When I first arrived in my village I brought along the book "In Sorcery's Shadow" by Paul Stoller to read. The book is about animism in the region I live in, with a big focus on the larger town of Mehanna. It just happens that Mehanna is at the end of the unpaved road that i live in, so I hear about it often. But, it is still about 70k from my village, and I hadn't been there yet. So a few weeks ago Rachel and I gathered our mosquito nets up and we were off to Mehanna. The chief of my village gave us the name of a contact he had that we could ask for when we arrived. After a long day of bush taxi riding and sitting at a nearby market we arrived in Mehanna. Upon arriving Mehanna, we showed up at the shop and asked for my chief's contact, Issifi. The women sitting there called Issifi, and told him he had guests. Really? Yup, there are two annasaras here asking for you.
So about an hour later Issifi shows up as he had also been traveling. After we greet him, I explained how I got his number. Then with a smile on my face, I told him "We will sleep in your house!" So with that, we became his guests. He started leading us around the village, brought us to his friend's house so we could wash up. After our walk around the village we decided it would be best to sleep in the school as it would be like giving us our own house for our stay in Mehanna. When night time rolled around the school teacher set us up an enormous mattress to sleep on, complete with pillows and sheets. A sweet treat when we expected to just be sleeping straight up on the ground! For dinner, they set us up with a table, tablecloth, chairs, and a few amazing pots of food with an enormous fried fish on the side. Oh those luxeries! After dinner they even brought us come cokes! And with it all we didn't lift a finger!
After a great night of sleep we woke up the next morning to...more food! An enormous bowl of fried eggs with a side of bread! And when I insisted they didn't have to do it for us...what do they tell us? "Your guest is your king" A Niger proverb. And wow, we were definitely the kings, (or queens?) of this village! The second day we hung out at market for a few hours then made our way back to Babagade. We didn't see any crazy sorcerers but sure did experience Nigerien hospitality.
Conclusion? I'd highly recommend showing up at a random village in Niger and telling some random person you will be sleeping in their house for a few nights. Hospitality at its best!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Monthly Rambles...
Well...almost two months, I'm a little behind with the blog. What was my welcome back to the village after returning from Ghana? Mom's of every little baby boy in the village, and every little boy coming to my house, pulling down their pants to show me they've been circumcised! And they were so excited about it! (Circumcision is part of Muslim culture). Definitely gave me a good laugh....
It's been a more or less typical few months in the village- a few weddings, many babies born, and sadly a few babies died. A pair of twins died just days after being born, another little girl that was 2 weeks old died. And unfortunately hunger season has started. I was talking to one of my friends, asking her about how many children she has (although it's generally an impolite question in Niger, as its a sign of how much money one has). She told me 5, but then started naming off all of her children that have died. Shocked, I found out that she has given birth 13 times, 8 children have died. 8. An incredible number that's still almost unbelievable to me.
When I was talking to another villager, I was asking her questions in an attempt to figure out the family tree of the village. After I had written down about 15 people, she busted out with "I married my grandfather." Umm, seriously? No, no this can't be. God is big. Wow, you married your grandfather? God is very big. In the bush in Niger they really only use the terms "child", "mom" "dad", etc, so they don't tend to use uncle or cousins. But finally I broke it down with her, and she married her great-uncle. Still shocking, to say the least.
Other village news? The water pump in my village broke. So I've been going to the next village to fetch water. A 12 minute walk with 20 liters of water on your head isn't the easiest. But, then that pump broke. So next up? the river. But at that point the 20 minute walk through mud and water was just a little too much, so I sent a kid. They did fix the pump in the next village so it's back to fetching my own water.
All that, and I bought 2 goats and 3 chickens! Being an anasara (white person) walking 2 goats on a leash back from market has never gotten me so much attention! One goat will be killed and eaten next month when my parents visit, and one when i leave in December. Although I'm afraid I am already becoming to attached and won't be able to kill either of them!
And most importantly....the machine at Babagade is up and "fufuing" rice! I can't thank everyone enough for the contributions back home.....and the women can't either! They are constantly showing me their hands telling me they won't suffer anymore! They love buffing their enormous calluses!
Unfortunately my camera broke...so until my parents come I don't have any pictures to put up...so stay tuned for the pictures of the rice grinding machine!
It's been a more or less typical few months in the village- a few weddings, many babies born, and sadly a few babies died. A pair of twins died just days after being born, another little girl that was 2 weeks old died. And unfortunately hunger season has started. I was talking to one of my friends, asking her about how many children she has (although it's generally an impolite question in Niger, as its a sign of how much money one has). She told me 5, but then started naming off all of her children that have died. Shocked, I found out that she has given birth 13 times, 8 children have died. 8. An incredible number that's still almost unbelievable to me.
When I was talking to another villager, I was asking her questions in an attempt to figure out the family tree of the village. After I had written down about 15 people, she busted out with "I married my grandfather." Umm, seriously? No, no this can't be. God is big. Wow, you married your grandfather? God is very big. In the bush in Niger they really only use the terms "child", "mom" "dad", etc, so they don't tend to use uncle or cousins. But finally I broke it down with her, and she married her great-uncle. Still shocking, to say the least.
Other village news? The water pump in my village broke. So I've been going to the next village to fetch water. A 12 minute walk with 20 liters of water on your head isn't the easiest. But, then that pump broke. So next up? the river. But at that point the 20 minute walk through mud and water was just a little too much, so I sent a kid. They did fix the pump in the next village so it's back to fetching my own water.
All that, and I bought 2 goats and 3 chickens! Being an anasara (white person) walking 2 goats on a leash back from market has never gotten me so much attention! One goat will be killed and eaten next month when my parents visit, and one when i leave in December. Although I'm afraid I am already becoming to attached and won't be able to kill either of them!
And most importantly....the machine at Babagade is up and "fufuing" rice! I can't thank everyone enough for the contributions back home.....and the women can't either! They are constantly showing me their hands telling me they won't suffer anymore! They love buffing their enormous calluses!
Unfortunately my camera broke...so until my parents come I don't have any pictures to put up...so stay tuned for the pictures of the rice grinding machine!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
