Fo Fo, Fo Fo a Nigerien’s Life for me!

[Date Palms of Gidan Muni]

I made it back to Dosso!  It’s hard to believe that I left a little more than two weeks ago.  It feels like was gone more like a month.  Overall, the trip was a successful one.  I worked with a few people at the national radio station and talked with other volunteers about their radio experiences.  Zinder is a very large city filled with mostly Hausa speakers.  It was actually the first place that I’ve visited where I felt like a total outsider.  Virtually no one spoke Zarma and I found very few people able/willing to speak French.  As a result I didn’t go out in the city too much.  I did explore the large outdoor market for a while and also checked out the artisanal center. The area surrounding Zinder is very hilly and the landscape is dotted with large boulders.  That was probably the most unique feature of the area. 

I also met up with my best friend from Dosso. He’s currently working on a project in Zinder.  We visited his cousin and enjoyed a meal of pounded sorghum with meat sauce.  We also borrowed his motorcycle for a night tour of the city.  Typically we’re not allowed to ride “cabu cabu” but no other transport is available in the city.  No worries, I was wearing a brand new helmet from the US.  We drove past the sultan’s residence (a more modern, miniature version of the castle from Aladdin).  We also rode through some of the old town.  Even at low speeds, cruising down the narrow alleys was exhilarating.  I’ll probably be re-visiting these sites during the day when my Dad visits in December.

There were a couple of other interesting things about my stay in Zinder.  Saturday marked the end of the first month at post for the newest group of volunteers.  To celebrate, Zinder had a pirate party.  I gathered a few articles for my costume as I stopped in the different regional capitals.  While there were no official judges, my representation of a pirate wench of sorts, got rave reviews.  Maybe I’ll post it at the very end of this blog. 
I also got an opportunity to watch about 40 minutes of Cameroonian television.  I was surprised to discover that virtually the entire 40 minute period was about Barack Obama.  A series of comedy skits joked about Obama fan clubs, easy access to visas after his election, and close family ties with Obama.  Following the show there were two serious music videos all about Obama.  The videos had the common elements of many African videos: men singing and dancing in western clothing with a sprinkling of booty shaking from the women. In addition to these familiar sites were photos and video of Obama.  It was a bit of a shock.  I had no idea that Obama had become such an international celebrity.  It turns out that musicians around the world are lining up to sing about him. Here are a few examples. BTW, I voted!  I did not receive my official Ballot in time, but I was able to send in the generic overseas absentee ballot for president!

Before I left Zinder I headed 3+ hours (60km, the road was very bad and the car broke down for about 45 minutes) further east to visit a radio station in Guidan Muni. I arrived just after sunset, ate and found a nice place to sit beneath a clear, moonless sky.  It was the peak of the Orionids meteor show so I caught a few impressive shooting stars.  The next morning I realized that the village was unlike most of the region. It was a beautiful area dotted with date palms and baobab trees with large mesas to the north.  The village has a large area of spring fed gardens that provide a wealth of vegetables year-round.   I took a long walk through the gardens and around a crocodile filled lake (I didn’t see any).  While the 4 hour walk was pleasing to the eyes, it was quite painful.  The fields were filled with sand burrs and some of the walk was through deep, scorching sand.  After removing hundreds of burrs and rehydrating, I headed back to Zinder with a dozen baby bannanas in hand.   I started the 12 journey back to Dosso the following morning. The journey started out with a guy puking in the middle of the bus, but luckily no breakdowns or delays!

Since I arrived back in Dosso I’ve been preparing for the arrival of the newest demysters.  A new AG/NRM stage arrived a few weeks ago and this will be their first time out of the training area to discover for themselves what volunteers really do.  This time I’ll just have one PCV.  However, I’ve also been put in charge of escorting several of the other demysters to their host villages. It will involve more car time but I’ll get to see a little more of the Dosso region.
Besides that I’ve been eating caramel cubes, soft gingerbread men and watching the movie Sahara (my mom sent me a package).  While Sahara wasn’t a brilliant film, it was filmed almost entirely in Mali.  It was a great preview of what I’ll be seeing in just three weeks on my first trip outside of Niger!

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