The Good and Bad

It feels so good to be back!....well, almost.

So to start things up....A BIG THANKS to everyone who donated to my Women's Millet Grinder...the proposal is filled!!! Just getting ready to head back to my village and start up with some serious meetings. Get the house built for the new millet grinder then in a matter of a few weeks my women's group leader and I will be making the purchase. So thanks to everyone for their support!!

And the bad? Well, there was a landmine yesterday in the capital, Niamey. Actually within a few kilometers from the Peace Corps hostel. Creepy? yes.
Read about it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7178529.stm

The creepier part is that no one has claimed responsibility for this landmine, or the others that were set in December. Yesterday we weren't allowed to leave the hostel for a few hours, then were only allowed to go places by foot. But today, it's life back to normal.

So back from America with probably 50 pounds of dried fruit, thanks to my mama. And lots of other food, after all who knows when I'll see a place like Costco again till the end of my service?! I even took some pictures of the grocery store: eggs, milk, chickens and produce. I'll try to explain the concept of how we buy stuff from the grocery stores. A little bit bizarre?

I put up some of Lauren's pictures on my Flickr website. Unfortunately, when I was robbed, all my pictures from the last 6 months or so were stolen with my camera. So those will never go up. But for now, I'll leave with a picture Lauren took: my friend's 8-month old baby chewing on a raw chicken head, right after it was cut off the chicken we were about to eat. Someone get these babies pacifiers! Normal? Lauren didn't think so. I don't even know anymore!

HELP ME!!!!....s'il vous plait HELP!!!!

When I left for Niger last january everyone kept asking how they can help out, what they can send, and what they could do for me. So....here it is for ya! My next project is to bring a millet grinder for my village...so I'm asking everyone's help for the money to get it.

It's even tax-deductible. So it's easy, click here to donate now!



So, what will the millet grinder do for the village? Nigeriens use millet/corn/sorghum as a flour, so women spend the majority of their day pounding grains for their family into flour by hand in the scorching heat. This grinder will take an enormous amount of labor off the shoulders of the village women and girls. In addition to less labor, it will free up the time of the younger girls who have pounding obligations and are not able to attend school. There will be a women's group starting a business, which will allow them to use the profits to fund other projects for the village.


So how much to donate? Well, the total cost of the grinder is $2201. Allah will be pleased if you donate a mere 10% of your yearly income to get this filled ASAP. Okay, kidding, but any help will be greatly appreciated! Remember: Santa is coming soon.




















So, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. And remember, tax-deductible!

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.....

War or Peace?

Originally uploaded by lulum1032

An injustice has occured.

When I left America last January given our "Mc" last names Matt McCue and I were seated next to eachother on the airplane. We both shared the same excitement of coming to Niger and talked about what the next two years of our life would bring. Matt was an Iraq war vet but when he returned he became a passionate agriculturist and an active anti-war campaigner. In mid-September Farms Not Arms flew Matt back to the states to speak about his experience of being a returned war vet turned agriculturist. About a month later Matt was reissued orders to return to Iraq. Coincidence?

So sadly enough Matt left Niger last night, but hopes to fight his way not back to Iraq. Is it really fair to pull a current Peace Corps volunteer who is already serving their country for peace to pull them out for war?

How do we explain to our villagers that we are here to promote peace when we pull them out to fight in a war.

So, a fellow PCV has written up a petition to attempt to bring attention to his cause:
http://www.gopetition.com/online/14951.html

Also here's a link to an article Matt wrote on the Farms Not Arms website:
http://www.farmsnotarms.org/statements/one_soldier%60apos%60s_story.aspx

Another Month in Review

It's getting more and more difficult to write on my blog...what to write about??
So here's another rundown of some random stories of the village for the past few weeks:

~Ramadan has begun, 30 days of fasting. It's been exhausting for me in the village as people really don't understand Islam here and have difficulty differentiating culture/religion. I'm constantly explaining to people why I don't fast or pray. Sometimes people just nod their head at me saying they understand when I try to explain it. One of my villagers is constantly telling me to take her daughter, Leila, to America. I knew she understood the concept of praying, however, when she looked at me in fear and asked "Kadija, if you take Leila to Amerik, she won't pray?" Nope. "OH, okay don't take her!"



~As much as I try, some things are nearly impossible to explain to my villagers. Each farming season Nigeriens work in the fields to harvest their own food for the year and store it. As they are aware Americans don't really eat millet, my villagers are constantly asking me what Americans plant. Corn? Peanuts? Okra? Well sort of, there's just no way to explain it that if we need something we buy it, and that most Americans don't farm. Not only do we not farm, I've never planted anything in my life, besides those pumpkins.



~Another thing I tried to explain is the concept of plumbing in a house. When I say each house has a pump in America, they tell me they understand, probably assuming one pump faucet outside. "When you need to use the bathroom you sit down on a little seat with a bowl of water underneath it. When you're done, you push a little button and it all disappears and more water comes out!" Yes, God is big!



~The amount of respect I get here being an American is nearly unexplainable. The men never did the work on the gum arabic trees back in June. So I shamed them. Standing in front of 20+ middle aged men: "I came here because people said the men of Babagade Koira have a lot of effort. [cheers] But, you never did the tree work, you don't have the effort. People in Niamey and neighboring villages asked me if my villagers got the work done, I said no. Not even a little." And that's all it took, they spent 3 days out in the field and got all (500??) trees pruned within that week.



~World Vision recently did a food drop in my village. Most villagers received a soy/corn blend and oil. ""Kadija, did you get your oil?" First everyone kept trying to give me some of their oil, and then they were demanding I go get my own oil. I just couldn't really explain why I wasn't taking the free oil. I tried telling them if I want oil I buy it at the market. They told me I don't pay for this oil, it's free. Okay, if I take your oil, you won't receive any. That didn't work either; they told me there's enough for everyone. I think I was finally able to explain it to them but most people still didn't agree. And 3 days later when I came back from market with oil I bought, "Kadija, why did you buy oil? We have oil to give to you!" Generous is definitely a word to describe a Nigerien.



~One of my villagers braided my hair so I told her I would cook dinner for her since all of my villagers are constantly asking me to cook for them. So she came over my house at about 8:45 and I asked if she was hungry, if her daughter was eating. Yes. She said she will go and come, when she came back, she said she was tired; she was going to go to bed. "No, you are not going to bed, you need to eat. I just cooked for you!" Figuring that since it was hunger season I would treat her to a large bowl of pasta, since that is a luxury item for them. So after cooking up nearly an entire bag of pasta I made a basic alfredo sauce. When we started eating, she took one bite, and said she was full. "No you are not full; you have not eaten at all." I was extra frustrated given that Zarma is such a basic language, and the only way to describe how you feel is the word "happy." I am happy, I am not happy. My blood was boiling as she pretended to eat, while actually refusing to swallow a bite. I tried to explain that, in America, it's polite to eat the food even if we don't like it. I explained that if I'm at her house, I still eat her slime sauce and say its tasty! But she still refused to eat. After nearly a half hour of demanding she eat, I eventually made her leave. I haven't cooked for anyone since! And when she asks me to take her to America, I can now just say she will never go to America because she won't eat American food and will get sick. "Oh but Kadija, I like American food." Okay it's true, she only had one dish. But if its not Nigerien style they might not like it!

This week another group of PCV's have sworn-in so I'm here for the week. Tonight I'm headed to the GAD dinner/auction then hopefully back to post by Saturday...

Doo-Rags

My mom accidentally bought me a doo-rag for Xmas instead of buying a bandanna, it was even Harley Davidson brand. She never showed/gave it to me but told me about it. But it recently showed up in my latest care package. I laughed as I opened it up and had been wearing it around the Peace corps hostel for a few days when only one person had said anything to me about how ridiculous it was. Finally I wore it to the GLOBE conference on Wednesday. Keeping in mind this is a Muslim country so everyone prefers to have their hair covered. I took it off half way through the day and my counterpart asked me why I took it off, keeping in mind this is a Muslim country so everyone prefers to have their hair covered. I tried to explain that it's not my style, but he kept telling me how pretty it is. Whoa whoa, pretty? Not quite the word I would use for it. Then I tried to explain to him that this is for a certain type of person in the states, many of them drive motorcycles. His face lit up and he started smiling at me telling me how great it was and to put it back on. That's when I realized his viewpoint of it: the only people in Niger that own motorcycles are the wealthiest that have the funds to buy it. Moral of the story? Don't wear doo-rags and try to explain the motorcycle culture of America, it doesn't' work. Here's the link to check out the definition of doo-rag's on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-rag

On a another note, Piper's counterpart's wife had a baby last week. Because he was at the GLOBE conference during the birth, he will be naming the girl "Globe". Normal. Hopefully I can meet baby Globe in the near future.

Brochettes

Last night Brittany and I went out to a bar to listen to a band play, meeting Brittany's school teacher, Iliayasu, out. . After eating out the other night we found out he does occasionally drink alcohol so we thought it would be fun to meet him out. So when we got there he had already been there and had already bought our tickets, 500 CFA. So after ordering a few beers I had wanted some food. I ordered 2 brochettes(i.e. meat on a stick) and some fries. Then I heard him add 1 brochette to the order, thinking that was a bit odd. Normally if you order brochettes you order anywhere between 5-10, so I couldn't' figure out why he wanted only one. So when the food came, I gave him the plate with the 1 brochette on it he had ordered. But he didn't want it, Iliayasu had already eaten. After a lot of confusion, he finally explained he decided to add 1 to my order so I will eat more to get fatter. After being irritated and trying not to show it, i felt pressured to eat all of the food, which means his plan worked! He was demanding to pay, but of course I paid for myself. So today, I am 250 CFA down and a little bit fatter.