so last time i wrote anything i think i stopped mid sentence.. it was too hot and i was tired tired tired! a week ago i was feeling pretty under the weather, and worried i might have malaria (someone else has already gotten it!)... i may or may not have posted since then, but the latest news is:
class is pretty good, had my first hausa oral exam today and it was the first real studying i've done since i've been here: and i got a 19.5/20! as for the other classes, they're going pretty easily. on the bright side, my 490 level class is going to be the easiest near grad-level class ever. so far we've watched a movie, and the lady had malaria for a week, so we haven't really gotten much done.. the electricity goes out frequently during that class too, which is pretty convenient.
i forget if i've mentioned how cool my culture and society professor is.. but i will recap. she is a major feminist in niger, protested against pregnant girls being unable to attend school, and began and led a demonstration in class against a professor who hit his female students. she was such an outspoken woman's rights lady that she had to flee the country under the dictatorial president kountche... was followed by the secret police... lived with a family in mali who wouldn't let her eat at the same room as them because she hadn't undergone female genital circumcision... etc. she's an amazingly strong woman even by the states' standards - divorced her husband because he opted to go down the polygamy route (up to 4 wives is legal) with a younger woman - and in niger that's a huge deal, she waited for days in court and when she brought up her case it wouldn't be heard until her husband agreed to be present. the only reason the divorce went through was because he told them he had quit the house for 3 weeks, and they deemed her a poor spouse worthy of the shame. she also had to fight in family court for their children (because it's a patrilineal society and the father automatically gets the children, to be raised under his other wives)... case in point, this woman has incredible stories to tell, and we all love her class -culture and society of niger- last friday she took us to a feticheur: a fortune teller's!
so the fortune teller is across the river, and while we have fit 7 people in a cab before [don't even try to underestimate how bad that is, when it's over 100 degrees and the cab the size and quality of a 1977 corrola] this time half of us were able to ride with amina, our awesome lady professor. the cab driver with the other half of us was directed to follow us, but there is a huge amount of traffic and they got left behind.. we forgot about them in amina's car and had to wait until we saw a big tall anasara head hitting the roof of a cab approaching us. the traffic situation, and what you see along the road is for another time, but there is little rhyme and reason to anything en route, and there are funny stories worthy of sharing - just when i get home.
the feticheur was in this little mud compound with around 4 straw huts. people were gathered cooking millet, talking, drinking tea, and sitting around, like normal. i saw no water well, but there was an outhouse - which was probably just the visible wall, some straw, and a bucket of water.. probably no hole and definitely no running water! there was a goat and a fat chicken that all of us americans immediately thought looked delicious. [an aside: chicken here is for some reason more expensive than beef, good for the red meat carnivore in me, but i will say i am missing some good ol chicken!] anyway, my point is this place looked like what you'd think of in an african village... EXCEPT, you get into the feticheur's house? i suppose house.. and it is decked out with every wall covered in ornate, oriental looking rugs, there are some frames, there are 2 beds, a fan, a lightbulb, a tv, and a cabinet. i sat on the floor next to her, a larger woman with a cackle for a laugh that was so appropriate for her line of work, and watched as she used little shells in a platter of sand to dictate our fortunes and futures.
she had nothing too too juicy to report, i guess, but she was definitely on par with our lives. about 7 of us were there, and each of us got our turn. eerily, she told one of us, laure, that she would be pretty sick but that it would be nothing bad. we get home and this girl threw up 15 times in one night, and had some terrible 24 hour bug - that thankfully passed! she had some accurate things to say about our friend betogi's life and love life, that weren't too upbeat yet still true. and just for fun, she told me i'd have 4 male suitors... in niger? good god, i know! but she added that i was not going to marry here, but in the US.. so don't sweat too hard.
anyway, we're going to celebrate our last night in niamey for the next 10 days - we depart for burkina faso early in the am.. a 9-10 hour bus ride i do not look forward to. i'm probably going to take some benadryl for good measure so that i can sleep out the misery of the heat and bumps? haha, anyway - we're going to go say our bye's to our nigerien friends.
i hope to update more after burkina - there's an african film festival called fespaco (festival pan-afrique cinematique ouagadougou) going on that we'll be able to see. miss everyone, 1 month is down and there are only 3 left to go!
and fyi, my camera pooped out within the first week.. i'll steal other people's pictures when i can!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Il ya longtemps?
It's been a while since I've posted anything, so here is a run through of what we've been up to in Niamey.
Classes have started and I've decided which ones I'm actually going to take.. one in English, two in French, one in Hausa. Challenging myself? sort of, but the professors are very laid back, and since my french has finally picked up I can definitely understand what's going on. Both my french-speaking professors are awesome - one teaches culture and society (her name is amina, we've been on a field trip to speak to Hausa, Zarma, Beri-Beri and Toureg women representatives about their role in their society), and the other teaches performing arts (his name is yazi dogo, and he's actually famous throughout Niger for his films.. i'm learning jembe -the big african drum- with a guy named oumaru- and nigerien dance, which looks so cool but is real hard.. and we have yet to start)
I've been loving my community placement at the national museum.. At first I thought I had a poor reception with my artisan - because we could barely communicate.. but the past few times I've been going I've been feeling totally welcomed and incorporated. My guy's name is Tanda and we do silver together; I've already made 2 rings and a set of earings (By 'me' I mean 'HE' because they really teach by doing rather than showing, and it was necessary for him to fix basically everything that I did). We sit between these guys Isufu and Bebe.. Bebe's hysterical and speaks good french - so I converse with him as often as possible. We joke about how I'm melting from the walk when it's not even really hot here and how he wears sooo much cologne, and always applies it while I'm there.. Lots of people usually gather by my artisans and I've heard Tanda is like the go-to guy. People seem to bring things over to him to fix more often than the others, but I could just notice that because of where I sit.
Everyone around me is really generous - always taking me to greet other artisans in tents and throughout the museum, offering me tea and snacks, and one guy even gave me earings -spoon shaped, and not the exact design I'd choose to wear, but a really friendly gesture nonetheless.. although I think he gave them to me because we joked about how I don't have a husband in the states and he PROBABLY wants to marry me (something every american here gets asked on a daily basis by cab drivers, strangers in the street, passerbys, etc).
Don't worry though! I don't feel creeped on at all - giving is simply a much huger part of culture here than it is in the US.. a major comfort and surprise, especially when there is so much less to give here than there. For instance, these guys who own a mechanic shop across the street from the CFCA always go through the typical greetings with me, which are quite extensive and always involve asking about my kurne and ize (husband and kids), always invite me to have a shot of tea with them, and even offer to walk me down the street because it's not safe enough -which don't worry, it is- note: by mechanic shop I mean there are usually 4 motorcycles sitting there/getting worked on under a little shaded stand with a toolbox. there's just a bench with 3 guys making their tea (of course), no sign, and no resemblance of any sort to a garage. Anyways, my point is that the general consensus is that people here are just outgoing and warm, and so much more receptive of others than anywhere else I've ever been.
Some trips we did:
Belleyara, a huge market about 2 hours outside the city.. with more camels, sheep, goats, cattle than I've ever seen together in one spot. The drive was rough - down the worst road I think I've ever been on and extremely hot. A fun adventure, but exhausting.
Park W -wildlife conservation area about 2-3 hrs outside the city. Most of the roads unpaved, and through absolute nothingness. There is still brush, and tiny villages with just a few huts, but it's still incredible to know that people are able to make a life for themselves so far away from any infrastructure whatsoever.
As for the drive, I'll just say Brush:3, Americans:0. The SUVs we took were nice in comparison to our usual bus, but we experienced many get-outside-the-truck-and PUSH to start, we had a driver get out to help fix our overheated engine and meanwhile his SUV rolled into the brush and one of our students had to jump into the front seat to pull the e-break, and finally one SUV's tire went completely flat and pretty much exploded going over a bridge. Case in point, travel here is really really difficult. To be honest, I'm surprised at how resilient the vehicles here are. Considering the conditions, and the old age of the cars, they fare okay..
So we did the safari type thing at Parc W and were able to see monkeys, giant antelope, buffalo, warthogs, and crocodiles. we rode on the top of those trustworthy SUVs, and were
Classes have started and I've decided which ones I'm actually going to take.. one in English, two in French, one in Hausa. Challenging myself? sort of, but the professors are very laid back, and since my french has finally picked up I can definitely understand what's going on. Both my french-speaking professors are awesome - one teaches culture and society (her name is amina, we've been on a field trip to speak to Hausa, Zarma, Beri-Beri and Toureg women representatives about their role in their society), and the other teaches performing arts (his name is yazi dogo, and he's actually famous throughout Niger for his films.. i'm learning jembe -the big african drum- with a guy named oumaru- and nigerien dance, which looks so cool but is real hard.. and we have yet to start)
I've been loving my community placement at the national museum.. At first I thought I had a poor reception with my artisan - because we could barely communicate.. but the past few times I've been going I've been feeling totally welcomed and incorporated. My guy's name is Tanda and we do silver together; I've already made 2 rings and a set of earings (By 'me' I mean 'HE' because they really teach by doing rather than showing, and it was necessary for him to fix basically everything that I did). We sit between these guys Isufu and Bebe.. Bebe's hysterical and speaks good french - so I converse with him as often as possible. We joke about how I'm melting from the walk when it's not even really hot here and how he wears sooo much cologne, and always applies it while I'm there.. Lots of people usually gather by my artisans and I've heard Tanda is like the go-to guy. People seem to bring things over to him to fix more often than the others, but I could just notice that because of where I sit.
Everyone around me is really generous - always taking me to greet other artisans in tents and throughout the museum, offering me tea and snacks, and one guy even gave me earings -spoon shaped, and not the exact design I'd choose to wear, but a really friendly gesture nonetheless.. although I think he gave them to me because we joked about how I don't have a husband in the states and he PROBABLY wants to marry me (something every american here gets asked on a daily basis by cab drivers, strangers in the street, passerbys, etc).
Don't worry though! I don't feel creeped on at all - giving is simply a much huger part of culture here than it is in the US.. a major comfort and surprise, especially when there is so much less to give here than there. For instance, these guys who own a mechanic shop across the street from the CFCA always go through the typical greetings with me, which are quite extensive and always involve asking about my kurne and ize (husband and kids), always invite me to have a shot of tea with them, and even offer to walk me down the street because it's not safe enough -which don't worry, it is- note: by mechanic shop I mean there are usually 4 motorcycles sitting there/getting worked on under a little shaded stand with a toolbox. there's just a bench with 3 guys making their tea (of course), no sign, and no resemblance of any sort to a garage. Anyways, my point is that the general consensus is that people here are just outgoing and warm, and so much more receptive of others than anywhere else I've ever been.
Some trips we did:
Belleyara, a huge market about 2 hours outside the city.. with more camels, sheep, goats, cattle than I've ever seen together in one spot. The drive was rough - down the worst road I think I've ever been on and extremely hot. A fun adventure, but exhausting.
Park W -wildlife conservation area about 2-3 hrs outside the city. Most of the roads unpaved, and through absolute nothingness. There is still brush, and tiny villages with just a few huts, but it's still incredible to know that people are able to make a life for themselves so far away from any infrastructure whatsoever.
As for the drive, I'll just say Brush:3, Americans:0. The SUVs we took were nice in comparison to our usual bus, but we experienced many get-outside-the-truck-and PUSH to start, we had a driver get out to help fix our overheated engine and meanwhile his SUV rolled into the brush and one of our students had to jump into the front seat to pull the e-break, and finally one SUV's tire went completely flat and pretty much exploded going over a bridge. Case in point, travel here is really really difficult. To be honest, I'm surprised at how resilient the vehicles here are. Considering the conditions, and the old age of the cars, they fare okay..
So we did the safari type thing at Parc W and were able to see monkeys, giant antelope, buffalo, warthogs, and crocodiles. we rode on the top of those trustworthy SUVs, and were
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