le 1 decembre

Today

I (we....our class of three) have...
- succeeded in buying masa from a roadside stand that is not a 10 min walk
- (did I mention yesterday) eaten this very bland masa with strawberry jelly making it delicious! Today, another trainee pulled out a habize (petit suprise)...a small packet of peanut butter mixed with honey!
- felt better, more relaxed about Zarma acquisition. Feel better in some convos even though I cannot assimilate all the new vocab that is introduced many classes very quickly
- succeeded in buying bread. yay!...? read on...
- eaten some bugs that were in the bread....jam. This wasn't so bad, but the bread itself wasn't that good and one peice had some mold in it. This bread is not top notch. Dipped bread in beans for lunch. Pretty good. Tried to pick out as many little bugs as possible. Bread hard to come by here.
- enjoyed sitting by the road chatting, asking questions, people watching...even if the Nigeriens that hang there were not there and there was a major dearth of tea (i.e., there was no tea)
- again been struck by the linguistic complexity (to paraphrase or misquote Swesch) of the region. A truck drove by with Arabic writing on it. Many packaged goods have a mix of English, French, and Arabic. While sitting, we saw some Fulani walk by on their way to their village. Their language is one of the less common, but it's possible one of us or some of us will end up in a Fulani village and have to learn that as well. The chowandiko with whom we sat speaks Zarma, Fulani, French, English, and dabbles in some Arabic. He said all the people around where we are now speak both Zarma and Fulani, just as many people near the training site can speak Zarma and Hausa. Even if they speak one language better, they can get spar in two. And this ain't no thing. This still impresses me, as I struggle to really learn my first second language while not lose my second second language (FR)
- shaken my head (or done the mental equivalant) when seeing seemingly old clothes for sale in the market that seemed to be from America. Another trainee said these garments can be trickle down from organizations like Salvation Army, that send used clothes, either directly or when they don't sell in America, to Africa. Again I ask, where are the local clothes makers? There are more "traditional" Nigerien fabrics on hand, but hell, I would not be suprised if these were made in China (like the batteries).

I (we) have not...
- been completely at ease during our 2-3 hours in the market, in part due to the 3-9 kids that followed us around for THE ENTIRE TIME, poss looking for money, poss just incredulous at the annassara
- gotten entirely comfortable with the way some kinds will run up to you, swing their arms out like preparing for a hug, then bring them into the body like they are hugging themselves, then do a half bow, then run away. Our chowandika says this is how they are taught to greet teachers. It (still) strikes me as sarcastic.
- come to terms with the seemingly intimidating Trainee Directed Activites we are supposed to perform over the next two weeks (well, now, week and a half). They are things like talk to people, which is cool when it's not census- style invasive, but some seem way beyond our abliity, like for the health volunteers, lead a group in making homemade electrolyte replacement drink or for the FARMs, leading a group in making cook stoves.
- felt guilty enough for wanting lots of snack food on hand at all times

"So this is Africa" picture: sitting by the road, a camel approaches bearing a man wearing traditional Nigerien long tunic garb and... a cowboy hat. Out of our compound comes a man, wearing the traditional long tunic thing and sunglasses...riding a motorcycle. It would have been more interesting had the man on the camel been wearing a suit, but still an interesting scene.