Another Month in Review

It's getting more and more difficult to write on my blog...what to write about??
So here's another rundown of some random stories of the village for the past few weeks:

~Ramadan has begun, 30 days of fasting. It's been exhausting for me in the village as people really don't understand Islam here and have difficulty differentiating culture/religion. I'm constantly explaining to people why I don't fast or pray. Sometimes people just nod their head at me saying they understand when I try to explain it. One of my villagers is constantly telling me to take her daughter, Leila, to America. I knew she understood the concept of praying, however, when she looked at me in fear and asked "Kadija, if you take Leila to Amerik, she won't pray?" Nope. "OH, okay don't take her!"



~As much as I try, some things are nearly impossible to explain to my villagers. Each farming season Nigeriens work in the fields to harvest their own food for the year and store it. As they are aware Americans don't really eat millet, my villagers are constantly asking me what Americans plant. Corn? Peanuts? Okra? Well sort of, there's just no way to explain it that if we need something we buy it, and that most Americans don't farm. Not only do we not farm, I've never planted anything in my life, besides those pumpkins.



~Another thing I tried to explain is the concept of plumbing in a house. When I say each house has a pump in America, they tell me they understand, probably assuming one pump faucet outside. "When you need to use the bathroom you sit down on a little seat with a bowl of water underneath it. When you're done, you push a little button and it all disappears and more water comes out!" Yes, God is big!



~The amount of respect I get here being an American is nearly unexplainable. The men never did the work on the gum arabic trees back in June. So I shamed them. Standing in front of 20+ middle aged men: "I came here because people said the men of Babagade Koira have a lot of effort. [cheers] But, you never did the tree work, you don't have the effort. People in Niamey and neighboring villages asked me if my villagers got the work done, I said no. Not even a little." And that's all it took, they spent 3 days out in the field and got all (500??) trees pruned within that week.



~World Vision recently did a food drop in my village. Most villagers received a soy/corn blend and oil. ""Kadija, did you get your oil?" First everyone kept trying to give me some of their oil, and then they were demanding I go get my own oil. I just couldn't really explain why I wasn't taking the free oil. I tried telling them if I want oil I buy it at the market. They told me I don't pay for this oil, it's free. Okay, if I take your oil, you won't receive any. That didn't work either; they told me there's enough for everyone. I think I was finally able to explain it to them but most people still didn't agree. And 3 days later when I came back from market with oil I bought, "Kadija, why did you buy oil? We have oil to give to you!" Generous is definitely a word to describe a Nigerien.



~One of my villagers braided my hair so I told her I would cook dinner for her since all of my villagers are constantly asking me to cook for them. So she came over my house at about 8:45 and I asked if she was hungry, if her daughter was eating. Yes. She said she will go and come, when she came back, she said she was tired; she was going to go to bed. "No, you are not going to bed, you need to eat. I just cooked for you!" Figuring that since it was hunger season I would treat her to a large bowl of pasta, since that is a luxury item for them. So after cooking up nearly an entire bag of pasta I made a basic alfredo sauce. When we started eating, she took one bite, and said she was full. "No you are not full; you have not eaten at all." I was extra frustrated given that Zarma is such a basic language, and the only way to describe how you feel is the word "happy." I am happy, I am not happy. My blood was boiling as she pretended to eat, while actually refusing to swallow a bite. I tried to explain that, in America, it's polite to eat the food even if we don't like it. I explained that if I'm at her house, I still eat her slime sauce and say its tasty! But she still refused to eat. After nearly a half hour of demanding she eat, I eventually made her leave. I haven't cooked for anyone since! And when she asks me to take her to America, I can now just say she will never go to America because she won't eat American food and will get sick. "Oh but Kadija, I like American food." Okay it's true, she only had one dish. But if its not Nigerien style they might not like it!

This week another group of PCV's have sworn-in so I'm here for the week. Tonight I'm headed to the GAD dinner/auction then hopefully back to post by Saturday...