Swimming with amoebas...

there are times that i wish i was sitting at home on my couch, watching tv, eating my mom's chicken noodle soup. those times are whenever I'm sick....i have amoebic dysentery, again....its horrible....pains shooting up your stomach, gas in your stomach, cramping....much less diarrhea constantly! and unfortunately shitting in a hole. just another day in niger. BUT, saw the doc, got some meds, and it's off to the pool...

Marry me?

Here's to a quick example conversation I have with Nigerien men on a regular basis on the topic of: Marriage. Never thought I'd have to deal with marriage proposals, nearly every day. So here's a sample conversation, keeping in mind that Islam allows men up to 4 wives. So they're always looking for more...

Nigerien Male: Hi white person! How'd you sleep?
Me: In health. How's the body?
NM: In health. How's your house?
Me: The house is thankful. How's your wife?
NM: She's thankful. How's your kids?
Me: I don't have any kids.
NM: No kids? Why?
Me: I don't need kids.
NM: You're married?
Me: No.
NM: Great! Let's get married! Take me to America!
Me: No, I don't want you.
NM: Why?
Me: You are ugly!
NM: You're uglier than me! Let's get married.
Me: You don't want me, I don't have strength. I can't pound like the women here and I won't cook for you. I don't know how to sweep. Plus, if you marry me, you must get rid of your other wives.
NM: It's okay, let's get married.
Me: But you have no money. I have a very high bride price.
NM: I have lots of money, let's get married. Take me to America.
Me: If you find 100 camels then I will marry you.
NM: 100 camels! God is BIG! You have truth. Goodbye ugly.

Amerik

One day of teh past few weeks I decided it's time to bring America to Babagade Koira. I started with showing teh pictures I brought. My villagers were mostly interested in staring at my parents. When they saw teh picture of my three sisters and I, they had no idea which one i was, picking me out last. I guess i did have short, straight, clean hair. Later I brought out a few magazines to try to emplain that Americans like to be thin. Instead everyone was shocked to see legs/stomach. When they saw a picture of a girl in a bikini everyone kept saying "That's not good". The difficulty is explaining to my villagers that they dress teh way they do because they're Islamic, and that the entire world doesn't dress like taht.
Next on the trip to America is corn. I thought corn was universal: you eat it. Nigeriens, however, eat corn by pounding it to a flower, cooking it, then adding an okra (slime) sauce. Not exactly culinary delight. So, I bought a couple cans of corn from the annasara grocery store and cooked tehm up. When people saw it, they stared and once again, "God is BIG!" Yet, they all had me laughing when they tasted it. Some even spit it out they hated it so much. And they eat it nearly everyday. Noraml.
A few days later men were doing work on my house. As a treat I figure I'd pass around the bag of gummi bears my Grandma sent me. The first problem was in explaining the "bear" to them, since they don't exist here. The 40-60 year old men were so excited they nearly attacked me for them. Some spit them out, some were totally amazed by them.
After the gummi bears teh women in my concession were insisting I had to feed all teh men lunch. I kept ignoring them knowing I didnt' have to. But finally one fo the chief' wives (he has 3) handed me an enormous pot and serving tray. So, I went to my house and announced to teh men I'll be cooking an American lunch. There were so excited they finished the work quickly in anticipation. I cooked up a bush version of spinach tuna casserole and watched them eat, all 11 of them. Except for one, they all liked it and told everyone in the village about the "American meal" they ate. Unfortunately, I don't have enough to feed all 1000 villagers that keep demanding i cook for them....

Now it's off to Hamdallaye for more training for a few weeks....which means hamburgers in Niamey on the weekends...

phone/pictures

Okay, first things first, i wrote my cellphone number wrong in the post below, thats my friends number, try this one,

011 227 96 24 61 69

maybe there are errors in the keyboard....

and pictures are up, well started.

http://community.webshots.com/user/lulum1032

right now they are mostly of training, so hopefully i'll get some of my village/house up tomorrow.

the last three days have spent pretty much, eating. so much so that you'd have to pay me to eat a cheeseburger right now, and i haven't eaten anything today. In fact, here's a list of what i ate yesterday: and egg sandwich, 1/2 mango, a yogurt in a bag, a cheeseburger, 2 bowls of ice cream, 4 meat sticks, a plate of fries, and then a quarter of a mango crisp. i guess that means no pool for me today.

A Celebrity Life

Hard to believe for some, but I've pretty much become a celebrity since moving to my village. Everywhere I go people are shouting my name, Kadija, to come sit with them, to pound with the women, to see/hold their babies. Although the celebrity life ends quickly as I'm treated like a non-gendered 9-year old. My villagers walk me to and from my village, constantly bossing me around. When they found out I went swimming in the river, all of my villagers lectured me, "There are animals in the river that will eat you!." I kept explaining that there were many other people bathing in the river, we were a mere few feet from the shore, and I can swim.

Since I'm the first volunteer in my village this first month was spent explaining the mere basics of my life: I have no kids and am not married (Nigerien women marry young and have kids young, ASAP); "I drink special water, it has medicine in it"; "No, I don't want to get fat"(Nigerien women like to be fat, as it shows that their husbands have enough money to eat that much); "No, i don't bathe in the river"; "my name is not white person"; "No i don't pray 5x/day(then they look at me like I'm crazy, as Kadija is the name of Mohammed's first wife). Normally after i explain things, they all just stare at me and say "God is BIG!"

Another chunk of my day is spent talking about the well and going to the well. Each morning i walk out my door with my bucket and everyone that sees me asks if I'm going to pump water. After pumping water my villagers watch as i carry the bucket on my head like I'm a spectacle, even though i look the same as a Nigerien. Then, when i see them later that day they ask me if i went to the well this morning, then they tell me they saw me go to the well. And i go through this every day, normally several times.

Being friends with a white person here is kind of prestigious. My villagers love carting me around and being seen with me. And when they take me somewhere, such as a baby naming ceremony, everyone crowds around me to talk to me. Every single person makes sure they can talk to me, pass me their babies. I'm kind of a big deal.

So, I've just really been hanging out, studying Zarma, and sweating excessively. We're not supposed to start any projects till we've been here 3 months or so, to gain respect from the villagers. Hot season is officially here. It was over 120*, in the shade. I actually happen to live in a place on earth that is the hottest that humans inhabitat. There's nothing like taking an afternoon nap and waking up drenched in so much sweat i feel like i just bathed....

sweet dreams.....

So I had a minute, so I thought I'd write a quick note about the malaria dreams I've been having. They started on the plane, I fell asleep, and thought the plane was going to crash. normal. Then, dreams kept coming. A few days later, Megan O'Reilly popped up. Umm, why is Megan O'Reilly, from fourth grade, in my dream? Megan, if you're out there, you are somewhere in my consciousness. Then recently, I dreamnt I was playing violin in my "love letter" OM skit from 8th grade. I was playing the tango to be exact. Normal? Maybe it's time I invest in a dream dictionary....

Q AND A

so, with the questions i seem to get, i figured id take a little time to do a quick q & a section, here goes

Q:What is a 'bush taxi'?
A: Well, take a van, maybe even the old McCourt Van, put in 4 benches, put 4 adults, minimum, on each bench. Put a few babies on a few of the laps. make sure your luggage is piled on top of your lap. throw a few goats under the seats, chickens in the back, pile enough stuff on top of the van so its at least the height of the van...and voila! you have a bush taxi, which transports us from village to village. wait, did i forget to mention the string on the sides holding the car together? the constant swaying that i sometimes wonder if it will actually make it? the completely cracked out windshield? hopefully this helps, but pictures to come....

Q. What kinds of things do i wear in Niger?
A. skirts down to my ankles, t-shirts, and occasionally head wraps/veils. what do the skirts consist of? fabric i buy at market that i tie around my body. normal.

Q. what do i eat?
A. Rice, beans, millet, tuo(slime sauce,tastes like vomit), rice, pasta(although its "expensive"),peanut butter(excessive amounts), rice, sauce(vegetables cooked so long they have no nutrients, and are just mush),rice, and potatoes. Weirdly enough, my tastebuds are starting to adjust, and i eat anything that comes near me like its normal. Thereare americanish grocery stores here, so it is possible to get luxeries.....at a high price...

and then to round this out, i have a quick story.....Kim, a fellow trainee, decided to take a picture of her latrine, to show her fam back home how small the hole is. so, after the picture was taken, it appeared that there was a man in the latrine, kind of creepy/funny. So she was showing the picture to everyone, including the teachers.We all got a good laugh out of it. The teachers however, did not. Instead, just a few hours after seeing the picture, they made a trip out to her concession, to see the man. They came back, assured her that it wasn't a man, yet just the way the toilet lined up teh toilet paper roles. So they poured gasoline down the hole, just for final verification that a man was not living in the latrine. To top it off, Kim never had a cockroach problem before. but now with the gas in the latrine, they live in the walls.....lost in translation?

okay, im going to try to get pictures up somewhere soon, i keep forgetting to bring my jumpdrive into niamey....one week of training left, and swearin is on friday! this means that in roughly a week im moving out to my village....okay, now im off to the pool for the day....