Handu Hinkanta (Second Month)

Another month nearly done. Ramadan is ending next Thursday or Friday. We’re still not sure when because it’s based on the lunar calendar. You’d think even where people didn’t have access to the internet, someone could still rustle up an almanac to find out when the new moon will start, but that’s not how it works. In Nigerien “cultural astronomy” someone must physically SEE the moon. They then report it to the Chef de Canton where there is a whole process, where they must have something like three witnesses and swear on a Koran. Sometimes this person is given a chicken–the preferred sacrifice for the end of Ramadan feast. (My family has already purchased two roosters and one hen for the occasion, and let me tell you, I can’t wait for them to die.) Anyway, once someone has officially seen the moon in Niger, they broadcast it on the radio, so often people find out the morning of Eid that it is happening. In preparation people get new clothes made, have their hair re-braided, get henna done, etc. It’s a pretty big deal.

For kids, the end of Ramadan is basically two weeks of Halloween. After the fifteenth day of fasting, kids run around doing what is called Tobey-Tobey in Zarma. (This might mean “rabbit-rabbit” but pretty much every word in Zarma is a homonym, so it could mean something totally different.) Basically, they go around to houses in the village at night asking for candy or money. Some just wear normal clothes and sing and dance, but other times the young boys will be naked (though some wear a little loin cloth) except for headdresses with long ears on them. They would have designs painted on them with white paint and pretend to fight each other with sticks. If the people in the house are asleep when the kids show up, they will beat the sleeping people or sneak into the house and steal things. So I guess that part is a little different from Halloween.

The rest of language immersion was pretty uneventful. We had class, talked to people in the village, and read a lot. Though I did have my first health problem–gundekar, or literally “stomach beating” so I’ll let you all infer what that is. And we had just covered the chapter on health, so I could even discuss all of my symptoms. What luck. Though I guess I shouldn’t really complain too much, since my host mother has malaria. And is still fasting. And nursing. (Well, actually, she used to be nursing, but since she’s fasting the baby gets ground millet and peanuts and water. “It has vitamins” my mother told me.) Even though there are specific exceptions in the Koran for nursing and pregnant women and people who are sick, those who still fast are seen as “courageous.” So our diabetic language instructor is still fasting.

After getting back from immersion, we had a Supervisor’s Conference with all of our soon to be supervisors. This was a little depressing since out of 33 supervisors only one was a woman, and over the course of the two day meeting, I didn’t hear her say a word. My supervisor is the Secretary General of the commune. The S.G. is a civil servant appointed by the central governement to work in a mairie (mayor’s office). The actual mayor is locally elected by the commune, except currently, there are not actually elected mayors since they were all replaced by “delegated administrators” after the coup. So all of these people will be replaced after the next cycle of elections, which are currently scheduled for April.

The meeting with my S.G. ended up being very helpful. The first meeting was really difficult because I could not understand a word he was saying since he was mumbling in Zarma and inexplicably always covered his mouth–with his hand, his folder, anything. I’ve never seen anyone else do that here so I don’t know if it’s cultural or just a personal tic. I asked him how many people lived in the commune and he was like “A lot.” And he kept saying that the village had “no problems.” I don’t know if he was just trying to reassure me since the last Volunteer left early, but I asked him what I was supposed to do if there were no problems and he just laughed.

The second day, I just blatently cheated in French (or really, Franzarma) and got a lot more information. And to be fair to his “no problems” comment, the commune does sound really amazing. I’ll be living inside the concession of the man who coordinates all of the NGOs in the commune. This is amazing because, a of all, there are (multiple!) NGOs and b of all, this will be an excellent contact to have. I’ll have electricity and as one PC staff member described it, “Fish are almost free there. Not totally free, but almost.” The mairie is also super high functioning–they actually try to follow their “Community Development Plan” (a four year plan all mairies write up listing their community’s problems and goals), which was recently revised for 2010-2013. People there generally pay their taxes (a HUGE anomaly in Niger) and they’ve been using the money to vaccinate animals against tuberculosis and provide free medications at the doctors office. There are several women’s groups, a farming cooperative (for rice, oddly enough), technical labor groups, a middle and high school with a library and a computer lab. I think I’ll be able to bike to Niamey or if I’m feeling lazy, I can even catch a city cab. Of course, there are also problems–lack of potable water, unemployment, women chose not to go to the doctor even though it’s free, flooding, etc. So while some of these are clearly outside anyone’s control, it sounds like there are enough resources in my village that I’ll be able to actually work on some projects, so I can’t wait to start.

Only three more weeks!