From yesterday, the market is more fun now. Especially after going to another town's market, our market here feels like "ours" and the familiarity provides some comfort. Also, our language skills are way more advanced than the first market, a mere 4 days or something after we arrived. Yesterday for example, I was able to tell a dude I thought he was quoting me a higher price because I'm an annassara (his answer was over my head, but he was insisting that no, his prices are stable for everyone...so I paid his asking price).
Or quick convo's around town. Talking to they guy at the tailors about how many wives he has. Explaining to some dude why I only want some bread now, so I don't fill up before lunch. Laughing off some random dude's attempt to sell me a car while I was buying an egg sandwhich by saying he wants to sell it to me since he thinks I have money because I'm an annassara, but since he was the car, he's the one with the money.
Today
I have...
- woke up last night, caught a quick glimpse of the stars, and my first thought was something like "Who put glow in the dark stars on the ceiling?" Oh, right. I'm sleeping outside. I'm in Africa.
- planned more vaca options in my head
- two anecdotes to illustrate the minor irks of host family life for me: lunch time. We have two hours. I want to study during the time I'm not eating, like I did on lang immersion. But I feel torn because I would usually just hang around during this time, talk and play with the kids etc. My kayne (little, meaning younger bro) who ran with me, his name is Ismael for ease of future story telling, peaks his head over the wall and asks what I'm doing or if I'm going to play or something, and I have to reply I'm studying now but will play later. I'm in bloody Niger, and it's the same old story of me having to turn my back on people to get things done. I didn't have to travel all the way to Niger to experience this conflict. I'm thankful Ismael allowed me to study. Having the space and time to take care of some things makes me more excited to make free time to play, etc. later. Fast forward, coming back from class in the afternoon. I got up too late to bang off the 15 min of calesthenics in the A.M. and I know P.M. sets can make a scene. I get one set of pullups on the tree on my way in, as a small crowd gathers, then escape inside my booca to do core stuff on the dusty cement floor since none of the other options are that much better and will take more time. I am worried about being called or something poking into to my concession. So I have one more set of pullups on the tree. As partly an excuse to walk the few steps outside our concession to the tree, I say I'm going to water the garden, so then I have five kids watching me do pullups and watching me water the garden. They play in some sand outside the garden doing flips and handstands and stuff. So the whole series of events was sparked by me just trying to create 15 minutes of time and space to do something that should happen easily, quickly, and without fanfare. Or yesteday, (whoops anecdote three), when I wanted to just have a nice bit of time in the garden to see what needed to be weeded and pull up some weeds, but Ismael was waiting for me when I descended the steps from the site, I lost that gardening time, but was met with him running towards me to give me a big hug. So there's the tradeoff right there.
- had my thinking turned back on by a terribly organized session on superstitions and taboos. We talked a little about a "possession dance", basically an exorcism like thing practiced by people still practicing tenants of animism here and there throughout the country. I had lots of follow up questions after the session, and was real pumped to find that the answers I got fit with how I was interpreting this phenomenon. Really interesting stuff, but it's irritating to have a poorly delivered session on it, no extra reading material to dig into, and no one with whom I could immediately dialogue about it (did not borrow a phone to call the Jman) (though I did get to discuss in brief later). Again was a great reminder that, oh yea, that's why I'm here. That's my new phrase I think. Sometimes it's "So this is Africa!" and sometimes it's "That's why I'm here!".
- confirmed that wearing my USAT had backwards, sideways, or crooked is a faux pas and sends the message that I'm a bandi. Besides the fact that no one told me about this until two days ago even though I wear my hat at all sorts of angles all the time, this really sucks. I don't like wearing it forwards actually. Maybe I am a bandi.
- at one point today, felt I talked to much and listened too little
- as often happens, fears about the next two years danced in my head intercropped (toss in a little ag term there) with some of the reasons why I'm here and how my presence here benifits not only me, but others here and others at home. If, by being here, by writing letters, I can impart some lessons to Bella's class and help develop a class of more aware global citizens, if by diligently keeping a blog I encourage someone to read more or learn to use a computer, if by enduring this I set a precedent for my younger siblings, family, and friends, if I can build my family's pride in myself and our family, if I can (dare I even dream) make a difference in the small village to which I will be assigned in less than 24 hours, if I can emerge a more competent human being, then hopefully these gains will outweigh what has been given up
- (did I mention yesterday?) found an easy system to keep dust out of my keyboard when I store it
- eaten and shared lots of candy
I have not..
- captured the pic of the day: coming back from my run, right by the dirt road that runs by the Peace Corps building close by my house, two kids were squatting, going to the bathroom essentially in the middle of...well, not their yard or the village square, but certainly a public place. I beleive the sun was behind them, providing bright backlighting. I like the scene because I think many observers may shy find the scene provoking due to issues of modesty, differences in what is culturally acceptable, when the central issue, for me, is one of simply hygiene
- been entirely satisfied, for a few reasons, with the new class routine
- had a meal with my baba. We missed each other at lunch and dinner. Had good-ish convo with mama, but miss the fun fakaray with baba and his cousins
- easily or at all understood my mama talking to me during dinner. Maybe she thinks I'm awesome at Zarma now, but she talks (always has I think) way too bloody fast for me to catch the first, or any, time
- been comfortable with...well, here's the anecdote: the kids are doing handstands, roundoffs, handstands, some front handsprings in this sand pile, and as should have been anticipated, one kids lands on another kids face. The injured kid starts to cry some and the others are just laughing. They tell me to laugh, and I try to explain that it's not realy good when kids get hurt, kicked in the face. This is scary to me. In America, if kids laughed when others kid got hurt, we would worry about them. I don't think it's fair to transport those standards of normal behavior here IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY or IN THIS CASE because there is a very different culture underlying this seemingly disturbing behavior. But I haven't understood it or become comfotable with it yet.
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