Maggie au Niger

Some May photos...

2008-05-26T02:45:00.001-07:00

Ann and my friend Mariama in the Abalak weekly market on our fun trip up North

Me and one of Mariama’s aunts in Tuareg garb at the family house in Konni (I realize these town names don’t mean much unless you are looking at a detailed map of Niger, but just in case you are)

Ann and me with our fav fried food, fermented rice pancakes (called massa) and squash sauce.

At my awesome friend Ruki’s thesis defense/presentation for her Master’s degree in Sociology at Université Abdou Moumouni in Niamey…here we were waiting for the jury of professors to make their decision after two hours of hammering her with questions. The verdict: she passed with flying colors! Allez Ruki!

I love this little dude Ibrahim (see previous blog posts) so much it hurts…he’s looking good here in his mini boubou and sitting with his mom Fatima and my friend Mariama.

Pretty Niamey sky from my backyard

Checking in before checking out...

2008-05-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

It has been quite a while since I have written because a lot has been going on lately in the hopping town of Niamey ;) Actually I have just been busy wrapping up loose ends, saying goodbye to friends and people who have helped me with research, chilling at the university, finishing up articles and sending them to newspapers, etc…

a great non-work highlight of the past month was ANN SAGAN’s visit!!! Ann rocks as you might know, and she was the perfect person to come visit Niger, because she was so can-do and never complained that we kept a breakneck schedule (visiting all my friends, eating all the traditional and fried food we could find, traveling North with a friend) until she unfortunately kind of got heatstroke and we had to slow things down. Don’t worry, she recovered quickly and we went back to having a rocking time. Then Amy Van Buren, another Pomo peep, popped over from Ouagadougou, where she will be interning at the U.S. Embassy this summer, for a short visit, which nicely overlapped with Ann’s last few days in town.

Yesterday Amy left and then I went to a rap concert and a “boite”/nightclub with some friends to celebrate my last weekend in Niamey, but the point of the story is that today I was really tired and emotional about leaving Niger in six days and also trying to get a bunch of work done and say bye to my wonderful families and friends. So when I rolled up to Habsou’s (my Tuareg mom) house to hang out because I hadn’t seen her in a few days, I must have looked not so good.

Habsou’s older sister Zeynabou was braiding Habsou’s hair and after a few minutes she said, “You are not in your plate today,” which I guess means I was not acting like myself, which was true. I was kind of mopey and laying on the mattress in the tent outside (actually I always lay on the mattress but usually I am not mopey ;)) Habsou and Zeynabou talked to me and made me feel better and told me everything would work out with post-Niger life and work and such, and then Habsou yelled at me for having dirty cracked feet, which was fair, so I promised to wash them every day until I leave. Then Ghaicha, Habsou’s 13 year old daughter walked into the tent and gave me a head and feet massage and sang a Tuareg song to me until I fell asleep. I floated home later that afternoon feeling so much better and so grateful to have that family in my life. Seriously, they are just the greatest, and I can’t imagine this year without them. I know I will come back to visit them ASAP, and Habsou even said she would write another letter and try to help me to get another grant, which I thought was funny and unfortunately probably not going to work out anytime soon!

I’m leaving Niamey on May 31 and headed off on a bit of an adventure with limited internet access, so I may not post on my blog again for a while. I think I will wrap this blog up with some photos and one last post once I return stateside later this summer. Thanks for reading and I hope you are well! Drop me a line if you get a chance, I love hearing from you and hope these posts aren’t too boring.

Xoxox Mags

Ibrahim, little man of greatness

2008-05-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim is a two year old whose family lives across the street from me. I have known his family for a few months because they are cousins of Habsou (my "mom" here), but since moving in with my friends (oh, le nomadisme of la vie à Niamey), I get to see the family pretty much every day. Sometimes they force me to eat meat at 11 am and that is isn't fun, but most of the times we dance or watch a Brazilian soap opera or lay on the outdoor bed when it's hot.

Ibrahim is defintely a highlight of every day for me. If he is outside playing in the dirt and I walk outside he comes running over and kisses me. He is so adorable and I somehow feel that he has something to teach the world that will eventually emerge from his sweet little head. Right now he just gurgles and mutters some Tamashek occasionally, because he's pretty big (huge by Nigerien standards), you might think he could talk, but he is too busy careening around. Everyone gets annoyed with him because he gets so excited that he knocks stuff over a lot, but he rarely cries even if he falls. He just looks mildly surprised.

I asked his mom Fatima if I could put these two photos on my website to show my friends and she said sure. So here is a little happy Saturday treat for you!

I don't know what I am doing, but don't you just love that little face?!

Ibrahim is enjoying his lunch with some cousins visiting from Agadez.

musings from the gutter

2008-05-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Last night I had a funny experience that I thought would be fun to relate. It started with dinner with some friends at a little bar overlooking the Niger river. After dinner I left my friends there and headed out by myself (I was in a hurry to go somewhere, you know, I'm often in a hurry, not a good thing).

It was 9pm and I walked out of the restaurant into a large unlit parking lot. I thought, hmm, this would make me nervous in the US, but it's Niger, so it's okay. Then I saw a man slightly ahead of me, but our paths were converging, so I sad "Fofo, Salaam Aleikum" to greet him. Well then he started teasing me/ harassing me so I picked up my step and emerged onto the main road. There was no one around except a guard of a small NGO across the street. I "fofo"-ed him and crossed the street, already launching into an explanation about how I needed him to help me find a taxi. He looked nice and we smiled at each other and then my next step put me knee-deep in an open sewer. I had completely forgot that I needed to jump over the open sewer, in my hurry to get the guardian. There was a splash and my cry of surprise and then the guard was pulling me out of the sewer. The pooface who was teasing me disappeared and so did my flipflops, lost to the guck of the sewer.

Luckily a taxi came and I poppped in, but then the girl next to me was trying to find her boyfriend at a hotel and she used a dollar of my phone minutes trying to track him down. In the end I went to meet my friend and her Nigerien friend helped me wash off and told me that he detests those type of guys that "see a woman and shike nan, it's over, they just won't leave her alone." He was approximately my grandfather's age and so nice, so he pretty much made my dad.

When I went home I disinfected myself very throughly. In the end, perhaps I fell in the sewer because someone wanted to tell me that I needed to get throughouly clean; in fact, i did, considering i swam twice without showering and sweat profusely b/c of the heat (sorry, gross, will shower more promise Mom).

I hope I don't fall in the sewer again. But I am now cleaner than I have been in months, alhumdillilahi!

Cheers et bon week-end,
Maggie

more photos...

2008-04-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

My friend Leigh and me on the beach at Ile de Goree, off the Senegal coast near Dakar.

My cutie next door neighbors, Laile and Ibrahim!

NigerIAN, aka from Nigeria, moolah, called Naira...they use this currency anywhere remotely near the Nigerian border in Eastern Niger.

Some nice little guys in Rigal Koel, a Hausa village in Eastern Niger, where my friend Paige is a Peace Corps volunteer.

I'm MELTING!

2008-04-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

Hot damn, it is hot in Niger. I know, I know, this hot season isn't as bad as the last one, and yes, it was cloudy yesterday, so the sun wasn't as bad (but then there was humidity). Life is not bad at all, but seriously, the hot season is no joke. My computer may break b/c when I have it plugged in and the power shorts out for the fifth time in one afternoon, I don't think that is so good.

Anyway my brain is fried so here are some pictures instead of stories, hope you enjoy:

Kind of a not attractive photo of me, but voila moi et Alice the other Fulbrighter, with my sweet Chadian henna, taken right before I went to Dakar to see the Fick family

With Ashley, yawning like the hippos on the river...

Cool handmade pots in the Ayerou market NW of Niamey, we watched these pots be made by women on an island in the Niger river near Ayerou

Some fabric (from Mali/Guinea?)and towels (who knows where from) in the Ayerou market

Sunset on the Niger River, I will miss this view. The water level is super low right now b/c it's hot season

Parc W fun!

2008-04-24T03:02:00.000-07:00

I was lucky and got to tag along on a 2-day trip to Parc W, an awesome wildlife reserve a few hours' drive from Niamey. My French friend Raphaelle who works for UNICEF had her boyfriend Gathian visiting from Paris, and another French pal Sophie came, too. We saw a TON of awesome animals that I had of course only ever seen in zoos, and I have to admit it was great to be in a pretty open area with not one single black plastic bag littering the landscape! (that's a big prob here, not only in cities, sadly in villages and all throughout the country...The Rwandan govt outlawed the use of black plastic bags, seems like a brilliant idea to me)

All of us, plus our great guides Alhmoud and Issafou, at the park's entrance

Splish splash they were takin a bath!

You gotta love this giraffe!

Finally, at a millet beer bar in Niamey, with Seydou the serenader...my Nigerien name Fatimata sounds really great when belted out by this dude

Alright, now it's back to work on some articles I'm finishing up from the Diffa trip...turns out I'm lucky enough to be getting several awesome visitors from the U.S. in May, so I'll be playing tour guide, wrapping up my work here, giving a presentation at the American Cultural Center, saying my goodbyes, tout au meme fois/ all at the same time!!!

Hope all is well, I hear there has been snow in the Seattle area lately...hard to imagine for me when it's 120 degrees F here!

Pictures from Diffa/ Eastern Niger

2008-04-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

Me and the neighbor baby Mariama; the dude on the left on with his cell is the fiance of Iyayi's seventeen year old daughter

Iyayi at the Sunday meeting

Here's a photo of the women's group I spent time with in Diffa

Honestly, I don't actually like horses, but my peace corps friend Jamie and I are looking happy here because we got to take turns riding our friend Paige's horse instead of walking the whole three hours in the deep hot sand in the middle of the afternoon, in order to get to the town where we got a bush taxi back to Zinder, phew! We even brought portable iPod speakers for the journey!

Diffa rocks!

2008-04-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sannu/ Barka jem tout le monde ! (Hausa/Fulfulde greetings to everyone !)

I am in Zinder, on my way back from a great trip way out East near the Chadian border. I was in a town called Diffa, a "regional capital" in Niger which is actually quite small compared to the other regional capital cities like Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua. One might guess that the reason Diffa is small and has very little infrastructure is because it is over 1300 kilometers from Niamey, and of course the roads are not exactly great, so it's a 2-day bus ride any way you cut it.

It was totally worth the trip for me, because I went to Diffa to interview a woman named Hadizatou Issa, who has founded several different women's organizations to help the women of her remote, somewhat isolated community and who is just a rockstar of a person. Everyone in the region (aka hundreds of kms around Diffa) knows her by Iyaye, which means "mother of everyone" in Fulfulde, her mother tongue; this title is fitting considering she has six grown children, is currently raising few little grandkids, and she also has (it seems) scores of people in Diffa who call her their mom and who are always stopping my her hut to say hello.

I spent 4 days in Diffa with Iyaye and interviewed her about her life and work, and also just had fun cooking with her and walking around the town with her daughters and napping under a tree in the afternoon heat. I had the chance to attend a weekly women's meeting at her house, where about 30 women gathered to collect money for the "caisse" or communal banking account, which they use to finance small projects or help a sister out with starting a donut making business or sending a kid to a bigger city to go to school, etc. The relationship between these older women (by older I mean 40s and 50s because it's Niger and by my age women have a few kids, may be married and divorced, etc.), many of the widows, was just amazing to see. They work so closely together and help each other out and care for each other's kids and support each other, I don't know how else to describe it but amazing and inspiring. Not to sensationalize things, but I did find it interesting that in two different households I visited, 2 widows were living together with a bundle of kids; turns out they were co-wives and their husband died. Iyaye said that they get along just fine and work together to raise their kids.

When I left Diffa yesterday morning at 5am, I was sitting next to the high school director (Diffa only has 1 high school) who, surprise, knew Iyaye because her sons went to the high school and she was the leader of the parent-teacher association. He said, "I am certain that if she had gone to school, she would be very far from here today." Iyaye speaks 5 languages, including French, fluently despite being illiterate and never having attended school. I thought this was a pretty telling quote.

This morning my Peace Corps friend Jamie and I were supposed to catch a ride out to another friend's village. I wanted to go out there to chat with people about the "exode" phenomenon and hopefully write a little story about it; "exode"= men leave their village and go to Nigeria or other coastal countries like Ivory Coast in search of jobs and money, sometimes they don't come back for a few years, sometimes they come back with HIV/AIDS etc. It's an interesting issue and I'm excited to learn more. Anyway, my friend Paige is building a school in her village and her builder was supposed to drive out for a meeting this morning, so he was going to pick us up at 9 am. We felt lucky because usually it is an hour long bush taxi ride then a 2 hr walk through the sand in the blazing heat to her village. Turns out no luck today; at around 11 am the builder rolls up to the peace corps hostel on his motorcycle and says sorry, his 4x4 broke down yesterday so there is no car to take us . . . well now we are waiting out the heat and plan to do the 2hr sandy walk around 4 pm. C'est la vie, whatever, it will be nice if we ever get to the village. I am headed back to Niamey on Friday, which will bring the number of day-long bus rides to a whopping 4 in the last 10 days! As they say here, Wallai, KAI! All this bus time has given me the chance to muse about the wonders of Nigerien public transport, although you might not be interested, I need to vent, so I think I shall muse about this on my blog next time I write ;) I will also post pictures from beautiful Diffa!

Hope all is well and email me and tell me what you are up to!

Cheers,

Mags

p.s. Guess what? I am leaving Niger in a little over six weeks. Boo, that is crazy, I don't know if I will be ready to leave my home of the last 7 months, it's treated me pretty well!

More pics!

2008-04-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

Street scene in St. Louis, that blue and yellow vehicle is a type of public transport called a car rapide

My tailor Sherif with his wife Alhousseina and his daughter Ghaicha on his 38th birthday, we watched the sunset and had dinner on the Niger river to celebrate:

Rocking Tuareg band at the wedding last weekend:

The family with our Senegalese friend Allasane, at the top of nice hill overlooking Dakar, we were visiting an awesome lighthouse:

Niamey's Petite Marché, center of lots of activity!

Family in pagne:

Cheers,

Maggie

Tuareg wedding of the century rocks Niamey

2008-04-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Oyiwen/Greetings,

I did just post a way-too-long blog entry, but I couldn't resist writing again. Yesterday (Saturday) I went to the most AMAZING wedding, no offense to other cool weddings I have attended, but this was the probably the most ridiculously awesome wedding that I have ever attended, I have never experienced anything like it!

The first cool thing about the wedding was that the "jeune marie" is someone I know well, one of Habsou's sisters who works a lot at Tin Hinan, Habsou's women's NGO in Niamey, which I hang out at a bit when I'm in town. Her name is Ramatou. This was the first Nigerien wedding where I knew the bride well; I have been to lots of weddings but usually with friends, so I didn't necessarily know the bride and groom well.

On Friday night, my friend Alice and I went to visit Ramatou at Habsou's parent's house. Ramatou had just had her hands and feet covered in beautiful, intricate henna, but she was mad b/c she thought the design had too many "lines" in it, and apparently Nigerien dudes don't like that kind of henna much; maybe she just had some wedding-eve jitters. Alice and I watched a crew of ten women peel and chop potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and other veggies for a couple of hours (seriously). The quantities of food they were preparing were absurd, and one of the marmites was large enough to fit an ENTIRE SACK OF RICE THAT IS 50 KILOS! And Habsou said they were using the meat (and everything else, brains, etc.) from an entire cow for the occasion. Anyway it was impressive. People get stressed about weddings in the U.S. but often people have food catered for a wedding with 200 people, instead of cooking it themselves . . . not Nigeriens! We left the house after midnight; the women were still chopping and I don't think any of them got much sleep, considering that the fatia (religious ceremony) started at 8 am.

I didn't make it back to the house where the wedding was happening until 11 am (I had to visit some neighbors and have 3 rounds of tea with them, which takes a while), but when I arrived, the party was popping. Men were milling around outside the house, incense was billowing out of the big salon, women were still cooking, others were eating, babies were crying and laughing, toddlers were running, and somewhere in the back, some women were doing the traditional Tuareg wailing. And there was a mini concert with sweet Tuareg instruments (violins, little mandolins) going on the porch. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely (minus the crying babies), and it was just a great party. There were two old women who were literally hopping up and down as they encouraged a young man who was using a gigantic stick to pound millet in the giant-sized pot over a smoky open fire. I stuck around long enough to eat 2 meals and greet everyone I knew at the wedding, plus make some new friends. Then I had to go home to regroup and change outfits, because the women said I was dirty. If there is anytime an unmarried woman is supposed to look saucy in Niger, it is at a wedding! If the marriage is not an arranged one, I think the most likely place to meet your husband is at a wedding. This isn't a huge concern of mine, so I actually just went and bought a wedding present (colorful plastic platter, large metal bowl) and didn't shower and came back.

When I got back there were over a hundred people in the street (not paved, more like the desert, overrun with too much damn sand), spilling out of a large tent, rocking out to a loud Tuareg guitar concert. Ghaicha (Habsou's daughter) found me and dragged me first to say hi to Ramatou, who was still hiding in the bedroom (the bride can't come out until 9 pm or so, when the husband's family comes to take her to the groom's new house), and then she led me back to the concert and pushed me into the tent. Suddenly I was in the middle of a rocking dance party, mostly women wearing beautiful clothes plus some random kids and then men poking the head in. There were three electric guitarists, a drummer with a nice drum set, a fancy guy in a boubou and turban, and a bunch of amps. The musicians don't usually play together but got together for the wedding and they were amazing. I tried to take capture the mood with photos but it wasn't really possible. After an hour or so of dancing, yelling, clapping, etc., I emerged from the tent super sweaty and got a ride with a friend on someone's moto, through the deep sand to the main road, so of course we fell off once but ca va. The party wasn't even close to over when I left at 6 pm, but I was tired and wanted to go swimming.

The point is, I cannot believe how hardcore these Nigeriens were about partying it up at this wedding. It was a total blast for everyone but the hidden-away bride, who will hopefully get to watch the festivities on video later.

These kind of days are my favorite kind in Niger, the ones where I am doing something fun and ridiculous that I have never done before—shaking my tailfeather with Tuaregs of all ages while speaking Tamashek and holding a baby?—and then I think, what the heck am I doing? Is this actually happening? Then I feel really lucky to be here and get sad about the thought of leaving ;(

Hope all is well wherever you are, and that you have the chance to shake your booty ("bouge ta fes" en Francais) this weekend!

Here's a picture from the Tuareg wedding with my Tuareg moms, Habsou (left) and Fatima (right)...notice their matching wedding uniforms and the appliqued guinea fowl on the straps of my shirt:

And here's a cute pic of my real Mom and me at a bird reserve near St. Louis, Senegal:

Xoxo, Maggie

Fick Family Adventures in Senegal

2008-04-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

Salut tout le monde,

I returned to Niamey on Monday after an AMAZING time in Senegal, and I intended to write about the trip on Tuesday, but then things got busy and now it is Friday…c'est la vie, this week I got some work done saw my Niamey pals and Tuareg family, who I had missed, and also go swimming in the Olympic-sized pool! The pool is actually 1 cm short of 50 meters, apparently someone made a petit mistake; oh well, I still enjoy doing a few laps, and it's officially the only way to exercise now that hot season is seriously under.

Now, details on the Vacation of Greatness, where to start…I guess with just how awesome it was to see my parents and my little brother Charlie after a darn long time apart! It was so nice to have all of us together, and especially to reunite in Senegal, because (1) I wanted my family to see why I liked living in Africa so much and (2) We actually spent more time together because there weren't distractions like Blackberries, iPods (well we did have those), work, etc. My mom did remark that at times it was a bit claustrophobic for the 3 non-Francophone Ficks, b/c they could only speak to each other, whereas I could speak to Senegalese people…I for one enjoyed being the mouthpiece for the family, you all know that I like to talk;) I realized how hard it is being a translator, but it was definitely good practice for me! I had to think of accurate translations of my favorite phrases, such as "incha'allah" and "wallAIHI!"

I arrived in Dakar a few days before the family arrived, so I was charged and ready to go when they arrived at 5:30 am on Monday morning. Good thing our hotel wasn't ready, it was a great excuse for me to drag my exhausted parents and brother all around Dakar, to the top of the minaret in the Grande Mosque, down the fancy new oceanfront boulevard ("La Corniche"), and into delicious patisseries .

We spent a few fun days in the capital, and a highlight was hanging out with Allasane, a nice Senegalese student who was a friend of an American professor who I met in Niamey (West Africa is really quite small once you get to know it un peu!). He took us to the top of a lighthouse called La Mamelle, where we could see the whole city and Westernmost point of Africa, and we also enjoyed some tasty yassa poisson, a traditional Senegalese dish of rice and fish or chicken topped with sauteed lemon and onion sauce, together at the West African Research Center.

We also visited Ile de Gorée, an island with old colonial buildings just off the coast of Dakar. Gorée was a former holding site for captured people on the way to the Americas to become slaves, and there is an though-provoking museum there. We met a saucy lady named Mariama who slapped me on the butt when I was bargaining with her for a necklace for my mom; I ended up getting a sweet purple complet/skirt-top set, and mom even got one necklace for free! Mom, Dad, and Char: Mariama says hello, I went back to greet her when I was back on Gorée the weekend after you left.

Here's a picture of my Mom and me and Mariama when we were haggling about the price of the things we wanted to buy from her:

And here's a picture of us after we had agreed on the price and were friends again:

After Dakar we headed North with our trusty taximan Badian, a delightful dude who has seatbelts in his cab -- never see that in Niger! We got stuck in a HUGE traffic jam on our way to St. Louis because we were traveling on Mouloud, aka the Prophet's Birthday, and there were thousands of people coming back from a pilgrimage to an important mosque…wallai it was fun to see so many people in so many types of transport!

I am getting longwinded, so I'm going to resort to bullet point highlights to round out the description of our vacay:

· St. Louis is another old colonial town with a kinda weird vibe, but Char got a rockin patchwork boubou called a "baillefal"…not spelling that right but I encourage you to look up the history of the different Muslim sects in Senegal, there is definitely something about the baillefal men, I believe they are part of the Touba sect. Also, Mom got a little sick but she kept a smile on her face and got well in time to go to an awesome bird reserve, where we rode in a pirogue and learned about the environmental history of the river and ocean and spit of land (sorry I'm not so biologically-oriented, it was really cool though). We got to chill in a Mauritanian tent and drink 3 rounds of Senegalese sugary-minty tea, also excellent.

· After a few days in St.Louis, we cruised down to the Petite Cote, South of Dakar, and landed at this "funky and rustic" seaside hotel covered in seashells. The views were nice, but not everyone was a fan of the well water system, which meant showers weren't so possible (no biggy though). There was also a ridiculous amount of blatant sex tourism, which was a bit of a turnoff. Not to make light of this, it's a big issue in Senegal and the Gambia, and it's mostly white European women who fund the industry. Gross.

· Next we went to another beach town called La Somone and stayed in a nice little house with a cute pool, steps from the ocean, running water, etc., much more our style. Dad ran a lot one day, Mom did too (natch), Char and I slept a lot, and all of us got a lot of sun. It was nice to be in a quiet, not-too-touristy town, but we did enjoy going into Saly-Portugal, which is a rather luxe resort town with some nice amenities.

· On the family's last day in Senegal, we got stuck in a 3-hour traffic jam on the way back from the beach (good thing Dad wasn't driving!) and then did an awesome job getting some more colorful clothes made for Charlie and Dad by our new tailor friend.

· It was definitely sad to say goodbye to my parents and Charlie, but we had a wonderful trip and I am already looking forward to seeing them in August at home on Bainbrdige, incha'allah.

After the family left, I stayed with my cool friend Leigh, who is on an awesome yearlong grant called the Watson fellowship (watsonfellowship.org). She studying reproductive rights in four countries: Peru, South America, Senegal, and Turkey. She's almost done with her time in Dakar so she was a great tour guide for me; we took the crazy crowded car rapides (hard to explain, bus-like, painted blue and yellow, you jump in the back like you would get in a paddy wagon, you trip over people, you bang on the metal wall to get out…) and also ate the best Lebanese sandwich of my life (if you have ever been to West Africa, you know how omnipresent Lebanese cuisine is). I also had fun chilling with the Senegalese Fulbrighters, who showed me a bit of the Dakar nightlife, wallai, those Dakarois are stylish, daring fashionistas if I do say so myself! I could have done without the blasting techno music but it was a blast nonetheless.

It is great to be home in Niger, it really does feel like home here now. Next week I am "voyage-ing" out to Diffa, a stone's throw from the Chadian border, thus VERY FAR AWAY from Niamey and it will be a painful journey. More on why I am doing this next time!

Hugs to all and thanks for reading!

Maggie

Wallai! Ca fait TROP longtemps!/ it's been a while

2008-03-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

Howdy everyone,

Well, a couple people have emailed me lately asking if I have fallen off of the face of the earth, or settled permanently in the desert among the nomads, so I decided it was time to stop being lazy and update my blog! In fact, I am still in Niamey and doing quite well. Sorry for being out of touch for quite a while; my main excuse is that I have been doing a lot of writing and using my laptop a lot, so when I have free time I prefer not to spend it staring at the computer screen. But again, sorry for not writing for so long and I hope you will find your way back to my blog and say hi!

Since it's been so long since I've written, I don't quite know where to start. I guess I'll start with what is most fresh in my memory—the Advanced English class I visited tonight at the American Cultural Center. The nice guy who directs the English language program at the ACC asked me to come speak to one of the English classes, and so I showed up at 7pm like he said and found a very nice Nigerien woman as the teacher, who spoke English quite well. At first I thought the class was incredibly small (there were only 5 students), but 15 more showed up after the sunset prayer. There were 5 women in the class and about 15 men, and they looked to me to be mostly in their late 20s or 30s, some older. This makes sense because the English classes at the ACC are not free, and of course not everyone can afford to pay for them, especially not young students, and also this was the advanced class. We had a lively discussion about the U.S. elections, and at one point one of the students came to the board and explained to the class the issue with the superdelegates in the Obama-Clinton race. Someone had asked about the primary election, and I avoided going into the details of the superdelegates because I didn't want to confuse everyone and was already concerned that it might be difficult for them to understand me. I was wrong, because the student got up and spoke English twice as fast as I was speaking (still slower than my normal speed ;)) and explained the delegate process perfectly. It is incredibly impressive to see how much people here know about the U.S. elections; if Americans knew even a fraction as much as other world ctiizens about different political systems, the world would be a different/better place in my opinion.

I was also using my notorious "Franglais," a combination of French and English plus a few local expressions in Hausa and Zarma, until the teacher said, "Maggie, please, we speak English here"; oops. Another funny incident occurred when we were talking about Barack and Hillary and I said, "Do you think the American people would really elect a woman as their president?" I said this because I have had many discussions with Nigeriens about the elections, and sometimes (not always), men will say something like, "but seriously, the U.S. is too powerful, there is no way that a woman could handle that position." I just wanted to see what these English students thought, and to my delight, they laughed and said, "Are you crazy? Of course a woman could be President!" and "Come on, why not?" I am personally rooting for Obama, but it did make me happy to hear that these people were okay with the idea of a female president. The English students also enjoyed the pictures of my family and friends and couldn't believe that Charlie is my "little brother."
Since last I wrote, I have been trying pretty hard to research and write newspaper articles to send to international papers. I have written about street food, African fabric (called pagne), the taxicab scene in Niamey, a camel ride in the desert, and I am currently working on a story about "les anciens combatants," Nigerien soldiers who fought for France in World War II. I'm very excited because in April I'm going to a town called Diffa, in the far East of the country and practically on the Chadian border. I am traveling there to interview (and write kind of a profile/portrait story about) a cool woman who started an NGO to help widows of armed conflict in Niger; she is illiterate but speaks French and Hausa and a few other languages, and is quite well known in Niger. It will take me two solid days on the bus to reach Diffa, and in April it will be around 120 degrees F in the shade, but it should be worth it to get to hang out with this lady for a few days. To be honest, it's quite possible that none of these stories I have mentioned will be published, but this is a good learning experience for me and I want to give this journalism idea a try before doing something drastic like moving to a random city and doing an unpaid internship with a newspaper! I'll let you know if anything comes of this silly plan…

I think I've had amoebas/stomach bacteria/giardia/whatever you want to call it twice since I wrote last. That's okay though, people here are so ridiculously nice that when you tell them you're sick they come over and visit you and bring you food, although the last thing you want is food. They also give you advice about how to kill the parasites; I think the craziest advice I received was from a Peace Corps volunteer, who told me to fast for 24 hours to starve the bacteria and swallow whole cloves of garlic (I didn't eat for a while but I couldn't make myself do the garlic thing). I'm making a Niger scrapbook and I put the Fasigyne pill box in it. Fasigyne is a serious parasite-killing drug that makes you want to lie under your ceiling fan all day long. To my credit I only laid under my fan for a few hours yesterday and then forced myself to go get some things done, but only because I am going to Senegal on Friday and need to tie things up before then…oh yes, on Friday I am going to Dakar, Senegal, where I will see my parents and my brother Charlie and it will be a delightful wonderful vacation! It will be the Fick Family's first "sejour en Afrique"/ visit to Africa, so I am trying very hard to make it a great one, in hopes that they will return to visit me again if I end up staying here a bit longer! ;)

Besides writing articles and thinking about new topics and emailing away in hopes of something working out, I have been enjoying weekend yoga with some friends, little trips to Sunday markets, pirogue rides on the Niger river (including hippo sightings!), and especially entertaining guests at my house. Well, it's not my house, I share it with two lovely roommates, and it couldn't be more fun. We have outfitted the place with plenty of plastic mats for optimal lounging potential, and we have great speakers which lead to interesting dance parties; a recent memorable one involved my 45+year old Tuareg friend Fatimata shaking her booty to some Coupe Decalé (look up the music videos on youtube) while her teenage daughter Leila and my homestay sister Ghaicha whipped their braids around at a frightening speed…here's an okay photo of the scene:

I also had an unexpected visitor (who I shall not reveal in the blog), which was fantastic because I got to play the role of Niamey tour guide. Because I've spent the past two months in Niamey, I feel more at home here now than in the beginning of my project when I was traveling around the country a lot. It was great to show my friend my favorite places (a Cameroonian restaurant, the Grand Marché) and introduce the visitor to my friends. Highlights were going to the Grand Mosque, going on a tour of a fabric factory (truly a dream come true), a full moon picnic on the sand dunes outside of Niamey, and tutoring my Tuareg family's kiddos in English.

Today I was reading my friend Becky's awesome blog (she is in Indonesia on a Fulbright), and she was commenting on how generous people are in Indonesia, and the idea of communal/collective vs. individualist societies. It is also true in Niger that people are willing to do almost anything to help other people, and this is not an exaggeration. For example, it is considered rude not to offer what you are eating to other people in the room who are not eating. If you compliment someone on her earrings, she will probably reach up and take them off and try to give them to you. I think it is doing me a lot of good living in this communally oriented society, because (I hope) it is making me more cognizant of the needs of others, even if just in small ways. People here set such a good example of generosity and consideration for others, so it is a blessing just to be around this culture. I try to think of nice "cadeaux"/gifts to bring to my friends' houses, whether it's a bottle of ginger juice or a kid's coloring book, and now I don't even think twice about showing up at someone's house unannounced; I think the rule here is, as long as you say "salaam aleikum" before you enter, you are always welcome. I hope that I will come back to the U.S. and continue these practices, even if my friends and family find them bizarre! I really like having visitors and being a visitor and making people feel welcome, so I hope that I will remember how much fun I had doing these things in Niger and not let myself get stressed out or forget how easy and fun it is to just hang out on the floor on a plastic mat (although I don't know yet how I will transport my beloved plastic mats back home!)

Ok, this entry has gone on for quite long enough, so I will wrap it up now. Thanks for the emails and letters, I love being in touch and promise to send you a postcard with cool stamps (of President Tandja, of camels) if you send me your address! One more thing: I'm going to SE Asia and China from mid-June to mid-August, then I'll fly home to Seattle. Then after a few wks I will probably move to 1 of 2 places, both start with Ds and one is in the U.S. and one is in West Africa, but who knows we'll see. In the event that you are my friend or family member and have the intention to be in any of those places I mentioned—Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seattle…--DO let me know so we can get in touch! And (if my money is not all gone, incha'allah I won't spend it all in Asia) I may need to make trips to other U.S. cities (San Fran, DC, NYC) to find friends that I miss a whole lot, so if you want, email me if you wouldn't mind a visitor in mid-late August.

I will try to post more frequent updates, and I will definitely post some pics after the Fick family reunion au Senegal! Unfortunately I lost my camera in a taxi recently, so I don't have too many fun pics to share, but I'll leave you with one I took in February in a small island village in the middle of the Niger river up near the Malian border, where someone expressed their love to someone else with a creative wall painting. Don't ask me why it's in English, but it's pretty cool:

And just one more, taken by my friend Alice of her friend's little son, how can you not love this little fellow?

Sai an jima/ see you soon (in Hausa),

Mags

p.s. it's only March so I'm not going to start any serious complaining about hot season just yet, but if you are bored, check out the high temps in Niamey. At least mangos are abundant and cheap now.

New pics!

2008-02-05T17:39:00.001-08:00

Habsou giving a speech at her NGO's (Tin Hinan) Graduation ceremony for the first group of women who have made it through the training, skills building, and literacy classes that Tin Hinan offers. They began their training in Feb. 2006, so they have worked hard for this day.

Class photo!

My good friend Ruki and me in the Petit Marche, this was while I was shadowing an awesome streetfood vendor while she made her weekly purchases

just checkin in

2008-02-05T05:17:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody,

Happy late Groundhog’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday weekend! Okay that was a weird beginning to a blog post, but those were two things I thought about this past weekend so I thought I would mention them…in fact, these American cultural landmarks made me realize just how far I am from home, but not at all in a bad way, in an exciting way! I’ll explain.

On Sunday, after spending most of the day in fragrant (that’s a nice way to put it), bustling markets with some awesome Nigerien women, I went swimming in my friends’ UNHEATED pool and It felt great. As I paddled around, I thought, it is the beginning of February, and I am swimming in an unheated pool.

If there was a groundhog in Niger, it would say that the windy “harmattan” season is almost over and it’s about to get ridiculously hot. I’m actually scared for the hot season, but I am trying to approach it positively by thinking about mangoes and swimming and how some people say saunas and sweating are good for your health.

On Sunday night, at 12:30 am to be precise, the Super Bowl game started and some American friends and I watched the game at the U.S. Marine’s house. That was a surreal experience in itself, but the funniest part was that after Tom Petty’s performance (I did not like his hair), I decided to head back to my friends’ house, where I was spending the night. It was 3 am and I made the 15-minute walk back home by myself…don’t worry, it was completely safe! The one person I crossed paths with said “salaam aleikum,” which means “peace be with you,” or “I come in peace.” I wouldn’t walk just anywhere in Niamey, but still, how cool is it to be able to walk around in the middle of the night in some parts of the capital city?? Plus there are stars b/c this is a small city!

These days, I’m just plugging away on some stories about various aspects of Niamey life, taking Hausa lessons, tutoring my Tuareg family in English, and watching the African Nations cup. I also have been buying African fabric in preparation for getting some clothes made for my American parents and my bro Charlie, who are going to meet me in Dakar, Senegal, in March! Yipeeee…I’m also looking forward to hosting a friend who is coming to visit me next week.

I hope you folks in the U.S. enjoy watching Super Tuesday results come in, I will be excited to check online tomorrow!
Much love,
Maggie

More desert photos

2008-01-25T06:05:00.000-08:00

My friend Tambara and I rolling down sand dunes. We did this a bunch at the Festival

Tuareg dudes watching the sunset at the Festival:

Back in Niamey!

2008-01-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

As I said in my Mali entry below, it's good to be back in Niamey, even with things the way they are here right now (that is deliberately vague, if you want to know more you can email me or check the news). As it turns out, I am getting the chance to do more writing, which is great, and to spend time with my old homestay family.

I have started tutoring the three kids and my "mom" in English. Tonight my "dad" was giving me a ride home and we had a great conversation. At the house, he and mom Habsou and I were discussing where their eldest child and the only girl, Ghaicha, should go to high school; although she is only 12, this is already a hot topic of conversation for Ghaicha's parents. Luckily this family has the means to send her to one of the best private schools in Niamey, which will definitely increase her chances of being able to attend a good university (most likely out of Niger, because the only university in Niger is often on strike and is notoriously difficult to wrestle a degree from). In the car, he said that all of the hard work that he does in his job is for Ghaicha, because he knows that being a girl or a woman in Niger is not easy, and that Ghaicha needs all of the advantages she can get. He said he wasn't too worried about his two young sons; they will be okay even if they don't do that well in school, he said, and I agree with him. Ghaicha, however, will have to work doubly hard to get a job in Niger, even with an excellent education. It seems like her father wants his daughter's education to be like protective but malleable armor, to give her the ability to choose whatever career she wants and to have courage and wisdom not to be discouraged by setbacks she might face.

I have really learned a lot from the Wouros, and I respect their commitment to education and to their family. I also admire their commitment to their cultural traditions as well as their tolerance and openness to cultures and people other than their own. From day one, they welcomed me, a stranger, into their home, so wholeheartedly and easily that all of a sudden, without even realizing it, I began to feel like part of the family.

I think this is one of those West African "nothing ever works but everything always works out" moments. Even though I was stressed and semi-annoyed about not being able to leave Niamey at the moment for research due to some unforeseeable circumstances, things are turning out better than I expected here so I can't complain. (P.S.--I hope no one takes offense at that comment, I am not trying to generalize about all of West Africa, but I learned that saying in Cameroon and what I take it to mean is, for example, even if the bush taxi breaks down for 10 hours on the road in the blistering sun, you will probably meet some nice old lady who will take you to her house and make you food and the day will turn out fine).

On a closing note, I checked my mail today at the American Cultural Center and found a nice stack of amazing letters and cards from amazing people—thank you SO much for writing! It really made my day to see a crazily stamped envelope from Indonesia and Katie Beaton's stories about working for Heifer in Arkansas (Heifer is here too, Katie! And sorry but I DID eat too much sheepmeat on Tabaski;)) and also some super cute photos of my adorable cousin Diego with my dad. If you think I don't have your address, drop me an email and I'll send you a postcard. I'm really digging snail mail these days so I promise to write ya if you let me know where to reach you.

Thanks for reading and I hope all is well wherever you are.

Cheers,

Maggie

Mali 2008: Tinariwen and Public Transport Experiences from Hell

2008-01-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

Oyiwen/ Greetings tout le monde,

Well it has been a long time since I have updated this blog, I'm sorry if you are a regular blog watcher, but honestly there is a lot going on in the world and on the internet so I'm sure you have had plenty of other sites/blogs to surf besides mine! ;)

Last Friday, I took my first inter-African flight on Air Senegal from Bamako, Mali back home to Niamey. This flight was truly a treat after spending two and a half days traveling by bus through Burkina Faso to get to Mali in the first place, and then darting all over Mali, even North of Timbuktu, by foot, taxi, bus, 4x4, idiotic minibus, ferry, and my favorite, in the back of a pickup truck through the sand, for over two weeks.

The stewardess made flight announcements in French and Wolof (big Senegalese language), we flew into the sunset, and the French teacher I was sitting next to ended up giving me a ride home from the airport. Niamey is more of a small town than a big city, and it felt great to get home and have friends and my homestay family to visit. One of my favorite things about Niamey is honestly the public transport sitch. After seeing (I think) 5 different West African capital cities, I can say with confidence that Niamey's shared taxi system, which costs 200 CFA per customer (now about 50 cents instead of 40 cents b/c or the crappy exchange rate, booo wonder how that happened ahem mr. bush and recession) to go almost anywhere in the city, stands out among its peers (scary motocycle taxis in Cotonou, beatup wornout cars from the 60s with kinda mean drivers in Ouaga…).

All this is to say that there is no place like home and even as landmines pepper Niger and tensions rise (I know this kind of stuff doesn't make international news, if you are curious go to newsnow.co.uk but don't be alarmed everything is fine here, -ish), I still enjoy living here.

Backing up a bit, to before my flight of greatness, my trip to Mali itself was amazing! I traveled with my friend Elyse/ Tambara (her Nigerien name), who is a Boston University student spending the whole year studying in Niamey, and my friend Dillon/ Bouba (his Malian name), who is doing a Fulbright grant on the cultural and economic effects of tourism in Timbuktu and the Dogon country. Dillon was a great tour guide, heck he is studying tourism so he already knows the ropes, so we did some awesome stuff.

Some of you know that ever since I found out I was going to Niger, I decided to attend the Festival au Desert, held annually on some sand dunes near the desert oasis in Essakane, which is 70 km Northwest of Timbuktu. I figured, I was going to be in the neighborhood, so why miss out on this chance of a lifetime? The Festival began in 2001 (I think) and was created by prominent Malian artists such as Tinariwen, to celebrate Malian music and culture, in particular Tuareg culture. The Festival has steadily gained popularity, and besides being host to most major West African music groups, from Amadou and Miriam to Tiken Jah Fakoly to Ali Farka Touré, has also attracted members of Led Zeppelin and Manu Chao to play in the desert.

The Festival was 3 nights long, and for the second two nights, the music went until after 4 am, which was cool, because then we would lay around in the sand and eat watermelon or look at camels for the most of the day until the sun started going down and the music started again. My Tuareg tea set was a big hit, and we busted it out throughout the Festival, although I still mess up a lot and make the tea too bitter or too sugary or too weak, I have a ways to go. We met lots of cool folks, including some lively Australians (actually we met them during the minibus ride from hell without shocks through the desert piste in the middle of the night, another story), an elderly French National Geographic journalist couple, and some young Americans who we rode camels with. It was weird to see these beautiful sand dunes littered with a few thousand people, mostly dorky looking anassaras/ toubabs/ white tourists sporting turbans (I did this too and thus am not exempt from being made fun of) and the trappings of an American/Euro music festival. Luckily there were a fair number of locals, who got free admission, although the transport all the way to Essakane probably made the trip prohibitively expensive for most Malians who didn't come to sell stuff except for nearby Tuaregs with camels. My favorite moment by far was a surprise performance by Tinariwen, the Malian ex-rebels who play beautiful bluesy electric guitar and sing about the desert and being Tuareg and their camels; it was special because most of the Tuaregs in the audience started freaking out when Tinariwen came on stage, and they sung along in Tamashek to the songs. It was a brilliant combination of beautiful music and Tuareg pride and I will never forget it.

After the Festival, Dillon and I had to bid adieu to our friend Tambara b/c she had to catch a flight to the U.S., so we put her on a 24 hr bus to Bamako, said incha'allah and parted ways. Unfortunately, our good wishes did not make the bus arrive in 24 hrs, and Tambara missed her flight by 2 hrs- major bummero, but things ended up working out, as they always do here. We headed to Dogon country to go hiking for 3 days, which was gorgeous and relaxing and I could go there every year for the rest of my life and be happy. The Dogon country looks a bit like the SW of the U.S., which of course reminded me of fun trips with Pomona friends in college, but the icing on the cake so to speak is the super interesting history of the region; it was first populated by the Tellem people, who lived entirely in the cliffs, but eventually they peaced out to Central Africa and the Dogons came around. The Dogons are a mix of Muslim and Christian but 100 percent Animist either way. Their society is full of unique traditions and codes of conduct, which we were lucky enough to learn about from our cool Dogon guide Ibrahima.

After another daylong bus ride (on which we met some saucy Englishmen who sold their 4x4 in Timbuktu after motoring across the Sahara), we arrived back in Bamako where I did some more damage to my bank account by buying more fabric. Besides getting to stay with Dillon's awesome homestay family, a highlight In Bamako was the National Museum. It had a great pan-African photo exhibit and a cool permanent exhibit on traditional Malian fabric, called "bogolan," which is woven cotton fabric dyed and tie dyed with vibrant indigo or deep muddy brown colors. There was also a sweet coffeeshop/diner that served banana pancakes; it's hard to describe what a big deal this is if you don't live in west Africa, but maybe some of my friends living in Asia can get my drift, anyway it was a rapturous experience and there was also real syrup and decent coffee to round things out. Dillon and I were lucky enough to get the chance to meet Carleton College professor Cherif Keita, a French professor who takes Carleton students to his home country every other year to study Bambara (the local language spoken in Bamako), as well as Malian art and culture. He is a delightful person and gave an inspiring lecture after a play abou the first Malian empire performed by a Malian theater troupe.

I'm very glad to have had the chance to see Mali, because before going there, I tended to lump Mali and Niger together and to think of them as kind of similar in terms of being large Sahelian nations with some overlapping ethnic groups and so on; of course I was mostly wrong, the countries are remarkably different and have way different political and social histories shaping their future, not to mention rather distinct issues at stake in the simultaneous (but not necessarily coordinated)Tuareg rebellions underway right now in each country. I hope you enjoy the photos I have posted here, unfortunately it takes too long to post another Picasa web album, so this will have to be it for now.

Xooxxo and "In i che" (all purpose hi-bye type greeting in Bambara), Mags

Me with Dillon's homestay mom, Mama Coulibaly, in Bamako:

Bush taxi rush at the Djenne market!

Watermelons, anyone?

The Djenné mosque on market day, saweet!

This dude tied my turban for me...we had plenty of time to hang out, because on that day, we waited for 8 HOURS for a 4x4 from a town called Mopti to Timbuktu (the 4x4 jeep never came, and we ended up taking a minibus, grr):

Good times on the bus from Bamako to a town called Segou (on the Niger river, very pretty) with a mango distributor and a mother of 8:

On the ferry crossing the Niger river near Timbuktu… wallai, I did not get into the story about the absurdly painful yet kinda fun minbus ride to Timbuktu, but long story short this picture was taken after a sleepless night spent in a minibus with 22other people…I have never been that close to having a panic attack than I was at 4 in the morning in an overheated bus with a billion peoples' limbs jabbing me every which way.

The Festival stage from a nearby dune:

Camels blocking the view of a traditional camel dance/ Tuareg drum circle called the tende…it was cool to watch once I edged in, trust me:

Me chilling on a sand dune at the Festival:

My friend Dillon and I in Dogon country:

This is a traditional courthouse in Dogon country. The roof is low to prevent people from standing up quickly in anger and storming out ... a good way to remind people to have patience and not blow their lids!

Oh, the irony! A "Tuareg" siting in Bamako!

Fun Fulani hats and scarves for sale:

Enough said!

Fati, are you there?

2008-01-21T06:33:00.000-08:00

My oh my, it has been quite a long time since I have written on my blog, I am not sure if anyone is reading this anymore, but if you are, know that I am working on an entry about my recent travels in Mali and will post it this week. The reason I am posting right now is because I would like to meet the Nigerien woman named Fati that posted the thoughtful comment on my post about my research. Fati, if you live in Niamey and want to meet up to discuss research or whatever, please email me at maggie.fick@gmail.com I don't want to post my phone number on my blog so that's why i am asking you to email me. Thanks and I hope we can meet up soon!

More photos finally!

2007-12-31T07:33:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-30T06:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

A bunch of photos, yoowa

2007-11-29T05:50:00.000-08:00

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

Goats on Kabu Kabus

2007-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

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

Much to be thankful for

2007-11-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

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

Un petit sejour en brousse/ a little trip into the bush

2007-10-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings everybody!

I hope all is well with you, and sorry that I've been a bit out of touch lately. I just got back from a short trip to some villages north and east of Niamey, where I visited some awesome Peace Corps friends and got a little taste of village life. I am writing this blog entry from home right now, but I'm eager to check my email and read the news to hear what is going on with the fires in San Diego, I hope things are better now, that must have been scary for Grandma Jeannine and Grandpa Charlie. If anyone feels like sending me news updates, or just writing a sentence about a current event in an email, I would love it! I try to check the news here, but nytimes.com and some others are slow to load, so any little news from the "outside world" would be much appreciated.

Although I sometimes miss the news and always miss ice, It was really great to get out of the city for a few days and see more of Niger. I left my house (well not my house but where I am currently crashing, in keeping with my nomadic lifestyle here in Niger) at 3:45 am last Thursday, took a cab to the bus depot, where most people had spent the night, and boarded the bus at 5 am to head to Birnin Konni, a crossroads-type town about 6 hrs east of Niamey and about 5 km from the NigerIAN border. There happened to be a Peace Corps volunteer (Jen) on the bus, and she was also headed to Konni, so we chilled together and she told me a bit more about the region. I was very surprised to see MESAS, Arizona/Utah style, large and small, peppering the dusty scrub brush landscape. The Mesas reminded me of a fun road trip I took with my dear friends Becky and Maria after graduation, so they made me happy. We were greeted by my friend Natalie, who is the volunteer sort of in charge of all of the other volunteers in her region. She was living in Spokane (Eastern Washington) before she joined Peace Corps, and she is a ton of fun. As the regional rep, Natalie spends a lot of time visiting other volunteers in their villages and making sure everything is going smoothly. This is great, because I got to tag along on her visits, and Jen, the volunteer I met on the bus, decided to come too, so we had a good little crew. We drove around in a Land Cruiser with an awesome dude named Moussa, who is the Peace Corps employee in the Konni region. He is very wise and funny and fun to talk to, and he makes great tea, with massive quantities of sugar of course.

We spent the first night in a Natural Resource Management volunteer's village, and we went to school with her to watch her teacher-counterpart introduce this really awesome environmental education worldwide initiative called the Globe program (I think if you google that, you will find the website). We also made a delicious tofu peanut cabbage dish with all local ingredients, and Jen and I invented a tasty side dish of fried eggplant! I practiced my meager Tamashek with a nice Tuareg lady who lived next door to the volunteer. We spent Friday night in Natalie's old village, where she visits regularly to work on projects. It was a harvest moon that night, which was gorgeous, and I had my first semi-successful experience carrying water on my head from the well to the house, I need to keep practicing, it is a serious workout! On Saturday, Moussa drove us back to the Peace Corps hostel in Konni where Natalie lives, and we dropped her off and headed north to visit yet another volunteer in the absolutely stunningly beautiful village of Kehehe (pronounced kuh HAY HAY!)…there are dunes and a lake and cool mud houses and egg-shaped grain shelters and Tuaregs everywhere, it is paradise! I was planning to only stay one night and then head back with the other volunteers to Konni, but I ended up staying for two nights so Kelly, the volunteer in Kehehe, could introduce me to her Tuareg pals and so I could set up contacts for a research visit for a couple weeks in January or February. Her friend Al Kossam made us a tasty Tuareg dish called Togala that is actually cooked in some kind of underground oven, it reminded me of stuffing because it was made from pieces of bread, the flavor was great and no one tried to make me eat cow intestines, so I was happy. Then we had tea and stretched out on the beach and chatted, overall a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Later we continued the eggplant theme with some baba ghanoush and tomatoes for dinner, and watched the stars and talked about places we want to visit in West Africa, one of my favorite subjects these days.

It was awesome to visit these volunteers and see what their lives are like in their villages! I was so impressed with their language skills and their friendliness and their dedication to their work, and also of course their ability to live like the locals. It sounds cheesy, but I think everyone knows that it's not easy to leave the comforts of home and to be an outsider, so the fact that these volunteers carry water, wash their clothes, learn a local language, and become residents of these villages is pretty dang cool. I am kinda starting to think about doing Peace Corps after I'm done here, but we'll see…

The only hiccup in the rockin vacation began when Kelly and I boarded a bush taxi at 7 am and headed to Tabalak, a larger town a few kms north of Kehehe, to find the bus that would take me all the way to Niamey. Moussa had said that the bus I could take would leave from Agadez early in the morning and arrive in Tabalak by 9 or so, incha'allah. That phrase, if Allah wills it, is VERY VERY important to internalize if one (uh oh my English is getting crappier b/c of French, I am talking about myself here) is going to survive life in Niger as an impatient, fidgety American. Incha'allah does not mean that something will happen, it MIGHT happen if and only if Allah wills it, and on this sweltering morning, apparently one of the 2 buses coming from Agadez had to break down! Kelly and I waited until 2:30 pm for the non-broken bus to arrive in Tabalak.

Because Nigeriens are nice and always help a brother/sister out, the non-broken bus drove back to collect all of the passengers in the broken bus, and all 80 or so of them squished in one bus meant for 40 people. After some lively discussion with the bus agency manager in Tabalak, we convinced him that I was going to get on the full bus even if they had to strap me to the top, so when the bus came barreling through Tabalak stuffed to the gills, the agency manager shoved me in the door and slammed it, and there I was, plopped into the chauffeur/bus doorman dude's lap, with about 10 people laughing and greeting me in Hausa and Tamashek. I rode pretzel-style-squished between the driver and the stick shift and an Al Hadji (that technically means the dude has been to Mecca, but here it's kinda slang for a big pimpin, rich, usually fat dude). There was also a cute little Tuareg girl who ate an impressive amount of dates when someone bought them and passed them around, and a bunch of annoying young bus agency employees who kept raising their eyebrows suggestively at me, which I responded to by adjusting my veil and shrugging my shoulder at them, which in Niger means, "no thanks asshole." I rode this way for 4 hours until we deposited some passengers in Konni, still another 6 hrs from Niamey.

The disconcerting thing about riding in the front of the bus is not only the obvious concern that you will be the first person skyrocketed through the windshield in the case of an accident, but also the ability to see just how idiotic the bus driver is. I watched the driver barrel towards a limping goat, a toddler, semi-trucks, other huge buses, and donkey carts, blasting his horn to tell them to move along, and in the mean time talking on his cell phone, popping dates, joking and hitting his buddies, and cruising along at a fast clip. It was hard not to laugh at the irony of our bus teetering off the road in order to pass a huge semi-truck going 60 miles an hour with a fatalistic phrase painted on the back like "No one knows what tomorrow will bring." I am not quite used to these fatalist slogans that adorn all form of transportation here, but I have begun repeating incha'allah under my breath as I see my short life pass before my eyes on ridiculous bus journeys like this one.

I will spend the rest of this week in Niamey getting ready for my first real fieldwork stint, which I leave for on Saturday, again at 4 am. I am going wayyyy far east and north, and I will be living and traveling through small villages for a month. Yikes, I've got some stuff to get done, drop me a line and let me know what's cooking, I miss you all and please know that today as I was sweating and secretly freaking out about the crazy bus driver I was also thinking about home and good folks like you!

Xo
Mags

PHOTOS:

Chopping for the tofu peanut dish in the shade hangar outside of Piper's hut:

Moussa, major dude, presiding over his tea-making station:

More tea drinking by the lake with Kelly's friends in Kehehe, sorry it's kinda dark:

Kelly with her village's sign:

A Kehehe BABY and Mom!:

And this is a photo from last week, when I went to a baptism for a Malian Tuareg baby, here are some of the relatives and a nice missionary woman who took me to the baptism. They are all wearing the traditional Malian Tuareg garb, a sort of one-piece scarf that you wrap all around you. The Nigerien Tuareg women don't wear these, but these ladies lent me one, which I remained tangled up in the whole afternoon! It's harder than it looks to be graceful in these pretty outfits!

Sankisserie 2007

2007-10-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

(translation of the title: Sankara + Patisseries = the essence of the Burkina Faso vacation)

Hi all,

I just returned from a petit sjour/little trip to Ougadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. My friend Alice (the other Niger Fulbrighter) and I went to explore the city and also to witness a momentous occasion in Burkina's history: the 20th anniversary of President Blaise Compaore's reign (I think that is the appropriate term), which is also the 20th anniversary of the beloved, Socialist ex-President Thomas Sankara's murder. We were lucky enough to attend a symposium about Sankara's legacy, watch a caravan of Sankara supporters (mostly idealistic hippy Socialist foreigners) who had begun their journey in Mexico drive through town, and watch a march to Sankara's grave. We also attended the parade for President Compaore; unfortunately the Pres. was at the airport for his own festivities, welcoming Brazilian President Lula to town for a film festival. I learned a lot from these events, and it was especially fun to talk to people about their impressions of the two leaders.

Here is a photo from one of the Sankara marches, as the crowd sang the Burkinabe national anthem:

And here is one from President Compaore's parade, some people wearing shirts with the President's face on them:

The other central element of our trip was eating lots of ice cream and tasty things we couldn't get in Niamey. Here is Alice with our two Tuareg friends, Muktab and Amoumin, they are from Niamey but they happened to be in town, eating some watermelon (the season just started, great news!). Watermelon is more pricey in Niamey b/c they import it from Burkina, but I am becoming friends with my neighborhood fruit dude, so I think I am getting a decent price.

We also went to an awesome artisanal center where I bought a djembe, which is a super cool drum, it has my name on it and a carving of a baobab tree! This instrument is called a Boni, it is kind of like a guitar, and it sounds beautiful when played correctly (aka not by me):

Finally, this is Alice and me on the bus on the way home from Ouga, it is 6 am and of course we are already sweating! We arrived back in Niamey at 5 pm, after numerous stops, custom checks, border crossings, and only ONE breakdown, yippee!

Ramadan Pics!

2007-10-18T12:43:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

Before I post the Burkina photos, I just wanted to give you a quick glimse of the Ramadan festivities of last week.

This is me and Habsou's (my homestay mom) niece Mariane at Habsou's parents' house. Mariane's outfit is an example of typical party attire for a wealthy Nigerien family; look at the sequins and stuff, she looked great! My outfit, on the other hand, in kind of gauche for a party, that pagne/fabric is something that my homestay family would wear for household chores, not for a high holiday, but everyone was nice and said I looked good. Mariane is 17 years old and her husband is in his thirties. Some family members told me that Tuareg men usually get married in their early 30's, while Tuareg women usually get married in their late teens.

These people are Habsou's parents! The father (we call him Al Hadji, meaning he has been to Mecca) is wearing the traditional Tuareg turban, called a tigalmust in Tamashek.

And here are the young dudes in the family, just chilling in the yard, talking on their cell phones, some wearing boubous (the dude in the gold) . . . I think this is a good example of the relaxed, family-oriented lifestyle that I have been observing with my Tuareg family. At night, a bunch of these guys, who I guess are my homestay "cousins," come over and drink tea and smoke cigarettes and sit on the mats outside the house. They are helping me learn Tifnagh, the age-old Tuareg script that existed before a Roman (?) alphabet was adopted in the 1960's.

Finally, here's a photo of a neighbor trying to get the car keys out of the locked car . . . that was my bad!

Habsou and me

2007-10-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

Although this isn't a great pic of me, Habsou looks lovely as usual so I wanted to post it. This was taken at a Peace Corps Gender and Development fundraiser several weeks ago. I did not have my luggage, so I am wearing a dress made by a Nigerien designer named Kady, who has shows in Europe and the US, my PC friend Natalie took me to see her and she gave me a great price b/c the dress was from last season, I am looking forward to her fashion show in November!

Barka de Salaa, or A La Fete Numu!

2007-10-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

The title to this post are two ways to say bon fete/ happy party day, the first in Hausa, the second in Tamashek.

The past two days in Niger have indeed been cause for celebration, because Thursday was Eid-al-Fitr, the last day of the month of Ramadan (I believe, it is the day after the moon disappears), which means Muslims are done with the month of fasting and are able to eat during the day. The month of Ramadan is a crucial element of Islamic faith (it is also one of the 5 pillars of Islam), and this entire week has been a reminder of the significance of this period. Wednesday was an insanely busy market day and there was tons of traffic in town, because everyone was shopping for fresh produce and meat for the feast the next day; prices skyrocketed and women in cabs decried the price of a pimtard/guinea fowl--5000 CFA or 10 bucks, when they usually go for 3000 CFA, c'est fou! In one particularly memorable cab ride of the day, I made friends with two very kind Hausa women, who said I was a nice American girl even though I don't speak Hausa, and then the other woman in the cab, a mother, had to hop out of the cab unexpectedly when her little toddler barfed on the seat, poor dude. Cab rides are certainly a highlight of the day, because the squished nature of the experience often elicits interesting conversations. The other day, I was given a Nigerien name (by consensus) by my cabmates: Fatimata. The Wouros were pleased because this is a good Tuareg name as well.

Right now I am using free internet at my friend's place, and unfortunately I don't have access to my Ramadan photos, but I will post them soon. For the party, I brought my housemate Sam, a British guy working for an HIV/AIDS NGO, to the Wouro's house, where we ate (of course), welcomed guests, asked questions about Tuareg culture, and drank goat's milk mixed with millet. Later, Habsou's niece Mariam and her husband Aboubacar offered to drive us around to other houses; we visited Aboubacar's old boss' house, where we had some a good discussion about democracy promotion in Africa; the old boss works in Sierra Leone on democratic development projects. When we decided to head out, we discovered that I had locked the car keys in the car, so all the neighbors emerged to help us extricate the keys from the ignition. About a half hour (and lots of laughing and photosnapping), someone managed to pull up one of the locks with a crowbar; as the Cameroonian adage goes, nothing ever works, but everything always works out! After feting with the Wouros, I went to a concert with the BU study abroad students, where I was lucky enough to watch kiri kiri for the first time! Kiri Kiri is (to the unaccustomed observer) an incredibly scandalous dance, but it seem to fit the festive mode; although I opted not to try it, I did join in when the band (composed of a jazz quartet of sorts, drummers, singers, etc) started yelling 'annassara, annassara, annassara,'(= white christian person) to the beat of the drums.

Today was another holiday day, and it was fun to see so many kids out in the street. My friend Rama and I tried to go the National Museum, but it was completely flooded with kids, which was a very happy sight to see. Everyone was wearing their Ramadan finest and clearly enjoying themselves. Eid is an excellent example of the huge importance of family and community in Nigerien society that I witness every day here. People here really seem to enjoy the company of their loved ones, and it is a wonderful feeling to be included in these celebrations.

It is almost 3 am here, so I think I will now take a brief nap...my friend Alice and I are leaving in about an hour and a half for the bus station, where we will take a bus that will arrive in Burkina Faso 12 hrs later (incha'allah/if G-d wills it)!

Although my family and American friends are not here, I did think of you all on the fete day, and I wish you a very happy and prosperous beginning to the new year (well not the traditional american new year, but you might as well take as many best wishes as you can get:))!

xo mags

pictures in backwards order

2007-10-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I can't figure out how to publish pictures in the right order, so I have posted a bunch, but now they're in backwards order. So if you want to read this as I intended, go down to "Finally a few pics" then read back up to here.

And then you can read this part:

And here is the History Department library where I have been reading dense Nigerien history books in French that my fav prof-buddy Malam Issa keeps loading on me. Today was a holiday called jour ferrier (something like that), which is the day after the crazy night in which Muslims finish reading the Koran (they start 10 days before today, and read the entire thing straight through), then they pray from midnight-4 a.m., then they eat and go to bed; clearly they need to have the day off after that business! Because it was a holiday, the library was closed and someone had to open it for me, but I didn't want to bother him to turn on the fans, so the library was INCREDIBLY HOT; you know that feeling when sweat is dripping off every part of your body?

Tuareg proverb of the day: "C'est le ventre qui transfert la noblesse." = "Nobility is transferred through the stomach (of the woman, who gives birth)." = matrilineal society -- cool, huh!?

Tamashek phrase of the day: "Ma tisofa awazlu? Fel alim d'awazlu fel d'ebogow?" = Where do like to travel? Do you go by camel or horse? (Keep in mind that spelling is only kind of phonetical and the actual pronunciation is only possible if you have inhaled pounds of Sahara sand and can make those amazing raaarrhshshsssshsh sounds).

Hope you like the pics!

xoxo

Mags

2007-10-11T12:09:00.001-07:00

And here's the teapot and mini cups that we drink the ymmy and super sweet tea out of.

tent

2007-10-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is the traditional tent that everyone chills under and around at night.

Habsou

2007-10-11T12:06:00.001-07:00

And here's Habsou, driving her Land Rover and wearing the scarf I gave her.

Wouros

2007-10-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

And finally, I can introduce you to the Wouro family, although the cutest pics got deleted, but here are Ghaicha (the Gh is prounounced rrrR), age 13; Nourrodine (Nouri), age 10; and Mohammed (everyone calls him Bebe, age 6.

Finally, a few pics!

2007-10-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

This may not be breaking news to any of you, but I am not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, and somehow I managed to delete all 200 some pictures that I snapped during my first few weeks here in Niger . . . BALLS! Well, incha'allah, I will recover them somehow, but more likely I will just take some new ones . . . as Habsou (my homestay mom) would say, c'est pas grave, I'll be here for a while so I can just take more. As a temporary fix, here is a fun pic I took today at the Ramadan Baazar in Niamey. There are vendors that come from all over West Africa for this big street fair, where the main item (obvi) is PAGNE, the beautiful fabric that varies in style and pattern from country to country. However there were several vendors from Benin (yay Ashley J!) who were selling a wide variety of potions and powders to cure every problem you could think of from hemroids to toothache to, well, just look at the pic! (You might have to click on it to see the little signs.)

Tailless Geckos and Pirogues of Pumpkins: a day in the life of Niamey

2007-10-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

Salaam Aleikum tout le monde,

First, I am VERY sorry if this blog seems boring so far b/c there are no pictures, but I PROMISE i will get my act together and post some asap, I have been snapping some of my homestay family and also very covertly in town (it's not always ok to be whipping out the camer and shooting away downtown, so I have to be careful), so I'll get them onto computer asap.

I decided I should fill you all in on my impressions of Niamey so far, because I don't think I have really done that (apologies to any peeps that have already been to Niger, and also I must say that I haven't been here that long so I am no expert) . . . this capital city is unlike any capital I have ever been to, mostly because it feels as if a bunch of wide, open boulevards and colonial trees (you know, the white painted ones) were plopped onto a red, sandy Sahelian plateau.

Niamey is rather "chill" as African cities go; sure, there are the big bustling markets and intense cab drivers, but with the heat, and especially with Ramadan, you can see many people sprawled out on mats taking a break around 2 p.m. or so (I would too if I was fasting in 95 degree heat!). There is also the beautiful, reddish brown Niger River, which separates the Universitee Abdou Moumouni from the heart of the city . . . at any time of day you can see people bathing or washing clothes, riding on pirogues, transporting loads of produce, and so on. I watched the sunset from a kind of expatty hotel the other night and I will post a pic of that soon. Niamey is not huge, and it's not too hard to navigate, since there are good landmarks such as "chateaux"/water towers and stadiums which every "taximan" knows. Taxi riders are good for learning new greetings in Hausa and Zarma, and also for having funny discussions about marriage, democracy, etc.

I have been told that Niamey is very different from the rural parts of Niger, which does not surprise me given my preconceptions of what life might be like for people living in the "most underdeveloped" country in the world. Although you can try to ignore signs of poverty if you put blinders on, these signs are fairly evident: children sniffing glue, clearly malnourished toddlers, kids picking through garbage, and the list goes on. However, this by no means is a sad place. I'm not trying to oversimplify things, but it does seem to me that family is very important here and that people make do with what they have, and above all, stand by their family and loved ones, which I think is wonderful and powerful. I have certainly seen this realized with my homestay family here . . . last night my homestay mom and I went to visit her parents; we walked over there (just down the street) at about 9:30 p.m. (it was a nice night with stars and a little moon), stayed for a half hour, then walked back, and it is these types of visits and interactions that make Nigerien culture pretty darn cool. My homestay family spends so much time together, and with tons of family/guests over, it is unbelievable!!

This is getting long, but I just wanted to give a laundry list of the things I have seen in the last 24 hours: many tailless geckos, huge boats (pirogues) stuffed with Cinderella-liked GINORMOUS pumpkins (you make sauce with them), whole wheat bread at the best boulangerie in town! Three camels strolling down the street, a bustling Ramadan bazaar, a random kid peering in my concession just to say hi, and when I was in a taxi, we hit two gendarmes on a moto, they were not very pleased but they were fine, we weren't going too fast. Oh, and when I was buying a chocolate bar yesterday, a french/lebanese not sure which guy told me I was fat, and then my homestay mom told me I had lost weight since arriving, hmm, people love to talk about that stuff here.

Ok, time to walk to the franco/nigerien cultural center, I am going to try to read this crazy long book on the Tuaregs in French in preparation for an interview with a major dude Tuareg historian. Bon weekend!

xoxo
Mags

Tuksay T-ilay! (the heat is here)

2007-10-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy all,

Yes, the heat is definitely here but I think I am getting used to it . . . this morning I woke up and I hadn't sweated as much as usual so I didn't even take a shower, although I probably should have (that might be a tmi).

First of all, there may be typos in this post because im still getting re-used to the french keyboard, sorry. Guess what, my luggage came yipeeee so that is a big improvement!

Things are definitely looking up and the rollercoaster that I described continues to roll but that is really ok because this is a good learning experience and I should feel lucky because Niamey must be one of the only cities in the world where (in one taxi ride) you can see an emaciated camel, bats, a flock of guinea fowl, and a donkey captained by a 12 year old all struggling for their space on the city streets. Ramadan is a very interesting time for many reasons, but one of them is the speed and intensity with which people zip around the city as they head home around 630 pm to break the fast (drink and eat for the first time since sunrise, about 13 hrs before). I've started wearing a wrap around my hair bc altho I don't think anyone expects me to, practically all of the women cover their head in some way or another, so I decided I should get in line. Right now I only have my hot pink fulaar (head wrap scarfy thing) from Cameroon, which is a bit intense with my glasses. ive also been enjoying good lebanese food lately (i just had a falafel sandwich for lunch), and last night i even had some goat meat and salad with my family and i didnt get sick; the family slaughtered a goat in celebration of the dad returning home (he had been away on business). i also like this funny niger lait/yogurt milk product. Today my homestay mom and the kids dropped me at tamashek class on their way to school and they sang pretty songs in tamashek and french the whole way, it was so fun. the only funky thing at the moment is my lack of personal space but hey, cest l'Afrique so i really need to get used to it.

Sorry i cant write more right now, i have to go back to my tamashek language course; this is my 4th day of a 5 day intensive Tamashek "stage" hosted by the peace corps for volunteers (they have been very nice to let me join them and i am learning a lot but have a lot of trouble with allllaaaahhhrraaass which is the response to every greeting, means ca va/good).

i promise to write more in my next post about my impressions of niger and also now i have my camera stuff so i will also post some PICTURES!!!

email me and let me know what youre up to!
xoxo
mags

ps another source of comfort has been the knowledge that so many of my friends are also off experiencing new and different things, so i just wanted to say kudos to all of them for toughing it out and getting settled and adjusted to life in a new place, especially my friend Emily Durham, who told me in an email about her recent experience at a communal bathing house in south korea, sound like quite the trip!

Maduwee egan (what's up in Tamashek)!

2007-09-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all your super encouraging words, I think my little rollercoaster is leveling out! My friend Steph (she was the Fulbrighter here last year and is very wise) advised me to just take one day at a time and to look for one thing every day that is wonderful/interesting/different and focus on that thing . . . that has really helped!

I started by looking for the huge bats she told me about, which hang in these tall green trees near the Petit Marche, and wow are they cool! Thy just sleep upside down during the day, chilling there, and I haven't seen them at night yet . . . I remember seeing them in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, they were also huge and made lots of noises and looked cool as they flew around at sunset. Now I am realizing that each day here presents me with so many new and eye-opening experiences, and that I should be grateful for all of them! Some fun times lately have been: strolling in the neighborhood with Mohamed, my 6-year old homestay bro who is literally and objectively one of the cutest kids I have ever seen, and practicing Tamashek with my new tutor, who is very kind and patient and gave me a book of Tuareg proverbs to read. He is making practice the four Tamashek sounds that I can't yet pronounce over the weekend with my family.

My homestay mom is a very interesting woman and I am learning so much from her. It is great to be with a family and see what they do on a daily basis. . . . it's amazing how much time they spend together and how generous my mom is.

Gotta go now, but I will write again soon . . . I'm about to go sweat a lot as I hail a cab to head back home! Keep me posted on your happenings, it's always fun to get email! xoxoxo

Fofo,
Maggie

Luggage update: going to the airport in a few hours to try one more time to get those bags. My least favorite phrase in French right now is "ca va arriver" because that is just what people say and who the heck knows if that means they will come tomorrow or next year. Whatever, I'm going with a nice girl from PC who speaks Zarma and saw me crying at the airport the other day so that is good. All the baggage people know me by now, so that's fun. But it's really ok now, because some awesome PC people (one of them is Sarah Kraemer's friend from Madison!) lent me clothes and took me to the market to buy undies that were from the salvation army in the U.S. I got two pairs for less than a dollar, how about that !? Then tonight I'm going out with friends and will probably have my first Biere Niger, yay.

On a rollercoaster

2007-09-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

Thanks for your nice emails and comments, it is SO nice to hear from you, and I hope you continue to write and I will write back as soon as I can -- the only problem is that sometimes when I see your names in my email inbox, I get kinda sad and miss you even more!

So to be honest, I am on a huge emotional rollercoaster right now. I can't totally explain why, but I feel like all of my senses and emotions have intensified, so when I am happy, I am having tons of fun and really enjoying life here and feeling so lucky to be here and so grateful that people are being kind to me. However, when I am sad, I am really sad, and I think I have cried more tears in the past few days than I have in the past year. This has really only happened when I am talking to my parents on the phone about my luggage being lost, or when I tried again yesterday to get my luggage at the airport and it still hadn't arrived, or when I am thinking about my lost luggage (you might see a trend). I know it seems really shallow to care
about stupid material things, especially in a place like Niger where people have very very few things, but having one pair of underwear is a bit less than ideal and somehow it just makes life a bit harder. Luckily, people have been very nice in lending me things -- for example, my homestay mom Habsou lent me a great Nigerien outfit, it is pink and purple and white with flowers and I wore it with fulaar (headpiece) to a wedding the other day, and a new Peace Corps friend lent me a cool Nigerien dress for the PC swearing-in ceremony last night. And today Habsou took me to buy shampoo and stuff, so everything is okay, it's just frustrating sometimes not to have undies and stuff like that.

I have to go meet with the History Professor who is going to help me with my research soon, so I'll try to keep this short-ish by giving you a quick list of things that I've been up to and thoughts that I've had:

---Moved in with my Tuareg homestay family: excellent! My "mom" is an awesome, smart, beautiful, fun person and she seems to a prime example of the semi-matriarchal Tuareg family structure. Her husband is up North right now so it is quite matriarchal right now. Inside our compound, there is a huge sandy open space where there is a big tent and lots of mats to lounge on, plus mattresses under the ten and outside on the mats, so sometimes I lay out at night and watch the stars and drink Tuareg tea and try to discern the Tamashek conversation around me. I am currently sleeping in the children's/vistors' bedroom; there are three wonderful kids, Raicha, Nourrodine, and Mohamed, and every time I come home, there are at least two new visitors. It's fun chilling with so many different people, and I especially enjoy tutoring the kids in English. Hopefully they will start helping me with my Tamashek soon!

--Tuareg wedding/block party/dance party fest: On my first night with my homestay family, my mom took me to a Tuareg wedding in a nearby neighborhood. It was 10:15 pm and I was really tired and thinking about heading to bed, then Habsou dressed me in one of her cool outfits and a bunch of us (not the kids, the random adults/family members who were around that night) piled into her Land Cruiser and headed out. We drove for a while and were suddenly at an amazing event, involving electric guitars, lots of turbaned Tuareg men, gorgeously dressed Tuareg women, and dozens upon dozens of children. It was an amazing time, and although I was too nervous to dance, I think I will next time.

--Spent some time meeting Peace Corps volunteers who are in town for the 45th anniversary of the PC in Niger, then attended swearing-in ceremony for the new volunteers at the U.S. Ambassador's residence: it's been great meeting some Americans who really know their way around Niger after having been there for so long. One volunteer in particular has been a lifesaver for me, taking me to a cool tailor/fashion designer (really). It's interesting to learn about Peace Corps and the work they do here.

--One more random impression and then I'm done: Although I am certainly seeing parts of Nigerien culture and learning a lot from my family, I still feel as if I haven't seen anything yet b/c I haven't left Niamey. I haven't seen many of the images of Niger that I expected, although I have seen some. I've seen burning trash, extremely malnourished children (especially infants and toddlers), bustling markets and Sahel sunsets. However, b/c I have been meeting people at the Embassy and in the PC, I have also experienced the luxuries that Americans enjoy here, which continues to distance me from real Nigerien life. I have been swimming in a heated pool, I have eaten ice cream and drank real coffee . . . some parts of my life seem "normal" or familiar, but some things are unlike any I have ever seen before. I don't know if these two "sides" of life here will ever come together for me during my time in Niger, but it is a wierd feeling right now.

Thanks again for all your love and support. Hope to be in touch soon!

xoxo
Mags

Fofo from Niamey!

2007-09-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Salut everybody,

("Fofo" is a popular greeting here in Zarma, the language that everyone but me speaks:) My fav word thus far is "barka," which means "congrats")

Hello from Niamey! Although I only arrived 6 hours ago, I just had to use an incredible opportunity (free internet in the house where I am staying) to check in right away.

It is 11:45 pm here right now, and it seems to be a balmy 80 degrees outside. Ca va, it's not unbearable, but even the locals were complaining today when we stepped off the plane onto the 100 degrees++ tarmac.

Today was a most excellent day, despite the fact that my luggage did not arrive in Niamey. Oh well, i think it will come in a few days, "inshallah," as the say here (if god wills it). I was greeted at the airport by some nice folks at the airport, and despite my lack of Zarma skills, I was able to remain calm and speak in French to the Air France dude about my luggage. The Embassy folks took me to the house where I am staying for the weekend, and then I got a small tour of the city from a resident expert (the lady I am staying with, who has lived here for quite some time, and yells in a variety of languages to people in the streets that she knows, all the while yelling at her car not to break down, which it eventually did). We visited the nice Boston University study abroad students at there center, and I also met some Peace Corps folks who work with Tuaregs, so it was good to chat with them.

Although it's too soon to really have an opinion, I already like Niamey! The people seem friendly, the streets are widen and red and dusty, the town sits on the Niger river, and there is apparently a great karaoke bar that I hope to go to soon. I can't wait for Sunday when I meet the director of Tin Hinan, the NGO that I am working for.

I hope all is well with all of you, who are scattered around the planet. I am thinking of my dear family and friends at home (and abroad!) and I would love to hear from you whenever you have the chance to drop a line.

Much love,
Maggie

p.s. This will be probably be my one and only post from Niger without typos, b/c pretty soon I will be using those damn French keyboards. Just fyi!

Contactez-moi!

2007-09-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

I'm still writing to you from Bainbridge Island, but I think my next post will be from Niamey. I wanted to give you my contact information in the chance that you decide to shower me with affection from afar!

Here are some ways to get in touch:

1. I would be quite happy if you sent me MAIL and it is surprisingly easy to do. Please send mail to me at my parent's home address:

Maggie Fick
7335 Madrona Drive NE
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

My parents will then send it to me via a special system and then I will be able to pick it up at the U.S. Embassy in Niamey- yay! Please only send LETTERS or POSTCARDS, not magazines, newspapers, anything like that. Sorry to be strict, that's just what I was told.

2. And as you know, my email is maggie.fick@gmail.com

3. I am a new convert to Skype, and my Skype name is maggie.fick. I have a camera and microphone, so if you want we can video chat, which is pretty much the coolest thing ever. So far I have talked to friends in South Korea, Germany, and my bro in Minnesota and Grandma in San Diego.

Finally, please email your contact info to me (at maggie.fick@gmail.com)! I would love to send letters/ emails to you, so don't hesitate to pass that info along.

Right now I am very excited to get to Niger! I am also very pleased about the fact that I can see the friendly faces I love on Skype when I need a little glimpse of home. This week I have been emailing with my contacts in Niger and with folks at the Embassy, so I at least have the first 2 days of life in Niamey figured out. The woman who runs the NGO that I will be working for is super cool and I think she will be a great friend/colleague throughout my stay.

Alright, that's all for now, keep in touch and I'll write again from Niamey!

p.s. For those you who don't know Scout Fick, he is featured above.

INTRO/ Greetings from Bainbridge Island! (this is not a test)

2007-09-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I returned home yesterday to beautiful Bainbridge Island, Washington to visit my family and friends and to prepare for my upcoming trip to Niger. I am very excited to begin this experience, but I know that it will be hard to be away from the people that I love. But it's okay, I'll be back soon enough:)

I had a fun and interesting summer in Washington, D.C., working for the ENOUGH Project/International Crisis Group (click on the link over on the right of this page) and for the National Democratic Institute. D.C. is a great place to be (in the U.S.) if you are interested in Africa and African policy.

There is lots to be done before I leave for Niger on September 20, and there are SO many things that I know I can't prepare for, but for the moment I am happy to just be relaxing at home. My brother Charlie left for Carleton College last week, so unfortunately he is not here to hang out with, but my mom and dad and I call him often to bother him and try to extract information from him about his saucy new "college life."

Feel free to leave comments with ideas on how I could improve my blog! I'm a beginner at this business, so I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading:)

Love,
Mags

Test

2007-08-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

Test