September 2005

September 2, 2005

My family has given me the name Razak.  It is short for Abdou Razak, meaning �Servant of God�.  As in the U.S., foreign names are difficult to pronounce, so I will be keeping Razak for the next two years.  My family gave my roommate the name Abdou Rashid (same meaning- God has 99 names in Islam).  They forget which one they named me most of the time, so I�ve gotten used to answering to Rashid as well.  

It has been a rough week of language immersion.  On Wednesday I met with two groups providing aid to Niger.  The first was called Soutba.  They are financed by the European Union and are helping Niger through the process of decentralizing the school system.  They help train teachers and are a strong proponent of primary schools taught in the local language.  Next I met with officials from the Canadian embassy.  They provide funding for many aid organizations in Niger.  They have been busy recently with the famine but they hope to devote more resources towards girl�s education in the next few months. 

On Thursday and Friday we hosted a conference for the school inspectors nationwide.  Invitations were given to all the ones our group will be working with.  I presented a session in French on the importance of daily schedules.  My fellow presenters and I performed a skit that went over pretty well. 

I had a chance to meet with my inspector.  He was nice but he didn�t talk much.  I am looking forward to working with him over the next two years.

September 3, 2005

Last night I went to the the local movie theatre.  It is a vacant lot with a generator.  There is a TV on a stand hooked up to a DVD player.  The seats are cinder blocks. Each night two movies are shown costing roughly 5 cents each.  The movies are from either the action or kung fu genre and are dubbed in French.  Mostly young boys attend.  I do not think they understand much (if any) of the dialogue, but they love the fighting scenes and can tell when a joke was said. 

Last night was an old Jet Li movie.  He is popular in my village.  Other stars they like are Jackie (Jackie Chan), Commando (Arnold Schwartznager- they do know he is now a governor), Van Damne (Jean-Claude), and Stallone or Rambo.  Before the movie starts, there are music videos from the US, Europe, and Africa.  Sometimes there are clips from other movies.  During the movie people are free to talk, even yell across the theatre to others.  People are constantly coming in and going out.  It is a great opportunity to socialize and meet the village kids. 

During the movie the kids would catch crickets.  One boy offered one to me, but I politely refused.  They pull of the wings and legs, crack open the body, and suck out the meat.  The crickets are about 5 inches long and apparently taste good to Nigeriens.  I may try friend crickets during my stay in Africa, but I am not yet at the point where I can eat a bug raw. 

September 5, 2005

I moved into my house for a weeklong stay.  It is a really nice setup.  I have a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a shower.  I also have an additional room connected to my house that is accessed through a door on the porch.  It has a separate lock.  There is a small cement shack that houses my electric meter.  Unfortunately I do not have a toilet or a sink.  I use a little outhouse in the corner of my concession.  Running water comes from a faucet also located in my concession.  The concession, especially the area near the latrine needs to be cleaned.  There are weeds and trash all over.  When I moved in, some of the neighborhood kids tore up the weeds by the door.  They also helped carry in furniture.  They were incredibly excited to have me living next door.

I feel guilty to admit it, but my house is too big.  I have very little furniture, and the vast open spaces are depressing.  My kitchen has an oven/stove, a storage trunk, a table, serving as a counter top, a water filter, and a refrigerator (I haven�t turned it on yet, electricity is expensive).  In my living room there is another storage trunk serving as a coffee table, two chairs, and an end table.  My bedroom has my bed with my mosquito net (there are almost as many bugs/spiders/lizards inside my house as outside).  I also have a storage trunk for clothes and a fan, which was expensive, but well worth it. 

The most interesting event of the day was the process of turning on my electricity.  I met with the prefere (kind of like a governor in the U.S.).  He sent me off with a man whom I believe worked for my landlord (I probably will never learn who he actually was).  We went to the electric company and met with four different people in four different offices.  Each one kept passing us along.  Finally I filled out some forms and we headed to my house to check the meter.  The man from the electric company documented every possible thing about my meter (number of screws, text of all labels).  We then headed back to the electric company and were passed back to the first man we had met.  An argument then occurred (in Zarma so I didn�t understand).  They wanted me to pay the outstanding bill for May and June.  I told them I was in America for May and June.  We proceeded to get in my landlord�s employee�s car and drive around searching for the previous tenant.  Once found, we dragged him to the electric company.  After another argument, he paid, I paid a start up fee, and my electricity was running. 

September 6, 2005

I began to explore the town.  I was introduced to the owner of a kossom shop (package yogurt that is very good).  He is incredibly friendly and invites me to sit in front of his store and absorb the language.  He took me to an electronic store to buy a fan.  I visited the market where I purchased tomatoes, tomato paste, tofu, garlic oil, pepper, and curry to make sauce. 

In the afternoon I visited the local radio station.  I met with the director who is very passionate about his job.  I met two volunteers from Benin who currently have a weekly radio program.  They are actually the closest Americans to my new home (there is a Nigerien volunteer in a village 8 kilometers from my town).  The Benin volunteers are leaving in November, so I may be taking over their program along with the other Nigerien volunteer.  It will be fun to broadcast my New York accent through three countries. 

In the evening I went to the Maison des jeunes to see a concert by a musician called Mali-Yero.  He is very popular in Niger.  His songs are pretty good and are in Zarma.  He was accompanied by a guitar, base, drums, keyboards, trumpet, and sound technician.  At first no one was dancing, but after an hour or so a few men went up to the stage to dance.  Soon many men and few women were up there dancing as well.

September 7, 2005

The other American returned to his village last night so I spent the entire day by myself.  I had an appointment at the primary school inspection office.  I was told the inspector was not there this morning and I should come back in the afternoon.  They asked me where I wanted to go now.  Since I didn�t have alternate plans I told them I was going to the market (which I would pass through on the way back to my house).  A man from the inspection walked with me to the market.  I stopped to buy soap, after which he took me to the office of an NGO (non-government organization). 

This organization was responsible for providing scholarships to girls from the Bush so that they could attend college (equivalent of middle school) or lycee (high school) in the city (most villages are too small to have upper level schools).  Currently, this organization paid their expenses (living and supply costs) for thirty girls.  We proceeded next door to another NGO.  Although the employer of this one spoke English, I had a harder time figuring out exactly what they did.  I learned they helped make improvements to rural areas-such as wells with pulley systems and fields planted with better agriculture techniques.  I understood that they train local women�s groups to accomplish these tasks. 

I finally realized that the man from the inspection was giving me a tour, so I told him I wanted to see the school.  He took me to the large college in the town, which has 993 students (half of which are female).  I met with a few English teachers and the director.  The latter is a man who is very passionate about his job.  He told me their biggest needs were supplies-desks, English books-and he asked me for them.  My job was to create sustainable projects.  There are plenty of other aid organizations giving charity.  I told him I couldn�t provide these things.  I have a feeling he will be asking me again though.

I went home for a bit and got to know a few of the neighborhood kids.  I returned in the afternoon to meet with the inspector and then went to see the kossam vendor.  I stayed at his shop for a few hours until we went to a wooden hut surrounded by satellite dishes.  Here we watched the Ireland/France soccer match.  Most of the crowd left happy as France won.  In this place they had a second T.V. that no one was watching.  I kept peeking over at it because they showed baseball highlights and WWE Smackdown!

September 8, 2005

This morning I went back to the inspection.  I talked to a member of Coges whom I met yesterday.  He is responsible for ordering, distributing, and tracking all the text books for the school district.  He is a friendly man who is trying to learn English.  Our conversation consisted of me asking him questions in broken French and him responding in broken English.  I was supposed to take a tour of the schools located at the edge of town, but the inspection chauffer was absent.  He was tending to his field because it is almost harvest season. 

In the afternoon I took a trip to a neighborhood village to see another volunteer.  I was able to see the gardens he planted for the village.  Unfortunately, he created some controversy by planting a garden on one side of the village.  The inhabitants on the other side of the village were upset that they didn�t get a garden as well.  It will be tough here to do projects that benefit some people without offending others that aren�t involved. 

The village is not a typical one in Niger.  It is situated along the river.  They grow rice and have a pump to add and remove water from the irrigation system.  They have a rice husking machine.  Despite the loud noise, it benefits the village.  There are fishermen who use large nest to catch fish.  The fish that I saw were only three inches in length.  Along the river were palm trees bearing a fruit called sorbize.  It is a clear, Jell-O-like fruit inside a large, hard shell.  Personally, I thought the edible part was not worth the effort to remove it.  Also, located along the river are banana trees.  As a result, bananas are cheap and will be a staple of my diet over the next two years. 

September 9, 2005

It was a typical day in Niger-one that tested my patience.  I needed to take a Bush taxi to the principle city of my region-Dosso.  I arrived at the autogare at 8 a.m.  Usually the taxis leave between 8:00 and 9:00.  I ate breakfast and I waited.  And I waited.  And I waited.  I ate lunch at about 12:30 and then there was finally a taxi ready to leave.  It was not the taxi I originally purchased the ticket for.  It was another van that was transporting rice and had very few passengers. 

Just before 1 p.m. we departed.  We didn�t travel particularly fast (I don�t think the car was capable of it).  We stopped to pick up a few more passengers along the way, including a man I had met at the inspection office.  We also stopped at every gendarme (military police) check point.  The driver would pay the soldiers.  Sometimes he had to negotiate with them for a while and sometimes we would fill up on gas (using a funnel and gasoline filled recycled liquor bottles purchased from roadside stands).  While driving there was a nice breeze, but while stopped it was hot.  Very hot!

After a while the car was resting at one check point.  With my limited language skills I believe we were stopped because the driver ran out of money.  Eventually he flagged down another taxi to take me the rest of the way.  I had left my house at 7:45 a.m.  I arrived at my destination 150 kilometers away at 6 p.m.

On Saturday I completed my journey back to Niamey by bus.  We only had to wait two hours for the bus (2 hours late is early in Niger).  The bus was over crowded so we stood for a bit.  Luckily the bus moved quicker than the taxies and the 150 km took only 2 hours to traverse. 

September 13, 2005

The training period is winding down.  I passed my final language exam today and am cleared to go out in the world.  I am by no means fluent, but I should be able to get by on my own.  Since language classes are over we have just been hanging out-playing cards, playing volleyball, and trying to avoid the heat.  I moved out of my host family�s house. 

Before I left we had a little party.  We had macaroni and sheep.  The two mothers sat down and ate with my adopted brother and me for the first time.  We ate from a big platter while sitting on a mat.  The two Americans were given spoons since we aren�t too good at eating with our hands.  I tried to make small talk with the mothers (after 9 weeks I still don�t know one of their names).  Unfortunately, the language barrier was too strong and they didn�t understand what I was saying (I think they actually understand but were confused as to why I was asking where they were from).  After dinner we had popcorn, cake, and soda.  Everyone loved it.  I tried to give some soda to one of the cousins whom all the other kids pick on.  They fought me at first, but he was able to have a little.  It is interesting how ones family status is reflected in the attitudes of children as well.  I enjoyed my time with the family and will definitely miss them when I leave. 

September 21, 2005

Today was an interesting first day at my new home. I slept in, and then I cleaned my house, and ate breakfast. I showed up to work at 10 am. While walking there I got caught up in a heard of cattle. Upon arrival I performed the customary greetings. I then spoke with the inspector for almost an hour. After which I spoke with a French teacher for another 20 minutes. I feel as if my French is progressing. I hope to focus on it for a few more weeks before concentrating all of my efforts on Zarma.

My American friend was making lunch for me today, so I headed to his house around noon. I decided to try a new route there and ended up very lost. I passed by many kids on the side streets that were surprised to see a white person. One man invited me into his compound to show me all of his gardens. He planted cabbages, peppers, and another vegetable I did not recognize the name of. I was introduced to his family and he showed me the birth certificates of his children.

Next I stumbled across a young man who spoke English. He was familiar with other volunteers and was glad to see me. I told him I was lost. He took me to his house and I met his family. We watched music videos from coto divoire that he had on DVD. He told me he was interested in museums so we had much to talk about. He used our conversations as an opportunity to practice English, and I to practice French. He began a group with seven other students at the high school. They create traditional West African garments. They hope to exhibit their creations in a museum and sell them in the markets in Europe and America. They are a motivated, well organized group of young men. I shall try to help them any way I can, they should be a pleasure to work with. My poor sense of direction proved beneficial once again. 

September 23, 2005

I went to the market today to purchase ingredients to make an entire meal. I decided that I wanted macaroni and sauce. To make the sauce I need to get tomatoes, tomato paste, peppers, onion, dried peppers, garlic, and a curry packet (which is probably just solidified MSG). I had oil and salt already (the oil here is peanut oil so everything has a peanut taste). The macaroni, tomato paste, and curry come in pre-sealed packages (the same as in supermarkets back home). The rest of the ingredients are sold loose. Some items- such as garlic, dried peppers, and oil are sold in little plastic bags for dolagv (roughly a nickel). There is no need to haggle for these. The produce requires some bargaining. When I was buying the peppers I quoted a price. The merchant gave me a real funny look so I double the price-figuring I probably just asked for half a pepper. I ended up with a ton of peppers. Needless to say my sauce turned out incredibly spicy. 

I am amazed at how friendly the people are here and how willing they are to help a stranger. They are very patient with me as I fumble through the language and cultural differences. I hope that I can be as friendly and as patient with strangers when I return home. 

September 25, 2005

This past weekend the volunteers in the surrounding villages organized a sensilibization. They each brought two or three kids from the Bush into the city. There were programs and games to teach the kids about agriculture and natural resources. The sessions were led by three Nigerien teachers and included such topics as types of trees, quality of soil, and how to build a more efficient cooking fire. The sessions were run entirely in the local language since half of the kids did not attend school; thus did not know French. Unfortunately, I was unable to understand much of the information.

I mostly just observed the events. I had a miniscule part in a play in which I performed the role of a baanu tree. I helped to think of a few ice breakers- the human knot, chef de circle- but they required someone else to translate. I joined the kids in a soccer game and participated a bit in a dance for them. We played a few card games. They enjoyed one that featured multiple decks of cards all placed face down. One person would pick two cards. If they were the same color, the person would keep them and their turn would continue. In the end the person with the most cards won. A more ambitious volunteer taught some of them Rummy. I learned a game of solitaire very similar to the American game of �clock�. 

On the last day the students received a tour of the city. They visited a tree plantation and learned how mango and lemon trees are grafted. They met with the owner of the kossam shop to learn how small businesses operate. They also got a chance to explore the market and the school and to see a concert on the street. 

I was glad to see these activities with the kids. My assignment over the next two years is to create and or assist in similar projects. This weekend was organized and executed well, serving as a good example for me to follow eventually. It has also made me anxious to get started doing my own projects. 

September 27, 2005

I spent another day without seeing another American (my second since moving to my new home). I made a bowl of pasta for breakfast (I can�t wait to explore the bigger market in Benin and purchase some oatmeal!). On the way to the inspection I conversed with some local merchants. Yesterday I received my first Nigerien wedding proposal. A man tried to get me to marry his female friend so I could take her to America. We continued the joke today, and from what I gather from this culture we will probably continue the joke everyday for the next two years (they seem to like repeating jokes here).

At the inspection I sat in on a few meetings, but I did no really grasp what they pertained to. For lunch I found a woman that sells rice and beans and I ate another meal out of plastic bag (it will be weird going back to America and not having rice or pasta or coos-coos served in a plastic bag). I found my way over to my Nigerien friend�s house-of course getting lost again in route. Once there I was fed a second lunch- a fish sandwich that turned out to be pretty tasty. We watched a movie in French that I was able to follow (although most of the dialogue was over my head). We also watched more West African music videos. We played cards; first the Nigerien game �ouet� which I learned during training (very similar to crazy 8�s). I was then taught a game called �velo�, which I have not yet grasped. It is a complex game with changing hierarchy of cards and changing trump suits (much more difficult than the color matching game the kids taught me). I should catch on soon though-kala suuru (have patience!). 

For dinner I had white yams from a roadside stand. I had a bowl this time, but I had to eat with my hands. Another customer showed me the proper way to do this (in order to get the most sauce in my mouth). I am discovering the locations of different foods. I can get a meal extremely cheap here so until Ramadan hits, I should eat very well.