le 2 decembre

Today

I have...
- mistakenly responded to someone who was actually on the phone....in Niger. Some experiences are just ubiquitous I guess...
- (this is why I am an ass) preferred to have extra space, extra time with a chowandiko than have the all the trainees here
- started to stress (more) that I will lose ground in FR during these two weeks, even though I think I will take a big Zarma boost. This worries me first, because all the health care workers speak FR and all the med stuff is in FR, and second, in Hausa land, my only hope to communicate will be FR, third, but less important, Zarma has very limited utility outside of (southwest) Niger, but FR is handy in lots of spots, from Ivory Coast to Quebec. So, I went back over some notes, and put the FR next to the English...then got nervous that I wasted Zarma time and wasn't as sharp with the Zarma. Decided that, as many others have done, I will take the hit in FR if need be to really learn the Zarma now, then work on the FR more once at post depending on how much utility it has. Jam.
- perhaps made some "cross cultural (with FR/Zarma accent as my chowandiko would say it....this phrase is a beautiful mix of Eng and FR...in Zarma) faux pas (sp??..sorry Francophones), but not as many as yesterday or the day before. We joke that just about everything we do now is a cross cultural faux pas.
- (yesteday) OMG, I forgot to mention yesterday that we bought some multicolored pens at the market!! You know, the ones that write four different colors. This is perfect timing because I'm going over all my notes and had to hold a red, blue, and black pen with me at all times, but now I only need my bic dumi taaci (four colored pen). I'm super pumped about this and plan to buy lots more next market. Who would have thought we can't find good bread here, but can get multi colored pens.
- (from previous day) wondered how a lack of specific vocab, for example, medical techincal language, influences and inhibits Zarma speakers from practicing in their native language. Since Zarma is not taught in any schools, or maybe this is in party why Zarma is not taught in any skills. Trying very hard to avoid value judgements in cross cultural contexts, I still wonder if the language is somehow...limited in some contexts (e.g. medicine).
- noticed more and more how lots of languages borrow from each other and wondered how long it will be until most of the world speaks a common pigeon (that's the right word, ya?) and also wondered how long ago we would have had to explore Niger to see a Zarma unbastardized by Western ideas/ language
- (from yesterday) started to see some of the difficulties inherent in opening a site, that is, going to a place that has never previously hosted a volunteer. This was one of my (tentative) preferences for site placement. We've noticed since we've been here that people just kind stare at us a lot more and are slow to respond...there's a word for this in Eng I can't think of now. Ah, gape. People gape at us (thanks Mini) Basically, people aren't used to annassaras and we make much more of a spectacle. I wonder if this would make getting stuff done more difficult, but since we will also have some time of settling in, we might all get used to each other at the same time. I dunno.

I have not..
- decided exactly how misinformed our chowandiko is about AIDS and AIDS transmission. She also poss was confused about the cardinal directions. But, the main point is, like listening to a male volunteer talk about women's roles in Islam the other day, hearing our instructors talk about some stuff reveals how even the most educated people here have some very different views on lots of stuff
- figured out why we keep cutting our feet on sticks in the sand/ road here. I have two cuts in five days and another trainee has a few cuts as well. I have never been cut by stray sticks at the training site.

Another scene from yesteday sitting by the roadside. Some Fulani's (sp? another of the less common ethnic groups that have their own langauge) were leaving the market and heading back to their town and our chowankido asked how far it is, thinking maybe we could take a trip there. He said they said it's not far, but that to a Fulani, not far could be 10k. This is a awesome attitude....especially since these women were carrying stuff on their head (one of those things to which we quickly habitutate, but is pretty spectacular. The coolest thing I have seen carried on one's head so far were long stalks of...something. To keep it properly balanced, the women had them waaay far forward, since I guess most of the weight in towards the front/ bottom of the stalk. This made a long portion of the stalk going off the back of their heads. Though the physics makes sense, visually it still looks improbable) and walking barefoot. Talking to some more guys, we learned the village is maybe only 2k away. They said to tell them if we could visit since they will prepare bread and milk (we can't drink the milk...poss the cows have TB among other problems) for us. The Fulani are somewhat distinct in their physical appearance and attire. I would like to learn more about the different ethnic groups.