Happy Thanksgiving!

He'll be dinner soon....

And for today with just a few weeks left a quick reflection of Niger:

Things to Miss about Niger:
-Sleeping right under the stars every night
-FRIENDS- both peace corps and village friends
-Sitting around for hours and talking about....nothing
-The kids
-Walks in the bush
-Niger generosity & forgiveness
-Having time to do whatever I want
-Village life
-Coming out of the bush after being in for a month and appreciating the smallest of things- running water, showers, cups, plates
-Coming out of the bush and eating mediocre Annasara food and thinking its Allah's gift to me
-Getting care packages- tearing them open and enjoying everything to the last bit
-Being a celebrity everywhere
-Belly laughing with villagers
-African sunsets

Things NOT to Miss About Niger:
-Amoebas!
-Bush taxis
-Waking up with random bug bites
-Bugs crawling all over me when I'm sleeping
-Having a food craving and waiting all month to eat it
-People asking for gifts all the time
-Marriage proposals(or maybe I will miss them?)
-Setting up a mosquito net over my cot everynight
-Mosquitoes/ black flies
-HOT SEASON! i.e. 120+ degree days sans electricity
-Constantly being a foreigner because of my skin


Last night a few other PCV friends and I were sitting around eating Oreos(brought from the motherland) dunking them in milk, eating them like they were God's gifts to all of us- appreciating it like no other. I'll miss that-eating Oreos in America may not taste as good! And this weekend it's back to the bush for the Tabaski Fete then a goodbye to Babagade Koira....

A Culture of Dependency

I couldn't thank Peace Corps more for giving me the opportunity to live in Niger over the past two years- it's given me the chance to live at the village level with the people and truly integrate into the culture and speak the local language. Speaking the language has let me really get to the level of the local people and get a feel for what's going on, but unfortunately I'm ending my two years here with a negative view of foreign aid -- it just doesn't work.

I don't know about other third world countries receiving foreign aid, the rest of Africa, or even the rest of Niger. I can only speak for the people I've lived and worked with over the past 2 years.

Nigeriens are so used to receiving gifts from westerners that they assume that's what westerners do - provide gifts. After so many years of receiving foreign aid in the form of pumps, machines, fences and food, among other things, they now expect it, and sadly, they depend on it.


There is a prominent man in my village, Tino, who is more educated than other men. When my parents came for a visit, he was upset with them for not bringing sacks of food and liters of oil for each villager. This is what the village expects; they are incredibly isolated, and their very limited experience with westerners is completely with aid workers. When I tried to explain to Tino that my parents don't have enough money to do buy it, he argued back saying America has money and if they had enough money to buy a plane ticket then they certainly had enough money to buy everyone sacks of food.


When the water pump of my village broke down shortly after I finished bringing the machine for the village, they asked me to fix it. I told them that I think they should fix it themselves. So, my best friends in the village laughed and said they would just wait for the next volunteer to come and they would ask the new volunteer. But why can't they just do it themselves instead of waiting?

When I try to motivate the men to do work that is income-generating, they refuse; they tell me to pay them first, and then they will work. This is unfortunately how NGO's operate - they pay villagers to do work that will eventually help themselves. These are the same men that after the bad harvest this year told me to call my American people to send them food. What is it about this culture that people are just not willing to work for themselves? Somehow, the relatively constant stream of money, food, and other types of aid have given the culture a very dangerous sense of entitlement, which has replaced their ability to be productive for themselves.


I now can only question the future of Niger- will it get worse here or will people, somehow, figure out how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps? On one hand, it seems that Nigeriens are not ready to help themselves; on the other hand, frighteningly, it seems like the relatively generous amount of foreign aid is responsible for this cultural problem. never thought I'd say this - I came here to help people, as I felt like it is our duty, as humans, to help others who may be suffering. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels like the help we offer, even though it abates the short-term pain, has been somewhat disabling in the long-term. The generosity of others has disenfranchised Nigeriens of their ability to help themselves. Perhaps it's time for other NGO's or other foreign aid organizations to pull out of Niger and let them figure out how to work for themselves.

Another Week, Another Visitor, Another Prez

My sister Kitty came to visit, and as the third member of my family to travel to this god-forsaken land, I gave her a very good idea on what to expect. However, for the third time, I was reminded that no matter how hard you try to set proper expectations, it's really impossible for people to understand until they arrive.

Kitty and I did the standard activities - saw the giraffes, drank Biere Niger in Niamey, and took a bush taxi au village. But on day 3, she called our sister in New York and politely requested that she doesn't have much to report on, but that she would like a hot shower upon return to the US. Her requests to our New York sister gradually became more and more dramatic, finally resulting in a long hot shower, free access to a washing machine, a pile of clean towels, as well as a warm robe. Demanding? You decide. I thought so!

However, she was a great sport, even with her first flight getting cancelled and leaving a day later. But after all, there are much worse places to be stuck in for an extra day, right? Maybe not....But, in the bush the village ladies dressed her for the party and we killed my cute little goat. I think she enjoyed the experience of seeing it here, even if the actual experience of feeling it is, well, uncomfortable, to say the least.

And some quick notes on her week, as she was bothered and enjoyed different things than I about Niger:

~Kitty seemed to get annoyed by having the kids around, who demand to have their pictures taken, then again demand to see it. Well, they never get their picture taken so it's a treat for the kids-I guess I'm just used to it. Speaking of pictures, my mom sent some of my villagers. I had 6-7 women in my house when I first brought them out and the first one had my friend Natiee and I. She was sitting next to me, pointed at it and said "black person and you". Then everyone in the entire room laughed as she didn't even recognize herself in the photo, but merely called herself a "black person"!

~Although not all the kids seemed to like her- one of my favorite little girls was deathly afraid of her- why? not because of her skin color- but because of her long hair! Finally when Kitty pulled it back Wasila stopped screaming!

~Kitty seemed to enjoy the okra sauce- where I refer to it as vomit sauce!

~One thing for sure- Kitty loved the attention from West African men! Whereever we, anasaras, go in Niger it feels like any man is eager to talk to us. It gets really tiring. When what feels like an entire country of men would marry you, its just annoying. But Kitty ate it right up! Everywhere we went she was willing to talk to the men that were smiling at her- where no one was willing to talk to me. I guess Niger has worn me down that now I just yell at everyone in Zarma! The celebrity life has gotten to me- now i understand why celebrities go nuts!

~This past weekend we went up to Ayorou to see the market then went up to Firgoune. Firgoune is a village right on the river and hippos are aplenty there. We went for a hippo watch and saw nearly 12 hippos. Luckily, we made it out alive. The next day we headed to the Ayorou market which was really unique- Ayorou is close to the Mali border and a lot of different ethnic groups gather at this market. We then went to the Anasara hotel for a little lunch break- Kitty even got to see corruption at its best! We had four meat sticks and a plate of fries, which would normally cost about $4. Well, the bill came and it was $10. I thought this is crazy, so I calmly asked the waiter in french. They told me it was expensive because I didn't discuss the price before I bought it. Seriously? This is a restaurant, aren't prices already decided?! Then the next guy they brought me to talk to told me the cost of the plate was $7. So why $10? That was the cost, once again I didn't discuss what it should have been. Finally they brought a third guy around and I had enough with the polite french and started yelling at these 3 different men in Zarma. They realized I was kind of a Nigerien since i speak the local language (and can yell like a Nigerien) and decided to give me some of the money back. During the good times, when I'm crying about leaving my village, I'll think about times like this!!! AWW get me out of here!

So with that hopefully Kitty is relaxing in the first world, eating all that beef jerky and chocolate she can get. Oh, America....

I can't end this blog without commenting on the election...OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA! Although it was unfortunate to not be in America during the election- there was so much excitement here. I stayed up nearly all night to hear the results- which was announced at about 5 am to have friends and family in both Niger and America texting like crazy. Although my sister and i were by ourselves in the middle of nowhere in Africa, we still celebrated! Nigeriens had so much excitement about having a black president- before the election every taxi we got into people would immediately ask if I voted. The educated men in the village were all talking. So now when my villagers ask me if there are black people in America- it's easier to explain by simply saying our president is black!!


A little video of Kitty getting off the camel:

Marriage, Divorces, Tampons and more...

This past week we got back from a 3-day training at ICRISAT- an agricultural research center about 40k from Niamey. Roughly 10 PCVs each took a counterpart from their village- which i actually took the two men I’ve been working extensively with for gum arabic. But all the Nigeriens seemed extremely motivated and interested and hopefully walked away from the training with some new knowledge

Then for my village- my first day back to post after Gerewol I was unpacking and left a box of tampons out. My chief, Issa, came by to greet me on returning from my trip and pointed at the tampons and asked what they were. I avoided his questions but his curiosity took over and he kept asking. Finally I explained it to him- but that still wasn’t enough. I finally opened the tampon and showed him. The shock on his face made me laugh at what a funny cross-culture moment it was. But, seriously? Last time I leave tampons sitting out on my table!

The same chief that I was chatting with about tampons that day was also going through his second divorce. Why? His wife and him were fighting. His wife, Haoua, often brings her work to the next village over during the day to visit her family. But Issa didn’t agree that she could leave the house during the day- never mind the fact that Issa is constantly traveling himself and is really only at his house at nighttime. So a divorce is in the works. But he also doesn’t have much to worry about, given that in the Islam religion men are allowed to have up to 4 wives, Issa still has two more at home.

With my birthday this week I was explaining to my villagers that I would be a year older when they saw me next. They looked at me and said “Ni santo!” which translates to “You’re old and not married!”. For a language that only has 3 colors (black, white and red) it’s impressive they have a verb for “old and not married”.

Just before I left my village last weekend there was a meeting with about 15 men outside of my concession. Later I found out that it was a meeting to organize the wedding of my best friend, Kadija. Normally I’d be happier for someone getting married- but Kadija has already been married and when she divorced she decided she didn’t want to marry again. If you talk to Kadija about marriage, she’ll tell you she’s seen marriage, its awful because of how much the husband beats the wife and she never wants to get married again. Kadija is now in her mid-thirties and her dad, who is probably in his mid-seventies, decided it is not acceptable for her not to be married. So the father of the new groom came from another village came and paid her dowry, which was about $500, then they did the special blessing, without either the groom or bride present. And now it’s all in waiting until the marriage ceremony happens in the next few weeks….

All that and I milked a goat for the first time this week then made goat cheese with my villagers! The difference between American goat cheese and Nigerien goat cheese? In Niger, you pull goat hairs out of the cheese as you eat it.

And with that, my older sis, Kitty arrives today! Woohoo! And he’ll be dinner on Thursday….