10 October 2008
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…
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.
11 October 2008
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)?
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.
12 October 2008
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.
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.
14 October 2008
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!
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…)
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…
15 October 2008
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…
20 October 2008
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.
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.
HUGS!
M
23 October 2008
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.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
A little help for my friends...
Hey :)
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 :)
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 :)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Extremely 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…
2 September 2008. 1st day of Ramadan - Azumi.
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. Tashi! Motsa! Sha! (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.
8 September 2008.
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…
10 September 2008
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.
13 September 2008
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.
20 September 2008.
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…
29 September 2008.
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.
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…
2 October 2008
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!
2 September 2008. 1st day of Ramadan - Azumi.
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. Tashi! Motsa! Sha! (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.
8 September 2008.
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…
10 September 2008
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.
13 September 2008
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.
20 September 2008.
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…
29 September 2008.
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.
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…
2 October 2008
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!
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