Starting year # 2
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
It’s a really incredible phenomenon to witness throughout the entire country since almost everyone, except pregnant and nursing women and if you are sick, are fasting. That means no eating OR drinking all day long, from after the first prayer call (around 5:30) in the morning until 6:30 at night, the second to last prayer call. It’s a pretty unproductive time of year, but it’s kinda neat when you think about it: we do the same thing the other 11 months of the year and here is one month where they just change things up and do a sort of cleanse. I am thinking I might try it for a couple of days and see, but I am not sure about the water thing. But because everyone talks about assumi (fasting) for a month before and two months after it is quite an important time for them and they would be really excited if I told them I was on the same boat. I did try Lacey’s master cleanse thing one time, and that was with drinking liquids and I made it until three in the afternoon where I then decided that I had to eat something or I was going to pass out and went to the vending machine for a resess bar. We’ll see. But if people are still able to work in the fields all day long then I think I should give it chance.
Quick little stories:
- We got back from vacation and arrived home safely. Tim and I were both ready face the mess that we were expecting the wind to have left in our house (due to dust storms and stuff and not having real windows and door to keep it out), when we opened our concession to a yard full of three foot weeds also known as haki. Luckily though our neighbor, El Hadji, was sitting outside on a mat with a dozen of his 40 children so Tim could ask him if his goats and sheep could spend the night in our concession. Well of course he was delighted, due to the fact that Ramadan is about to start and that means that while everyone is fasting for a month, the sheep and goats can get nice and plump in preparation for the feast when it ends and for Tabaski. So in came a dozen sheep and goats that passed the night eating away until their stomachs could take no more. The next morning two of El Hadji’s four wives came over to inspect the animals work and determined that they were full. We were incredibly grateful to El Hadji for saving us from all the work and he also made sure that we knew that we can choose any of his children to take back with us. Seriously.
- Babies are born everyday and sunas (baby naming ceremonies) happen almost daily it seems as well- a week after the baby is born. My friend Zeuwera just had a baby though, so off to the suna I went. The day before the suna there is the preparation of food for the next day where women prepare feri masa (no idea how to spell that, but also known as fried dough). So I went over to hang out and watch the women work since they can do it a million times better than me, but it is always enjoyable to hang out. Anyhow, Kristy, my neighbor and PC volunteer in Tibiri was there as well and she and Nana decide to call me over to get me to eat something. I knew right away that it was going to be something that I would never eat if I knew beforehand. Shouting at me, Nana is saying, “it’s not even meat (aware that I don’t eat a lot of meat)” and Kristy saying, “just eat it- it will make a great story.” Well I guess you can figure out that I did eat whatever it was and it did make an okay story. But the weird, flaky, kinda feta cheesish blob of stuff I grabbed quickly and swallowed without chewing very much was sheep testicles. Delicious. If eating sheep eyes makes you see better, I am not quite sure what eating sheep testicles does for you.
