The Land of Plenty: Bacon...Chocolate.... Ice Cream

I guess a "quick" blog to wrap up the last few months in Niger.....starting with October....

~The end of Ramadan came and ended with a big fete au village. It felt like Christmas: everyone bought new outfits and shoes, braided their hair extra nicely and got their feet/hands henna'd.....then walked around the village all day to show it off while saying "happy new year." It was a fun day though, all of the women in my concession ate a potluck lunch together, each women cooked up a different version of rice and sauce. Although everyone told me the dish i brought wasn't good. The pound of salt i added wasn't enough....so the key to Nigerien cooking: nothing matters as long as its tastes like salt.

~towards the end of October i participated in a Guinea Worm week. So first off what is Guinea Worm? Its a parasite that enters the body from drinking water infected with the larvae. About a year or two after after contracting the parasite the worm will pop out of some part of your body. Most likely the ankles/legs but could be anywhere, even out of an eye! Its painful as its leaving the body, takes a week or so to entirely come out. And as its coming out you have to wind it around a stick or something, kind of imagine a long spaghetti noodle coming out of your leg over a painful one week. So I spent the week in a different village about 30k in the bush doing skits, and demonstrations raising consciousness about Guinea Worm.

~In the beginning of November I traveled out east a few hours to Konni. Went out for a Moringa training. If Allah wills it, in January the women in my village will start a moringa plantation in my village. So what is "moringa"? Its the "miracle" tree to which you eat the leaves containing tons of nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and protein.

~Had my first international guest visit, Lauren! In a quick 4 days we bush taxi'd it to my village and back, saw some giraffes and rode camels. Even tasted the gastronomy of Niger, slime sauce!

~After thanksgiving i went out to Barbara's village and we painted a world map on her school. On the outside, probably about 8x6 feet. Hopefully villagers will be able to learn about where Niger, America and Africa are all located!

~After heading back to my villager for a few days I popped over to the city of Tillaberi for a day to do a radio show, in zarma. Kate and I talked about trees, soil in the fields, and using trees as a natural pesticide. My villagers were so excited to here the name of our village on the radio that i don't think they even learned anything from the whole show.

And finally I'm back to the land of plenty, America. This place really has everything....bacon, flowers, pig, chocolate, ice cream, meat. And its so convenient to eat! I left Niger a little bit early due to some civil unrest in the country, so I'm in New York until Thurs, Seattle from Dec. 20 till Jan 4, new york again then back to Niger on the 6th. With leaving early my entire village was yelling at me for not telling them I was planning to go to America so soon. "Kadija, we would have given you okra, and sesame, and peanuts, and sorghum and millet to give to your family! Now they will see you and say how hungry Niger is. They will think Niger's food is not tasty. And since you never told us you were leaving, we never henna'd your hands or feet, or braided your hair!" When a chicken is eaten in my village they share it between 40-50 people. But they even wanted to give me some chickens for my family of 7! Needless to say, I showed up in America without a suitcase of food, and no chicken. What do they want in return? I was told by the older men of the village I need to ask my dad to get money to buy them an American cow to bring back for the village.....

America IS great, hope to catch up with everyone while I'm home.....