Tim and Jolene

Hey, I’m typing a post and it might even get put up on the interweb by jolene so booyah!!! She said I only have 15 minutes to type, so we’ll see what comes out.  Today we tried to do the radio show and went through all this wahala to get the new volunteers on there and get the ipod all ready with the right songs and such, and then when we showed up they told us, “Sorry no radio show this week.” It was sort of a bummer, but I guess we have a radio show in the bag for when we start again after Christmas which is always nice.  If you’re wondering what’s been going on with us you could pretty much just look at our postings from last year as far as work, and adjust by the fact that we’re a little better at Hausa and French and more comfortable being here in general.  But more specifically: My latrines and desks got all finished, so that’s cool, I’m going to try to do the same soccer tournament I did last year (but bigger and better!!!) and I’m doing the same penpal project (but bigger and longer) and radio shows are still happening (but the same length and …. prettier?). 

Also, I did the aids bike ride a few weeks ago (Dec 1-5) where we went from dan barto to Zinder and it was a lot of fun.  I won the yellow jersey a couple times which was good (I think) and got 7 flats and road 4 different bikes.  As far as flat tires went I was far and away the winner. I think second place had like 2 or something (looooser).  We also did sensibilisations (not a word in English but whatever) in Hausa and I got to be the guy in the skit who brought condoms to his friend before he went traveling and told him to make sure that he used them (he didn’t and he got AIDs though). It was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and making some new Nigerien theater friends. Jolene even joined me the last day and we got to hang out in Zinder for the first time.  We didn’t get to meet up with my mom’s buddy esther garvi because she was dealing with an injured brother or something (allah ya kawo lahiyah), but hopefully we’ll go out that way in the future.….

On the non-work line of thought our goats totally suck. Will, Josh and I built a fence and the summary of events are as follows

• We built it.
• They tore it down.
• We built it better.
• They jumped over it.
• Will left.
• Josh and I rebuilt it using 7 foot high grass mats.
• That worked for a while.
• Josh left.
• They broke down one of the sides.
• I rebuilt it and added another mat.
• They ate holes through one side of the mat.
• I rebuilt using household materials.
• They knocked down the other side of the fence.
• The climbed over and knocked down the center part of the fence.
• I surrendered.

It now consists of chairs leaning up against a broken grass matt with cinder blocks and a bag of cement and a water container strategically placed to try (and fail) to keep them in.  It’s pretty hideous, and Jolene is under some crazy notion that chairs should be used to sit in and not as building materials to help house goats, so I guess I need to try again.  My friend told me that I should cover it in gasoline so they won’t eat it, but that seems a little dangerous, so I think I might upgrade to chain link.  My English is taking a bit of a dive too.  When I tried to think of the name of a chain link fence while talking to one of the new volunteers I called it that type of fence that’s metal and criss-crosses a lot.

Anyways, I think my 15 minutes are up and Jolene’s going to take off, so type at you later.  Thanks to everyone who keeps in touch (Mom and Dad you are awesome!), and sorry I don’t update more often.  I pretty much completely stopped going to the internet café and only check my email at the hostel.  Maybe when we have our computer all fixed up in the next month we’ll start putting up some more pictures too… in sha allah

I just got back from my morning walk and decided that it is finally time again to sit down and write a blog. Finally, the rains have gone and hopefully most of the mosquitoes will follow. Yesterday Tim spent nearly four hours washing laundry, since he hadn’t done any for over a month – it was definitely time. School just started once again this last week, some will start this Monday as well so all of the kids have been bowing with their arms crossed saying “bonjour” and sometimes even “good morning”. We are doing a radio show in Hausa today on the importance of girl’s education in hopes that more parents will send their girls to school. Girl’s enrollment is very low in Niger so one of the goals that we towards is trying to increase enrollment.  Since August, I have been helping with an organization in Maradi which is only suppose to be two days a week, but it seems that I might need to re-explain that- but they do have tons of kokari which is great!  I have been trying to keep track of little stories that are kind of fun, so here goes:

Prayer bead whack- I was sitting in the back seat of a taxi (Sudan for 5 people) with 7 adults and some number children headed back to Tibiri. We turned down towards the town center and continued straight as I watched two little boys, barefoot and shirtless, running down the street rolling tires with sticks (a common game for young boys). Lacking hankali (sense), they continued to run down the busy road even with a clear view of the taxi headed towards them. The taxi man honked the normal communication (taxi’s communicate a lot through blinkers and honking- you get use to it) and one boy got off the road the other continued to roll his tire. So the taxi man, truly concerned with the little boys safetely, slowed the taxi down, grabbed his prayer beads from the dashboard and swung them out the window hitting the boy right in the back. It takes a community to raise a child? Anyhow, I think the little boys hankali returned through power of the prayers beads.

Dr Bruno: Many of you may already know, but if not- We got a goat! She is pretty awesome, except she cries a lot because she does not have a friend. Her name is Dr. Bruno in memory of the remarkable English bull dog Bruno who passed away in September this year. We originally started talking about getting a goat last June, we thought that it would be really fun to have goats milk and since I have never milked anything and I probably won’t have space for a goat in the states, we decided to go for it. We asked our guard at the Maradi hostel to help us find a good goat that will give us milk, he is phulane- an ethnic group here in Niger that is known for having good knowledge of animals and being great herders. So he headed to the market to pick us out a beautiful female goat. Within an hour he had returned and there she was- screaming and scared to death. Since I was in Maradi, that meant I have to get a bush taxi back to Tibiri with my newly purchased goat. The first taxi to the taxi station (tasha) wasn’t too bad, but everyone thought that the white woman with the goat was hilarious. However, the second taxi, Dr Bruno was put in the trunk and I could hear her kicking and crying all the way home. The children in Tibiri were really excited for us, and even though El Hajji has like 40 goats, all of his kids came over to see Dr. Bruno. Some of them even tried to milk her, but then informed me that she doesn’t have milk (nono) sai ta haihu (until she gives birth). They said that she can be friends with any of El Hajji’s goats. We learned quickly that Dr Bruno isn’t afraid to come inside the house so we must shut the doors more often and we haven’t to be careful when leaving our concession unless there are a group of kids willing to run after her when she escapes. So now the plan is to get her knocked up so we have some cute little baby goats and some delicious goats milk. She’s Tim’s new favorite pet as well.

Riding the Horns (Hawan Kaho): Ramadam ended about two weeks ago which meant there were a lot of festivities going on for days here in Tibiri and throughout Niger. The day before salla, so the last day of fasting, we were told to go to the Sarki’s house in Maradi to watch Hawan Kaho, which translates to riding the horns. I was super siked, so we headed down to the Sarki’s to find thousands and thousands of people, mainly kids, surrounding an open space in front of the Sarki’s house. As anassaras (foreigners) who had never seen this event, everyone wanted to make sure that we got a very good view, so there I was sitting on the ground in front of thousands of people when an angry bull was brought out to the center. He had a rope tied to his back leg and one to the front with men holding it. The first contestant walked out and was ready to try to ride the horns. The man ran towards the bull- without fear or hesitation and jumped on the head of the bull, while holding onto the horns. Now you can probably imagine that the bull was totally pissed by that point and raging! It was crazy! Finally the man was flung off, clear from the bull. At events like this, the crowds slowly get closer and closer to the activity so we were slowly being pushed forward closer to the crazy bull and its horn riders. Tim was flashing away getting tons of pictures which all turned out great! The next contestant did as the first but I guess he didn’t have as much zuciya (heart) as the first so he was flung pretty quickly and nearly stabbed by the bull horns. He insisted on going again but everyone was holding him back- once there is fear or doubt, or so I was told, it is too dangerous to attempt and ride the horns. So somewhere in the midst of this a lot of commotion came about and suddenly. Sitting on the ground I watched the bull suddenly become loose and run recklessly through the crowd! Tim watched it get closer and closer through the camera before realizing it was time to depart. No one was hurt needless to say, just part of the activities, well no one but the bull who was slaughtered and his meat was given away there on the street. Then I went to work.

There’s one last thing I wanted to write about before I let Tim tell some stories too. We had some very devastating news recently that really affected a large community here in Niger. A few weeks ago, our friend from the French Alliance, Ivan, passed away after a motorcycle accident while he was on vacation in Burkina Faso. Tim and I didn’t hear the news until the evening after a ceremony was held for him at a church in Maradi, but we were able to attend a concert that was held in honor of him at the Resurrection, a local restaurant/bar. Ivan was a big fan of African music and he had lived in West Africa for many years. He was young and optimistic and one of the first ex-pats we had ever met. He is missed in this community and will be remembered by all. Death is a hard thing here, we encounter death so often in our village and each time it does not get easier. Niger has taught me how to be patient with death, but it’s a slow process.

Picture Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Our neighbour’s goats and sheep and such that he loaned us to get rid of that “haki”

Monsieur always keeps me on my toes.  I just found out who his dad is the other day, the conversation occurred when I was chatting with my friend Mani in English/Hausa while monsieur was crying next to us outside my house (apparently having been bullied) and went something like this: 

Monsieur’s dad: Hey did you know that’s my son?

Tim: I don’t know, he’s just one of the neighbour kid’s friends.

Mani (to me in english): he said that is his son

Tim: oh, I thought he asked me who’s son it was.

Mani: No.Tim: oh…

Mani and Jolene: <Laughter>

Hey, the chameleon didn’t bite me this time

Near the police check station closest to our house

Jolene asked me why I had so many pictures of ants after my walk with Nate.  Well Jolene, ‘cause they’re freakin huge is why.

More pictures of cars and stuff on the roads near our house… ps. Some of that stuff is Nate.

This is what the “river” by our house looks like in rainy season

oh and by the way, baby goats are cute

These girls came over and pulled “haki” from our yards because they can sell bags of it in the market.  They were very excited to see the level of disrepair our yard had reached… almost as excited as the goats and sheep had been.

Time is already flying by again as September rapidly approaches. I am back in Niamey for two weeks to be a Volunteer Assistant Trainer at the Pre Service Training for our sister stage (Health, Education, and Community Development). I am super excited to meet them all since we will be working together hopefully throughout this next year. It was really nice to get back from vacation and jump back into things. It is strange how I feel more comfortable (for the most part) here in Tibiri then I did in Greece at some points. I feel like my friendships are growing and I am able to relate to my friends and neighbors more and more. I have a lot of plans for this next year and I am thoroughly enjoying the way it is all playing out. Tim and I started studying for the GRE so we now have vocab tests every Thursday (Insha Allah) and eventually he’ll have to tutor me in math (yea!).  I also started working with an organization in Maradi whose primary objective it to help create jobs for youth in Niger and they also reach out to youth to help them assist in their own development. I get to do computer trainings on excel and word and eventually internet if we can get it started. I also had a chance to help with the census stuff that is going on nation-wide to prepare for the elections next year.  

Recently our favorite neighbor kids have started running straight into our house as soon as we open our concession door. Tim runs in after them and carries them away, it’s quite hilarious so I usually just sit and watch the excitement. It’s also rainy season right now so the millet is starting to tower over me on my morning walk in the daji (bush). And though them weather is quite nice, the mosquitos are terrible. A lot of people get malaria during this time and it is so hard to avoid those damn mosquitos. We sleep in a mosquito net and I am still covered in bites. A few people in our town have nets and we try to encourage people to use them, so hopefully it helps.  Ramadan starts in a few days here is a link if you want to know more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

here are a few more pictures from greece. i still don’t know why other places exist as vacation options. 

Nafplio!

Spetses!!

We always Together!!!

i have been a bad blogger on our vacation (and before that), so thought that i should put a little something to make up for my lack of bloggerry.  jolene and i are hanging out with de (of hendrickson/long beach fame) although lately she’s been going by archimedes… not really sure what that’s all about.  we met up with her a few days ago and have been having a good time.  we came to nafplio from athens and have been just relaxing mostly.  we did a day trip to spetses though yesterday where we rented bikes and road around half of the island.  at one point we stopped at this little lagoon, went swimming, jumped off rocks, and made friends with a naked dude and his son.  i have an image of jolene nervous about jumping off this rock standing up top with a naked man to her left, and the naked man’s son in flippers running by them both to jump in the water.  at least it was memorable.  at one time in a funny greek accent he said “hope you don’t mind the display,” and then he jumped in the water.  our visit with rach was really fun before that, although i don’t know that i can think of any stories as good as that… those dots are where i sat in front of the computer thinking for like 30 seconds and got nothing. but it was fun anyways despite my spotty memory.  we went to mykonos, santorini, and a couple places in crete (crete was sans rach though).  jolene and i both powered through little sicknesses, and by powered through i mean jolene walked around acropolis when she had a high fever, and i lay in bed when i had a booboo on my elbow… but all is well now that we’ve rounded the halfway point of vacation and are getting ready for the home stretch.  i’ve been keeping up with my little nephews and fam and looking at their sites every time i get a chance and it has been great watching them up to this point in our service.  we passed our 1 year in country mark not too long ago and we’re both really looking forward to getting back and getting things done… it’s amazing how quick two years is and that we’re half way done already.  sorry again for slacking lately

-tim