head from getting too close to the light directly above me (it's gross, but hell, it's free internet...) I'll post another bit probably about current life after Monday (maybe before if I have kokari but I doubt it) regarding what's currently going on in my life and how I'm beginning to be convinced our CD doesn't want me to be the happiest ever in the whole wide world at a later date, but right now, Mom was kind enough to send me the text of my latest missive to the parents all nice and typed so I don't have to, so I can share it with you. Enjoy.<br /><br />June 8, 2008 – Huddled inside my house – village, Niger<br /><br />Hi! I’m currently crosslegged on a hastily assembled bed with my lone kitten, Ghanima, in my lap, listening to the horrendous dust storm outside, which I hope will pay back our suffering (our sha-ing of wahalla, as it were) with some much-needed rain. Ghanima is not a fan of the thunder and so has forgiven me for tying her up. They do not make kittens cute so you won’t kill them, they make them cute so won’t just say “*%!# it” when they go out into the storm and try to kill themselves. That I gave her the bones from the market meat may also have aided our reconciliation. We had a storm like this at IST; Krista got some fantastic video, if she ever gets it posted on the slow connection, I’ll let you know. Albq’s got nothing on Niger. While the sun was up, the sky, as far as I could see (i.e. barely to my wall), was blood red. <br /><br />June 10, 2008 (continued—light went wonky)<br /><br />Well, unfortunately, the storm brought precious little rain so we couldn’t plant. I’m getting more than a little worried but hope springs eternal here in the form of carving a channel in my yard and a hole in my wall for the water to escape, lest it be flooded when it finally gets here. I may have early-maturing (short growth cycle) seeds to plant, but the water better get here soon or they won’t help me much. Yesterday was crazy busy. First, sat all morning with the host-dad and host-brother (Issaka and Abdu-Khadere) drinking tea in my pajamas and listening to my CD player piped through Khadere’s boombox speaker (he fixes electronics; if I understand, darma=solder). This is after I pounded nails in my wall with the handle of my short hoe (kwashe) to hang my pots and used almost an entire one of the small duct tape rolls to cover my tables securely with oilcloth (purple with snowflakish pattern). Oh, and laundering my skirt for meeting, reassembling my bed and sweeping a ton and a half of dirt from my house after the storm. Then lunch and shower (and disturbing hair loss, though I’m still far from bald). Then prepping for the meeting—going over vocab and seeds, etc. Then I sat and shelled peanuts while I waited for the women to come – all 5 of them and an hour late. Meeting proceeded, got seeds dispersed and scheduled the next five meetings – one a day for the next four days, divided into old men, old women, young men, young women – to do a needs assessment with each group before reconvening next week. Kind of silly as I can almost guarantee they all want a water pump and tower, but forms must be obeyed. Then I can go into Maradi and start trying to figure out how to get it done (no clue, but I know who to ask first). Then you called. Hope you guys had fun in Greece (& Lithuania). Then home to watch Issaka & company toss mud balls around—I helped! They’re closing the roof on a new room—all rooms are open to a central courtyard and use the mud to protect the underlying plastic sheeting (old grain and cement bags) from sun damage. Then dinner, then over to charge my phone, a story in itself. One of village residents works in Maradi most of the time. He brought out a generator, DVD player and TV and let me and others charge our phones gratis, while we watched Hausa music videos and part of a Bruce Lee film. As for the first, allow me to say that waterboarding is an insufficient punishment for whomever introduced Nigeria (from which all music videos come) to BoyzIIMen, home videos, voice modulation tech (used here to up all female vocals by at least two octaves) and the volume up button (I live 2 “blocks” away and could hear just fine). The Bruce Lee one (Fists of Fury?) was fun, once I showed them how to put English subtitles on so I could translate. They got bored with not hearing Hausa (Chinese audio only), and we only watched maybe 10 minutes—short attention span, especially when no one was fighting. Now I’m sitting on my mat outside, prepping for today’s meeting and resisting the urge to blow off work and read more of Ahab’s Wife (finished Time Traveler’s Wife a few days ago—both very good.) instead while I wait to see if my gardens will get built today or not and whether Laurent, our PC doctor, will make it here today on his annual tour. He’s fun, very French. Has a very laid-back approach, unless we’re actually dying at that moment. May ask him about my hair…Out of room, so now to work, Love M <br /><br />June 19, 2008<br /><br />So, surprise, surprise, each group chose a water tower as what they want more—can’t blame them as it’s at least 66 meters to the water table and the pump breaks frequently. I’m heading into Maradi tomorrow, a bit earlier than planned, to get a bunch of big stuff. I want two rondas and a watering can and other things that would be a pain to get back on a bush taxi. There’s a shuttle on the 22nd that will take it all for me. Plus, it keeps me from screaming at Hausa women. I swear this country is turning me into a misogynist. The women, with some few wonderful exceptions, drive me nuts. They don’t want progress. They just want handouts. Give me money, give me food, give me, give me, give me. The men are great—they ask for stuff, don’t get me wrong, but when I explain that I’m here to help them help themselves, they usually get it. Sort of case in point: All 4 groups picked a water tower. The young women were the only ones who didn’t even consider a school. Babies and pounding millet. Give me, give me. On a more pleasant note, my gardens are in—they take over most of my yard, but I don’t mind. I planted all the seeds from Gardener’s Guild and am now waiting to see what grows. So far, the beans and squash are up, the basil’s coming along, and I think I’ve got some tiny tomatoes and peppers (don’t think they’re weeds?). I’ve upped my water request and the money. (It’s a whopping 4000F or $10) so that they’ll bring me two huge kettles in excess of my daily gerka (old plastic oil container), well worth it. Pulling water or using the foot pump is all well and good, but I’d never get anything else done. I feel vaguely like a celestial power, but console myself I’m paying more than market value (by 1000F) for my water, and I’ll be sharing the produce. I also brought moringa (H: zogala or tamakka) seeds. It’s supposed to be a miracle tree—high protein and vitamins and grows fast as long as it has water. We’re trying to plant it first in old dumas—the gourds they use to make calabashes (H:koriya) to prove you don’t need plastic bags—sort of a proof of sustainability. Back to the Hausa women. I gave each woman one at the close of the big meeting, and they tried to get 2 or 3 or… And I didn’t have enough, but they kept at it so I told them they could have 1 or 0. Then they totally ignored the men making a report on what World Vision is doing in the area with their sponsorship program. It’s like they are deliberately choosing ignorance. Thankfully, my program is primarily working with the men or I’d go mad. At least I know it’s not just me—most of us find the women ridiculously frustrating to work with. Will be glad to get into Maradi, talk with Ousamane and Becca about the project, hit the market and the tailor for some more skirts with pockets and, hopefully, still have time for the pool somewhere in there. It’s bloody hot and humid, and it still hasn’t rained enough for us to plant. I hear it’s flooding elsewhere and wish we could find a way to get those clouds here. We were all excited for about five minutes this morning, but the rain was a no-go. Definitely not a good thing. We’re really going to need short-season improved varieties, if this keeps up—the rains are at least a month late, from the sound of it. When Dr. Laurent came for his annual site check and asked about stress, that was my concern—that the rains wouldn’t come soon enough, and the hunger here would be so great, and I’d be the only one with food and know even if I gave them everything, they’d still starve. If that happened, I’d probably be wack-evacced (evacuated for mental health reasons), so I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. Hence the garden and the moringas and the consistent prayers to whatever powers there be, that the rains get their act together soon. And now to mail this. Really. <br /><br />Love, MarikaGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-13771992495786959742008-05-17T13:48:00.000-07:002008-05-17T13:52:20.254-07:00Brief excerptBrief excerpt from our fearless 2IC. I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions. <br /><br /><ul><br /><li>It has been suggested that Niger will now need a minimum of 120,000 tons of cereals (half rice, half millet/sorghum) to get the vulnerable and urban populations through rainy season, until harvest in late September. This will cost an estimated $146 million.</li> <li>If the rainy season and subsequent harvest is bad (i.e. anything less than above average), Niger will need even more. <br /></li> <li>It has also been suggested that the Government of Niger has way over-stated its reserves, which if true would further exacerbate the situation and level of need.<br /></li> <li>The Government of Nigeria is ordering 500,000 tons of rice alone to feed its people. This will certainly impact what Niger is able to import from its southern neighbor. It will also impact Niger's search on the global market which is already pretty much tapped out. <br /></li> <li>Cost of rice is now hovering around $1,000/ton which is nearly three times the price from December 2007. Of course, this mainly effects urban wage earners as opposed to subsistence rural farmers. <br /></li> <li>Urban residents in Niger consume between 15,000-20,000 metric tons (MT) of rice per month. With the elevated costs, average urban wage earners must now spend more than 50% of monthly salaries just to buy rice for their families! <br /></li> <li>The current estimated rice stock in the hands of private traders in urban areas throughout Niger is less than 7,000 MT, or the equivalent of 10 days of national consumption (this quantity does not include rice already in retails stores and market stalls, nor does it include stocks that traders are reluctant to report, assuming they are waiting for the prices to reach maximum)<br /></li> <li>During previous food crises, Niger would resort to importing cheap Asian rice to offset the food gap. This is not an option this year. It becomes particularly more strained by the recent natural disasters in Burma and China. <br /></li> <li>All told, all signs point to a rice shortage/stoppage in Niger by the end of June.<br /></li><br /></ul><br /><br />Just so you know what the local effects are expected to beGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-2260318374838204022008-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:002008-05-13T10:23:17.742-07:00ISTHail hail the gang's all here.<br /><br />It's IST time and I'm in Hamdy with weekends in Niamey for the next two weeks. It's great to see everyone again and we lucked out with the ride in - a cool day and a packed but not overcrowded bus. I managed to sleep for most of it, given that the amoeba medication comes with anti-nausea medication so you can keep it down, AND the fact that Krista and I stayed up all night so we would sleep. It was a good trip. <br /><br />Really looking forward to seeing everyone now that we're all in - we've still got almost a full contingent - only 2 people have left so far of our original gang of 34. Pretty good numbers.<br /><br />Village life is good. My people are really nice, and seem to have a lot of kokari (effort). I'm going to be working with an improved bean project once I get back, as well as trying some seeds I brought from home. Squash, melons, and corn, plus I'm getting garden beds built in my concession so I can plant tomatoes and peppers and things that require a bit more tending. I'm also trying to figure out a way to bring a water tower to my village in a sustainable manner so that we can start gardening and making pepinieres and reclaiming the accursed desert. <br /><br />In the future, I'm lookign at trying to move into Niamey to replace a volunteer planning to leave in March-ish. She works at INRAN, the national agricultural research organization here in Niger. She's the one that's organizing the bean project with the PCVs and I think that, once I've gotten my language skills very down and all that I'd be a good fit there. Plus, you know, I might actually get to use my degree! Imagine that!<br /><br />But that's pretty much life here - other than amoebas and bacteria I'm in health, and on meds so not feeling bad. Really excited to be here, even on the really tough days when I want to drown the majority of the women in the well... It's remaining a good experience for me.<br /><br />Love and HUGS<br />M <br /><br />P.S. I want to send a loud congratulations out to Kate and Gilbert - may Allah bless your union with happiness and many children (they like to wish 10 kids around here but I'll let you two get away with 5 :) )Geek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-91829990778061072172008-04-11T18:36:00.000-07:002008-04-11T18:47:54.328-07:00For all friends of Marika, I am posting some earlier transmissions. They are interesting, enjoy!<br /> <p class="MsoNormal">3/29/08<br />Phone conversation<o:p></o:p><br />Marika doing fine.<span style=""> </span>Naming ceremony was actually for babies, not “Malika”, but she was a guest at the ceremony.<span style=""> </span>Hopefully, mail will come on Tuesday from Maradi, and is hoping for the REI camp shower to arrive as it will be easier, especially for washing hair (at the moment, she has something rigged with a plastic kettle??).<span style=""> </span>Told her about finding references to “gris gris” charms and “pirogue” boats in the Niger travel book, and she added that the word for okra is “gumbo” and that there is a Hausa proverb equivalent to the French “Petit a peti, l’oiseau fait son nid”—so all her early Cajun words are showing their African origins! <span style=""> </span>Solar charger is working fine.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">3/27/08<o:p></o:p><br />Phone conversation w/Marika<o:p></o:p><br />Was standing at the health hut where reception is best and just happened to catch her at that time.<span style=""> </span>Learning language, coping with fact that water is required for her projects (tree nursery, general plant starting) and well is 128 feet down (water comes up by foot treadle pump), needs instructions from PC on building improved cookstove (at present, is pot on top of three rocks with fire below), has been hennaed! in last few days and will have her naming ceremony in next few days.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Feeling better (had a bit of a cold a week ago) and trying to avoid drinking the milk, which could carry tuberculosis…PC doctor has asked PCV’s avoid it, as they can cure it with meds, <span style=""> </span>but one would still always show up TB positive.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Has been receiving quite a few of packets sent to her; always craving more reading material!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Phone conversation<br />March 14, 2008<br />Have been back at headquarters for over a week, completing the final preparations for the Swearing In, packing and departure for the installation at assigned village.<span style=""> </span>There has also been a BBQ and socializing and shopping for needs and wants for the time ahead on site.<span style=""> </span>The Swearing In in country garb is today and follows testing for language, Hausa in this case (which was passed with flying colors).<span style=""> </span>Tomorrow will be a day of rest and packing, the next day will be departure for the long bus ride to the next PC regional office and to village by end of week.<span style=""> </span>The almost six-week training period is almost over and now on to the real thing for the next two years!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">February 27, 2008<o:p></o:p><br />Gaisuwa!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been in my village for live-in for a few days now, and so far, it’s lovely.<span style=""> </span>I have a 2-room adobe house with high ceilings and cement floors, a small but comfortable yard, my very own shower/latrine and high 6’ walls.<span style=""> </span>I arrived on Monday with a ton of stuff and a fellow PCV to help me get situated.<span style=""> </span>I’ve got my bed and copious “stuff” in one room, kitchen in the one with the door.<span style=""> </span>We walked around with my new host “dad”.<span style=""> </span>As these things go, my concession is in the front of his, kind of.<span style=""> </span>He’s a builder but also seems to make the gourd bowls common around here.<span style=""> </span>Very nice.<span style=""> </span>We met the maigri and the teachers and saw the mosque, schools and cereal bank, wells, pumps and health hut.<span style=""> </span>For a small village, it’s very well appointed.<span style=""> </span>The PCV talked the nice teacher into letting him ride on his motorcycle—not at all sure I’d like that ride myself, so am sticking with bush taxis.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Will head back to the hostel on Friday and then back to <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Niamey</st1:City></st1:place> on Saturday on the 12-hr bus ride.<span style=""> </span>Thankfully, the bus to here was at recommended capacity and not overflow.<span style=""> </span>We stopped in all the major towns on the way, and it was neat to get to buy stuff out the window.<span style=""> </span>When we got to the town, we were met by the regional rep (head of the region) who hauled us back to the hostel.<span style=""> </span>The hostel’s best feature was a hot shower, real hot water showers.<span style=""> </span>This was followed by a huge library and a PCV’s cooking, but after 12 hours on the bus, the showers won out.<span style=""> </span>So, the newbies got to meet the veterans, and one showed me how to allow the hostel’s email to update my site.<span style=""> </span>There won’t be pix for a very long while, I’m afraid.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The past two days have had the whole grey dust sky here in my village.<span style=""> </span>When I get my trees planted, I may be able to take some photos. <span style=""> </span>Now, the yard’s just sand and clay from where they just finished my wall.<span style=""> </span>They’ll finish cementing the shower between my departure and my installation, as well as putting up my shade hangar (runfa).<span style=""> </span>I think I really will like it here.<span style=""> </span>I’m already starting to brainstorm possible projects—school garden, millet grinder, Sahelian eco-farm demo, millet trials, etc.<span style=""> </span>Plus my own personal pet—teaching farmers to select within their own fields.<span style=""> </span>The lack of any gardens at all makes me want to haul a new acquaintance over here so we can do a joint series on nutrition and garden veggies.<span style=""> </span>Before that, though, I may be helping another volunteer already here put together a similar demonstration of seed selection and genetics, as she works with INRAN, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Niger</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s Ag program.<span style=""> </span>Apparently my university career may be useful—who knew?!<span style=""> </span>Plus, of course, after install, I’ll meet the World Vision folks and possibly the Purdue people to figure out my status on their bean storage project.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today, I’m just chilling in my house, hiding from the wind, dust, sticks that eat my toes and women who want me to hold or heal (not clear which but people came in while I was fixing my toe and they may think I’m a doctor now—a common PC misconception).<span style=""> </span>I will go out later and try to map the other side of town, both for my own sake and for the safety coordinator who worries to the point of wanting to know where a plane or helicopter could land.<span style=""> </span>He’s both that good and that paranoid at what he does.<span style=""> </span>All the PC staff are just fantastic.<span style=""> </span>The trainers and the APCD’s and the alphabet soup of titles.<span style=""> </span>Wouldn’t be Peace Corps without acronyms!<span style=""> </span>Truly a great village here.<span style=""> </span>They really get the hospitality thing here—they have a proverb that your guest is your god, but thankfully here they aren’t trying to feed me.<span style=""> </span>My fellow PC showed me how to make a good cream sauce for pasta by mixing in powdered milk and I bought veggies at the market (eggplant is really good with cream sauce, by the way—just a little bit of bleach…I’ll have the world’s toughest stomach after two years of this!)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>But now, I’m going to whip myself up a nice bread and cheese (ish thing) with a side of “kilshi” (think spicy jerky) for protein, take my Doxy (anti-malarial medicine) and take another stroll around town.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">January 29, 2008</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Greeting!<span style=""> </span>Gaisuwa!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Babu lahi—no worries!<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been selected for the Hausa group, which is farther east.<span style=""> </span>Will visit my village, which I won’t know for another couple weeks, and which I won’t visit for a few more after that..<span style=""> </span>I visited the person who works with ICRISAT.<span style=""> </span>Spoke for a long while with one of the plant breeders there and may run some seeds wherever I’m posted.<span style=""> </span><o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sai hankuri – have patience…used a lot!<o:p> </o:p><br />Tonight is our fashion show, where the host family dresses us up in native garb.<span style=""> </span>Will try to get some photos taken to send back, though don’t know when I’ll have net access again.<span style=""> </span>Saw the photo of the group on my blog, so now you know what we all look like. I have a mini concession inside my host family’s.<span style=""> </span>The host mama has three daughters, two of which live with her; the third has her own place a few “blocks” away.<span style=""> </span>Between Hausa and French, we communicate pretty well.<span style=""> </span>Here I’m know as Rashida, which means “guide”; when I get to my village, I’m changing it to Malika, which is what they pronounce my name as anyway and which means “queen”!<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">My fellow volunteers all rock.<span style=""> </span>Our entire stage is very-self-supporting.<span style=""> </span>We’re always there for each other, not just the sickies in the infirmary, which I’ve only been once, but just for everything.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">News from the outside is appreciated.<span style=""> </span>The cards are neat, but an honest to goodness letter would be great; letters seem to take only a week or ten days.<o:p><br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m writing now by flashlight.<span style=""> </span>I suppose I should tell you about my concession.<span style=""> </span>It’s tiny, but it’s mine.<span style=""> </span>I’ve moved the bed inside now; it was too cold, even with a blanket, to do otherwise and the host family is right across from the cinema, which goes until 12 am.<span style=""> </span>It’s surprisingly spacious, more so than my freshman dorm room!<span style=""> </span>I’ve got my netted bed on one side, and my trunks on the others, with my water filter on the stool between them.<span style=""> </span>It’s cozy—just need my cat!<span style=""> </span>I’m, again, really looking forward to getting my post village assigned, so I can move in and adapt…and get a phone…and a mat…and control my food.<span style=""> </span>As of yet, I’ve not lost weight, due to the large proportion of carbs served to us here.<span style=""> </span>Shinkafa, or rice, is super nummy here, and while also served with miya (sauce), it tends to be very spicy and flavorful.<span style=""> </span>Oh, and we eat with our hands, our right hands, to be precise, much to the consternation of my left-handed friend.<span style=""> </span>In my own future concession, I can buy eggs, or keep chickens, depending, and I’m making arrangements to have beekeeping and possibly fruit trees—mango and pomme de sahel, which is more of a pear, being fleshy, pitted fruit that’s quite nummy.<o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>It’s past 11 pm now and I have to get up at 6:00 am in time for our day in the village.<span style=""> </span>The site is closed, and we eat street food for breakfast and with our host families for lunch and dinner.<span style=""> </span>Carbs galore!<span style=""> </span>Actually, the street food breakfast is very good.<span style=""> </span>The have farin masa, the Nigerien answer to beignets, and served either sweet or savory, but always burning hot, as all Nigerien food is served, though the host family has now figured that ansaras (outsiders) can’t eat food that’s 200 degrees.<span style=""> </span>Tomorrow, there’s even talk of tracking down the egg sandwich guy—living here has made us skilled at finding the protein sources.<span style=""> </span>Hopefully, I won’t sleep through my alarm like I did this morning—“baba kyau”…not good.<span style=""> </span>This morning, though, aie, but I hustled and it was fine—time to spare, even after watering the garden.<span style=""> </span>It’s very like Girl Scout camp, if GSC had a cow, a goat, a donkey and some chickens in the front yard.<span style=""> </span>I’ve even started adapting the camp songs to fit PCC—“The health care that they give you, they say is mighty fine, but the injections that I’ve gotten, now number 99.<span style=""> </span>Oh, I don’t wanna go to PC camp…”<span style=""> </span>This only one of the many verses I created on an overpacked bush taxi coming back to training camp!<span style=""> </span>But now I need to sleep.<span style=""> </span>I miss and love you all and send cuddles to my cat.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Coconut Diver Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16697756100179392098noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272756727933526920.post-56029180365871510762008-03-15T01:26:00.000-07:002008-03-15T01:30:41.107-07:00Officially Real NowHey there! I'm officially a PCV rather than a PCT now! I passed the evil language test of doom and will be headed to Maradi on Sunday. Last night was... wow. Awesome. Sworn in by the ambassador and a ton of people and laughing and all in all great fun. You'll all love my outfit, made of computer material pagnes. I will post pictures eventually, once I get off my ass and resize them from their current 4M status... Yah, had to play with the camera a bit. It was fun, though. I was bringing geeky back. Not, from what I can tell, that it ever truly left Niger. So fun. Exhausted now, and there will be a ton of other stuff to get done and packed, so we're figuring out how to get our newly free butts back to Hamdy for one last night. LOVE to you all. <br />MGeek Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15544457234832201553noreply@blogger.com0