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......

Drama in Niamey...coup.

It's been an eventful couple of days for Niger, especially Niamey.. Just to quickly let everyone know, I am fine and safe and things here are settling after all the drama. For anyone who didn't read about it, there was a Military Coup d'etat last thursday, in which the military stormed the presidential palace, took the president into custudy along with a couple other ministers to an undiclosed location in Niamey to get him to resign. Anyway, Ill let everyone look it up themselves so I don't mistate anything.

On a personal account, I was close by the area when it started, but Peace Corps was fast as lightning to get me and all other PCVs into a safe place. I could make this story as dull or embelished as possible, but I think I'll save the embelished version for another day :)

I do, however, want to say this was not dramatic 'African' military scenario that you see in movies. Things are really calm here in Niamey in the aftermath and I have hardly seen any military out on the streets. I did enjoy the 'victorious' marching music they played on the and some great music videos once the radio stations and TV stations were in military influence.
The interesting part, which I won't spend too much talking about in a blog, is the reaction of the public. People are very calm, and going about their daliy lives...
Anyway, thats all for now. As for us Niamey PCVs, we've been consolidated the past couple of days, and as things have relaxed we are enjoying our first day of space away from the hostel!

The Many Adventures of me and my New Bicycle

Well maybe not so many... give it time. But yes! Finally! I got a bike!! And, believe it or not, it's even BETTER than my one in the bush!! Well, not that the one in the bush was bad, but the frame was huge and I usually had to do this hop-jump thing to get up on the seat.. Anyway. So me and my new bicycle, or, my new bicycle and I, bike all around the city every day and even entered a bicycling for aids race. Ok, seriously now.. So yes, there were about six of us from Peace Corps (including our country director and assist. country director!) that joined a bicycle for aids (or SIDA as it's called here) event. Before the actual race they did this little promo 'race' with the director of the race, a couple other important people.. and us 6 peace corps, biking a quick fake lap with the video crew in the back of a truck in front- so I may have been on tv... It was a lot of fun though- after our little promo tour, we lined up for the real race, they actually had a girls heat and then a boys heat.

In a country like Niger, it's not every day you see girls doing things like riding bikes or looking sporty and strong, so I was really impressed with the girls and really proud for them. I remember back in the bush I was watching a little soccar match between mine and a neighboring village (just some local boys) And not a single woman thought it would be ok if they stopped and watched- I remember watching the game with a little 7 year old girl, and then I turned and asked her if she liked to blay ball. "I can't play soccer!" she laughed. I was kinda taken back and asked why not. "Because I'm a girl! Girls can't play!" and trust me, she wasn't the only girl who felt that way. Imagine, 7 years old and already having that kind of mind set.. Anyway, thanks Mom and Dad for letting me do whatever I wanted when I was younger.

Oh, so the outcome of the race.. The 6 of us each only did one of the two laps (I didn't want to take away from those girls that had been working a lot harder than I) but I will say I was it second at the end of my lap... (maybe you can catch a replay on ESPN or something...)(that was a joke).

Anyway, to continue on my bicycling adventures, I am now a city biker and terrified almost ever meter of the way. Growing up on dirt roads in the country (not to mention the last bike I owned in the states was pink and purple with a unicorn on it...) then biking only on the sandy roads through the bush the past year, these city streets are nerve wracking.. Every time I come to a roundabout or a left turn I have a mini panic attack. Especially because, I mean, not to complian, but at the roundabouts in this country are poorly designed. Just saying. Here, if you're on the roundabout you yield to somone comming on... its somwhat controlled because theres stoplights at every entrance, but STILL. Thats NOT THE POINT of a roundabout. Anyway, no its getting a lot better. At first I was almost causing accidents glancing around and behind me so much, now I just signal with my hand and say a little prayer.. :)

Other than that, life in Niamey's been pretty great. Got to go to the wedding of one of my language teachers from back in training the other day. Me and a couple of the other PCV's wowed the croud with our African-dancing skills (I got some great pictures of drummers and a guy with this traditional Oboe looking thing called an 'Algaeta' see picture up top) Oh, any my second b-day in country's commig up! 2 weeks and I'll be 25.. uh. that seems so old.

What's Not to Love?

Ahh.. Just a relaxing friday morning with nothing to do :) So Rose and I have been splitting up the weekends so that the only day one of us is not there is Saturday- either one of us take of friday and saturday, and the other, saturday and sunday- this way our food donation from the nearby hotel gets picked up every day and the animals don't miss out. Anyway, life is smoothing out and routine is slowly setting in. In some ways I am so glad to be here in Niamey- life is just so much easier!

10 things I love about living in the city:

1- Electricity!!!! It's so wierd staying up past when it gets dark at night!! (Why, yes... that does mean that I went to bed around 7 o'clock some nights in the bush)

2- Obviously my job is a huge part of loving where I live- I love what I get to do, I love having schedule in my life again, and I hope it never gets old!

3- Food. Wait, let me refrase that. Veggitables. After a year in the bush with often only onions and garlic (when I was lucky) for veggie-nutrition, I had lost a bit of weight... which I have promptly gained back...

4- I love the conglomeration of languages here in Niamey!! I greet people in an assortment of 4 sometimes 5 languages every morning (Hausa, Zarma, French, and even an occasional English 'Good morning' or Tamacheq)

5- My new house. It's this big, old, french style house, probably a zillion years old. My roomie, Maeghan and I call it 'Netherfield' :) I love that its surrounded by huge trees, it's made completely out of cement (kinda like a cave..) with tall ceilings and a cute poarch wrapping around the front. Oh! And we're putting in a tree-swing..

6- Cloth and Taylors.. So Maeghan has gotten me into the cloth shopping habit.. There is so much cloth here in such a variety; the typical West African colorful prints, beutiful cotton cloth, Mauritania cloths, pretty much anything you could want. Then, all you have to do is get a good taylor, give him a magazine picture of what you want, measurments, and poof.. two weeks later, really cute clothes, at about a quarter of what you'd pay in the U.S.

7- Internet Access!!!! I love reading the news!!! It's such a novel thing... I'll admit I'm becoming re-addicted to facebook..

8- Because it's the capital, I get to see a lot of volunteers coming in and out- so I'm getting to know a lot of peace corps volunteers I probably wouldnt have otherwise.

9- To go along with that, I'm getting to know the Peace Corps staff a lot better too. It's great seeing them every day and chatting with people I hadnt talked to much before.

10- The WestAfrican Culture of the city. Niamey has a whole different atmosphere than the bush. While I loved the bush as well, Niamey has this vibe that's hard to explain.. I guess it's just a little more relaxed from the strict, Muslim atmosphere of more rural places. Plus, working at the Musee National, I'm getting a good insite to the history and culture of Niger, both as a westerner sees it, and as Nigeriens see it. They have so much pride for the history and culture, and the longer I've lived here the more every now and again I feel little snippets of that pride myself.

So, some of the things I suprised myself by not including in this list:

-Transportation- while I thought taxis would be so convinient and a great change to walking three hours or biking to the market or main road, I miss my bike terribly, and have started walking a lot more to avoid the hastle of taking the taxis..

-The 'Anasara Novelty'... I thought that living in the city with so many other 'white' people, it wouldn't be such a novel thing to see me, and I could blend in a bit more... nope. I'm still a specticle. In fact, the other day I was in the Mule's cage at the zoo, and 2 Nigerians come up and ask if they can take a picture. 'Sure' I replied, I didnt care that they took a picture of the mule... 'well, should I come in the cage then?' I got a little angry and told him of course he couldnt come in the cage. I assumed he just wanted the mule in the picture and I was messing up the shot. So I was like, 'Fine, I'll get out.' I get out. He then turns and snaps the picture of me. Apparently it was the mule that was messing up the shot.

-Food- like resturants, cheese, other expensive items not even found in the bush.. or Konni... I admit I went crazy the first couple weeks and spent a ton of money, and now I'm back to normal, using my powdered milk and eating cous-cous and pasta.. I will admit it's nice to have the option of good food.. Even if I don't take it.

-Toilets and Showers. To be honest, I couldn't care less anymore if I take a bucket bath or a shower.. which, I'm in a really bad habit of neither becasue it's so cold these days... I either force myself to take a cold shower every now and again, violently shivering for the 5-10 minutes I can stand it, or, head to the hostel and make use of the hot water there. ahh. As for the toilet upgrade, I dont know, I miss that latrine in a weird way.. I was saving a lot of money on toilet paper in the bush..

Ok, so that's that.. One more quick comment. With about 10 months left of service, I can't help but get a little ahead of myself wondering what to do after Peace Corps. I can't say I've made any final decisions yet, but I have a couple options I'm weighing the possibilities.. I'll let everyone know when I've figured it out!

Reminisces of the Bush and adjusting to life

First post of the New Year! Better make it a good one...

To begin, New Years was fun, a group of us went to a Nigerien rap concert (that was an experience.. concidering I've never been to a rap concert in the states!)- I think I'm getting old though; the concert was too loud and I was way too tired by 2:00 am, but otherwise a fun New Years!

Wow, I was reading through my last blogs and I realized there was so much I left out from my village experience! The things I really miss now, I hardly, if at all, mentioned! So, I'm going to try to fill in the blanks within the next year on culture differences, the people, what I miss most... I admit, the reason I was reading through them in the first place was that I was a little bush-sick. I really miss my life I had there and the unexpected friends I made. So, for the next portion of this post, some of my reminiscents of bush life:

First- the people of my village. As I read through old posts, I couldn't believe how much I'd left out some of the most important people of this last year! I don't want to put too much information out there about anyone, so I'll just use first names (no harm in that, right?) First- my home-away-from-home, Aisha's house. Aisha was one of my best women friends in the vil, she and her husband are absolutely open and giving with everything they have. Aisha and I would study little Hausa pamplets together to improve her literacy/my Hausa- usually ended up just me reading to her in Hausa... which got a little akward- most of her pamplets were given to her by medical/ sanitation type NGOs, so every now and again I'd find myself reading about something potentially akward... like condoms and STDs... best part is that it would just randomly don on me half way through the paragraph what I was reading out loud ('oooooooohh...'). Aisha and her family were always willing to help and were the first ones at my meetings. Oh, and she was a FABULOUS cook... ate her food more than my own (ok, I ate ANYONES food more than my own).

Next, Hilimou was also one of my best women friends and she always had a smile on her face. I absolutely loved hanging out at her house, and we never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Half our conversations were dedicated to arguing over my weight- she would tell me to drink lots of Hura (spiced millet and milk drink) so that I would get really fat, and I'd argue, 'but I don't want to be fat', she'd come back with, 'fat is beutiful! You need to get fat to find a husband!' Then we'd go back and forth on random other things... sigh, I miss her!

Hankuri, whom I believe I have mentioned before, is both my grandma (well, maybe great grandma) in the village and my best friend. If I was ever upset about something, no matter what it was, she was always on my side- whatever was wrong, she would do anything in her power to make it right. This one very frustrating afternoon, I was sitting with her and I told her my horse had no hay because the kid who was supposed to go get it had no honesty.. She says, ok, lets take care of it. We go find kids to pick hay for the next day, the we head out to the bush and we pick a bundle of hay! I just loved watching her whole face light up when you show up at her house, and I was so glad that on the last day I was in my village (had no idea it was my last day) I spend the day with her and we walked an hour to a neighboring village to a wedding. If I had one more day in my vil, I'd probably spend most of it at her house, helping her pound millet, or just sitting with the zillions of kids that always are there.

Idi was one of my best guy friends in the village I loved hanging out with his family even if he wasnt around. (we'd catch the ducklings and watch the momma duck freak out, then laugh.. hmm. yes I'm an animal husbandry volunteer...) Anyway, Idi and I would just hang out and talk most of the time- he was my official villiage counterpart, so anything I had going on he was in on and ready to help. We used to talk about anything under the sun- things like, explaining that at 12 o'clock our time, it was 5 am in America.. why? Well... then I'd explain about the sun and the earth and rotation... I got a little too technical sometimes, but he was always eager to hear more. He loved the world map I painted and would watch me paint and ask which countries where which, where America was, etc. My favorite memories are of when he thought this combination lock I had was amazing- so I gave it to him and taught him how to use it. for three days he unsuccessfully tried to use it, then one morning (around 6..) he knocks on my door, Look! I can open it! and then shows me. I loved it. He was one of those rare people that you just wanted to give tons of gifts to because he never asked for anything and was genuinely happy to be your friend.

Ok, just one more, this is getting long, Oumarou and Hiyali were the two husbands to the two families in my family concession. Both were always helpful and cheerful- Oumarou one dy caught me giving my horse a pepperment- he thought it was hillarious that I would give an animal a piece of candy and didnt leave me alone about it for weeks! Hiyali was one of my really good friends, and luckly for me, really liked my horse. He took as good of care of her as I did and I'd hear through the village that he'd ride her out to the bush and back bareback when I was gone :) Sigh.. good times..

Anyway, enough reminiscing for now. the zoo is going great and the animals are starting to really get used to me.. maybe even like me! (I get the evil eye from a monkey every now and then.. actually, there's this one monkey that thinks I'm the scariest thing on two feet and has a fit if I'm standing too close (thats gotta be good for the self-esteem! Lol)), but the baboons like me well enough now, so it all weighs out :) We're starting to get some projects started: first, working on a volunteer program with the University, so we'll start training new volunteers here soon, second, we've been working with our mule, Barry, and hope to have him up and going for pony-rides one day (more on him later!), third, I've started researching possible funding sources to build either a hyena or chimpanzee habitat (not so successfully, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know!), fourth, we really want to get a website up and going for the Musee, so I've been looking into how to go about doing that. Definately enough to keep us busy anyway! Oh, just a note- mail here in Niamey is kinda atrocious, and I still havent seen packages that were sent over a month ago. From what I hear, not a package goes by that doesnt get opened and peaked into... or stolen from.. or eaten out of by a critter.... but no matter what is missing when I do eventually get it, I really am thankful for everyone's support and letters/packages!

Clyde- one of our two Dorcas Gazelles!