More photos finally!

readying the sheep for the street bbq...this was at a friend's house, they sacrificed 3 sheep for the occasion (Tabaskai) and probably gave away the meat from 2 of the sheep as presents for their neighbors and friends




my Fulbright buddy Alice and me chilling on some dunes after a fun picnic outside of Niamey in a dry riverbed




a motley crew gathers for a most excellent Christmas celebration in a teeny village called Rigal Koel (you won't find it on a map) near Zinder




my peace corps friends and me in front of the christmas display on the wall of my friend's "shade hangar," kinda like a millet stock outdoor sitting lounge




decorating our cow (called an amalankey in hausa) for our grand entrance into the village...our driver babaye wore a santa mask and the cow wore a red nose, and me and my 2 friends were the 3 wise men...just like xmas at home, huh? :)




this camel is not as pretty as the ones i saw in the North, but hey, he's still cool...for my cousins Ben and Annie: see how he only has one hump? for some reason here the camels only have one hump, so i like to ride in the backseat so to say, behind the hump and holding onto it, with a skilled driver in the saddle!




homestay mom habsou and me at the Fulbright reception for the other fulber Alice and me




yoowa! my homestay bro Nourri riding a horse in the backyard! check out his cowboy outfit!




Sweet tree eh?

Happy Holidays!

Hello all,

Sorry for being incommunicado recently! Life in Niger recently has been a whirlwind of holiday festivities and fun times, but this does not mean that I have not been thinking a TON about family and friends at home and all over the world during these past few weeks. Thanks for the holiday wishes, it means a lot to know that people I love are enjoying the holidays together, whether they are at home on beautiful Bainbridge Island, snorkeling in Bali, Indonesia, or hiking in Northern Thailand!

Today I returned from Zinder, where I spent a lovely Christmas holiday. The bus ride from Zinder to Niamey is 14 hrs long on a decent day, and we made it in 13 hrs, so it was a GREAT day! Despite the relatively "short" trip today, I am pretty sleepy, so full-fledged descriptions of the Tabaski and Christmas festivities in which I partook will have to wait.

It really is time to go to bed because in 6 hours I have to get up and get ready to go be a bridesmaid in a fancy Zarma wedding, long story, but undoubtedly photos from this event will appear on the blog!

Love and happy new year to everyone,

Maggie


My homestay sis Ghaicha (she is 12) looking saucy for party time!

En fin, a research update!

Hello all,

I hope all is well and that you are enjoying the holiday season. Whether you are rushing around to decorate a tree, enjoying cod balls at the annual, coolest-ever Bainbridge Santa Lucia Party, on a plane and excited to get home, or gearing up for the massive sheep sacrifice/ BBQ extraordinaire that is Tabaski, I hope life is good chez vous.

I decided it was high time to provide you all with an update on the progress of my research. I fear that, from reading my blog, you might get the impression that all I do is bounce around on buses and take vacations all the time — I promise, that's not entirely true!

To be honest, when I arrived in September, I was a bit overwhelmed by just being here and attempting to settle in . . . now that I have been here for almost three months, I look back at those first weeks and laugh at myself, because now I'm totally comfortable here and in some ways can't imagine being anywhere else. Every day is interesting and different in one way or another, and I like the combination of visiting new regions and rural villages for research, then returning to a comfortable routine here in Niamey, where I have my rockin Tuareg homestay family and good friends to chill with.

Anyway, when I first arrived, I didn't know exactly how to start my research and how to frame my questions and understand what I was trying to find out. I think my biggest breakthrough came from my stay in the desert. I learned a ton not only from conducting personal interviews with around 140 women, but also from simply observing life and being a part of it. I was quite far away from anything that was familiar to me, and there was no way for me to get out of my research environment, so to speak, so I was able to see the rhythms of each day and to participate in the daily routines and rituals of the Tuareg population with whom I was living and working.

I am currently wrestling with some questions revolving around the idea of ishak, a Tamashek word that basically means "respect." This concept has an incredibly important place in Tuareg society; not only does it govern the behavior of community members, but it circumscribes the roles and responsibilites of women, men, and children. I am interested in how ishak affects the relationship between women and men, and if it is a source of empowerment for Tuareg women, or merely a fact of life. I also want to find out if the respect and admiration that Tuareg women receive in certain social spheres — for example, within the household and in the marriage rituals and traditional laws — extends to the political arena, a part of society dominated by men not only in other Nigerien ethnic groups such as the Hausas and Zarmas, but throughout the world.

I am sorry to report that thus far I have not witnessed Tuareg women exercising political power in the way it is defined both in Niger and in the West. For example, there are no female Tuareg chiefs, and Tuareg women in the communities I have visited do not preside over community disputes over land or animals, etc. However, I have met strong, intelligent Tuareg women throughout Niger, both in Niamey and in the desert, who have found alternate channels and ways in which to influence their societies—founders of NGOs, leaders of ingenious women's banking collectives (this is in the desert, and the women in this community cannot read or write but have devised ways of keeping track of their money and pooling it for farming projects), traditional healers (some who make birth control products from traditional plants to space out their pregnancies and avoid serious problems such as fistula), and charismatic wives of local chiefs.

I could go on, but my point is that Tuareg women are finding ways to empower themselves in ways that do not ignore the traditional values of their society, but that incorporate them in culturally relevant and acceptable ways. I was naïve when I first came here (and of course I still am), because I was assuming that respect for women within Tuareg society (which is a Tuareg societal trait that pretty much all Nigeriens seem to recognize) was basically a golden ticket to gender equality and a commitment to women's rights. Now I am seeing the nuances of Tuareg society and watching how power and traditions and gender roles interplay. It is pretty awesome to me that I am lucky enough to have the chance to study this stuff, and to benefit from the kindness of Tuaregs plus the expertise of Nigerien scholars who let me talk to them in my idiotic French even though they have approx. 5 advanced degrees each and could smash me to pieces with their knowledge of West African history, religion, and politics.

Now I am starving and must go find some food, I think I am going to go hit up Zeynabou's, a rocking street food place with couscous and green leafy sauce with peanut and smoked meat, really, what more would you want? Plus the dude next to Zeynabou sells lemon-mint juice that is to die for.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Photos from Benin!

at the python's temple in ouidah, we were actually scared and are only smiling for the picture:



cute little tyke in the village of Tanoungou (hope I am spelling that right) in North West Benin, taken while we were visiting a peace corps volunteer:



at the beach, where the salmonella arrived i think:



thai food in cotonou, yeeeaaah:



look at that lush earth, farming in benin seem to go like gangbusters:



yay waterfalls!



aren't my homestay family kids adorable?? (sorry this is not from benin, just randomly posting some pics here):



with a tuareg artisan friend outside of his new boutique in Niamey:



this is Soumana, my second father here in Niamey. He works at the American Cultural Center and helps me and Alice (the other Fulbrighter) with anything and everything. We adore him and in this photo we were at a senegalese restau thanking him for all of his support. He rocks beaucoup, we are going to his house for the upcoming tabaski party!



After a tasty dinner of Cote d'Ivoirian cuisine in Niamey with my friends Cezarina, Hassia, and Alice...girl's nights out are still necessary in Niger!



walking into benin, across the niger river, pretty sweet:



this sign says, "All the girls are going to school!" and these billboards are all over benin-- yippppeeee girl's education, bravo Benin!



this cheese ROCKS



the view from Ash's apartment in Cotonou



sometimes you just gotta shake that calabash!

Hard Boiled Eggs are not my friends, and other lessons learned in Benin

Fofo Friends,

Grr sometimes I wish I could instantly transport all the thoughts I am having on ETERNALLY LONG, NEVER ENDING bus rides into coherent, concise blog entires, but that is not possible, so unfortunately my blog entries have to be rambling and sporadic, depending on the whims of internet availability and my present sanity level. Note: several folks have expressed interest in more detailed descriptions of my research, so I PROMISE that my next entry will be strictly about my work, b/c, you know, sometimes it looks like all I do is voyage (the French verb for travel, clearly a superior word), which is not entirely true!

I returned yesterday from a delightful little vacation in Benin with my dear college friend and fellow Seattleite Ashley. Hands down the best part about the trip was chilling with Ashley, because she rocks and is tons of fun and is gorgeous so it's fun to watch motorcycle drivers and everyone else flirt with her! We also studied abroad together in Cameroon, so we already knew we dug traveling together in Africa, but this trip definitely cemented the bond, especially after Ashley spent 3 DAYS TAKING CARE OF ME because I got salmonella/some gastro infection plus a fever and whatnot, it was not pleasant. However, we now have some great memories and stories to recount, like the time when my (ex) favorite nurse tried to extract a bribe from me while injecting me with something through my IV…it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when something like that happens, and I am really not trying to bash Beninese health care, b/c besides that small incident (and the time when another nurse spilled my blood on the ground and wasn't wearing clothes and no one cleaned it up), things were peachy and it was an interesting cultural experience.
Incha'allah I will avoid the hospital for a good while to come!

Ashley planned a great trip for us, so I feel like I got a diverse glimpse of Benin in the short time I was there. First, we visited some nice Peace Corps volunteers in the NW part of the country. They took us to beautiful waterfalls and showed us where to find the most amazing meal of pounded yams with peanut sauce and fried cheese, omg, seriously tasty. It was also fun to hear a new (to me) local language and to see some different types of house and grainery structures and farming techniques.

Next we headed South to the Oceanside metropolis of Cotonou, home of cool art exhibits and Thai and Indian food and huge fabric markets, oh my! I am still mourning the fact that I couldn't afford to buy one of the top 5 coolest pagne/fabrics I have seen in Africa (that is saying a lot given my obsession with fabric): it was blue and green and had IPODS ON IT! But it cost roughly $50 and all the vendors wouldn't budge, b/c it was the high quality "Holland wax" and hot off the presses…guess I'll have to wait til it goes out of la mode, it will be hard to restrain myself if I see it again. We bounced about town on zemi-johns, which are motorcycle taxis/ amusing death traps. It is quite a rush flying along on the back of one of the "zems," and occasionally, if you yell "DOUCEMENT" in the driver's ear, he might slow down a bit. This was a fun change of pace from the taxi scene in Niamey, and definitely gives the city a fastpaced flavor.

After a bit of city life, we took an hr long taxi ride (sweet thing about Benin: it's small, doesn't take forever to get to places comme au Niger!) to Ouidah, a famous voodoo town and a major transport point during the slave trade. There is a 5km walk that leads to the Gate of No Return on the beach, where thousands of slaves were shipped mostly to Brazil and the Carribean. Some former slaves returned to Benin after slavery was abolished, so many in fact that there is apparently a Carnival festival in Ouidah every year. We stopped at some of the statues along the 5 km walk but unfortunately there weren't any signs and we didn't hire a guide so we couldn't get the full significance of these monuments, but I did have the feeling that something important and sad had transpired on that path. A completely different element of Ouidah is the huge voodoo scene: a sacred forest and a python temple are smack dab in the middle of the town, amidst a large Cathedral constructed for the Pope's visit a few years back, plus the old colonial Portuguese fort. I will post some fun pics of Ash and I holding a serpent, the guide also casually slung the python around my neck and took me by surprise, fun times! Ash and I also chilled at the beach near Ouidah and I dined on a salad with hard boiled eggs, which may have been the origin of the stomach problemos. But, humdillah, it's gone now so I have no regrets, the beach was gorgeous and there was a pool and seeing water was pretty rockin after months of deserty Niger!

I was so lucky to have Ashley as a wonderful host in Benin, and it was really a treat to visit her--I will definitely miss her and the tasty Fulani cheese and all the water! However, I had two funny and happy experiences on my way home yesterday that reminded me why I like to call Niger home right now.

The first occurred when the Air Transport (a Nigerien company named after the Air mountain range) bus rolled up to Parakou, the city in the middle of Benin where Ash and I parted ways. It had left that morning from Cotonou, but somehow most of the passengers who "descended" as we say here were Nigeriens, so as they popped out for a prayer/"pause peepee" break I heard the sweet sounds of Hausa and Zarma greetings, plus the obnoxious sounds of Hausa music blaring from the speakers, plus women with scarves and pretty fabric and men in traditional boubous, and Niger came rushing back, familiar and friendly as usual. Then I met these Tuareg dudes and used my Tamashek greetings and was forced to sit with them for the 11 hr journey and explain repeatedly why I didn't need a Tuareg husband, but that is another story.

The second happy moment came at the Benin-Niger border, after I got my passport stamped and opted to walk across the bridge over the Niger River. As I trotted across with some of the more sporty passengers and some little boys on bikes who were selling water and yogurt, I got really excited to see Niger ahead of me. I felt like I was going home, kind of like when I take the ferry home to Bainbridge after a while away. Sometimes I want to cry on that ferry ride, it is just so beautiful and there are so many happy memories on that island, but now it is the same with coming back to Niger; there are people I look forward to seeing and there are languages that I like to hear even if I can't understand much, and people yell yoowa and humdillah all the time and it just feels right for me to be in Niger right now.

Of course, as soon as we crossed into Niger, the road turned to crap and the customs folks took forever and there were no bananas or tasty juices to buy like in Benin, and we had to stop to pray a bunch, but nonetheless it was fun because hilarious things would happen so it was all worth it. One quick example: we forgot one of the passengers at the Benin border, so he had to snag a ride with another bus company until he met up with our bus at a prayer stop. He jumped on the bus, and although most of his tirade was in Hausa/Tamashek, he seemed to be saying, "dudes, I can't believe you forgot me!" Well at the next stop someone took the time to make him some tea (read: we took another half hour break), and after that everyone seemed to get along again. What a good way to resolve a dispute. I kind of wish some folks who won't be named would consider that approach instead of using landmines in Niger (go to BBC or Reuters and search Niger for a news update).

Thanks for reading and sorry if this is too long. I'm sending lots of love and Sahara rays and holiday spirit in all directions.

Xo Mags