Tim and Jolene

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.