
[Me and my dad in the Tal Desert near N’guigimi, Niger]
February 6, 2009, 23h40 GMT+1: Hello World. So I have less than two hours before my next adventure begins. I’m going to try to summarize the last two months in about that much time. Let’s begin with what I started to write a couple weeks ago.
Happy New Year! This coming weekend will mark the end of my first year in Niger. It’s really hard to believe. No matter where you’re at or how you’re living, time passes quickly if you keep yourself busy. If the last three months are any indication, 2009 will undoubtedly pass by more quickly than ’08. Since my last blog entry, my dad came for a great visit, I celebrated Christmas and New Years, and helped create a world map mural out in the bush. At the same time I’ve been serving as the temporary regional PC leader and planning out projects for 2009. Where to begin…..?

While many Americans have some difficulty identifying countries on a map, most Nigeriens can’t even identify a world map. Peace Corps volunteers often have a hard time finding funding for projects, but the World Map Project is one that can be easily completed. My friend Kaylee has a new school in her small village of about 800 people so she decided to paint the mural on the outside wall of the building. The first couple of days she worked with a few other volunteers to paint the wall blue, draw a grid, and outline the countries. I headed to her village on January 1st via an open-back truck loaded with at least 25 people. The short 16km trip seemed to last for hours, but I eventually arrived at the drop off point 3km from her village. We arrived after sunset so we walked along the path guided only by the moon and the occasional shooting star. We arrived at her hut and enjoyed some millet hawru with baobab leaf sauce prepared by her neighbors. The next morning her neighbors woke us with another bowl of hawru in hand. We made french toast instead and headed to the school. I had arrived just in time for the fun part, painting the countries!

OK, now time for the summarizing. The World Map Project went very well. I was surprised how many people thought that it was a map of Niger. I spent about 3 days in the village. The Saturday I spend there was market day for a larger, nearby village so I checked out the array of livestock and unique sauce ingredients available. I ended up buying a random sauce ingredient from a few ladies that enjoyed talking with me and brought it back for Kaylee’s host family. They weren’t familiar with it but were very thankful and promised to use it for an upcoming meal. That night I experienced my best bush meal ever, Hawru with Gisimo sauce (a salty sauce made from Hibiscus flowers). I unfortunately missed the unveiling of the long awaited Majid (my name in country) sauce a few days later. It was apparently the worst thing Kaylee had tasted in country. Lesson learned: Buy random sauce ingredients if you want to have a sauce named after you, but don’t stick around long enough to actually eat it.
Alright, so let’s rewind back to the beginning of December and the day my Dad arrived. The flight was due to arrive at 2am. We actually ended up getting back to the Peace Corps house closer to 4am, the perfect time to load up on some delicious homemade Macaroons made by my sister. I knew something sweet was coming so I was ready with a large glass of ice cold milk. I shared one with my dad and consumed the rest. Delicious!
I woke up early the next morning to run a few errands and let my dad get a little more sleep. That same afternoon we got on a bus and headed 3 hours to Dosso. We didn’t have time to do much in Dosso that day besides unpack. Of course that was lot of fun since most of what he brought was for me. Normally we would have rested for a few days before heading further east. However, I had promised my Nigerien friends in Dosso that I would be back for the Islamic feast of sacrifice, called Tabaski in this part of West Africa. At 7am the next morning, we headed back to the bus station to begin the 10+ hour trip to Zinder. We had a hard time finding a cab so we were only minutes from missing the once daily bus. Luckily everything worked out. We stopped briefly in Konni to pickup my friend Crystal who would be acting as our Hausa translator and we arrived in Zinder after dark. We met up with my best friend from Dosso, Aziz, for dinner. He’s currently working in Zinder on a temporary work assignment. After dinner we went to sleep so that we could get up at 5am to catch the bus to Diffa. At this point my dad had already been traveling well more than 24 hours since his departure from the US. The trip to Diffa was about another 9 hours. As we drove further east the landscape became more barren and sandy. We arrived in Diffa a little after 2pm.
Our ultimate destination was N’guigimi, a little more than 100km from Diffa. We headed to the transit station and found a small, 4×4 open back truck that would supposedly be leaving soon. So we paid our fare and waited. We waited and waited until the truck was loaded with goods to the point that all passengers would be sitting on top of the cabin and the highest supports. Instead of leaving at the estimated time of 3pm, we left less than an hour before sunset. Of course we still weren’t too concerned since our destination wasn’t far. Well……If you remove very large sections of pavement from the road and add several police stops, a 1-2 hour trip becomes a 6 hour trip. We arrived very late! Our host for the night was asleep and unavailable by phone! Random people were inviting us into their homes while my friend back in Zinder was insisting that we search out his Gendarme friend. Exhausted and a little frustrated we eventually ended up sleeping in an old building at the Gendarmerie full of light seeking birds that repeatedly tried to dive bomb us.

The next morning we woke up, splashed off our faces, and sat down with a few officers for a military style interrogation about who we were, where we had come from and most importantly why we had come to N’guigimi. Why would any one travel more than 24 hours from Niamey to N’guigimi? Despite four full days of travel and a challenging arrival in N’guigimi, my dad wasn’t ready to turn back! He’s hardcore! Eventually we met our failed host who had temporarily switched his cell sim card and located our tour guide. With our limited time and budget we could either take camels into the Tal Desert or visit both the desert and Lake Chad. We choose the more convenient option with the expectation of riding camels once we arrived at the dunes.
We ate some breakfast, drank some tea, and got into a truck just like the once we had been in the day before. This time, however, it was empty and provided more secure and comparatively comfortable seating. A little more than 20 years earlier the city of N’guigimi sat on the edge of Lake Chad. Today it is more than 40km away and is little more than a large puddle within the Nigerien border. The trip took another few hours as went through dense thickets and crossed large open areas of sand covered with thousands of snail shells. At one point I even caught a glimpse of a small deer. Before reaching the lake, we stopped in the village of Dooru and walked around for a few minutes. The first thing we noticed was a different mix of ethnic groups. While most of Niger is dominated by the Hausa, Zarma, Tuareg & Fulani ethnic groups, the Kanuri & Beri-Beri peoples make up the majority in the areas near Lake Chad. For the most part kids just stared at us and then hid any time I revealed my camera.

Eventually we made it to the lake. Like I said earlier, it wasn’t much more than a puddle. With depths hardly sufficient for a small canoe, locals make their living from a plentiful supply of tiny fish. From the water’s edge, the scene provided some dramatic contrasts. Apparently the water level was previously even lower which allowed trees to grow for a few years. Once the water returned, the trees died, leaving only their sun-bleached skeletons. Glossy Ibis, herons, and even seagulls perched on the dead branches while local fishermen floated through the water on giant gourds to collect fish. Small gardens dotten the shore providing a splash of vibrant color.
We made the return trip to N’guigimi, ate lunch and then head into the Tal desert as the sun began to set. Tourist information is very limited for undeveloped countries like Niger. My small Niger guidebook only mentioned the sand dunes of the Tal Desert in one small paragraph and I had been unable to find any pictures. We really had no idea what to expect. After riding for about 15 minutes a beautiful group of large white dunes appeared to the south. A few minutes later the landscape became an endless sea of pristine white dunes. As soon as we stopped I ran to the top of one of the highest dunes and enjoyed the final few minutes of sunlight. We made a great journey and had found what we were seeking. We decided to forgo sleeping on level ground and setup our tent atop one of the highest dunes. Later we joined our guides at the base of the dunes for a campfire pasta dinner before returning to the dunes for stargazing and some sleep.

The next morning I woke up at dusk and trekked around the dunes for a few hours. With minimal winds blowing during the previous weeks, the dunes revealed an abundance of activity. Bird, bug, and even snack tracks were easily visible. While I was roaming my dad took a brief camel ride. I probably could have roamed around the dunes for days given sufficient water, but our guides were ready to get on with their day.

We returned to N’guigimi and then continued our trip back to Diffa. Despite having poor luck with transportation during many of my previous trips, we had not experienced a single breakdown since leaving Niamey. We were overdue for some car problems…. During the first 5km of the trip back, our ancient land rover broke down or got stuck at least a dozen times. Eventually after making several adjustments under the hood with small pieces of cloth, we had a relatively uninterrupted trip. We stopped in a small village having their market, picked up some Kanuri knifes, got a great photo of a couple Fulani women and eventually arrived in Diffa.

OK, the summarizing that I tried to accomplish on February 6th was unsuccessful… It is now February 25th and I feel like I’m no closer to catching up. Maybe today….. Back to Diffa. We found a free place to stay thanks to the national radio station and woke up early the next morning to continue towards Zinder. We arrived at a reasonable hour, walked to the transit house and toured the old town. The old quarter is filled with traditional houses that are painted white and feature brightly painted symbols on the outer walls. The Zinder Sultan’s palace is also located there. Just before sunset we climbed an area covered with large boulders for a nice view of the city. Unfortunately the area was also covered with poop so we really had to watch our step. We met up with my friend Aziz for dinner. He introduced us to a sweet local specialty, Alcaki. A few days later he sent a gift of dozens of the cookies to Niamey for my dad to take back to the USA.

The next morning we once again woke up prior to sunrise to catch the bus, this time, back home to Dosso! The trip was mostly uneventful. We dropped off Crystal in Konni and arrived in Dosso prior to sunset.
There was no doubt that we needed a day of relaxation after so much travel. Unfortunately it wasn’t in the cards for us. Monday was the first day of Tabaski, the Islamic feast of sacrifice. Virtually every family sacrificed an animal and many families sacrificed one or more sheep. The most prized animal for sacrifice is a completely white male sheep. We wore traditional clothing and spent the morning and early afternoon visiting the families of Aziz and a few people from the radio station. Aziz’s family sacrificed several sheep. One was sacrificed for the father, another for the eldest son, and a third for the rest of the family’s members. The skinned and cleaned animals were mounted on a few sharpened sticks and slowly cooked next to a large fire. The organ parts are typically the first to be ready so the first day we consumed very little meat. Of course other foods were served, including pounded millet with sauce. My dad enjoyed almost all of the food. Although we had plenty of people to visit during the afternoon, we ended up sleeping instead.
The first day of the feast is a quiet one spent with family at home. The second day, however, requires that the cooked meat be shared with your friends, neighbors and those who do cannot afford to purchase an animal. Throughout the day I received a few meat deliveries and again visited a few families. Much of the meat was cut into small pieces and deep fried for conservation.
Wednesday was our first real day which afforded some serious down time. We visited the market and walked around the city a little. Thursday we headed to Niamey to attend the Peace Corps BBQ for the newest group of volunteers. A couple months prior a group of more than 20 new natural resource management and agriculture volunteers arrived in country. This was the week that they would be sworn-in as volunteers. The previous days filled with eating random pieces of meat had made my stomach unhappy, but my dad enjoyed the potluck dinner. That night we watched one of the volunteers perform an impressive fire dance and then we headed to the training center in Hamdallaye with the new volunteers.

Friday morning we woke up early to visit the family that had hosted me during my training. The entire family was happy to see us. They shared their left over Tabaski meat and even sent some back to Niamey with us. My host father was especially honored by the visit. After a brief stay we set off to find transport back to Niamey with my host brother Souleyman. He had never seen the Giraffes of Niger so we brought him with us. It took us a while to find transport back to Niamey. We eventually made it back and then rented a taxi to take us into the bush for Giraffe viewing.

We picked up our guide in Koure and drove for at least another 30 minutes before finding a nice group. Smithsonian magazine published an incredible article on these amazing creatures just a few months ago. Take a look. After the Giraffes, we headed back to Niamey to prepare for the new volunteer swear-in ceremony.











a kid took us all out on his boat. Albarkaize is the site of a bird sanctuary along the Niger river. From a distance we saw hundreds of birds but I wasn’t sure of the species. Eventually I determined that they were White Faced Whistling Ducks. Occasionally we were able to get close enough to take some good pictures. I also saw a multitude of colorful dragonflies. We returned to Ely’s village for lunch and then headed to the road to catch a car further north to Boumba. Just as I expected, we waited several hours for a ride. Several motorcycles offered us a ride to the nearby city of Una. Since it was market day there we could undoubtedly get a ride further north. Eventually a car came and ended up taking us all the way to Boumba for a reasonable price. We stopped by the lively Fulan filled market at Una and continued our voyage. We arrived in Boumba late but without incident.




Anyway, we returned to Dosso for an early Birthday pizza dinner. The pizza made for me was covered with 2 different types of real mozzarella cheese. I swear it was the best pizza I’ve had in over a year! My friends also made me a cake!


Hot season is back! Today it is nearly 40C. Compared to last year, this cold season was very short, almost non-existant. In less than a month I’ll be enjoying the cold life in Geneva with my mom, sister, and brother in-law!

Great update on what you have been doing! Shoot, when we come this summer maybe we’ll just have you plan our trip. A little exhausting, but it all sounds great.