 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
CIKIN
DAJI
"Into the
Bush" |
by Brett McNaught
© copyright 2001 Brett McNaught |
|
|
|
Beginning to Prepare to Get
Ready
Greetings everyone from the Sahel*!
I believe it is around February 2nd or so, but I
haven’t checked my date book in a few weeks. I do know that in two more
days it is market day in the village of Hamdallaye and Baliara just had theirs
today. I am adjusting to the simple life
frighteningly easily. I love the fact that life here is just down to the
basics: everyone lives their day within the company of their family and
friends. They are always upbeat and friendly, you greet everyone on the street,
friend or stranger. They pray 5 times a day, eat and go to bed. The women work
their asses off while the men drink tea and hang out on the street corner.
Allah described fairly in depth the obligations of the woman in the Muslim
society.
The village I am in now is Hamdallaye. It is about 45
km east of the capital city, Niamey, and is two parts Peace Corps training
center and one part African village - predominantly a mixture of the two major
groups in Niger - the Hausas and the Zarmas. The Hausas and Zarmas each have
their own language, and I am learning both, but focusing on Hausa because I
will be sent to a region that is mostly of Hausa background.
I am
living in a concession that consists of a hut made of a
 combination of mud, manure, peanut shells and straw. The roof is
made of millet stalk (looks like a cross between a corn stalk and bamboo). I am
sure it leaks like a sieve during rainy season (June-Sept) but the bigger
problem is that the walls dissolve, too. They have to build their houses over
each year. Welcome to the second poorest country in the world, only recently
beat out for that honor by Sierra Leone.
I sleep under the stars each
night, actually under a mosquito net, and it is beautiful. It is beginning to
get hot - around 105º during midday - but it’s a dry heat. It got up
to 152º a couple of years ago, so I can expect it to get a little hotter.
This is still considered “cold” season - I use this term loosely and
cringe in fear. I love having no electricity or running water. I still
haven’t heard who won the Super Bowl, and I don’t really care. I
don’t know when I will be able to use the phone, but I did find out when I
can email again - in about 26 more months.
It doesn’t get any more
third world than this. If you walk into a village and you don’t know
Hausa, the people automatically assume you speak Zarma, because they don’t
know there are other spoken languages. One village I visited had a folklore of
a giant manmade bird that one of the villagers claimed to have seen a few years
back - a plane dusting crops. The education system here is virtually
non-existent. The schools they do have teach everything in French, but the kids
don’t speak French.
Polygamy is common and seen as a sign of
wealth - the more wives you have. My host father has 3, the youngest being 19.
(He is pushing 60, I think. It is likely he doesn’t know how old he is.)
 A woman is considered more attractive the
more she weighs. My new favorite pick-up line is, “Wow, you sure look fat
today!” All the women want to marry me so they can go to America. I just
hope I start learning the language soon, so I don’t get legally bound into
something.
It is weird being the first white person many people have
ever seen. I can achieve rock star status by simply tying my shoe. Kids follow
you and stare for hours no matter where you go. Some of the other trainees get
annoyed. I just try to make funny faces or tell them to say a corny line, like
“Where my dogs at?” Hours of amusement for them and for me.
I
was so busy with work and classes and working out last year, I forgot to sit
down and take a deep breath and soak everything in. Here you can break
everything down by the minute if you want. No bills, no tests, no deadlines, no
paperwork, just living.
Well I better get going. It is 9pm and well
past my bedtime. The goats, chickens and donkeys like to get me up at 5-ish.
| * The Sahel is the
desert/savannah directly south of the Saharan Desert. The Sahel comprises the
southern 2/5 of Niger. See map at
(About Niger) for more
detail. |
Salaam Allekum!
Hey guys! I received letters 1 and 2 on February
5th. Thank you! It was great to get some mail finally. The first
letter you sent was postmarked the 4th of January and the other was
postmarked the 11th, so I would say between 3 weeks and a month, but
I think it really just varies.
I am still loving life and working hard
at my languages and other technical skills. It’s fun and very interesting
but tiring too, because I am always learning new things and my brain hurts by
8pm every night. Today I learned how to make improved cookstoves for the
village women. Less wood and hotter fires. We made them out of mud, manure and
millet stalk. These are the main ingredients of just about every building, as
wood is scarce and there are no other resources.
It is unbelievable how
the people’s traditions have barely changed for thousands of years, mainly
because they have no options. There is nothing here for them to improve their
situation. Luckily Peace Corps stresses that 2/3 of a volunteer’s job is
cross-cultural, and I believe it. It is my job to inform you about the culture
and traditions of the Nigerian people, and for me to inform them about us. This
will be tougher than it looks on paper, that’s for sure.
Continued on 2/20/01
I am back from my week long trip to
Konni. It was a great break from the routine at the pseudo village of
Hamdallaye. It was cool to see the Peace Corps volunteers in action and how
they interact with the villagers and work as a team within their group. PC
Niger is broken up into 2 main groups - Hausa and Zarma - and there are
subgroups of about 5-15 volunteers within each group that covers each canton
(county). These volunteers share ideas
and collaborate, meeting about once a month to brainstorm and relax together.
Each team has a hostel in the biggest city in the area, where they can sleep
with nicer accommodations, like electricity, and sometimes phones (e.g. Konni,
where I talked to you from).
The week in Konni was a nice look into
where I might be posted and some ideas of what I can do as a PC Volunteer.
Brett and Tony in traditional
clothing |
Tony is still my only friend in training
that I have really clicked with. We have fun talking about the other trainees
and playing ping-pong and dominos. I also met a girl there who is really cool,
so that was awesome and we shall see if anything happens. But this is Niger so
I probably won’t see or talk to her again for a month or so.
I am
glad you have been getting my letters. They seem to be getting to you quicker
than I am getting anything. I was hoping to have stuff waiting for me when I
got back to Hamdallaye, but no luck. Hopefully this week. This letter should
get to you fairly quickly because one of the PCV’s parents are in town
visiting and they are going to take our letters back with them and mail them in
the states.
Well I gotta go. Take care and send my love to everyone.
Peace out -
Hey guys! I hope everything is going
good.
 This has been a pretty eventful week leading up to site
announcements, which are in 2 days. We had Tabaski, which is the Islamic
equivalent to our Christmas. On Monday morning I went and prayed with the men
in my neighborhood. Then we came back to the house, and they sacrificed 12 rams
for the neighborhood. Every grown man and woman, if they can afford it,
 sacrifices one ram, and my house just happened to be
the designated slaughter house.
I was a little grossed out at first, but
after a couple, I started getting closer and even took some pictures. (My host
dad is the one wearing his big gardening hat.) By the 9th or 10th it
wasn’t even a novelty anymore. Then they skinned and gutted the rams and
put them on sticks around a big fire for about 6 hours. We snacked on the
intestines, stomach, liver and heart while the carcasses roasted, and then we
had sheep head and millet for dinner.
A lot of people I am training
with choose not to do the things I have been doing, but I figure the only way
to find out what the people really need is by not being afraid to be a part of
their lives and experience their traditions. Plus it makes a good story, and
isn’t the saying “Whoever dies with the best stories
wins”?
I got your letters #6 and St. Patty’s Day, but I
haven’t gotten 3, 4 or 5 yet. Now that Air Afrique is off strike it should
be clearing up. Then again, you learn not to count on anything here.
I
got a letter from Matt saying he wanted to come visit, which is awesome. I
wonder if he could bring me a lightweight 1-2 person tent, sneakers and some
protein powder shakes? My body is eating itself - I am down to 160 pounds. That
seems to be the norm for the men in my training - everyone has lost at least 10
pounds, but the girls aren’t losing anything. It’s funny seeing what
happens when you eat pretty much all carbs and starches.
Back to Matt
visiting. Could you give him a call and tell him the following:
- I would love to have him and his friend come
visit in June.
- Call the State Department and find out what
immunizations are needed. Definitely take Malaria pills.
- In Niger, wear pants, preferably
lightweight, no camouflage. T-shirts are fine. It will be 120º minimum by
June.
 No trains, no English spoken,
although many people in Niamey speak French. I wouldn’t try to rent any
vehicles. People travel in Niger in “bush taxis” - vans that go from
town to town. Bush taxis are kind of scary, but they are the only reliable
sources of transportation in the country. They take more people than a
Volkswagen at a circus, along with goats and chickens. And plan on breaking
down at least once.- A little money goes a long way. I can show
him a week of roughing it - food and lodging and transportation within Niger
for about $10-15 bucks, no problem.
- If you can help it, DO NOT fly Air Afrique -
a day or 2 delay is to be expected. If he can’t get to Niamey by air,
which he probably can’t directly from South Africa, fly into Burkina Faso
(Ouagadougou) and they usually have a shuttle to Niamey. (Other options being
possibly Ghana, Benin, Nigeria?) From there I can meet him in Niamey or I can
give him my region and meet him in my regional capital at the PC hostel. Since
I don’t trust the mail, tell him to send me two separate letters with the
itinerary of his trip to Niger, and whatever he wants to do, I will be there.
Just give me a date and a place, and I will find him.
- And last, BE PATIENT - you are visiting the
poorest country in the world.
I hope all is well. I will hopefully call
you before you get this.
P.S. I also need headphones for my walkman. And
I heard that if you pack things in feminine product boxes the customs
won’t check...
For all intents and purposes, training is over and
we are preparing to move into our villages on April 1st. I just got
back from a week long live-in in my village, Koré Hausa - it is the
bomb!
Koré Hausa is about 1,000 k from Niamey on
the eastern side of the country. I am in the south, about 30 k or so from
Nigeria. There is a lot of deep sand out there, but there are also oasis areas
with very high water tables, which allows for many trees and great dry season
gardening.
 |
I’ve sent pictures of my new house for
the next two years. Notice it is much cleaner than anywhere I lived during
college! |
 |
I hope everyone is doing absolutely
wonderful back in the states. Love you all, and I will write to you
soon.
“I am in the process of completing a journal/book of my first month in
the bush. To sum it up, the 1st month was exciting, boring,
exhilarating yet frustrating. The time flew as much as it dragged, and I was
relatively healthy. I have experienced so many things that I never even knew
existed on this earth that it is difficult to explain in words....”
| So join us next time as we continue to provide you
with Brett McNaught’s |
 |
(If you are not already on our mailing list,
and would like to be notified when the next installment is posted,
CLICK
HERE)
A note about Brett’s drawings:
 |
Brett was a
communications major, not an art major. His drawings are included here, not for
the art, but for the information they convey, which was his intent in sketching
them in the first place. We hope you will enjoy them in that spirit. |
|
|
| * Note: All the
contents of this portion of the site are copyrighted by Brett McNaught.
|
|
|
