http://picasaweb.google.com/ayesharabbani
love naye/ayesha
Friday, January 2, 2009
the final days
after tabaski, my experience in niger was kind of a blur. it went so fast. we went out a lot with our friends, had final jambey and dance classes, i went to a wedding, and oh yea, i had finals. i love niger. i miss it a lot. im back in the states, and its the first day of 2009. time flies! so will i post on this blog again? who knows. not i. maybe ill continue it if and when i return to niger, so i can have more interesting stories for yall. but this does not sum up my experience at all. there are no words for my experience it was that wonderful.
ill leave you with a video from our soirée, a performance from all of us that played jambey.
love naye/ayesha
ill leave you with a video from our soirée, a performance from all of us that played jambey.
love naye/ayesha
Tabaski (aka Eid-ul-Adha)
Okay. tabaski is the coolest, most gruesome holiday ever in niger. so interesting.
so in the us we dont sacrifice animals, for good reason. my fam just gives money to a charity that does it and donates the meat.
after our trip to ayarou, me kwads mayaki and dulla went to our french professors house. getting there was a french exam. we got lost and could not find his house for the life of us. oh well, eventually he came out and got us.
the families close to his house went into the street and got to it. all the younger men killed the goats, pooling their blood in a hole, put the bodies on mats, and just went to it. took off the skin, hooves, etc. i didn't watch the whole process, not really my thing. but once they have a carcass of meat, and no organs, they stick, well, sticks, through them in the shape of an x and everyone lines up their goats around a bonfire to slow roast the meat allllllll dayyyyyy long. it looks liek this!
so theres like 4 of these bonfires set up on every street. its nuts, you couldnt turn a full 360 degrees without seeing this in the streets.
all the organs go to the women. they use everything. they cook the intestines, kidneys etc, and even make a sauce out of the head and hooves. the next day the meat is cut up and distributed to family and friends, and served with tonka (spicy spice). i had pretty much every part of the goat that you can think of (including testicles.... only a small bit!).
what happens to the skin?? its dried out and used as a traditional prayer mat.
so all in all, i love tabaski.
love naye/ayesha
so in the us we dont sacrifice animals, for good reason. my fam just gives money to a charity that does it and donates the meat.
after our trip to ayarou, me kwads mayaki and dulla went to our french professors house. getting there was a french exam. we got lost and could not find his house for the life of us. oh well, eventually he came out and got us.
the families close to his house went into the street and got to it. all the younger men killed the goats, pooling their blood in a hole, put the bodies on mats, and just went to it. took off the skin, hooves, etc. i didn't watch the whole process, not really my thing. but once they have a carcass of meat, and no organs, they stick, well, sticks, through them in the shape of an x and everyone lines up their goats around a bonfire to slow roast the meat allllllll dayyyyyy long. it looks liek this!
so theres like 4 of these bonfires set up on every street. its nuts, you couldnt turn a full 360 degrees without seeing this in the streets.all the organs go to the women. they use everything. they cook the intestines, kidneys etc, and even make a sauce out of the head and hooves. the next day the meat is cut up and distributed to family and friends, and served with tonka (spicy spice). i had pretty much every part of the goat that you can think of (including testicles.... only a small bit!).
what happens to the skin?? its dried out and used as a traditional prayer mat.
so all in all, i love tabaski.love naye/ayesha
Ayarou
Ayarou is a market town up the river from Niamey. It is really close to Mali. in fact, the nigerien government moved the border so that ayarou is past border patrol... oddly enough.
myself, kwada, mayaki, and dulla (all french- 1ers) went the same weekend, with barke, a teacher at the american school. he was a bu student, and did the niger program for 3 semesters. he's way cool, speaks zarma, and knows sooooo many people in niger. it was such a great opportunity to go on this trip, i did things that i could never do if i was a mere tourist. we drove up in barkes four runner, which when parked always looks like a car ad:
Ayarou is right on the river, and the river is really wide at this point. There are islands in the river, which have villages on them. ayarou's a cool place because a lot of different ethnic groups are found there, and people from all over the place go to the weekly market on sundays.
we traveled to the islands on canoes, and tracked down some hippo action! they're really sneaky and hang out underwater. they bob up to get some air and then go back underwater. sooooo i just got some headshots:
everyone in niger keeps their water in these clay pots to keep it cool. we went to the island where women make these pots for everyone in a large chunk of niger. their island was really cool, and their homes looked like they belonged in a dr. seuss book:
At night we slept at a fulani camp. fulani people are hearders, and soumana, the guy we stayed with, herded about 70 cattle for the nearby villages. he has 2 wives, two tents, and thats it! its awesome. his wives are beautiful, and soumana was so nice to us. he built us shelter for the night which was way cool. we stayed pretty much in the middle of nowhere. the landscape was flat and dry, and you could see from horizon to horizon. at night i saw more stars than i thought existed, and i saw the milky way! it was so nutty at one point i woke up and i thought, well, im in africa. this is so cool. sometimes i had to remind myself. i woke up off mymat, saw the 5 other ppl in our tent, heard a cow munching on our tent, and then walked out to see the stars. so cool i will never forget that night.
the next day, sunday, was the market. ppl from all over came by foot, bus, canoe, to go to this market. we saw all kinds of people, including beautiful women in traditional garb. what was really cool ws that we kept on seeing ppl we had met the previous days visiting the islands. also i got lost so many times, but thats part of the fun i suppose!
love naye/ayesha
myself, kwada, mayaki, and dulla (all french- 1ers) went the same weekend, with barke, a teacher at the american school. he was a bu student, and did the niger program for 3 semesters. he's way cool, speaks zarma, and knows sooooo many people in niger. it was such a great opportunity to go on this trip, i did things that i could never do if i was a mere tourist. we drove up in barkes four runner, which when parked always looks like a car ad:
Ayarou is right on the river, and the river is really wide at this point. There are islands in the river, which have villages on them. ayarou's a cool place because a lot of different ethnic groups are found there, and people from all over the place go to the weekly market on sundays.we traveled to the islands on canoes, and tracked down some hippo action! they're really sneaky and hang out underwater. they bob up to get some air and then go back underwater. sooooo i just got some headshots:
everyone in niger keeps their water in these clay pots to keep it cool. we went to the island where women make these pots for everyone in a large chunk of niger. their island was really cool, and their homes looked like they belonged in a dr. seuss book:
At night we slept at a fulani camp. fulani people are hearders, and soumana, the guy we stayed with, herded about 70 cattle for the nearby villages. he has 2 wives, two tents, and thats it! its awesome. his wives are beautiful, and soumana was so nice to us. he built us shelter for the night which was way cool. we stayed pretty much in the middle of nowhere. the landscape was flat and dry, and you could see from horizon to horizon. at night i saw more stars than i thought existed, and i saw the milky way! it was so nutty at one point i woke up and i thought, well, im in africa. this is so cool. sometimes i had to remind myself. i woke up off mymat, saw the 5 other ppl in our tent, heard a cow munching on our tent, and then walked out to see the stars. so cool i will never forget that night.the next day, sunday, was the market. ppl from all over came by foot, bus, canoe, to go to this market. we saw all kinds of people, including beautiful women in traditional garb. what was really cool ws that we kept on seeing ppl we had met the previous days visiting the islands. also i got lost so many times, but thats part of the fun i suppose!
love naye/ayesha
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
homestay week: kwaara teji
towards the end of the semester, i did a homestay for a week at Binta's, a woman who works at our building.
she lives in kwaara teji, which is a straight shot down the road (for a while) from my building. i walked a block from our complex to grab a bush taxi to get to her neighborhood. it cost 125 cfa (25 cents?) to get there. a bush taxi is basically a van that picks up ppl along an established route. i think the bush taxi held around 20 ppl. the paved road cruely ends right before you reach kwaara teji, so its quite a dusty, bumpy ride to binta's place.
binta lives in a cement building with two rooms. in the front of the house she has a small enclosure that is lined with a fence. that's where binta cooks, and we hung out there a lot. binta, her brother, and her daughter mami live together. after classes were over, i went to bintas, watched her cook, learned how to make tigidigi (peanut) sauce, listened to the radio, and played a lot of huit americainnes (eight americans, i hear its like crazy eights).
throughout the week i think binta had a secret mission to turn me into a nigerien woman. i got henna done by binta's sister, binta braided my hair, and then at the end of the week she presented me with a nigerien outfit that i wore to the homestay reception. we were a cute sight. me, mami, and binta, all in matching outfits, henna, hairstyles, and jewelery. my nigerien family :)
love naye/ayesha
Parc W: weekend trip
from lonelyplanet.com:
Parc Regional Du W
What this excelent park lacks in animal numbers, it compensates with its wildlife diversity. Antelopes, buffalos, elephants, hippos, lions, crocodiles, hyenas, warthogs and over 300 species of migratory bird call this dry savanna woodland home. The 9120-sq-km park rests on the Niger River's banks, straddling Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso.
so although it wasn't really the season to go to parc w, we went for the weekend and camped out there and rode around the park for 2 days on top of four runners. unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures. i saved the film camera i brought for this trip, and i thought i had everything planned out. But the batteries it uses are CR2, which are the most awkwardly sized batteries ever. i brought batteries that were slightly larger but very useless.
i've never been so dirty in my whole life. the boys were turbinators for the weekend, and all the girls covered their noses and mouths because it was so dusty. we saw loads of antelopes, some baboons, lots of guinea fowl, and birds. so not really the most exciting animal wise (no elephants, lions, the like), but a cool chill weekend nontheless.
love naye/ayesha
Parc Regional Du W
What this excelent park lacks in animal numbers, it compensates with its wildlife diversity. Antelopes, buffalos, elephants, hippos, lions, crocodiles, hyenas, warthogs and over 300 species of migratory bird call this dry savanna woodland home. The 9120-sq-km park rests on the Niger River's banks, straddling Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso.
so although it wasn't really the season to go to parc w, we went for the weekend and camped out there and rode around the park for 2 days on top of four runners. unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures. i saved the film camera i brought for this trip, and i thought i had everything planned out. But the batteries it uses are CR2, which are the most awkwardly sized batteries ever. i brought batteries that were slightly larger but very useless.
i've never been so dirty in my whole life. the boys were turbinators for the weekend, and all the girls covered their noses and mouths because it was so dusty. we saw loads of antelopes, some baboons, lots of guinea fowl, and birds. so not really the most exciting animal wise (no elephants, lions, the like), but a cool chill weekend nontheless.
love naye/ayesha
Post trip: Andover, MA
hey all,
so i'm back home, and there's a blizzard outside. good ol' mass. after my benin trip, i got into a routine in Niamey. so i was just living my life, and i guess a combination of being used to life in Niger and knowing i wasn't there for an indefinite time prevented me from updating my blog much. oh and the lack of internet in the city, then at my building didn't help.
so i'm going to backtrack a bit, and then i guess thats the end of my niger blog.... or is it!?!?!?!?!?
love naye/ayesha
so i'm back home, and there's a blizzard outside. good ol' mass. after my benin trip, i got into a routine in Niamey. so i was just living my life, and i guess a combination of being used to life in Niger and knowing i wasn't there for an indefinite time prevented me from updating my blog much. oh and the lack of internet in the city, then at my building didn't help.
so i'm going to backtrack a bit, and then i guess thats the end of my niger blog.... or is it!?!?!?!?!?
love naye/ayesha
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
