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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
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