Oyiwen, ma tole, maduwee egan tout le monde! / Howdy everybody
Ok, I am happy to report that I now have a Google Picasa web album with photos from my desert field research trip. I realize that most of my friends' blogs have super pimp albums galore so this is not that exciting for most people, but I assure you that it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to upload photos in this country. I emailed all of the photos in this album to my awesome dad who then put them together in an album for me. BARKA/Congrats on your effort, Dad! (this is a popular Hausa phrase, although I'm dumb and can't remember the word for effort in Hausa, Tamashek is enough to mess up my brain for the moment) My amazingly supportive parents are both winners in my book!
I believe that if you click on this link you will be able to view the photos, so "Bismillah"/ go for it:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maggie.fick/MyFirstTripIntoTheDesert
You may have to log into google, but hopefully not b/c the album should be public, incha'allah
So last night I was chilling with my Tuareg homestay family and we fried up some crickets with peppers and salt and Maggi bouillon cubes. They actually were not that bad! I really will try anything these days, and my fav new eatery in Niamey is this amazing street food stand run by a very enterprising woman name Zeynabou. Her speciality is dunbo, a green leafy-peanutty-spicy dried meat couscous concoction yoowa so delish.
Yesterday, I had a mini-linguistics lesson. I met up with my cool Tamashek teacher, Koule Al Housseini, and he taught me an important Tamashek rule/Tuareg custom. When you compliment someone in Tamashek--for example, my Tuareg cousins in Niamey that are always at Habsou's house sometimes flatter me by saying "tamtut tamusghul," "beautiful woman," and i respond, "Kai! Alees amusghul," "No, you're the beuatiful one"-- you MUST follow it up with "Tubarkallah," meaning, until G-d keeps it that way, otherwise Allah might steal the person's beauty, or make their house ugly or their children stupid or something like that. Do we have something like that in our culture or in the English language? I'll have to think about that.
Now I'm headed off to meet up with the other Fulbright chica, we are going to take our awesome Fulbright advisor here, Soumana, out to lunch to say a big tanimert/thanks for all he has done for us.
Then I'm going to try to brave the National Archives this afternoon. Actually, it shouldn't be too bad, because they're apparently not that extensive. How's this for another stupid, ironic, colonial twist: when the French pealed out of Niger/West Africa in the 1960s, they took a ton of their documents and records with them back to France, so now the best sources on West African colonial history are in Aix-en-Provence and other random French towns. Greeaat.
Oh, and it's not like the French or any colonial powers are actually really gone, they are here in spirit and they continue to tick plenty of people off… I'm not saying that the U.S. is not exempt from this colonial critique, heck the world can thank the U.S. for something else called neocolonialism. If you haven't heard about the failed attempt of the French NGO L'Arche de Zoé to transport Chadian "orphans" who weren't orphans to France, look it up if you have time. There were huge protests in N'djamena this past week over this absurd scandal.
I'll get off my high horse, or camel, now! Hope all is well chez vous, and holler back by email or snail mail if you have a chance!
-Mags
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Goats on Kabu Kabus
Hello again,
Now that I have frequent internet access again, I thought I'd update the ol' blog and let you know what I have been up to in Zinder. Tomorrow I'm making the 15 + who knows how long journey back to Niamey, yikers, so it might be a while before I muster up the kokori (effort in Hausa) to make it out to this region again. This is Hausaland, a very different culture from the Tuareg region I just visited, but it's awesome to hear another language and practice other greetings; as opposed to the soft hand touch and quiet greetings, Hausa people like to yell and slap each other around a bit! Even the Tuaregs here are different, which is good for my research, speaking of migration and changing culture, etc...
When I returned from the desert earlier this week, I throughly cleansed my dirty self and found fresh fruits and veggies in the huuuuge and amazing grand marché/big market. Of course, once in the market, I could not help from buying gorgeous pagne/fabric up the wazoo. My friend Paige found the coolest fish (though not jesus fish) pagne that she insisted that I turn into a complet, which is a "complete" outfit, top, skirt and head scarf. I just picked it up from a local tailor and it is stunning I must say. I also fell for some pink and orange question mark pagne and tried to turn it into a saucy top, but the tailor misunderstood my horrible sketch and it went terribly wrong, will have to try to remedy that in Niamey.
After my pagne buying frenzy, I enjoyed a delightful Thanksgiving feast hosted by some very gracious peace corps volunteers here at their hostel in Niamey; we had squash pie which was as good as pumpkin, a free-range turkey b/c there are no cages here, plus a bunch of other random delicious things like empanadas and key lime pie and stuffing that I made and a turkey made out of fruit. I also visited the Thursday meat market, which draws hundreds of men and their goats, sheep, camels, cows, donkeys, and horses to Zinder to barter up a storm. A priceless moment came when I was riding on a kabu kabu (motorcycle in Hausa) away from the market and we zipped past another kabu kabu whose passenger was holding a goat! I was sadly unable to whip out my camera in time but will post pics from the market soon.
Yesterday I finally got down to business and did interviews of Tuareg women all over the city with the help of Al Housseina, the wife of an amazing Tuareg jeweler that I met through peace corps friends. His work is incredibly intricate and precise and you may be receiving presents that he made when i get back! Al Housseina took me to her friends' houses and they were impressed by my Tamashek greetings, which made me happy. I went to Moumouni and Al Housseina's house last night for dinner and got to watch a short documentary of Moumouni making a tuareg cross of zinder necklace, and we also watched cote d'ivoire music videos, with Al Huosseina exclaiming frequently, "Allah protect them," b/c there were scantily clad dancers. I prepared 3 rounds of Tuareg tea, which is my new hobby.
Today I did more interviews and went hiking with my friend Juliet, we scampered up some boulders and got a great view of the city, lots of dusty streets and green trees, plus a gorgeous sunset. I will be sad to leave tomorrow but it's been a great stay.
LAST THING, ok since it's almost the holidays I would love to receive some snail mail and i PROMISE to write back, if you send it to this address you can use US POSTAGE and it will get to me uber fast, so if you have the chance to write i will beam with happiness across the atlantic ocean, indian ocean, sahara desert, wherever:
Maggie Fick, Fulbright Researcher
2420 Niamey Place
Dulles VA 20189
Thanks and hope to be in touch soon! xo mags
Now that I have frequent internet access again, I thought I'd update the ol' blog and let you know what I have been up to in Zinder. Tomorrow I'm making the 15 + who knows how long journey back to Niamey, yikers, so it might be a while before I muster up the kokori (effort in Hausa) to make it out to this region again. This is Hausaland, a very different culture from the Tuareg region I just visited, but it's awesome to hear another language and practice other greetings; as opposed to the soft hand touch and quiet greetings, Hausa people like to yell and slap each other around a bit! Even the Tuaregs here are different, which is good for my research, speaking of migration and changing culture, etc...
When I returned from the desert earlier this week, I throughly cleansed my dirty self and found fresh fruits and veggies in the huuuuge and amazing grand marché/big market. Of course, once in the market, I could not help from buying gorgeous pagne/fabric up the wazoo. My friend Paige found the coolest fish (though not jesus fish) pagne that she insisted that I turn into a complet, which is a "complete" outfit, top, skirt and head scarf. I just picked it up from a local tailor and it is stunning I must say. I also fell for some pink and orange question mark pagne and tried to turn it into a saucy top, but the tailor misunderstood my horrible sketch and it went terribly wrong, will have to try to remedy that in Niamey.
After my pagne buying frenzy, I enjoyed a delightful Thanksgiving feast hosted by some very gracious peace corps volunteers here at their hostel in Niamey; we had squash pie which was as good as pumpkin, a free-range turkey b/c there are no cages here, plus a bunch of other random delicious things like empanadas and key lime pie and stuffing that I made and a turkey made out of fruit. I also visited the Thursday meat market, which draws hundreds of men and their goats, sheep, camels, cows, donkeys, and horses to Zinder to barter up a storm. A priceless moment came when I was riding on a kabu kabu (motorcycle in Hausa) away from the market and we zipped past another kabu kabu whose passenger was holding a goat! I was sadly unable to whip out my camera in time but will post pics from the market soon.
Yesterday I finally got down to business and did interviews of Tuareg women all over the city with the help of Al Housseina, the wife of an amazing Tuareg jeweler that I met through peace corps friends. His work is incredibly intricate and precise and you may be receiving presents that he made when i get back! Al Housseina took me to her friends' houses and they were impressed by my Tamashek greetings, which made me happy. I went to Moumouni and Al Housseina's house last night for dinner and got to watch a short documentary of Moumouni making a tuareg cross of zinder necklace, and we also watched cote d'ivoire music videos, with Al Huosseina exclaiming frequently, "Allah protect them," b/c there were scantily clad dancers. I prepared 3 rounds of Tuareg tea, which is my new hobby.
Today I did more interviews and went hiking with my friend Juliet, we scampered up some boulders and got a great view of the city, lots of dusty streets and green trees, plus a gorgeous sunset. I will be sad to leave tomorrow but it's been a great stay.
LAST THING, ok since it's almost the holidays I would love to receive some snail mail and i PROMISE to write back, if you send it to this address you can use US POSTAGE and it will get to me uber fast, so if you have the chance to write i will beam with happiness across the atlantic ocean, indian ocean, sahara desert, wherever:
Maggie Fick, Fulbright Researcher
2420 Niamey Place
Dulles VA 20189
Thanks and hope to be in touch soon! xo mags
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
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
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
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