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!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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)!
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)!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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!
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…
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…
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