On Safari: A few days in Parc W

It's been so long since I've posted- I'm really sorry!! I have quite a bit to write, so prepare for a long one..

Yesterday we got back from our mini vacation (about 3 days) from Parc W... thats right, on safari. :) The parc is spread though Burkina, Benin, and Niger and named for the 'W' bend in the Niger river running through it. Though it was hot season, it was still gorgeous and a huge change from the sahelien landscape of up in Tahoua region or really anywhere further north, but from what we heard, this was the time to go, because the animals tend to gather around the diminishing water holes during the hot days. Anyway- so it was just three of us volunteers- myself, Maeghan, and Nathen who went, along with Hadji Moussa, or good friend, regional PA/driver for peace corps. It was a lot of fun to say the least (not to mention my first safari!!); we rented a car, drove down and stayed a couple nights in a great campsite by the river. Our guide, Ishmael, was really nice and also spoke Hausa, so the two days were spent driving through the trails of the parc spotting warthogs, red monkeys, green monkeys, baboons, antalope, buffalo, gazzelle, and... ELEPHANTS! Oh, we also saw numerous colorful birds.. the guide was great- every antelope, monkey, and bird we saw he could tell at a glance what species it was, whether it was male or female, etc, not just in French, but also in Hausa and even sometimes in English.

Anyway, so a little Hausa wildlife language lesson: Warthog= Giado, Monkey= Biri, Elephant= Giwa, Lion (which we werent lucky enough to see)= Zaki, Antelope= Barewa, Hippo= Dorina, Hyena= Kura, Crocodile= Kada, and Birds= Tsuntsu. Study hard. I will test you all when I get home.

I think my favorite part of the trip was easily the Elephant spotting- they're so big and beutiful and we got to watch them from pretty close. When I got back to the Musee a couple of the workers asked why I didn't bring one home- I told them I tried, but it when the parc people saw it in the car the refused and I had to leave it. :)

The Musee has been great- Rose, the other volunteer, has officially, as of a week and a half, completed her service and now I'm all alone at the Musee. No, it's really been great- I've tried to put in at least 5-7 work hours each day, and I'm enjoying the task of setting my own goals and creating my own projects. Things I've been working on as of late: The new baboon cage is nearly finished, so I've been working to furnish their cement cages with tree limbs, and reliable waterdishes- it's been a huge problem in the old cage- what they did was make a cement hole in the ground for water, which over the years cracks, water empties in about 10 minutes, and then he's left without for hours. Problem is, can't open the door to put in a new waterdish, so the poor baboon has to live with it. Right now I have a hampster-style waterer hooked to the outside, but it too rusts quickly, leaks, and will soon break. So, to solve the problem in the next cage (which they again put in cement holes for the water) I have some nice stainless steel water bowls to install. Wow, that was really interesting.. a whole paragraph on baboon waterers. Sorry. Anyway, I've also been working each day on a project started be the last volunteer, where the local hotel donates all their fruit and veggie peels/ meat scraps, etc., so each day a take a couple hours to collect it and feed it out to all the monkeys, warthogs and porcipines. I'm still working with the mule, just to get him out of his small inclosure to graze and use his legs- maybe someday to do pony rides, but I'm not sure, his hind legs are in pretty bad shape and his joints have lost a lot of movement probably due to arthritis. Anyway, I am also hoping to put together a brochure for the musee to help with tourism, and maybe eventually a website, and lastly, working to update all the animals information signs- a lot of them have worn off and you cant read the information anymore.

Ok. Moving on. A few of us went to a Niger vrs. Nigeria football game a couple weeks back- exciting!!! This was the first Niger game I'd been to- neirly everyone I talked to said that Niger never wins, blah blah... BUT, the game was great, and a lot of fun, and... WE WON! 2:0! It was a good day. Rose and I got all dressed up in our Niger jersies and face paint, hair bling, and then danced in the cheering section- all the cheer-songs were in hausa! My favorite one was at the end we sang, 'Nigeria, sai wata rana! or, 'Nigeria until another day'. Also, some of the people I work with said they saw me on TV.. "Balkissa! I saw you on TV! You were doing this (jumping up and down with cheering-arms motion)!"... great.

Ok, one last thing, one of the Jackals at the Musee, Wylee just had pups!! There are two of them- really cute. I'll let you know their names in a week. (Nigerien tradition you know :))

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......

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.