Ay go ga yeni! (I am cold!)

Cold season has hit and the nights are freezing! I’ve been curling up in my thermal sleeping bag that I brought thinking I would never need! When they said it would eventually get cold at night in Africa, I truly found it hard to believe. I still think it’s crazy that I can say “cold” and “Africa” in the same sentence. During the day it’s perfect, but in the mornings it is still cool and at night the temperature drops tremendously. It is so weird to be in Africa and have freezing toes when we are walking around town in the mornings to visit our friends!
As of today, we have exactly 4 weeks until we are home! This means we have 2 weeks left of our literacy classes and 3 weeks to say everything we want to say to all our friends before we leave Ayorou. Our last week will be spent In Niamey for debriefing with 7 other students. It seems so strange to be thinking about saying “goodbye”; it seems like we just “hello” or “fofo”! Our classes are still going well; the students have come a very long way! In our kids’ class we have traded most of our older students for 3-5 year olds! Since most of the older students have started school or are farming, younger kids have been coming. They have learned the letters so fast! Quite a few of them know almost the whole alphabet now, and the rest have their favorite letters that they know very well. There is one little girl who won’t really talk, but she will point to the letters that she knows. When we ask where a certain letter is, she can point to the ones that she knows. It is amazing to see how fast kids learn!
It is hard to think of leaving when we could teach them so much more. Our hope is that our students continue to read so they can sharpen their skill. A friend of ours (who already knows how to read) wants to teach women how to read. We will be leaving our teaching supplies with him, and we are excited that there will be someone to continue the lessons. Our male students should be able to learn more from him too and ask him for help if they have problems reading. A fear that I have had is that the students will stop reading after we leave, but as long as there is someone to continue with them and as long they continue to read and have the passion to learn, they will be fine and soon will have no problem reading.
One of the little boys who has been scared of us most of the time that we have been here has finally warmed up to us! He is around 15 months old and will now play with us and talk to us. He use to scream at the top of his lungs whenever he would see us! Now we are his best friends! We sing songs with him about Dad that he loves to clap to. We thought he may never warm up to us, but nothing is impossible! ;)
As our time gets shorter, it gets harder to think of saying “goodbye”. There are kids as well as adults that we have become very close to. The adults understand that we are only here for a short time, but I think the kids expect us to be around forever. Every time they run up to me and jump into my arms I wonder how I can ever leave. But I know I am only supposed to be here for this time. I know who I can trust to take care of them, and that is what helps leaving become a little easier.
While it is very hard to leave here, I am also ready to come home and see everybody! I have missed yall so much and have wanted to share so many things that have happened! I know the people here are in your thoughts and when we tell them so, they are very grateful and say, “Iri ga sabu (We are thankful)!” Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and support. Our time here has been so blessed! I can’t wait to share this all with you! Take care! Kala tonton!

Brrr.... It's cold...???

I never thought it could happen, but I woke up in Africa the other day and said, “It’s cold!” We have had more late rain and it cools everything way down. I’ve worn long sleeves twice now! It wasn’t utterly necessary but it was comfortable. It is still very hot most days, so we welcome the late rains; especially the farmers. Because the rainy season started late, the hayni crops (millet) weren’t able to mature. The farmers are hoping that the late rains will help the hayni mature, otherwise they won’t be able to use it. It will all be a waste. No one can remember when it has ever rained this late before. At first, we were all surprised that it’s been raining as late as it has, but now we will probably be surprised when it finally does stop! Wow, it seems like the seasons are changing everywhere…

Last Monday we had a really full day. We went farming in the morning with one of our guard’s families, then later in the afternoon one of his kids had a really high fever of 103 degrees or above. We went out with his wife and kids to pick beans (very similar to green beans) around 8am. We got to ride the donkey cart! It was so much fun. It’s all wood and flat. On one side is a removable side panel to help hold everyone/everything in. So we loaded up the sacks, bowls, and 6 people: besides the two of us, there were our guard’s wife, their toddler daughter, and their 5 and 10 year old sons. Hamma, the 10 year old, was cracking us up; he was driving the cart and every once in awhile he would urge the donkey to run fast, causing the cart to be bumpy and make you feel like you might fall off. His mother didn’t like him going fast and would fuss at him to slow down every time. I wasn’t much help because they made me laugh every time. She would chuckle, but she definitely didn’t like going fast. When we finally got out to the farm, we realized the younger brother had forgotten to put any shoes on before we left. There are little stickers everywhere out there, and while we were walking toward the beans, he had to keep stopping and picking them out of his feet. Whenever he decided he didn’t want to be tough and pick the stickers out anymore, he would ride on my back as we went from place to place to pick beans. Sometimes he would stay on my back while I picked beans. That was fun and interesting; mother’s out here have their babies on their backs pretty much all day long. They walk and work with their babies on their backs. Because of it, the kids are pretty good with piggy-back rides since they know how to stay on. So while I was picking beans and expecting him to fall off whenever I bent down, he stayed on my back for a good while. Some days we feel very African, and other days it is very obvious that we are all-American! That day I felt African. Until he pointed toward some bushes where I was picking beans and said there was a snake. I backed up very slowly as I asked him where it was. He just kept pointing toward the bush. I moved some of the stalks around and never saw or heard anything. I think he might have been telling me to watch out because that would be a place most likely for a snake to be. He may even have seen one there before and figured it might still be there. If he really did see one at the time he told me about it, I’m just glad I didn’t run into it. Back home all I run into are bull snakes, so they don’t really bother me. But there are mambas here and I googled them before we came out here. Don’t google them… not something you want to picture in your head, especially if you plan on coming to Africa! Lol
When it was time to stop picking beans, we were told to wait with the kids while their mother finished up what she doing. While we were waiting, one of her friends came by and put some of the stuff she had been picking in a pile next to the donkey cart. We continued to wait for awhile and sometimes the kids would holler, “Hurry up Mom! Amina and Halima are tired!/Amina and Halima are hungry!” The kids, of course, were the ones who were tired and hungry; Crystal and I could have worked longer! They’re so funny; we enjoy every minute with those kids!
By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned what our African names are: I’m Amina and Crystal is Halima. They call me Amina since it’s so close to Amanda, and a friend of ours in Niamey just decided one day that Crystal’s name was Halima, so it stuck.
When their mom came back to the donkey cart, I helped her put everything we picked into the huge sack, forgetting that her friend had put some of her stuff next to our bean pile. We started putting her stuff in the sack too, and luckily she was only a few feet away talking to someone so she was able to notice and remind me of her stuff. She was laughing as she asked me, “Amina, why are putting my stuff in the sack?” I said, “Alhanna! Alhanna! Ay dirgan! Ay dirgan! (I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I forgot, I forgot!)” Thankfully everyone was laughing and we pulled her stuff back out of the sack and put it on the cart and dropped it off at her house for her since she was walking. Whew! I almost helped our friends steel someone else’s crops! Yikes!... That could have turned out bad!

Later that afternoon when we came back for our literacy class, Hamma was very sick and had a high fever. His whole body was extremely hot and he had the chills and a bad headache. He ached so bad it was making him cry; and he doesn’t cry. Since our supervisors were out of town, we were glad that an M couple had come up for a few days to visit. We asked if they could drive us over to the doctor to take a look at him. She suggested we take his temperature first. We had already been cooling him down, but he was still so hot. I ran home to get the thermometer and a cooling pad one of my “grandparents” from back home had sent with me. When we checked his temperature, it was 103.4, and he was only slightly cooler than he had been earlier, so his highest temperature may have been around 105. Pretty scary. We got him to the doctor, who we found out speaks English; which is nice to know in case we ever have to go and tell him what’s wrong. That could be pretty hard to do in another language! He checked Hamma’s temperature again and it had cooled down to about 100 degrees. He gave him some Tylenol and Malaria medicine. By the next day he was fine and back to his old self. He sure scared us though!
I did run into a little “accident” while we were taking care of Hamma. As I was on my way to our house, I saw Hamma’s baby sister standing between her house and our supervisors’ house. She had been with her dad next door, so I picked her up to take her back to her mom. When I picked her up, one of the neighbor ladies said, “Nafisa toosu!” She was telling me that Nafisa had gone to the bathroom on herself. About then I felt something on my arm and thought it was just pee. When I looked down I saw… well, it wasn’t pee… I started laughing and put her down and took her hand instead and walked her over to her mom. After I cleaned my arm up, I started back toward the house. One of our little girl friends saw me leaving. She said my name, then started laughing at me. I laughed out loud, wondering how many people would know about it by the time I came back. Haha

We are back in town for the week. Crystal has Malaria again and also a bacterial infection. She’s doing ok, just not a very comfortable situation. We’re waiting for everything to get cleared up. We’re definitely ready to head back to Ayorou, though! There’s not a whole lot to do here, and we are anxious to continue with our literacy classes. The students are still doing so well, we hate to have to leave them for a week. But we would much rather have everything cleared up for her and have her healed so we don’t have to keep coming in. It’ll be good for her body to be able to rest this long.

Well, we should be heading back to Ayorou after the weekend. Should be back in Niamey around Thanksgiving time. Continue to keep us in your thoughts as our classes are coming to an end, we will be having to say goodbye to close friends, and are trying to stay healthy. Things are going very well, and I trust they will continue. There is a lot to look forward to! We are excited for what will happen before we leave. See yall soon! Take care!

Nya, Nya! Ay ga ba Dunguri! (Mama, mama! I like beans!)

We are at the 2 month mark! It is now hot season, and man is it hot during the day! It’s hard to believe that in 2 months we’ll be walking out of the KC airport and freezing our tails off! We’ll probably think we somehow got our flights mixed up and landed in Alaska! The hot season won’t last long, though. We just don’t have rain right now to come and cool everything off. Cold season is on its way, and the other night we thought it may be coming early. We were having our weekly meeting with our supervisors Sunday evening and there were some dark-ish clouds and winds coming in. The air became chilly and stayed chilly all night and into the early morning. The late morning and early afternoon were nice; not chilly anymore, but not suck-the-air-out-of-your-lungs hot either. Sunday night while we were enjoying sleeping in the chilly weather, we felt sprinkles around 1:30am. At first we thought birds were pooping on us, which is not uncommon… We really did not want to go inside because it is so hot sleeping indoors. We decided if the sprinkling turned into actual rain, then we’d go in. It never did. It just sprinkled for a good while then stopped. It was wonderful sleeping in the “rain” and cool air. As I was enjoying the sprinkles, in the back of mind I could hear my mom and grandmothers saying, “You’re gonna catch pneumonia!” Then I giggled to myself and figured they would probably do the same thing; they’re from Arizona! They understand this crazy heat! Lol But, yah, I have to say that sleeping in the rain is absolutely amazing! We figured that would be the last of the rain since it is now October and there isn’t supposed to be any more rain. We also had thunder and lightning Tuesday night, but no rain at all. However, Wednesday night we got a pretty good rainstorm! That morning our supervisor said that if we got any more rain, it would just be sprinkles like it was Sunday night. So Thursday night as we were sleeping soundly, thunder and lightning started up again. We ignored it and went back to sleep. Probably about an hour or two later we woke up to sprinkles. Our guard told us it was raining because he thought we were asleep and hadn’t noticed. We said we knew it was raining, but it was alright, we weren’t ready to go in. It was nice and we were perfectly ready to sleep in the sprinkles again. But then the wind picked up and the drops became bigger and more steady. Just as we decided we should go ahead and go inside, we got a steady rain and it started pouring hard just as we got in the door. Luckily we were able to grab our bed rolls before they got soaked. They were wet, but we were still able to sleep on them. Crystal did decide to leave her mosquito net on the poles and not worry about it. Sometimes the strings get twisted and when you have to quickly untie them you end up having to untie knots and get either sandblasted or soaked. Neither one is very fun, so she grabbed her mat and left the net. There was no wind at the time, so we figured it would be ok; but in the morning half of it had fallen off and was muddy! The rain stopped a little while later, but the thunder and lightning continued. A few hours later another storm hit and this one brought wind that kept switching directions. Our yard was flooded, but in the morning you could just tell that it had rained; you couldn’t tell it had been flooded. Because the yard was flooded, our guard’s shack that he sits in at night also became flooded. So Crystal and I moved from the front room to the back room so he could get out of the rain. As we were getting our stuff situated and getting ready to go back to sleep, we heard something in the front room fall. When we looked, part of the wall had pushed open and we had a nice little mudslide streaming out of the wall right where Crystal had been sleeping a few minutes before! It must have built up a little bit before it leaked because it first splattered mud onto the floor before it came streaming out. If our guard hadn’t needed to come in out of the rain, Crystal would have been splattered with mud! Not something you wanna deal with at 3am! We were able to lay some towels down to catch the rest of it and were able to finally go back to sleep. Some of our literacy papers were sitting right where the mud had splattered, but we were able to salvage most of them. Since they were stacked, only the papers on the top were ruined. It was a crazy night, but the next day was nice and cool!

The reason for the title of this blog is because everyone is harvesting their dunguri (beans) now. Sometimes the kids will eat them right when they pick them instead of waiting to cook them. They don’t taste too bad freshly picked, but you definitely get that plant and dirt taste in your mouth. They boil the whole pod and eat the beans straight out of the pod. Oh, man do they taste good! I love beans anyway, but I could eat these all day! The funny thing is, Crystal hates beans, but she likes these. She also doesn’t like to drink the tea here because it is super strong and leafy. However, there is this vanilla sugar stuff that they put in the tea sometimes that is really good. So when they put the vanilla sugar in the tea, she’ll drink it. They always give her a hard time about not liking tea and beans but now that she will drink tea and eat beans, they told her she can be in the tea club and the bean club! “Fada atay” for tea club and “Fada dunguri” for bean club.
It’s funny how being away from your normal surroundings can cause you to do things you normally wouldn’t do; Crystal eating a whole bowl of beans and enjoying it, and I almost caught 2 chameleons! The first one I couldn’t catch because it was in a thorn bush, and the second one was pretty big and I was able to touch him a few times, but I couldn‘t quite bring myself to actually grab him. The first one we saw was at the river. We had gone to the river with a friend of ours so she could wash her clothes. We were sitting by the bank of the river where some of the kids were playing in the sand. Some of them started talking about us and saying we were scared of the river because we weren’t getting in to bathe with everyone else. Since we understood them, Crystal told them that we weren’t scared of the river. Their eyes grew wide and then they started giggling. “War ga ma Zarma sanni? (Y’all hear Zarma sanni?)” If we could jump in the river, we so would! But we aren’t allowed to go in the river because of all parasites and other such things that are in there. There are some places that are safe to swim in, but we don’t know where all those places are. And, they bathe naked, so we’re fine just sitting on the bank. You also never know when a man is going to come around the river bend, so that also makes the temptation to jump in the river not so appealing… Not too long before we left the river, the kids gathered around the thorn bush we were sitting next to and were talking fast and excitedly and were all looking at something that was apparently next to where we were sitting. We looked around, totally expecting there to be a snake under the bush because the kids sounded scared of whatever it was they were looking at. As I’m looking at the ground for a snake, Crystal saw the chameleon they were looking at. After a sigh of relief, we “ewed” and “awed” over the chameleon, and I kept trying to catch him. He kept moving to just the right spot that I couldn’t grab him because of the thorns. I think the kids thought I was crazy for trying to catch it. They kept gasping and wouldn’t get close to it. They kept saying, “Anasara si hamburu! (Anasara isn’t scared!)” I’m not sure why they were scared of it, because they don’t seem to be scared of the other lizards that run around everywhere around here. As far as we know, chameleons aren’t poisonous, so the only thing we could think of was that since it changes colors, they may think that chameleons have some kind of demon power or something. Who knows?
The second chameleon we saw was hanging out by our tree a couple days later. We watched it change into so many different colors from different shades of green to different shades of brown; it was so cool! This one was bigger and I kept grabbing at it, but I just couldn’t get my whole hand around it. I touched it several times and easily could have caught it because he wasn’t running, just leisurely walking away, but I just couldn’t do it. Maybe if we come across another one I’ll be able to grab him.
We also have a nice sized lizard who has decided to live with us. He has been hiding somewhere in the house for a few days. I’ve only seen him once, but we keep hearing him. I saw him scurry under the stove the other day, but haven’t seen him since. Since we know it’s not a scorpion, he doesn’t bother us. Maybe he’ll eat all the nasty bugs for us. ;)
Speaking of scorpions, we saw another one alongside the road where we were walking the other day. Because there are so many kids walking around and most of them are barefoot, I went to go make sure it was dead so no one would get stung. Crystal hollered, “Amanda Henkel!” I said, “What?!” Then I stabbed it with a stick and separated it into 2 pieces and tossed it away. I don’t like scorpions.

We started reading our Zarma Book from Dad with one of our friends on Tuesday. We will go over to her house and share stories twice a week, and I think it will go very well. We are hoping that another friend of ours, our next door neighbor, will start coming, but she has a lot of work to do throughout the day. We visited with our neighbor the other day and she asked about our supervisors’ little girl. She was wanting to see her but they hadn’t come over to our house in a while. We told her the next time they came over we would come get her so she could see the baby. That night, we were able to do just that! Our supervisor and our guard came over to bring us water. Our supervisor brought their little girl with them and I ran over to tell our neighbor that she was at our house. She couldn’t come over right then, so I told her I’d bring the baby over to their house. When I brought her over, she showed off for everyone. She went right to our friend, but shook the other lady’s hands. She was shy, but she didn’t cry or anything. I think it made our friend’s heart very happy because the baby wouldn’t go to anyone else, she just stayed with our friend. They all love seeing her because she is the only white baby in the village. We and our supervisors are the only white people in the village, and there are a couple albino children that live here too. So she is definitely the little celebrity of the town! Almost everyone that sees us as we are walking around ask us how the baby is.
Our friend’s mother also decided that since we are the same age as two of her sons we would be perfect for them. Since Crystal and I are 20 and 22, she decided that Crystal gets to marry her 20 year old son and I get to marry the 22 year old. I think it’s kind of funny that she thought we should marry her sons since we are the same age, because they marry girls off when they are 13 and the guys marry when they are in their mid to late 20s. So, we are basically old maids, and her sons are still younger than the normal marrying age…

Our literacy classes are still going well. We have 2 months left with our students, and if the next 2 months prove to be as fruitful as the first 2 months were, then we should have some very exceptional readers! I am very excited to see how things transpire toward the end of our stay here! We have lost a few of our kid students because school has started. They’ll be able to come one day a week because they have Thursdays off. But they have class from 8-noon and then again from 3-6. Our class is from 4-5. I’m not sure, but I think they learn to read French in school instead of Zarma, so now they have a start in reading their own language as well since they’ve been able to come to the literacy classes. Some of our older students also are helping their families to farm right now, so they have a lot of work in the afternoon and early evenings. People work in the mornings while the sun isn’t beating down too hard, and then they rest after luch because it is too hot to do anything. If needed, they go back to the fields after rest time or do other work that needs to be done.

We also had some heart-breaking news the other night. One of the little girls that we are very close to has gone to live with a friend of the family’s for a couple or so years. Here, if someone in your family or close to your family says that they want one of your kids for some reason, you are obligated to send your child with them. For some reason, the parents aren’t allowed to say “no”. We had no idea that our friend would leave. There was no warning. She is the daughter of one of our guard’s. A lady who isn’t the family’s grandmother but someone they call “grandmother” came by the other day and said she wanted to take their daughter with her. I guess she wanted an extra hand to help out where she lives. So, now our little friend is across the river somewhere past many islands and we’ll never see her again. We cried when we found out. Without any warning, we didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. She was always one to run up and give us big hugs, and could always make our day better, even if we didn’t think our day could get any better! She was also one of our best students. She knows all the letters and loves to learn. It’s been hard for us, and it was especially hard the first day we went to class and she wasn’t there. People also don’t cry here. You’re not allowed to show your tears. Her mom didn’t cry when she left, but she wasn’t happy about it. We noticed Monday during class that she still seemed upset about it. I couldn’t imagine giving my child up, not knowing when or if they’d come back; it’s hard enough when it’s not even my own child! Although they have other children of their own and we have the other children that we love just as dearly, every child is irreplaceable and you know when one is missing. It’s also hard because we have no idea what kind of environment she’ll be in now; she came from such a good and loving home. The only comfort we have is that Dad will be taking care of her. Without that hope, we would probably still be crying and sulking around the house!

We have also discovered that people do not like to go to the doctor. Mostly the reason seems to be because they normally treat whatever you have with a shot, instead of just medicine. One lady is taking care of her grandchildren because her son died and her daughter-in-law is remarried. Currently her grandson is very sick but she refuses to take him to the doctor because when they took her son to the doctor the doctor gave him a shot but he still died. So she is afraid that the doctor will give her grandson a shot and it will kill him. We also had a friend who was very sick recently and was throwing up. When her husband and our supervisor took her to the doctor, he said that if she was throwing up she would need to get a shot. Because she didn’t want a shot she lied and said she wasn’t throwing up. So the doctor just gave her medicine and since she was able to keep the medicine down, she didn’t have to get a shot. Also, the other night one of our little girls came back from school looking very tired and not well. One of her friends said she was sick and we could tell because she wasn’t smiling and laughing like she always is. Later on I was talking to her and I felt her forehead to see if she had a fever, which she did. I told her to tell our supervisor since they have medicine, but she refused to tell her. I tried to walk her over to where our supervisor was sitting, but she looked really scared and defiantly laid down on the mat. I laid down next to her to try and calm her down, but she was scared of getting a shot and there were tears coming from her eyes. Our supervisor called for her to come over so she could check her, but she still refused to go. This time I picked her up and carried her over to our supervisor with her kicking her legs trying to get down. Our supervisor asked if she was scared of getting a shot and she said she was, but our supervisor told her she wasn’t going to take her to get a shot, she just wanted to give her some medicine. After she got the medicine and realized that she really wasn’t getting a shot she was calm and able to rest. Apparently the needles here are pretty wide in diameter, and I think I might be a little scared myself to get one! I already hate the tiny ones we have back home…

The little boy I mentioned in one of my last blogs who has been learning surprisingly well has continued to improve. He still messes with his feet a lot during class and can get distracted easily, but he is enjoying learning and is doing very well. At first he was really shy around us, but now he really likes us and has been showing off quite a bit. He is around 5 years old and enjoys making himself laugh! Of course, most everything he does makes us laugh too, which means he wants to show off even more. The other day when we came for classes he hollered our names and was blowing us kisses as we walked into the compound. He went from never talking to us to blowing us kisses! He makes us happy. J
As we are walking around town, sometimes we get random greetings from little boys. Sometimes they’ll walk up and shake our hands, but then make their fingers into scissors and want us to make scissors too so that we can “cut” each other’s scissor-fingers. Don’t know what that is all about! Lol Sometimes they will also make kissy noises or blow us kisses. We definitely enjoy the little boys’ randomness instead of the proposals from the men! Haha

Did I ever tell yall about the spider I found in my bed awhile back? We were sleeping inside because of the rain one night, and our house has spiders everywhere on the ceiling. None of them have been too big; mostly just daddy long-leg type spiders, so they are easy to ignore. However, this night I was sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden I woke up and had something squishy in my hand! I thought, “What in the world kind of bug do I have in my hand?!” I was already creeped out because I could tell it was pretty large. I grabbed my flashlight and when I saw it was a huge spider I grabbed my pocket knife and finished smooshing it with the butt of the knife to make sure it was dead (I keep my pocket knife by my pillow because of all the critters we have, like scorpions…). Then, to make extra sure it was dead, I cut it in half. It was an ugly looking spider with two large sections and creepy fangs. Because it was all smooshed and annihilated, I couldn’t really tell exactly what it looked like. I just knew it was big and ugly. Definitely not something I would have grabbed had I been awake! While I do smoosh spiders with my hands, there is a certain size limit that I keep to. Then, the other day we went over to our supervisors’ house to charge our phone. When we got there she didn’t answer, but we knew she was there, but we couldn’t call her because our phone was dead. A couple minutes later, one of our friends who has a key to our supervisors’ gate came and opened it for us. As we stepped onto the porch our supervisor hollered through the window, “Watch out for that spider! I didn’t come open the gate for yall ‘cause I didn’t want it to jump on my head!” We looked up and saw a giant spider chilling out about the porch door! Crystal thought it might be like the one I found in my bed, just a little bigger. One of the boys climbed up on the screen and threw him across the porch. His dad smashed him with a flip-flop and then I went over and looked at the dead body. Yup! It looked exactly like the one I had found in my bed and now that it was dead, it was the same size as the one I found in my bed! So, at that moment I came to the realization that I had an even bigger spider in my bed than I had originally thought… I don’t have arachnophobia, but I sure don’t like spiders, especially giant ones who like to cuddle in my bed!

We have been attempting to make African food on our own now. We love the food here, but haven’t really known how to cook it quite right yet. We’ve been watching the women when they cook, and have finally decided to give it a whirl. We have done pretty well. Of course it doesn’t taste exactly like theirs, but it’s still pretty good! We watched our friend make a spicy sauce over rice the other day that was super delicious! It had crushed red peppers to make it nice and spicy! We went to the market and bought all the hoy jiney (sauce things) for it. We had ours over kouskous, which is some type of soft, round, flat and tiny noodles that expand like rice or grits when you cook them. You only need a small amount to go a long way. It was really good! We also made beans the other night with tonko, which is a spicey spice (we’ve decided to call it that because it a spice which is spicey). Tonko has a maggi cube (bouillon cube) and crushed red peppers. It also was very tasty, but we didn’t get the beans completely cooked to where they were nice and soft. They were soft, yet firm. So we figure next time we will soak them in water while we are out visiting, then cook them when we get home. We forgot that the ladies soak them first before cooking them, and I forgot that my mom always soaked her beans first. But, hey, we are cooking and dressing and talking like our African friends! Yall aren’t gonna know what to do with us when we get back!

We still have so much to look forward to over the next two months! They are already starting to go by quickly, so I hope we can keep up and get everything accomplished that we came to do. We love our friends and family here and are excited at what we have seen them accomplish in the short time we’ve been here. We are confident Dad has much more up His sleeve, and when He sets out to do something, you know it will be completed!
Until next time, kala tonton!

Howdy! I mean, Fofo! ;)

The thing about learning a new language is that I don’t know which language to speak half the time! When we are in Ayorou, all we speak is Zarma because that is the only way to communicate with the people there. However, when we go to the city, there is a mixture of different people. The common language is French, of which I only know 9 words… So whenever I see someone, I automatically start to say “Fofo”, but the French and Lebanese people don’t speak Zarma, and not all Africans speak Zarma. We were in the store the other day in Niamey, and one of the guys that boxes/bags your groceries asked if we wanted our stuff in a box to put in our car or in bags to carry. Even though he was speaking in English, I automatically began telling him in Zarma that we didn’t have a car and we came in a taxi so we would needs bags. I stopped halfway through my sentence when I realized the guy wasn’t listening to me and the Lebanese guy behind the counter had no clue what I was saying. Also, when we are staying in the guesthouse and run into volunteers and coworkers, who are almost all American, I have to stop and think about what language I need to speak to them in. It’s so crazy on my brain! Lol One time we were staying in the guesthouse with a team from Brazil. They spoke Portuguese, French, and Zarma. We speak English and Zarma. In order to communicate with each other, we had to use an African language! The times we talked to each other we would start out chuckling because of the irony of the situation. Our countries are so close to each other, but we have to have an African language to be able to communicate with each other.
We also had some yos from Kentucky stay in our village for a week. A “yo” in Zarma can mean camel or stranger (visitor from another country). In this case it means stranger. We had 2 men come and talk with the family and encourage them. During that time, around 7 people were added to the family. Our family here has been taking the time and initiative to invite others into the family. It has been an awesome experience to watch!

The other day one of our students walked home with us after we had done some morning visiting. He wanted to have some early reading lessons; guess he couldn’t wait til the afternoon. We love his eagerness to learn! I have this redneck whiteboard that I rigged up that he likes to write on. I had just enough lamination paper to cover one side of 4 sheets of paper. I covered the back side with duct tape to keep it sturdy and straight. You really can use duct tape for everything… So he decided he wanted to practice writing so he copied down one of the stories we use in class onto the whiteboard. He was so proud of himself, he had me take a couple photos of him with his work. He’s an awesome kid and learning very well. Afterward he took my camera and climbed up our tree so he could take pictures. He took a lot of people’s picture without them knowing it. I kept hearing him giggling softly in the tree. I could see him looking for people and then taking funny pictures. He also stuck his head underneath our gate and took pictures of some of the young people who sit outside our wall and talk all day. One of the girls caught him and he quickly ran back into the middle of the yard cracking up at himself. We also had a kitten, and he quietly put the kitten in the tree when we weren’t watching. We heard a little “meow” and looked around. Then we realized it was coming from the tree. We laughed but told him to get the cat down. He of course thought he was hilarious. Boys will be boys no matter what their culture is, Lol. I think guys have a whole culture of their own… ;)

We had a kitten for exactly 2 weeks. Our guard’s family had a kitten that had been left by its mother and they told us we could take him. He slept with me at night (we gave him a bath the first day…). He liked to sleep on top of my shoulder for some reason instead of curled up next to me. He was funny. The word for “cat” is “muusu”, but we called him Moussa, or Mous for short. We could carry him around in the palm of our hands, he was so tiny. He was kind of sickly when we first got him, but then he started getting real frisky and playful and we thought he’d be alright. Our guard even shared some chicken with him one night and he stuffed himself. But last Wednesday he got sick and wouldn’t eat or drink. He just laid around and had no energy to move. Our guard said he didn’t want the kitten do die because he was his friend and he shared his chicken with him. Finally, Friday afternoon when we came home from classes he was lying in his favorite spot, dead. I went and borrowed our supervisor’s shovel and buried him in the back yard. I cried a little bit, but then I did a mock burial and said a few words so I could laugh a little. It was definitely nice having a pet for awhile.

We also got one of the funniest proposals yet. There were two guys on their donkeys as we were walking on our way to class. One of them asked me if I wanted to buy his donkey. I actually did, but I said no. He asked if I knew how to ride, and said I did, but I didn’t want the donkey. So then after that he asked Crystal to marry him, but when we told him she had a boyfriend in America he said that wasn’t a problem because 2 husbands is “a boori (good)!” I laughed, shook my head and said, “A si boori (it’s not good)!” Then they disappeared behind a building and we were left alone to laugh and roll our eyes.

The other day we were certain we had encountered another scorpion. We were getting ready to leave the house and Crystal said. “Amanda! There’s something in my suitcase! It had a tail, I think it’s a scorpion!” I thought, “Oh, man, I hate those things!” I grabbed my pocket knife and we started grabbing clothes out of her suitcase and shaking them out. When we emptied the suitcase and didn’t find anything, we checked under her velcro liner; still nothing. Oh, man, where did it go? She started to reach down to shake out a towel when a head popped out! We jumped back, but then realized it was a baby lizard! Our scared voices turned into our “awe, he’s so cute” voices. We said, “Oh! It’s a baby lizard!” We tried to catch him with our hands, but he was too fast, so we caught him in an empty can, took a couple pictures and let him go. Our hearts had been beating so fast until we realized he was lizard and not a scorpion!

Well, we are headed back to Ayorou this afternoon. In a couple weeks we will be starting a study with some of our friends and sharing stories with them. We are hoping the language barrier will not be in the way because they will have many questions. It is hard to answer people’s questions directly when we don’t have a full vocabulary of the language, but we have the best Help we can ask for! ;) Thank you all again so much for your supports and your thoughts toward us! I miss you all and will see you soon! I’m sure we’ll have plenty more great and interesting things to report next time! Until then, kala tonton (see you later)!

Short but Sweet! A go ga ma kaani!

You know how most of the time at zoos they have the giraffe cages below the sidewalk where everyone walks so we can be more level with the giraffes? They don’t seem so tall when you’re looking down at them. However, when you’re standing right in front of about 10 or so of them, they are pretty tall! Just outside of Niamey, there is a giraffe preserve. During mid-term week our supervisors took us there to see the giraffes. There are no fences to hide behind, you just find the giraffes and get as close as you can before they run away. The local guide hopped into the back of the truck and used a long stick to point us in the direction we needed to go to see the giraffes. His stick was skinny and looked like an overgrown grasshopper antenna. So I giggled every time I saw the “antenna” point us in the right direction.
At our first stop there were probably about 5 giraffes eating behind some trees. We got out of the truck, but we couldn’t get a good look at them since they were behind the trees. Our guide saw some more over yonder, so we hopped back in the truck and headed over to another spot. This time there was a large group of them! We took so many pictures! I got a couple videos too. They were so tall, and funny looking. I didn’t realize how much their backs sloped downward; I guess I thought their backs would be more level, kind of like a horse with tall skinny legs and ridiculously long necks, Lol. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen some at a zoo, so I was super excited to see some and be able to get as close as I wanted to. I’m definitely liking the open range out here. I probably won’t if I ever run into a lion, though… ;)
I got pretty close to one giraffe, probably within 20-30 feet. He kept walking away and I would slowly follow him. I was pretty jazzed that I got that close. Later, however, we ventured over behind some trees where some other giraffes had gone. There were about 3 eating behind a huge bush. We walked over to them and they just stared at us. When we got within about 10 feet, one of them looked down and started walking toward us. He walked right in front us! I got a nice video shot of the belly! I’ll try to get the video posted as soon as I can. It was so awesome to be that close! All together, we probably saw around 20 giraffes! When we were ready to go, we decided it would be fun to chase them… It was! I got a video of that too… ;)

During mid-term week we also were able to spend a couple days visiting with our homestay family whom we stayed with our first month here while learning the language. We played scrabble with them one day. They were practicing their English so we played in English, but since we have had Zarma brains for 4 months, we were having trouble with our own language! Especially since we were playing in English but talking in Zarma! If we play scrabble again, we are going to play using Zarma words; that should be interesting…
We also found out that our homestay brother has epilepsy. The sad thing is that people don’t realize what it is. They think people with epilepsy are possessed by evil spirits; they don’t know that it is a medical condition. If anyone has a seizure while they are walking down the road, no one will stop and help them. They just walk around them and leave them be. They are afraid to touch that person or do anything to help them. If anyone finds out you have epilepsy, they don’t want to have anything to do with you. It is a very hard situation, because they don’t really tell their friends if they have it, because once a friend knows, they may leave you alone because of their fear. It breaks my heart that there is so much fear of evil spirits. While some of it is legit, the rest is not even close.

We also got a chance to talk to a friend of ours we met during our first month here. It was crazy how we randomly ran into him. We had just been dropped off by a taxi in the neighborhood of our homestay family. As we were walking down the road, he was coming toward us on his motorcycle. He stopped and we talked for a minute. He said he and a friend of his had some questions for us and we set up a time to meet. We had actually planned on being at our homestay family’s house earlier than we had been able to. If we had left as early as we had originally planned, we would have missed our friend completely! We had a really good visit later that week, and hopefully we will be able to visit with his family during one of our next visits to Niamey.

Well, I’ll sign off for now, but there is definitely more to come!

A boori!

Our literacy classes are going so well! It was kind of a slow start, but they have caught on quickly! All the adults and kids recognize the letters when they see them. It’s awesome to watch them flip through the alphabet with ease. We have a few smaller kids that will come and sit with us during class. They like to say the sounds of the letters with the other kids as we run through the alphabet. One little boy that comes and sits in never seems like he is paying attention, but the other day he was saying what some of the letters were before the other kids said them. I was so surprised, I didn’t realize that all that time he spent playing with his feet he was actually learning the letters! I have found that I like saying “bomb-diggity” for some reason since I got here. So I’ll say that it’s the bomb-diggity when you find that your students learn a lot more than you thought you were able to teach them. J It took a while for them to understand the concept of reading. They would read along with us, but when they would try to read the words, they would say two words where one should be, or just add random words. It took awhile to help them understand how to sound out the letters in the words, but they have finally caught on. The younger ones are still having trouble reading, but they all recognize the letters, so that is a good start! The older kids are doing very well, and one of them is reading amazingly well! He read a whole chapter in the book Dad gave us. We haven’t finished the whole alphabet yet, so he really only has trouble with the few letters we haven’t taught them yet. Before we left for our mid-term week, he hadn’t been reading that well yet, but when we came back it was like he woke up one morning being able to read! I’m just so amazed watching them learn.
Our adults are doing well too! Our relief guard is learning amazingly quickly. He can read at a fairly normal pace now, only getting hung up on new letters. The day before we left for mid-term week, he spelled “go” all by himself! I was so proud! I wanted to hug him, but that would be extremely awkward in this culture so I let my face show that I was excited that he spelled a word on his own and told him he did a very good job. His face was glowing because he was proud of himself; it was so cool. All of our students have a wonderful glow after they finish reading, even if it’s only a few words. They are also very tired, but they are loving the fact that they can accomplish something that was so foreign to them at the beginning. At times, we thought we would never be able to get as far as we have with them; it didn’t seem like we had enough time. But they have come so very far, so the 2 months we have left are very promising!
The day before we left for mid-term week, we had a very off-the-wall class that day. They were able to focus and learn, but they were also being silly with it. The funny thing was, they were all men and a few older boys! Toward the end, a few of the little girls came over, so while the guys were writing Crystal and I were talking with the girls. One thing I like to do with them is show them the Cyclops. If two people put their foreheads together, keeping their eyes open, you see them change into a Cyclops because their eyes form together and look like one eye in the center of their head. So after I did this with one of the girls, a couple of the guys wanted to know what we were doing and what a Cyclops was. So I told them to put their heads together like we were doing, and the little girl and I showed them what we did. So they put their heads together, but instead of putting their heads together slowly, they banged their heads together and ended up bouncing off each other’s heads! Everyone could hear the bang! They hurt, but they laughed hysterically. I was laughing so hard I almost fell off the bench. When I finally caught my breath, I told them, “Moso! Moso (slowly, slowly)!” But they didn’t want to try it again… ;)

There have been plenty of exciting things happening, it’s hard to write them all down! One of the most exciting things that have happened was the day we were visiting with one of our close friends. A group of young ladies and a couple older ladies were all sitting with us and they asked us to read to them. All we had with us was our Zarma book from Dad, so we started reading the very first chapter. They were all eagerly listening, so we kept on reading through to the second chapter, and before we knew it, we had read the first 5 chapters! They had all gathered around intently and listening with only a few interruptions. We were so jazzed that day!

We also were invited to go to a caba (chaba), which is a baby-naming ceremony. While we were there they fixed up some milk and millet for us to drink. I knew what it was when our friend gave me the drink because we had heard a lot about in our orientation and from others who had come here before us. What I forgot was that it is sour milk and millet. So when I took the first swallow, I had to choke it down without making a face… very hard! But after a couple drinks, it tasted pretty good and I ended up liking it a lot. Since Crystal is allergic to milk, we had to explain to them why she couldn’t drink it. So with some words that we knew and some funny hand gestures, we explained that if she drank it she wouldn’t be able to breathe and then “a ga bu (she will die)!” They gasped and said, “Oo! Iri fahom (we understand)!” So they made her some water and millet to drink. Lucky for her they can’t make sour water, Lol.

There are so many stories to tell, it is hard to remember them all right now, and even if I could, there is no room to write them all here! I can’t wait until I can tell yall everything that has been going on! We have just a little over two months left! At times I feel like I just got here; other times I feel like I’ve been here forever. I will be sad to leave here; it seems like there is so much more to do still! I always took it for granted that I could read. Seeing these kids and adults eager to learn and excited when they can read even small words on their own has helped me realize how blessed I am. I am so glad I can be a part in sharing that blessing with others; especially with those who truly appreciate it. I know a lot of us, including myself, don’t appreciate everything people have taught us and all the things that have been available to us just because we are born and raised where we are. It seems like the more we have, the less grateful we are…

Kani baani! = Good morning!

So much has happened over the past 2 weeks! We started our literacy classes last Wednesday! They are going really well. We basically started from scratch with most of the kids. We had to show them how to hold the paper and some we had to show how to hold a pencil. It’s just not something they have grown up with. We’re basically teaching them a whole new concept, with words and letters, but they are catching on quickly! They recognize the letters and the sounds; we are having to spend more time with writing. They are doing really well, I’m proud of the progress they are making! We started making sheets ahead of time where the kids could trace the letters to help them know how to write them. It made a huge difference, especially for the ones who weren’t understanding at all how to write the letters. We also have an adult class. We meet with them all together once a week, then we meet with each one individually throughout the week. Since they work, farm, or take care of their family/house, it works out better to meet with them when they have individual time to study. The hardest part is not having the full range of vocabulary we are used to in order to teach. We can’t tell them to draw a circle then place a straight line on the left of the circle to make a “b” because we don’t know the words for circle or line. Instead, we have to tell them “care banda”, which means together, otherwise their “b’s” look like “lo”. All in all, they are all making progress! One of our adults (our relief guard one night a week) is really eager to learn. He wants to be able to read Dad’s book and share it from village to village. It’s exciting to watch him learn because he catches on quickly, then just wants to learn more! I love it! Monday night, after the kids’ class, he brought a chicken for us for dinner. He had asked if we wanted to by a chicken from him and he would “fix” it up. We kind of thought he would bring the chicken already dead… Nope, he didn’t! Lol He brought the chicken live and slit its throat, then plucked off the feathers. They like to eat parts of the chicken I would never dream of eating… like the head, the neck, and innards. The kids roasted the head and the organs and enjoyed it! We just ate the main part of the chicken, where all the meat was Lol

One thing I forgot to mention in my last blog was the baby that was born 2 weeks ago! One of our friends had her baby, and we got to see her right after she was born. I knew African babies were born white, but I didn’t realize they were extremely white like a white baby! The crazy thing was that as we were watching her and holding her, she changed from white to black before our very eyes! It was the coolest thing to watch! They also handle babies a lot different than we do. They are a bit rougher with them, and it’s taking some getting used to. Also, for some reason, culturally they do not say anything positive about a newborn baby. They say that it is not good, or ugly, or other such things. When they ask us if we think the baby is bad, we say that she is good. It’s hard not to “ooh” and “awe” at the babies. The other day we went to our friend’s house for literacy class. The baby and its mother live with our friend. While I was going through the reading lesson with our friend, Crystal held the baby for that whole hour. After we finished with the class, I held the baby for awhile. About 15 minutes later, I felt a liquid, warm feeling on my leg… They don’t have diapers, so I ended up getting peed on by the baby! I laughed though, and I still think it’s funny. Our friend told me to push the baby away since it peed on me. Because of the way they tease, she said, “I ga kar,” which is like saying, “I punish.” So she moved the baby over from my lap to the ground (she was still laying on her blanket). When the baby started crying I said, “Ay sambu, ay sambu (I take, I take)!” And then I took her back, wetness and all! The difference in the way we view children is the major culture shock for me.

I also got a proposal in a different language this time! We were walking home the other night, and thankfully our guard was walking with us. This older man came up and greeted us, then he said something to me. I wasn’t quite sure what he said because I didn’t understand the words, but I figured what he was probably saying. Our guard said the guy wanted to marry me, but I said, “Huh-uh, I ga koy (Nope, I am leaving)!” And I continued walking… We’re at a point now where we just laugh when we get proposals. Craziness, but funny.

The other day, Crystal called me from my numay because there was a scorpion in the house! I thought she said there was a snake... Now, I have tried to mentally prepare myself for having a snake in the house, but I really don't want to have to deal with snakes in the house. I googled the mambas and I don't like them... But then when I realized she said scorpion, I was a little relieved, but I don't like scorpions any better Lol So we walk into the house and I grabbed the 10 inch knife we have to cut veggies. She showed me the scorpion; it was about 5 inches long! Not as long as it could be, but longer than I wanted it to be! I put my hiking boots on so I could crunch it under my shoes wothout getting stung; and I had the knife in my hand just in case... When I got to it, it was upside down and not moving. I thought it might be dead, but I smashed it anyway. The tail came of, and it was gooey, so I figured it hadn't been dead too long. So I swept it up and threw it in a corner outside. So I figured I smashed an already dead scorpion. However, when i told my Dad about it, he said that just 'cause a scorpion doesn't move or is upside down doesn't mean it's dead. They like to play opossum, and if they end up upside down, they have a hard time gettin back up. So, it's possible that I actually killed a scorpion... Ewe Lol

We are doing a lot better in understanding the language and different dialect! We are also able to joke around with people in Zarma. A lot of times we are pretty sure we understand what they are saying, but we go ahead and ask our supervisors to be sure, and then we realize we really did hear them correctly! It’s awesome; I love learning another language. It makes a tremendous difference in the way people react to you when you are talking to them in their heart language. And as long as you are trying, they are patient with you and try to help you understand. We also spent 2 days without our supervisors being around. They had to leave for a couple days because they were sick. We led two classes on our own, and sat with our brothers and sisters and read some stories for them in Zarma. Things are progressing in our own lives and work, and in the lives of the people around us. It is so amazing to watch!

We are almost at the half-way mark of our time here. Sometimes it feels like we have been here forever, but it also feels like we just got here. There are plenty of things left to do here; some to be done while we are here, and the rest to be done after we have left. But things are coming about like they are supposed to and we are making great relationships with people. In December it’ll be nice to be able to look back and see the difference from when we started to when we left. I’m excited for what is ahead and can’t wait to see what is in store!

Giant Leap!

We leave for Ayorou tomorrow!!! We are so excited! We will start our literacy classes next week. This week we will be getting to know some of the people we will be teaching and other people in the village. The only sad thing about moving to the village is leaving behind our friends here and our family that we’ve been with for the past month. L We left our family Saturday and it was really hard. We plan on visiting them every time we come into town though, so we are really looking forward to that!
Our language learning has gone really well, but now we are not so sure about going out and talking to people on our own! We can speak pretty well and our teacher did very well in teaching us how to think of Zarma words to use instead of trying to directly translate from English to Zarma. The difficult part is understanding everything people say. Most people talk a lot faster than what we can hear right now. If there is a word we don’t know, that one word can totally change the meaning of the sentence which makes it hard to give them the right response. We may think they said one thing when they actually said something totally different! Because our people speak a different dialect of Zarma, one thing we’ll encounter in the village is different pronunciation of certain words. Our supervisor was telling us that the words we learned that start with an “f” will start with an “h”. Like “foy” (sauce) will be “hoy”. We’ll have to be paying a lot of attention and we’ll probably end up playing the “sounds like” game… Learning a new language is so fun, but it also fries your brain at the same time! Lol What’s crazy is the capacity little kids have to learn multiple languages. There have been quite a few times when Crystal and I have said something in English and one of the kids around us would repeat it exactly! And it could be a big word that is very different from any word they have, but they still caught on to it! We have a hard time repeating some small words in Zarma!
Last Sunday we went to the museum with our sister and her fiancé. It’s more like a small zoo and museum mixed. There was a building with tools and artifacts from the villages that were used centuries ago and a lot of them are still used today, they just look a little different and have some modifications. They have lions, hippos, alligators, monkeys, hyenas, a different kind of owl that I’ve never seen before, and all kinds of African animals. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hyena before, unless I saw some at a zoo when I was really little. I was excited to see the hyenas, but disappointed because they were sleeping so I couldn’t hear if they actually do laugh or not. ;) The hippos were huge! Then we found out that the hippos around our village are actually bigger! Yikes… They also had 2 huge crocs. There were steps that led down to their cage, but the gate at the top of the steps was locked. However, you could easily jump over the gate and go down the steps to get a closer look at them, but Crystal and our big sister wouldn’t let me… Lol I still got some good pics of them though. ;) I promise I won’t get eaten by a croc or a hippo while I’m out here; but I can’t promise I won’t try to tame a zebra though… ;)
The language barrier here can be frustrating, but most of the time it’s just funny! The other night we showed our brother how to make the awkward turtle hand motion. When he finally got it all figured out and we explained with a mixture of Zarma and English what it meant, I said to Crystal, “We can write a 12-step book on teaching Africans the awkward turtle.” He wanted to know what I said, and I thought, “Oh, man! How are we gonna explain the 12-step thing to him?” So we tried, but in the end he thought we were saying that the turtle took 12 steps! We laughed so hard and he laughed ‘cause he thought we were just being weird (which we were Lol). After that it was time for the family to talk to JC, so we were spared from having to try to explain it better.
I really love the kids! The little boy who kept coming into our compound and calling us “anasara” finally started talking to us. Over this last week we got to kinda play with him, so that was fun. He has a LOT of energy! I think he’s around 4 or 5, so you can imagine what I mean when I say he’s got a lot of energy… ;) One of his friends would follow him into the compound and just smile real big at us! So cute! There was a little girl that would come in because she wanted me to make faces at her so she could copy me. The first evening she came by I made faces at her for about 10 minutes before she decided to leave and go get some more of her friends. While she was gone, one of the uncles of our family said that we were the first white people the girl had seen and she wanted us to be her friends. When she came back with a group of other kids, she came over to shake my hand, but was unsure about it. She grabbed the tips of my fingers then let go really fast and jumped back! Then after the other kids shook our hands she came back and shook my hand then went over and shook Crystal’s. They still like to holler “anasara” at us and want us to call them “boro bi”. The adults get a kick out of us calling the kids “boro bi” and will say to the kids something like, “Hey, there’s the anasara!” And they’ll point to the kids and call them “boro bi” too. What’s really funny is when we call the kids anasara. They look at their skin and then look at us and say, “Ay si anasara! Ni ga anasara! (I’m not anasara! You’re anasara!)” and giggle.
The daughter of some friends of the family stayed with us the last 2 weeks we were in our homestay. She’s 4 and adorable! Toward the end of the first week she finally decided she would talk to us, then after that she wouldn’t leave us alone! Lol She likes to give hugs and kisses, but she also likes to pull hair… Luckily our Zarma is enough to tell kids “no” when we need to ;) She was a lot of fun, and she would sing and clap all the time. She helped out our homestay mom cook and clean and it seemed like her favorite thing to do was pounding the seasonings and leaves for the sauces. Hmmm, a little kid that likes to pound things… imagine that! Lol At least here when they’re pounding it’s actually helping! Haha She wasn’t happy with us when we left Saturday; I don’t think she understood that we really didn’t live there. L We kept telling her over the past couple weeks, “Ay ga ba ni” (I love you). So the last few days we were there she would ask, “Ni ga ba ay?” (You love me?) And we would say, “O’O (yes), ay ga ba ni”. We miss her. We can’t wait to meet the kids in Ayorou!
We met a couple guys the other day that wanted to marry us… I have a hard time not laughing at people when I think they’re being silly, so unfortunately for my “suitor”, I laughed at him a lot. I wasn’t laughing to be rude, and I don’t think he ever caught on as to why I was laughing. I think he thought I didn’t understand what he was getting at, but I did understand. So when they came back a couple days later, we stayed in our room the whole time they were visiting. We pretended to be napping. It was pathetic, but it was funny. Just another adventure! Lol We stayed in our room til our older brother came home from work and told us they were gone. He asked us why we were still in our room (since rest time had been over for awhile…) and when we told him why, his eyebrows shot up and he started laughing. He told his parents why we stayed in there and they laughed and said it was ok to come out ‘cause they were gone. They teased us a lot about it, but it’s all good. It’s not like we haven’t met silly guys before…. ;)
We were so excited to get our first care package last week! We had been saying a few nights earlier that we really wanted double-stuff oreo cookies. In the package were 3 packages of not just oreos, but double-stuff oreos! When we ate them we were in heaven! They tasted so good! ;) Ask and you will receive! ;)
I’m experiencing my first time of ever feeling homesick. It hasn’t been bad, but when I have time to stop and think about what everyone is doing and what’s going on back home, I really want to be a part of what’s going on. At the same time though, I’m so happy and grateful to be here. I’ve always been one to want everyone I know to be in one place together, and that’s what I’m experiencing now; I just want everyone back home to be here and meet everyone I’ve met here and then we can all be together and share in this as one ginormous family! One day… ;)
We are so excited to finally be moving to the village and settling into our house! Everything we’ve been preparing for will finally start to come about! We’ve been planning for this for so long, and it’s finally coming! I’m excited, but don’t know what all to expect. All I can expect are great and wonderful things to happen. I can’t wait to see what has been prepared for us and who is waiting when we get there. I should have plenty of things to post in my next blog. Probably quite a bit of cultural “oops’” and what-not. Since we’re staring our first week of literacy training next week, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of stories as we will be working through the kinks and discovering what works and doesn’t work. I keep thinking of that Indiana Jones scene in The Last Crusades when he crosses the bridge that doesn't seem to really be there. Not until he takes that first step does he see the bridge that's already built for him...
Yall take care, and again, thank you all for your support and your continued support while we are over here! Yall are the best!

Ay ma Amanda

Zerma: Ay ma Amanda. Ay ay Amerik boro no, amma soho ay go Niger ra. Ay gonda jiiri waranka cindi hinka.
English: My name is Amanda. I am an American person, but now I am in Niger. I am 22 years old (or I have 22 years).

Oh, wow! I have a long update this time! Shall we start with a funny story? We are more than a week into our homestay, and already so much has happened! We had already spent one night and 2 days with our homestay family at the beginning of the week to get to know them before moving in. Saturday night, our first official night with them, I lost a flip-flop. Can you guess how?............... Well, I went to the latrine to take care of business and to nu may (shower). I happened to drop my right flip-flop into the latrine hole! Ewe! I started laughing and was hoping someone had an extra pair of shoes until our supervisors could bring me one of mine on Sunday. I finished my shower and walked out barefoot, holding my lonely flip-flop. They began asking where my taamu (shoe) was. I told them I dropped it in the hole and made a circle with my hands. They repeated what I said in Zarma and used hand motions. I nodded, giggled, and said, “O’o” meaning “yes”. They all started laughing and every time someone else came home, they told them what I did… They would look over at me and start laughing. Crystal and I still think it’s hilarious. I would much rather lose my shoe in the hole than fall in myself. ;)
We also had our first experience with a rain storm. That was a hoot! You know when it’s coming: the sky turns red-orange because it’s blowing a dust storm at first. After the dust storm, the rain may or not come right away. Sometimes it comes the next day. The other night, we were all snug in our cots, but the wind was blowing and the air smelled like rain. So I kept waking up and looking at the sky. One time I woke up and the sky was orange. I looked over at our friend’s cot next to us and she was rolling up her mosquito net. She looked at me and said, “Get up.” So I woke Crystal up and we folded up our cots and ran inside just before the dust storm hit. About 20 minutes after the dust storm passed, she told us we could all go back outside because it wasn’t raining. We were glad to go outside because it was very hot inside. Because of the weather, it was nice and cool outside. They laid a mat on the ground for us and we rolled our cot mattresses on it and tucked in the mosquito net. We were sleeping very comfortably in the cool weather when I woke up and felt rain drops. I woke Crystal up again and told her it was raining. We started to pack up again and our friend woke up and started laughing and we were all laughing as we ran back inside just before the rain hit! Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep that night, but the weather was so nice and cool the next day! Which also made for a very cold shower that morning. ;)
We’ve also completed our first week of language classes. Whew! Our brains hurt! Lol We have 3 weeks left of language learning and our homestay before we go to the village. By the time we get there, we should be able to have a good conversation with a comfortable flow. Between our language teacher and our homestay family, we are learning a lot, and they won’t let us revert back to English! We have to find a way around our limited vocabulary to answer questions. It’s really good for us and it helps us to try and think in Zarma. Our orientation supervisor told us that for a while we were going to be like 2 year olds because we were learning a culture and learning a language. We have to have people teach us and correct us like parents have to do with toddlers. It makes sense, but I realized that real 2 year olds have it a bit easier: 2 year olds don’t already have a set vocabulary and way of doing things. They aren’t trying to forget what the English word is for something so they can remember the Zarma word for it. One word we have learned very well is “Anasara!” It means “white person”, and the kids holler it every time we walk by. We just smile and say “Fofo!” (hello). Now when the kids call out “Anasara!” we say back “Boro bi!” which is “black person”. They get a kick out of it and keep wanting us to say it again. The other day we had a large group of kids following us. When they shouted “Anasara”, Crystal hollered “Boro bi!” So they came up to us and were holding our hands and arms. They pointed to their arms and said, “Say color.” Crystal said, “Color.” They pointed to their arms and said, “No, say color.” So she said, “Boro bi” and they busted up laughing again.
Friday we sat outside and visited with people around our age. We didn’t realize at first that they spoke mostly Hausa instead of Zarma. They knew we were learning Zarma and tried to talk to us in what Zarma they knew, but we didn’t understand everything they were saying. We would respond in Zarma, and they would be confused too. Then we realized they were speaking Hausa and Zarma together! We were catching words here and there, and they were catching some of our words, but none of us were able to completely understand the other. It was crazy and funny, but we made it through and they wanted us to visit with them again, so we felt pretty good about it. We were able to have some conversation, it just didn’t flow nicely, but, hey, ya gotta start somewhere!
I really love being out here, but I’m starting to have cravings. Like, right now I drink powdered milk in the mornings… I’m dying for a nice, cold glass of vitamin D cow’s milk! And with the heat, I would love some DQ right now! Reese’s blizzard or cookie dough! Yum! Awe, just pure chocolate ice cream would be amazing! The ice cream here is $8-$10. So the craving goes away rather quickly. I’ll probly break down around August or September and get some. I don’t know, we’ll see. Oh, and iced tea, not hot tea. It’s hard drinking hot tea when it’s 115 degrees, lol. The funny thing is though, I LOVE black-eyed peas, but I don’t have them a lot in the States. So, I actually crave them a lot. On the plane over here I thought, “I won’t be able to buy black-eyed peas or grits!” Well, I’ve had black-eyed peas at least twice a week, and oh, man! I love it! And we found out that our supervisors brought a LOT of grits with them because he loves them too. They brought so many that they haven’t gone through them all in the 2 ½ years they’ve been here. So they said I could have some grits. J
I think food is the only American thing I’m missing right now, because I get to be outside all the time. We hang out outside, go walking, eat outside and sleep outside. And even though our language learning is in a building, the doors are wide open and the table is right by the doors, so we basically have class outside. And being outside means there are kids and animals everywhere! My two absolute favorites! Crystal makes fun of me because of all my animal pics. And I can name most of the animals in Zarma! I do miss dogs though. The dogs here are all wild, and people don’t like dogs at all. They eat livestock and are not pets. So the only dog I’ve been able to pet is our director’s German Shepherd. But our homestay family has a cat who likes to play and cuddle and catch lizards and mice.
Heehee there were 2 little boys Friday that would peek into the door of our gate and either stare at us or say “Anasara!” and giggle and run away. So we started playing peek-a-boo with them and peeking our heads around the other side of the door and they’d run away and giggle and come back. One of them was really brave and would come really close to us before running away. Sometimes he would walk into the compound and walk to the other side. As he would walk by, he would turn his head and not look at us, and just before he would get on the other side of the building, he would quick look, then walk faster cause we were looking at him. A few times he crawled under the bench we were sitting on and we would tickle him. He would squirm and giggle, but he scampered away rather slowly… he wasn’t in a hurry to run away. He’s been walking back and forth in the compound the last few days. He makes us laugh. We know his name too, so when we call to him he grins and runs away.
We’re getting anxious to head out to our village and start the literacy training, but we are enjoying our time here as well. We started our 2nd week of language learning today, which means we only have 2 Mondays left! Today was hard starting out; we were tired and our brains weren’t quite ready for language study. But he had a lighter load for us today, so that was nice. Tomorrow we should be ready to dive right in! We are doing pretty well when it comes to conversations, we just have to think about it or ask people to repeat themselves. It’s especially hard when they throw in a new word! And it helps when they use hand gestures Lol
The heat isn’t too bad; either that or I’m getting used to it. I really don’t know what the temperature’s been, but I don’t really want to know. We bathe 3 times a day. Once in the morning after we wake up, once in the afternoon after naptime, and once in the evening. It’s nice because we can rinse all that sweat and dirt off and feel refreshed throughout the day. At first they used to carry the water bucket in for us; I think they thought we were fragile because they carried everything for us. I just giggled to myself because I had to carry two of those water buckets at one time to water my horse twice a day in the winter Lol.
Yesterday we made lunch, which was mo (rice) and foy (sauce). The foy is a tomato-like sauce, but mixed with peanut butter! Don't make an "ick face", I promise it's really good! It's sounds wierd, but it's amazing! :)
Well, I hope everything is going well back home. We have heard some news and are thinking about those a lot. It would be nice to hear some happy news about our country, so if you’ve got any, please let me know! You are yall in my thoughts daily and I miss you all! Wish yall could be here to share all this with! Take care!

Stories, Stories, Stories!

Ok, we've been here for a week and it already feels like we've been here a long time! But it's not a bad thing, we've just been doing a lot! Each team has been to 2 different markets with our outstanding guide. He tests us on our language and taxi skills, and especially our math skills while using cfa. One market is a little more low key, meaning there aren't beggars following you everywhere. The other one has more activity and beggars are everywhere. The beggars aren't what everyone normally thinks. Sometimes you can say "no" once and they move on to someone else. Others you have to say it a few times, but if you keep walking they eventually move on. We still don't understand what the guys are saying when we pass by, but I figured I'm going to miss being ignorant when I finally know the language enough to understand what they're saying. Lol Right now, I can just say "no" because it works for whatever they are saying. "No, I don't have money. No, I won't marry you. No, I'm not French." That's another thing I didn't expect here. I really thought everyone would assume we were Americans, but everyone tries to speak French to us! None of us know French! It's funny, cause for some of them, we know as much as they do, which is only "Bonjour!" Crystal and I met a group of kids playing yesterday and they all stopped to wave at us and say hello. They started with bonjour, but one little boy said "Hey!" Finally, an American greeting! Haha It was cute, so of course we said "hey" back. ;)
Yesterday evening we got to venture out on our own to the market without our guide... But we made it! We even bargained a little, and we basically did it without using the language, cause we just don't have the language down. And in the market are all kinds of people from the different tribes, so whatever words we do know aren't guaranteed to be understood by everyone. The first place we went to was a grocery store that we had gone to before, but unfortunately it was closed when we got there. We started to cross the street, but all of these men who had things to sell crowded around us and said, "Come! Come!" So we went with the crowd, and I ended up playing a game of mancala with one of them. I tried not to at first so we could just keep walking and go to the market instead, but while the girls stopped to look at the earrings, I went ahead and played the game. We were getting to the end of the game (not sure if I was winning or not), when the girls came up and said, "We're leaving right now." Apparently they were having a stressful time cause everyone was trying to sell them everything, and there I was playing a game! The poor guy probly thought I was going to buy it, but they were asking more than what we had to spend. I've been wanting to buy one anyway, so I'll look for him the next time we're on that corner. After that we found a store where we could buy a coke. The guy that helped us was around our age and knew some english so we were able to visit with him while we drank our cokes. Then he said he had a song to play for us. It was an American rap song about our president. We laughed, but it was fun hearing American music for a change.
The other day we practiced carrying water on our heads. It looks simple enough... but it's not as easy as it looks at first Lol Lifting the huge bucket off the ground and onto your head gets you a little wet. Then if the water hasn't finished sloshing before you start walking, gets you a little more wet. But we got our water in the barrel and filled it. We actually didn't spill a lot of water. We used that water for our bucket baths the next night. That was intersting too. But easy. We each used a half bucket or less of water to wash our hair and everything else! Yes, ladies, it's totally possible!
Our orientation leader decided we should use the latrine out back (a.k.a the nice little hole) to go to the bathroom for a couple days... After the 2nd day she gave us the plastic teapot I told yall about so we could clean ourselves (instead of using toilet paper) and to wash our hands. I will tell more of those stories later... ;) I will say that accomplishing this feat made me feel like a 3 yr old on those pull-ups commercials, "Mommy, Mommy! I'm a big kid now!" Lol
We will be going to our homestays next weekend where we will start our in-depth language learning and cultural learning that is more true to our village. Right now we are growing accustomed to the city life. Thus the reason for all the training with the water and the "hole." We'll be staying with a family who will speak only Zarma with us and show us how to wash our clothes, cook, and master carrying water on our heads. Our language teacher will start teaching us then as well. We'll be there for about a month, then we will head to our village and settle in to our hut. We're anxious to just be settled and be in our home and around our neighbors. Along with the goat we plan to buy, we're going to plant a garden too. The women in our village garden, so we thought that would be a good way to get to know them and they can help us too. That will also help in learning the language as well. Anything we can think of to build relationships with them, we are going to try. Even just going to fetch water will bring opportunities to get to know the women better. There's a water pump that everyone goes to, so you have to wait in line for your turn at the pump, so there will be plenty of time for visiting.
Well, I will end here for now. Hopefully we'll be able to get online next weekend and give you one more update before we head to the village! If not, then I will have some homestay stories as well!
Thank you for all your support and getting us here!

First Day!

Well, we are finally here! The plane rides and layovers were so long, the layovers way longer than the plane rides. But it worked out because we were exhausted when we got here so we were able to sleep through till the morning, even though in the states we would have still been up. It's a 6 hour difference here from central time.
Yesterday we started right in on observing the culture. Two friends from the University came and were our guides for the day. Lindsay and I were paired up, and our guide took us to spend a good part of the day with his family. They prepare food and cook all day long. They make extra so they can sell it in the evenings. There are 13 children in his family. He was quite surpised when we told him that Lindsay had only 2 siblings and I only had 1!
His mother had a large bucket of corn that she was preparing. She would rub the kernals with her fingers to get the loose stuff off of it (I don't know what it's called; like chafe?), then she would scoop it into a flat dish with a lip on it and separate the corn from the chafe stuff. Then she would flip the plate up so the chafe would fall off the plate into a bowl; she never lost a corn kernal. She was diligent and fast with it that the chafe was the only thing that spilled off the plate, no matter how close the corn got to the edge! All the extra stuff that they didn't use in the cooking went to the animals. They had a few goats and a couple cows.
The cows here a brauma, and like the goats, they just walk around freely. The goats will come home on their own in the evening. The first day you have a goat, you're sposed to show him where his home is. The next day, you go and get him when it's time to come home and show him where home is. Everyday after that, he goes home by himself. I wish all animals were like that! Goats and sheep look the same here. You will think all you see are goats, but you are also looking at sheep. To tell the difference, you have to look at the tail. Sheep tails go down, goat tails go up. Once I get some goat and sheep pics posted, you'll know what I mean. I guarentee you won't notice the sheep without looking at the tails. Lol
Crystal and I are going to get a goat when we get to the village so we'll have milk. We can also give the milk to our neighbors and to mothers with little kids. We have to milk it everyday, so we'll have extra to share since it's just the 2 of us. We'll probly learn how to make butter too, which would be awesome!
We got a few proposals yesterday. Each time, our guide would just laugh and tell us, "There's another.... and another..." Right now it's hard to tell the difference between a proposal, a greeting, or asking for money. We drove through the market, and people were coming to the window trying to sell things (like phone cards and such). One guy was sitting on a skateboard and rolled up to my window. I thought he wanted money, so I just kept saying no every time he said something. When our taxi drove forward again, the guy said something as we left. Our guide laughed and asked if I understood. I asked if he had wanted money, and he laughed again and said, "He said he'd be waiting right here for you when you came back! He wants to marry you!"
They eat with their hands here too. You scoop it up and throw it in your mouth. Lyndsay and I didn't experinence this yesterday, but the other girls did, and it sounded like a sight to see!
The heat isn't too bad yet, this is the cool season. It's like Arizona just before summer hits.

The layover in Casablanca was really fun. We met a few people and played with some kids. They were going to Africa to visit family. One girl we met is a student in NY, but lives here. She helped us a lot, especially when we needed a translator when the shuttle driver was speaking to us in French and we didn't understand him. Everyone speaks French, so of course, everyone automatically thinks since we're white we speak French. It's funny, but now I wish I knew French. I never thought I needed it, so I didn't bother with it. Oops... The girl we met gave us her number and wants us to come over sometime to visit and hang out in her pool. We are going to try to meet up with her before orientation ends.

Well, I'm going to end here for now. We will have internet access all day on Saturday, and I'm sure I will have some stories to tell!
Love you all!