Much to be thankful for

Oyiwen (greetings in Tamashek)! Sorry for the long incommunicado period, I meant to post to say that I would be out of touch for a few weeks because I was going out to some rural villages, but things got a bit hectic at the last minute, so thanks for understanding!

Now I am writing from Zinder, a city 1000km to the east of Niamey. I returned yesterday from the Tanout region, which is a couple hours north by bush taxi from Zinder. I spent two weeks visiting Tuareg encampements or tent settlements, which are similar to a rural village minus the mud huts. In order to reach the first encampement, called Tiggart, I hired a dude to drive me in his Land Cruiser across 45 kms of sand dunes and scrub brush; if I had taken a motorcycle like people said I could do, I am pretty sure I either would have fallen and broken something or sprouted grey hair, maybe I am a weeny but the road was not a road and the sand was really deep so I opted for the car, which was fun because we ended up taking a whole load of people out to the village to visit friends and family. To get to the second village, I took a day long camel ride with the Tiggart school director Ayiya, my transator Assalama, and her cousin Duran. I rode with Ayiya and we listened to the Tuareg band Tinariwen on my ipod, stared at the dunes, and waved to the occasional Fulani herder en route to a distant well. When we finally arrived in Farak, the other main village/settlement, I could barely walk because despite the glamour and utility of the camel, its hump does not make for a very comfy seat!

There were very few huts in these settlements, because most of the people living in the settlement were semi-nomadic Tuaregs who live in really cool tents covered in handmade woven mats made from dried millet stocks. In two of the three settlements I visited, there were Ecole Nomades, or Nomadic Schools, public schools for children of semi-nomadic Tuareg and Fulani parents who may not be able to stay in a village for the entire school year because they have to herd their animals. The United Nations' World Food Program supplies the food for the children, a woman cooks 3 meals a day for the kids, and the ones whose parents can't stay in the village stay with various families in town, including the two teachers.

The main purpose of my visits was to interview Tuareg women and ask them questions about their lives and their families, in order to eventually learn something about gender roles in the traditional Tuareg cultures. It's hard to explain what I saw and experienced in these past few weeks, but it was without a doubt one of the most interesting, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my life. The people I met were so welcoming and generous and even excited by what I was doing so it was basically just a joy to chill with women in their tents. My translator Assalama, an 18 year old girl from Tiggart, and the only Tuareg female in the 50 km region that speaks French and Tamashek, rocked and besides making my research possible with her language skills, she taught me a lot about what it's like to be a young Tuareg woman in the desert in Niger; that's not something you can just read about in a book!

Some quick facts: I rode camels, donkeys, and horses, drank camel milk and kinda slimy well water, ate millet and rice and macaroni for 2 wks straight, usually accompanied by a sauce of either dried and pounded okra or dried and pounded tomatoes. I also didn't shower for 2 wks, I'm really not exaggerating, not even a bucket bath, so that's pretty gross too. Water isn't really plentiful in these areas, so I didn't want to be the annoying annasara/white person asking for a big bucket. So there were things that were a bit hard at times, like smelling bad, and these terrible pokey things in the sand called woorzas that make your feet bleed or get stuck in your hands, but hey, they were worth if for the cool things, like seeing shooting stars and witnessing this Fulani festival called the Gerewol which is sort of like Woodstock/male beauty pagent/ family reunion, and of course just getting to talk to some awesome Tuareg women about everything from divorce to polygamy to desertification to birth control.

I am so grateful to have been welcomed so kindly by these people, and so I will give my Thanksgiving thanks to them and also to all of my family and friends at home. I feel so lucky to have wonderful people in my life to think about when I am far from home, so thanks for being there for me. I hope you enjoy your Thanksgivings and eat some turkey for me! I'm going to make some stuffing and have a feast with some peace corps volunteers in Zinder, then spend a few days interviewing tuaregs here and then head back to Niamey on Sunday or Monday. Drop me an email and tell me what's new with you!

Xoxo/ ayr assaghat/ talk to you soon,
Fatimata (my Nigerien name)/ Maggie