Your Guest is Your King

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!