Imagine spring rolls, filled with nearly all meat. A whole tray of them. Plate after plate. 36 1/2 to be exact. That was the final number of "Chinois Nems" consumed by each Barbara and me.
We had a nems eating competition. Keep in mind a normal meal for a person would be somewhere between 6-12 nems, depending on your hunger. So 4 of us started out, talking all the shit we could about how many we could stomach. 2 people dropped out at 21, saying they were in training for the next time. At 33, I went to order another tray of 6, the cooks of the restaurant looked at me and said "No more, you have eaten too much! Enough. Why are you causing problems? You are finished!" Although they were joking around, they unfortunately brought another tray. And we finished it. Barbara and I officially ate 36 1/2 nems. Beat that.
It wasn't so bad until the taxi ride home. In Niger they pick up other people and you share taxis. So as if the bumps in the roads weren't enough, next thing I knew I was squished between Barbara and a large Nigerien women in the backseat. Thankfully I didn't puke, however we kept saying "We are not in health!" and when we got out he came to open our door for us.
Now we both sit here feeling dizzy, sickly full, and wanting to vomit.
As my sister said it, "It's like you ate 3 feasts!"
Yea, something like that.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tying up the loose ends....
Okay, to tie up some loose ends, this blog entry will be scattered, but theres a lot of questions i get asked, so here's to understanding my life just a little bit more. First off, where do i live in Niger? Near the city of Gotheye, its about 80 km east of Niamey, across the river. I live north, about 28 km North of Gotheye. If you see Tillabery on the map, I'm more or less across the river. Look it up.
You can check out google maps:
My sister just informed me you can check out Google earth (or something) and see my village on it, so let me know....
A lot of people have been asking what I do on a daily basis in the bush. Here goes:
7:00 AM Wake up to the sun shining in my face. Or my villagers banging on my door to say good morning. And the occasional kids peeping their heads through my windows staring. Eat breakfast(oatmeal). Take a quick bucket bath.
7:30 AM Open up the door to my house, greet everyone that comes by, which is every 2-3 minutes. Sweep my house. Sweep the sand in my concession.
8:15 AM Walk to the well. Wait at the well. Pump water. Put the bucket on my head and walk back to my house.
9:15 AM Relax! Close my door, sit on a mat, read a book!
10:00 AM Walk around the East half of my village. Sit down with people, chat. What do we talk about? The heat, the wind, the fact that I came and sat. How I'm getting fatter. Their kids. Their pounding. Their millet.
1:00 PM Go back to my house. Cook up some pasta for lunch. Or eat with my villagers for lunch. RELAX! Enjoy some reading time. take an afternoon nap. Wake up sweating. Embrace the heat because after all, i could be in Mongolia!
4:00 PM Walk around the rest of my village, chatting the day away. Go to the well again if needed.
7:00 PM Return home for dinner. Cook up more pasta/rice.
8:30 PM If I have a lot of energy, go for a night walk. Dance with the women. Drink tea with the men.
10:00 PM SLEEP. That's a late night though, some nights I'm in bed by 8!
So far this is a typical day, until now. Before I was just practicing my Zarma, which is coming along. Sometimes my days include weddings, baby naming ceremonies, or going to market. Sometimes I'll go to the school and play with the schoolkids. However, now that I am much more proficient in Zarma, I can begin my work in Niger. Since my work is anything to do with the environment, I can do any projects the village needs! So, as of next week I am going to hold a meeting with the men of my village about the gum arabic trees. Hopefully, the village men will prune the men now, then come cold season I will teach them how to tap the trees for gum arabic. Right now Senegal is exporting 90% of the gum arabic that is used in products such as coke, soap and candy. So, this leaves plenty of room for Niger to get in the market and sell since it is the perfect climate to grow gum arabic trees.
That's my first project. In the coming weeks I am also planning on holding a meeting with the women to find out their needs of the village, and brainstorm ideas for projects we can work on together. Hopefully I'll be starting a literacy/numeracy class in the coming weeks, as a lot of the women are interested. So, I guess to answer the question of when I will start work? My work is any projects i choose to do with my villagers, ideally to deal with the environment.
On another note, this past Saturday was African Children's day. World Vision in Gotheye through a party for the kids, complete with millet sack races, egg on a spoon, and other songs the kids were singing. It was great to see adults pay so much attention to kids in a society where kids become adults too soon.
To change subjects once again, someone recently asked me about eating with my villagers. Well, the general protocol for meals here is the women cook the food and the men eat it. Men eat separately from women, yet women sometimes eat with kids, too. Its generally just rice and sauce on a platter-like dish, placed on a mat on the ground. 5-7 people eat together, scooping it out with their hands. And my villagers love to laugh at me since I still haven't quite mastered eating with my hand, my right hand that is. The left hand is left to take care of "food when your body has finished with it", aka, poop. Yep, learn it live it love it, no toilet paper in the bush.
So to round this out, I'll repeat a quick conversation i had the other week with a friend in America:
Friend: Lulu, how often do your clothes get washed?
Me: Well, as often as i want!
Friend: WOW! That's great! Often! Well, why??? How??
Me: As often as i want to go to the well to fetch the extra water to wash my clothes with!
Also, i put up a few more pictures. Unfortunately Internet is as slow as dial-up, so they are time consuming....maybe in August ill get more up when I'm in town for a while. But the link is on the right. Till next time....
You can check out google maps:
My sister just informed me you can check out Google earth (or something) and see my village on it, so let me know....
A lot of people have been asking what I do on a daily basis in the bush. Here goes:
7:00 AM Wake up to the sun shining in my face. Or my villagers banging on my door to say good morning. And the occasional kids peeping their heads through my windows staring. Eat breakfast(oatmeal). Take a quick bucket bath.
7:30 AM Open up the door to my house, greet everyone that comes by, which is every 2-3 minutes. Sweep my house. Sweep the sand in my concession.
8:15 AM Walk to the well. Wait at the well. Pump water. Put the bucket on my head and walk back to my house.
9:15 AM Relax! Close my door, sit on a mat, read a book!
10:00 AM Walk around the East half of my village. Sit down with people, chat. What do we talk about? The heat, the wind, the fact that I came and sat. How I'm getting fatter. Their kids. Their pounding. Their millet.
1:00 PM Go back to my house. Cook up some pasta for lunch. Or eat with my villagers for lunch. RELAX! Enjoy some reading time. take an afternoon nap. Wake up sweating. Embrace the heat because after all, i could be in Mongolia!
4:00 PM Walk around the rest of my village, chatting the day away. Go to the well again if needed.
7:00 PM Return home for dinner. Cook up more pasta/rice.
8:30 PM If I have a lot of energy, go for a night walk. Dance with the women. Drink tea with the men.
10:00 PM SLEEP. That's a late night though, some nights I'm in bed by 8!
So far this is a typical day, until now. Before I was just practicing my Zarma, which is coming along. Sometimes my days include weddings, baby naming ceremonies, or going to market. Sometimes I'll go to the school and play with the schoolkids. However, now that I am much more proficient in Zarma, I can begin my work in Niger. Since my work is anything to do with the environment, I can do any projects the village needs! So, as of next week I am going to hold a meeting with the men of my village about the gum arabic trees. Hopefully, the village men will prune the men now, then come cold season I will teach them how to tap the trees for gum arabic. Right now Senegal is exporting 90% of the gum arabic that is used in products such as coke, soap and candy. So, this leaves plenty of room for Niger to get in the market and sell since it is the perfect climate to grow gum arabic trees.
That's my first project. In the coming weeks I am also planning on holding a meeting with the women to find out their needs of the village, and brainstorm ideas for projects we can work on together. Hopefully I'll be starting a literacy/numeracy class in the coming weeks, as a lot of the women are interested. So, I guess to answer the question of when I will start work? My work is any projects i choose to do with my villagers, ideally to deal with the environment.
On another note, this past Saturday was African Children's day. World Vision in Gotheye through a party for the kids, complete with millet sack races, egg on a spoon, and other songs the kids were singing. It was great to see adults pay so much attention to kids in a society where kids become adults too soon.
To change subjects once again, someone recently asked me about eating with my villagers. Well, the general protocol for meals here is the women cook the food and the men eat it. Men eat separately from women, yet women sometimes eat with kids, too. Its generally just rice and sauce on a platter-like dish, placed on a mat on the ground. 5-7 people eat together, scooping it out with their hands. And my villagers love to laugh at me since I still haven't quite mastered eating with my hand, my right hand that is. The left hand is left to take care of "food when your body has finished with it", aka, poop. Yep, learn it live it love it, no toilet paper in the bush.
So to round this out, I'll repeat a quick conversation i had the other week with a friend in America:
Friend: Lulu, how often do your clothes get washed?
Me: Well, as often as i want!
Friend: WOW! That's great! Often! Well, why??? How??
Me: As often as i want to go to the well to fetch the extra water to wash my clothes with!
Also, i put up a few more pictures. Unfortunately Internet is as slow as dial-up, so they are time consuming....maybe in August ill get more up when I'm in town for a while. But the link is on the right. Till next time....
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Orange Sherbet in a Bag
One day Brittany and I decided to head out of my village. In the absence of shade we approached a tree that already had some men and kids playing cards. As we walked toward the tree, we heard a chorus of "Anasara, give me a gift. I want some candy." By nearly everyone, including the adults. Which is unfortunately fairly common to happen outside my village.
Being frustrated, Brittany approached the dude that was provoking it and gave him a little lecture about calling to us just to ask for gifts. I then looked at the kids and said "Give me your shirt, give me your pants, I want your shoes. I want your hat." They started to understand my point. Then I said to another kid "I want your orange ice." So he gave it to me. With looks of shock around me, i ate it. It actually tasted like orange sherbet, in a bag of course. And it was tasty. The kids and men probably didn't expect i would eat it. (Neither did my friends) So finally, to break the silent stares, Brittany's "new friend" she lectured about calling us white people just minutes before bought us each our own orange slushy in a bag to make up for the annoyance.
So, did they learn a lesson? Hopefully, his slushy was half gone by the time i gave it back.
Being frustrated, Brittany approached the dude that was provoking it and gave him a little lecture about calling to us just to ask for gifts. I then looked at the kids and said "Give me your shirt, give me your pants, I want your shoes. I want your hat." They started to understand my point. Then I said to another kid "I want your orange ice." So he gave it to me. With looks of shock around me, i ate it. It actually tasted like orange sherbet, in a bag of course. And it was tasty. The kids and men probably didn't expect i would eat it. (Neither did my friends) So finally, to break the silent stares, Brittany's "new friend" she lectured about calling us white people just minutes before bought us each our own orange slushy in a bag to make up for the annoyance.
So, did they learn a lesson? Hopefully, his slushy was half gone by the time i gave it back.
Monday, June 18, 2007
We missed you!
After being gone for three weeks in training it was fun to return back to my village. At the end of my installation meeting in March, Haoua, my boss, had told my villagers that I was meant to become a child of the village. They truly take this to heart and take care of me. When I came back after the 3 weeks everyone had counted to the day how long I was gone. I actually had one of my villagers tell me:
"We don’t want you to leave. We want to see you everyday. When you were gone every car we saw we thought “is it Kadija, is it kadija?” But you didn’t come. You were gone a long time, we missed you."
But not everyone was excited. The 2-year olds were still deathly afraid of me. They still screamed at the top of their lungs and cried when I approached. Afterall, I'm most likely the first white person they've seen. When I was walking around one of the women thought it would be funny to ahnd me a screaming child. I held the boy, who of course had no underwear/pants on, in my arms away from my body as he was kicking in screaming. Next thing I know I am getting sprayed with urine all over my new outfit. Well, I guess this was better then a month ago when the baby I was holding shit all over me. Normal. Just another day au village.
"We don’t want you to leave. We want to see you everyday. When you were gone every car we saw we thought “is it Kadija, is it kadija?” But you didn’t come. You were gone a long time, we missed you."
But not everyone was excited. The 2-year olds were still deathly afraid of me. They still screamed at the top of their lungs and cried when I approached. Afterall, I'm most likely the first white person they've seen. When I was walking around one of the women thought it would be funny to ahnd me a screaming child. I held the boy, who of course had no underwear/pants on, in my arms away from my body as he was kicking in screaming. Next thing I know I am getting sprayed with urine all over my new outfit. Well, I guess this was better then a month ago when the baby I was holding shit all over me. Normal. Just another day au village.
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