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

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