Mon Premier Mariage Nigerien

My first Nigerien Wedding

wearing our ridiculously nigerien and conservative attire

well today for nigerien culture and society class we went to our teacher's nephew's wedding. ceremony here isn't at all like it is in the state.. tradition says that the day is all about the groom and not the bride. while probably 150 people were celebrating in niamey, the bride-to-be was out in tillaberi - she was waiting to be picked up by the groom's friends for i guess the evening shebang.

on the way to the ceremony we took a quick visit to some girl's house, said hello, drank some juice, and left.. a strange little pit stop. on the road again and amina's car started squealing like a cat so we had to pull over, luckily right in front of a garage. the garage guys proceeded to give us a ride to the house.. all in a typical day's happenings here, il n'ya pas de problem, we say

so we reached the final destination at last, with all the family members wearing different cuts of the same crazy pagne. a big gathering, and 6 of us anasaras were warmly welcomed.. more Nigeriens in one place than i think i've seen yet, in and around an average sized nigerien home. we wore traditional nigerien clothing, so got some compliments on that, and it probably helped us blend in a little? at least that's what we thought until we were brought into a bedroom, they shut the door, and then we were like.. "they want to hide the awkward white people!" we really just sat around in the bedroom for a while, but an occasional old woman would come and serenade us with singing. then they brought us food - african rice and chicken, traditional style - which entails using your hands - no utensils! it was a big anasara mess. there was rice everywhere, none of us could breathe sitting on the floor in our traditional dresses, and we had officially lost amina, our teacher. after about 2 hours we decided to ask if anyone knew where she went, but by then she came back, and it was time to go.

we left with a member of the wedding party.. dropped us off at the main road and caught a taxi back.
i realize as i write that nothing that i can type can explain how awkward these situations have been, or how fun in retrospect. we have a singing competition and dinner on a boat tonight.. then tomorrow we're going to a posession ceremony, soo hopefully the next post will be a little more interesting!

JE SUIS FACHEE

IM PISSED

I never write blogs and I just had a real long one goin about my homestay this week, then the power went out for just a minute so it disappeared :(

Anyway, I'll try again:

I lived with Dad Ousmane, Mom Binta, Mesbah 5, Kaliyah 2, Monido 11, Rukiyah 14. They're a Ba'Hai family, an interesting religion I'd never heard about until meeting them.

First day was awkward, as expected.. Went through the market with Binta to get cooking materials for the week (although she doesn't cook, the niece Monido and the housekeeper Rukiyah do all domestic things). Before that day I had never gotten so close to the meat section of the market, for good reason. I got a lil splatter of bone or cow or I don't know what on my face.. The way you buy meat is absurd, you order it off of big slabs on wooden counters, and then the guy hacks away at it with a machete (sp?). Anyway, the market is always a big ordeal with people trying to sell you things at every angle. I felt bad for Binta because as a whitie I attract a lot of salespeople and automatically jack up the price of things she is actually trying to buy.. But we made it through.

That night was the Ba'Hai New Year so we went to another family's house for dinner. I thought I was eating a BAT so I was sweating profusively.. to be curtious I ate everything (and that wasn't the last time I had to force somethin down) Turns out it was just the head and breast of a small bird, but fried up I was seriously worried. Later that night there was a cockroach in my bedroom, but I took a deep breath, turned off the light, and tossed around in bed for hours because it was so flippin hot. After my awkward first day and hot, sleepless night I really wasn't sure I was gonna love my homestay.

BUTTT of course things picked up, and I came to love my family. Mesbah and Kaliyah have devilish and angelic sides, like any kids I guess. Kaliyah can pull off the bratty-ness better cause she's as cute as a button and just 2. Mesbah, not so much.. never malicious towards me or anything, but just as obnoxious as a boy his age in the states - very bright and cute boy though, who likes to draw and could be entertained for hours in front of some construction paper.

Yesterday I had no class and spent the whole day with the family at a close friend's house.. played with the neighbor baby, ate a lot of food, and even took a nap while I was there. I have come to master the early afternoon sieste, and when they first told me I should lay down, I was like "nahh, cava" but then I got smart and passssed out. It is so hot in the middle of the day the only thing to do is sleep.. it's just odd that I took a nap at a complete stranger's house. The couple there was super nice though - they even gave me a pagne as a gift :) Also spent some time at an Iranian woman's house, a nice big place with a SWIMMING POOL and AIR CONDITIONING! Her name was Fara, and she's this smart Ba'Hai lady who runs a private school here.. talked to me a lot about the religion, but I surprisingly wasn't bored.. it's a really logical approach to faith that emphasizes being in accord with science - just something new and interesting.

Surely there are countless other things I could record about homestay, like how Kaliyah pooped in the bude, the amount of times there was no water, how often and hot it was when the power went out at night, the loud call to prayer from the mosque next door, how me and Binta bonded over American and Cote D'Ivorian music, the amount of rice and fish I ate..

We're having a little homestay reception in about an hour.. everyones' families are coming to eat dinner with us at the CFCA. Binta is actually Burkinabe, and as a gift she gave me something truly African to wear tonight.. the material is the equivalent of a burlap sack and I'll be dying of sweat for sure, but it's a pretty dark blue and I'll sport it with pride. My last lunch with the family filled me up to the brim and I'm not hungry at all - and I probably can't zip up the top part of the dress - but I kind of look forward to showing my pretty family off to the other students :) Hopefully Mesbah and Kaliyah behave..

La Moto

The motorcycle

In retrospect, I made gut decisions which were kind of stupid, but I made it home safely!
To alleviate some of the homesickness I'd been having recently, I decided to get out of our little compound and do some city exploring last weekend. Some of us explored new restaurants, went through the markets, went to an English club, etc. On Sunday I decided I would be productive, so I went to an internet cafe (which was not like an internet cafe in the European sense, obviously) I was happy to catch a ride there from our neighbor, and not have to get in a taxi -which is only 40 cents per ride by the way. The internet cafe proved not to be conducive to writing a paper though, because the keyboard was in french format and it took me an hour to type anything.. It was hot, cramped, and I was sitting on an uncomfortable stool, But I didn't stay through my full two hour session anyway, because the power was cut before it was finished. So I left hot and slightly disgruntled.

I probably walked around the roundpoint in the sun for about 20 minutes trying to catch a taxi. Some passed, but none were going in my direction, which is how they do things here. So I start talking to a local, who tries to help me find one, walk down another road, catch one finally -who starts taking me in the wrong direction! Kicks me out (didn't pay of course) and now I'm back at the game of trying to find someone going towards Chateau 1 or Indrap. End up walking all the way back to where I started, with a young boy named Nu who also tried helping me.. No use.. I finally decide to just start walking back home until something else comes up. The road I went down to avoid the unsafe route proved to be backed up with traffic... That explained the power outtage.. The president was passing. Military personell were everywhere and the streets were congested but quiet. I didn't realize at first what was going on, and was instructed by the gendarmes to run across the road! I laughed at my misery.. lost, sweating profusively and the police were making me look like an idiot anasara running through a military blockade. (Locals were actually saying, HEY ANASARA -the term for white foreigner.. sometimes I get HEY CHINOIS too) Well seconds later I heard sirens and saw the presidential entourage speed by. All the roads were literally grid lock and I lost any hope of getting back in a timely manor.

Then, a friend of the program said hello, and I hopped on his moto and we took a tour of the city to avoid the traffic! Front door service and my first time ever on a bike... I sort of got scolded for getting on a motorcycle in Niamey, which is understandably unsafe, BUT I was soo flustered! And it was really my best option, the two possible walking routes pass by the two parts of town we are specifically informed not to go to: The Kennedy Bridge is notorious for petty theives and roberies, and La Cloche is a brothel where 2 students here were mugged last week!

I have just realized I have no creativity for writing right now, and those adventures were much more exciting to recap before this blog entry! .. I'm in the middle of doing the descriptive paper I had intended to do last Sunday at the cyber cafe, and thus am all typed out. It's hot too. I even notice that Nigeriens are sweating now, which means that the season is starting! It gets up to 110 already.. and even though it cools off in the night, our rooms stay a toasty temperature. I wake up often to a pillow and matress soaked with sweat.. The worst is when the power goes out - if that happens in the middle of the night and our ceiling fans go off everyone immediately wakes up.. it's unbearable already. Lately I've been seeing friends' pictures of Europe and Australia, and I start to think I chose the wrong region of the world to study abroad in! I have discovered the French Cultural Center's air conditioned library though, and am going to spend as much time there as possible once it "actually" gets hot...

Speaking of French Cultural Center, I was there yesterday talking to a guy who I always see at the museum, a major Nigerien sculptor. He introduced me to the cultural center's graphic designer, who co-runs a culture and arts NGO here, which I hope to start doing another community placement with.. so more on that later.. but I literally met one guy to another, and even got to introduce myself to Moustaffa, the animator who I watched a documentary on at Fespaco.

I'm quitting this blog now though for a lunch break. Then back to my paper, and then out for a friend's 21st birthday tonight! The heat and the many languages I'm trying to concentrate on really don't do much for my english grammar and style.. I've realized this in the difficulty I'm having doing this formal paper! So I'm signing off on a very scatter brained note.

Le Feticheur

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!

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

manger

alkamisa and i just returned from lunch at a nigerienne home.. we went to saratu's - a woman who works with the US embassy. she is 7 months pregnant with twins, has already got i think 4 children, and lives well in niamey. all i want to say on this post is that i foresee gaining more weight in the desert than losing! in reality it is extremely sad how much we americans are used to eating in comparison to the rest of the world. it's silly trying to exercise off the excess when everybody here is undernourished - but we are all being fed such delicious foods.. so don't judge when i return from africa a few pounds heavier. it's unexpected, and the man on airfrance was completely wrong, but at this rate, it's likely to happen. oh yeah, it's very hot today

we were taught how to wrap up nigerienne style, if only i could remember what the local terms are!