Traditional Medicine Anyone?

Though I just posted less than a week ago, it's been a great couple of days and I couldn't help but share.

This weekend I got a huge suprise- I got a call from one of my villagers back from my old post saying he and another of my villagers had come to Niamey just to visit me! To give you an idea, this is at least two days of traveling and a bit expensive for 'bush-people'; I was really flattered and excited that they would come all this way to see me.

So we had a really nice visit, and I asked them if they'd like to come to the Musee and I could give them a tour. Neither of them had ever been to a zoo before or seen any of the animals in it so they were both really excited (and I was excited too). So, the tour is going great, I loved giving it in Hausa, and we actually attracted a bit of a croud- I think a lot of bush people come and just wander around because they can't speak french or cant read the information signs, so when people heard me explaining things in Hausa, we had about 10 people latch on to the tour.

Every animal we saw got a 'wah!! Wayyo Allah! or Allah Ya Sarki!!'... So just for the satisfaction of hearing my villagers 'oohs and aahs' I would jump behind the railing and pet the hyenas or feed the hippos.. it was great... then we got to the lions.

So. I need to first give a little information. Lions, here in West Africa, apparently have some 'medicinal' purposes (I guess I should say traditional medicinal purposes).. People, especially from the bush, feel that lion urine and lion crap make great little home remedies. I've asked several times what exactly lion urine cures, and as far as I've been told, just about everything. I think the translation I got was 'it makes your body strong'...

Anyway. So we get to the lions. My villagers suddenly get more excited than I've seen them throughout this whole tour. I get ready to wow them with some lion knowledge, when they turn to me excitedly, 'Balkissa, can you get us some poop??!!' (shot down.) I was like, oh... uh, maybe.. I mean, Im not sticking my hand in the cage to pull out lion poo-balls, but I find one of the keepers of the area, one of my friends, and ask him. Apparently he does this all the time, so he's like no problem, puts it in a baggie and I give it to my villagers. Oh no.. thats not all. Now we want the urine. My friend, the keeper, is kinda an interesting guy himself.. we joke and call him 'owner of the bush' or 'savage' because he's often seen behind the monkey cages cooking up a couple of hedgehogs (one day he had caught a cat and skinned and roasted it!). So he happily sits down with my villagers, they're drinking tea and talking about medicinal uses of cat crap, it's the heat of the day (around 110 degrees) and I'm sitting there listening to all this and wondering, why me? Anyway, through about 40 minutes of serious bargaining (my name being thrown in every now and again as "we're friends of Balkissa! Lower the price!"), they finally fork over some money and we walk away with a bag of poop, and a soda bottle of cat urine.

I'm not in a great mood at this point (sunburnt and dehydrated) but I continue the tour and as we near the end, one asks, 'uh, Balkissa, can we get some crocodile poop?'... They left the musee that day happily with their little bags of crap. (literally.)

Sorry this is a long post, but wait, theres more. Part Two: An Afternoon on the Niger River!

Ok, so this same day (it was a long day) The Hippo/Crocodile keeper had invited Rose and I to come down to his house by the river and he'd take us out on the river in his boat (called a Kalo-Kalo, a traditional wood Songhai boat, I can't remember what we'd call them in English). It was possibly one of my favorite afternoons in Niamey. We went out on the river, he paddled us upstream for a while (of course we were wearing life jackets, peace corps.) and gave us a riverside tour of the city- it was amazing how different it all looked from on the water. I also loved the cool humidity of the water and surrounding swampy areas- all being used for gardens and rice crops. It was so beutiful and so different than Hausa land I am used to. Women washing clothes, kids splashing and laughing, men in their boats throwing huge fishing nets; it was pretty awesome. Oh, so we hear this deep cry in the distance, and sure enough, there's two hippos swimming in the river!! We didn't get too close of course, but you could just see their heads poking out of the water.

After we got back on shore, we watched his friend fish from shore with a net, and then he gave us a tour of his family's gardens. Everything, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mint leaves, peppers, not to mention mango, papaya, and guava trees. The hospitality in this country is really wonderful and we then went back to his house where his wife cooked us dinner and we drank traditional tea. First time- she fried these fish for us, small enough that you just eat the whole thing, break off piece by piece. They were really good, save the head, which involved a poping and squishing of fishy gooeyness squirting in your mouth as the eyes and vessles burst.. But a good experience :)

Anyway. My adventures of the last couple days!

Its a hippo!!! (no seriously, it is.)

Tuareg Wedding and Mangos!!!

Whew! These past two weeks have flown by. After four exciting days of hostel-arrest, we were able to head back to our houses, then, another two days later, I was able to head back to work at the Musee (it's in the downtown area). So, politically, things seem to have settled; theres still different oppinions floating around that I'll hear as a get into a taxi, whether the Military Coup d'etat was a good thing, whether people are happy or sad Tanja is out of office, what the future outlook is like, etc.

Back to work was great after being gone so long, I really missed all my animals :) It really makes you smile when a baboon or hyena rubs up against the cage asking to be scratched. Unfortunately, due to getting the flu only one day after going back to work, I was basically on house arrest... again- for three more days. To be honest, it hasnt been the most productive or enjoyable February I've ever had.

So, back in February was also a big event for our friend Ginger, an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer- I'm trying not to get too crazy with the Peace Corps acronyms: you can be a PCVor PCT... talk with the PCMO, your APCD, AO, PA or even the CD, about AG, NRM, CHA, MCD or CYE during PST, IST, or MST, that is, before your COS, because then you'd be an RPCV...you with me?)

Anyway.. so big event for Ginger, an RPCV, who has been here for over three years, and currently teaches at a school here in Niamey, got married! She married a tourag guy named pepe and had a beautiful traditional tuareg wedding. I'd never been to a tuareg wedding and it was really a fun experience. We started out early in the morning, got all dressed up in our uniform outfits (kinda like bridesmaid dresses- she picked a particular kind of cloth, then we went and baught it and took it to a taylor and got an outfit made) showed up at the house for what the call the 'fatia' which is a prayer (all the men outside with the Malim and all the women inside) that basically 'officializes' the wedding. This is also when the two fathers sit down and negotioate the dowry, set the marraige 'rules', if you will, and such.

So after that, the women put Ginger under a blanket and we walked her up the street to another house (I think it was Pepe's familys house) and we got to sit in a room for about 6 or 7 hours. It sounds boring, but it was really fun (in the bush I could never seem to last more than 4 hours sitting at a wedding, but it was a lot more fun knowing the bride and speaking some English) Anyway, again, men and women are in different areas, but as far as I know they stayed at the other house and visited until the evening hours. It wasn't all sitting and waiting, there was constant music and dancing, henna and braids getting done, taking pictures and chatting, and eating DELICIOUS food. Definately the best wedding food I've ever had. in the morning there was this wonderful milk-millet porrage stuff that tasted like pudding and bread, then the big afternoon meal including a delicious rice and lamb sauce dish and a meat-millet paste, it was all so good!!! Tuareg women can cook apparently. Anyway, we all had to up and leave around 4, but later in the evening, they bring the bride (under the bridal blanket) to the grooms house, tons of people come, they have more dancing, and the bride and groom dance together. I'm sure I've forgoten little details, but it was a great experience. Congrats Ginger! Barka da Aure!

Thats about it for new events around here, work is great and I still enjoy every day of it, oh, so hot season is also creaping in.. right now my little outdoor thermomiter says 35 degrees (in the shade of my poarch) celceus, so I think thats around 96 ish farenheight. The good thing though- MANGO season!!!!! We have two mango trees in our yard and one is chocked full of mangos (we ate the first one off it last night-yummy) the other ones just a little slower.. late bloomer... Anyway, so there's the silver lining of hot season: Fresh mangos, mango juice, mango jelly, mango sauce, spicy mango salsa, mango chipoltle......