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