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
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Doggo: Peace Corps Trip
shoutout to sasyed, who's doing peace corps next year!!!!!
So this happened a while ago. in october the program arranged for us to visit villages out in the bush where peace corps volunteers were working.
we all drove east to konni, a town where the peace corps hostel is. the peace corps volunteers (pcv-s) use it as a local base to get a shower or a beer or electricity. we drove to konni in this large, air conditioned bus, thinking it would be better than going in the small bush taxi sized busses we ususally used. bad idea the piece of crap got THREE FLAT TIRES, making a trip that usually is 6-8 hours 11 hours. thats niger for you. if you look at a road map of the country you'll see that theres one route connecting the major towns. there are potholes all over it, and the bus was constantly swerving to avoid them.
on one of our stops to change a tire, we had used all the spare tires we had, so we had to wait for someone to bring more from niamey. we were there for probably an hour and a half, stopped across the street from a small village. there were kids there that congregated around us... i guess its not everyday that a bus filled with white ppl stop by your village, who knew. so we made friends. i had my ipod and my ipod speakers (best $2 i ever spent). we danced and sang. highlight: baby boy (beyonce) is an easy song to sing along to, because she just repeats "baby boy" over and over again. the kids loved it. some pics are on facebook.
in konni we got street food... chinkafadawockey and sweet potato fries (so good). we met our pcvs there.
my pcvs name is natasha. shes a healthcare volunteer in a village named doggo. the day me and leihana, another student, left for her village, we went to the market in konni for food. we were dropped off in a market town on the way to konni, where we got onto a flatbed truck and headed to doggo. there were literally 37 ppl and 2 goats on the flatbed. a little crowded.
in doggo, we walked around the village, and basically got to talk to a lot of ppl and hang out with them. natasha has a healthcare subject she focuses on each week, but that week she did not since she was showing us around. we would go around the village and greet ppl. they speak hausa there, and you never just say hi, you always ask about their health, fatigue, family, heat, etc. so it takes a while. im not learning hausa so i didnt't really understand much. when they asked me and leihana if we spoke hausa, we replied with kadunkadunk. which is really fun to say, because it sounds like badunkadunk.
we met a lot of ppl with cool stories. lots, so ask about them when i come back.
doggo. it has more than 1000 ppl living there. its in the boonies of niger. its not completely cut off from the rest of the world. the men of the village cant sell their inefficient crops, so they go to another country for part of the year to make money to bring back. maybe not the best way to do it, we met a man who worked for 6 months in nigeria and brought back 40 bucks selling bananas. ppl are really poor there. there was a lot of poverty there. lots of times the families don't ahve enough food to feed their families, and theres visible malnutrition. theres no knowledge of dinosaurs, planets, whales, and things like that.
a little about millet. i hate millet. its a plant that is the staple here in niger. they feed it to birds in the us. its not really all that nutritious, and its not really tasty. annnd it takes so much work to make anything out of it. you pound it, mix it with water, pound it, bake it, pound it, and then probably pound it some more. it grows in rocky soil. it just sucks because i feel like its so hard to live in niger. theres drought, and the soil isnt good for growing anything. on top of it ppl are poor and can't buy a lot. :(
on a happy note, when i came back i found out that 2 of my friends are getting engaged (not to eachother) ! shout out to you lovebirds.
after konni i jumped right back into city life. the day after we got back was really hot (someone said 110 F), and i was in a fashion show. the theme was freed birds, i think. it was interesting, i got to wear a lot of glitter.
love naye/ayesha
So this happened a while ago. in october the program arranged for us to visit villages out in the bush where peace corps volunteers were working.
we all drove east to konni, a town where the peace corps hostel is. the peace corps volunteers (pcv-s) use it as a local base to get a shower or a beer or electricity. we drove to konni in this large, air conditioned bus, thinking it would be better than going in the small bush taxi sized busses we ususally used. bad idea the piece of crap got THREE FLAT TIRES, making a trip that usually is 6-8 hours 11 hours. thats niger for you. if you look at a road map of the country you'll see that theres one route connecting the major towns. there are potholes all over it, and the bus was constantly swerving to avoid them.
on one of our stops to change a tire, we had used all the spare tires we had, so we had to wait for someone to bring more from niamey. we were there for probably an hour and a half, stopped across the street from a small village. there were kids there that congregated around us... i guess its not everyday that a bus filled with white ppl stop by your village, who knew. so we made friends. i had my ipod and my ipod speakers (best $2 i ever spent). we danced and sang. highlight: baby boy (beyonce) is an easy song to sing along to, because she just repeats "baby boy" over and over again. the kids loved it. some pics are on facebook.
in konni we got street food... chinkafadawockey and sweet potato fries (so good). we met our pcvs there.
my pcvs name is natasha. shes a healthcare volunteer in a village named doggo. the day me and leihana, another student, left for her village, we went to the market in konni for food. we were dropped off in a market town on the way to konni, where we got onto a flatbed truck and headed to doggo. there were literally 37 ppl and 2 goats on the flatbed. a little crowded.
in doggo, we walked around the village, and basically got to talk to a lot of ppl and hang out with them. natasha has a healthcare subject she focuses on each week, but that week she did not since she was showing us around. we would go around the village and greet ppl. they speak hausa there, and you never just say hi, you always ask about their health, fatigue, family, heat, etc. so it takes a while. im not learning hausa so i didnt't really understand much. when they asked me and leihana if we spoke hausa, we replied with kadunkadunk. which is really fun to say, because it sounds like badunkadunk.
we met a lot of ppl with cool stories. lots, so ask about them when i come back.
doggo. it has more than 1000 ppl living there. its in the boonies of niger. its not completely cut off from the rest of the world. the men of the village cant sell their inefficient crops, so they go to another country for part of the year to make money to bring back. maybe not the best way to do it, we met a man who worked for 6 months in nigeria and brought back 40 bucks selling bananas. ppl are really poor there. there was a lot of poverty there. lots of times the families don't ahve enough food to feed their families, and theres visible malnutrition. theres no knowledge of dinosaurs, planets, whales, and things like that.
a little about millet. i hate millet. its a plant that is the staple here in niger. they feed it to birds in the us. its not really all that nutritious, and its not really tasty. annnd it takes so much work to make anything out of it. you pound it, mix it with water, pound it, bake it, pound it, and then probably pound it some more. it grows in rocky soil. it just sucks because i feel like its so hard to live in niger. theres drought, and the soil isnt good for growing anything. on top of it ppl are poor and can't buy a lot. :(
on a happy note, when i came back i found out that 2 of my friends are getting engaged (not to eachother) ! shout out to you lovebirds.
after konni i jumped right back into city life. the day after we got back was really hot (someone said 110 F), and i was in a fashion show. the theme was freed birds, i think. it was interesting, i got to wear a lot of glitter.
love naye/ayesha
Sunday, November 9, 2008
for the record...
I did vote. emergency ballot at the embassy. it was pretty last minute, but im glad i did it!
love ayesha
love ayesha
internet cafes
So when I was in Cotonou, Benin, I went to an internet cafe. First internet cafe experience of my life, I hope it's also the last. I literally just sat in front of a blank screen for an hour, because the internet was poopy.
Also it was located on the top floor of this building that had a chapel in it.
love ayesha
Also it was located on the top floor of this building that had a chapel in it.
love ayesha
I'm bbaaaaaaackkkk....
Back from vacation, SO FUN.
Hey, did you hear, Obama just got elected president!
It was unreal being in Benin and hearing the news. We were in Grand Popo (seriously, that's the name of the town), Benin, at the time. It's a beautiful town on the coast. We were staying in this resort type of place called awale plage. Here's the website, check out the beach, it was so nice. Pictures to come, i hope.
Awale Plage
Anywho, so I was asleep in my BUNGALO (sp?) and I woke up to cries of joy. I opened my door and saw some students standing around a radio. I asked if Obama won, found out he did, I did a fist pump in the air, then went to the beach.
also ppl here are SO EXCITED that Obama is president. Instead of just yelling anasara, they also yell obama. there was a lot of coverage of the election, and we were able to watch cnn in the city to get updates.
so yayyyyyyyy
love naye/ayesha
Hey, did you hear, Obama just got elected president!
It was unreal being in Benin and hearing the news. We were in Grand Popo (seriously, that's the name of the town), Benin, at the time. It's a beautiful town on the coast. We were staying in this resort type of place called awale plage. Here's the website, check out the beach, it was so nice. Pictures to come, i hope.
Awale Plage
Anywho, so I was asleep in my BUNGALO (sp?) and I woke up to cries of joy. I opened my door and saw some students standing around a radio. I asked if Obama won, found out he did, I did a fist pump in the air, then went to the beach.
also ppl here are SO EXCITED that Obama is president. Instead of just yelling anasara, they also yell obama. there was a lot of coverage of the election, and we were able to watch cnn in the city to get updates.
so yayyyyyyyy
love naye/ayesha
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
vacation from vacation: Benin
hey all
so im off to benin tomorrow morning. ill try to write more before i leave, but i have a ppr due. ill be gone for a week and a half. theres still so much to talk about! like nuts softball, peace corps villages, protests and more!
love naye/ayesha
so im off to benin tomorrow morning. ill try to write more before i leave, but i have a ppr due. ill be gone for a week and a half. theres still so much to talk about! like nuts softball, peace corps villages, protests and more!
love naye/ayesha
Monday, October 27, 2008
names in the program
to give you some idea of other nigerien names, here are names of ppl in my program. apparently though some of these are super random (along with their nicknames i give to them, which they may or may not appreciate):
Naye
Saraki (rocky)
Hadiza
Mayaki (yocky)
Dulla (dullarrhea)
Tanimun
Bukaram (bukes, in her daisy dukes)
Tamumu
Hasi (hasinator)
Imani
Laihana
Harira
Koda (quads)
Salamatu
Romanatu
Dela
AREN'T YOU JEALOUS
i like my name so much that i might make naye my middle name.
kala tonton! i have class.
love naye/ ayesha
Naye
Saraki (rocky)
Hadiza
Mayaki (yocky)
Dulla (dullarrhea)
Tanimun
Bukaram (bukes, in her daisy dukes)
Tamumu
Hasi (hasinator)
Imani
Laihana
Harira
Koda (quads)
Salamatu
Romanatu
Dela
AREN'T YOU JEALOUS
i like my name so much that i might make naye my middle name.
kala tonton! i have class.
love naye/ ayesha
Eid in Niger
So i guess this is where i left off.
eid was a really great experience. i was really scared that i was going to be homesick, eid is such a nice time in boston. we actually celebrated a day before my family and friends did in the us. we did pretty much the same things i would usually do. stay up late the night before, wake up early the morning of, get ready, go to the mosque.
we went to eid namaaz at the grand mosquee of niamey. its a pretty mosque in a huge compound. the streets were filled with ppl walking to the mosque. almost everyone prayed outside (i think only important ppl get to go inside on the day of the fitr. important men that is. women arent allowed inside, which is super lame). there were a lot of beggers that day. i didnt have change to give out, but i gave kids sticks of juicy fruit. i think they were disappointed but thats all i had.
we came back to the cfca (my home here) and then after i went to amandine, which is this modern cafe owned by lebanese ppl. it has a really weird western vibe, but really good coffee and burgers.
after that i went to yazi dogo's house, he's an all around awesome character here in niamey. i went to his place earlier this semester for dinner. me and romanatu went and it was super duper fun.
then i went to my friend jackou's house, which was fun. at this point it was really hot in the day and i didnt take my eid nap, so i went home after a while and passed out.
at night we went dancing at this club called alizah (sp?). its on the river and they play really fun music. i really need to bring back music from here. african music, not the random music they like from my 1990's childhood (aqua, venga boys).
so then the next day i was SO TIRED and then i had to go to my community placement at 8 in the morning. boo.
love naye/ ayesha
eid was a really great experience. i was really scared that i was going to be homesick, eid is such a nice time in boston. we actually celebrated a day before my family and friends did in the us. we did pretty much the same things i would usually do. stay up late the night before, wake up early the morning of, get ready, go to the mosque.
we went to eid namaaz at the grand mosquee of niamey. its a pretty mosque in a huge compound. the streets were filled with ppl walking to the mosque. almost everyone prayed outside (i think only important ppl get to go inside on the day of the fitr. important men that is. women arent allowed inside, which is super lame). there were a lot of beggers that day. i didnt have change to give out, but i gave kids sticks of juicy fruit. i think they were disappointed but thats all i had.
we came back to the cfca (my home here) and then after i went to amandine, which is this modern cafe owned by lebanese ppl. it has a really weird western vibe, but really good coffee and burgers.
after that i went to yazi dogo's house, he's an all around awesome character here in niamey. i went to his place earlier this semester for dinner. me and romanatu went and it was super duper fun.
then i went to my friend jackou's house, which was fun. at this point it was really hot in the day and i didnt take my eid nap, so i went home after a while and passed out.
at night we went dancing at this club called alizah (sp?). its on the river and they play really fun music. i really need to bring back music from here. african music, not the random music they like from my 1990's childhood (aqua, venga boys).
so then the next day i was SO TIRED and then i had to go to my community placement at 8 in the morning. boo.
love naye/ ayesha
a formal apology
FOFO!
sorry i haven't updated this thing in a while, i swear i have a good reason! the reason is that i'm in AFRICA. the power goes out all the time and sonitel, the internet provider, has had some problems and the whole city was without internet for a while. that and im lazy.
but no more! im going to give you some updates. theres goign to be a few entries all from today, because im going to benin for 2 weeks wednesday. i know. its awesome. its like a vacation from vacation.
I ALSO HAVE SOME PICTURES. its so slow, ill try to put up more. im starting with some interesting ones of the city:
love naye/ayesha
shoutout to ppl who asked me to update this, that means you care (tear).
sorry i haven't updated this thing in a while, i swear i have a good reason! the reason is that i'm in AFRICA. the power goes out all the time and sonitel, the internet provider, has had some problems and the whole city was without internet for a while. that and im lazy.
but no more! im going to give you some updates. theres goign to be a few entries all from today, because im going to benin for 2 weeks wednesday. i know. its awesome. its like a vacation from vacation.
I ALSO HAVE SOME PICTURES. its so slow, ill try to put up more. im starting with some interesting ones of the city:
love naye/ayesha
shoutout to ppl who asked me to update this, that means you care (tear).
Monday, September 29, 2008
eid!
heya,
tomorrow is eid in niamey. i know you guys are doing it wednesday (icbwayland.org), so i think ill be able to call my mom right after namaaz and talk to most of you!
the computers were down, hence the lack of blog entries. i have class soon, but this weekend was awesome. for now lets just say we were out til 4 in the morning saturday, i got singing lessons from a famous singer here and i played some softball.
love naye/ ayesha
tomorrow is eid in niamey. i know you guys are doing it wednesday (icbwayland.org), so i think ill be able to call my mom right after namaaz and talk to most of you!
the computers were down, hence the lack of blog entries. i have class soon, but this weekend was awesome. for now lets just say we were out til 4 in the morning saturday, i got singing lessons from a famous singer here and i played some softball.
love naye/ ayesha
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
nigerien dish
so they have this rice and bean dish here, and you put caramelized onions and a chili sauce on it. its called SHINKAFADAWOCKEY (sp?). no joke, thats what its called. i like to randomly shout it...
love naye/ayesha
love naye/ayesha
cars
so there are a lot of scooters here, along with a lot of cars. most are hatchbacks, like the taxis... and there are soooo so many taxis here, probably 5 taxis will pass you in one direction in a minute, no exxageration. they all stall at the petite marche, and its a sea of taxis. then there are 3 varieties of toyota sedans that exist. then there are the random cars that you look twice at. like the one bmw x5, or the one vw suv, or the couple of toyota suvs.
but this is what makes me kind of really happy. they have one variety of minivans here, the TOYOTA PREVIA. and it only comes in one color, that sky-silver blue that we had when i was a kid. same interior and everything. and ive also seen a couple of party jeep cherokees! love it.
love naye/ayesha
but this is what makes me kind of really happy. they have one variety of minivans here, the TOYOTA PREVIA. and it only comes in one color, that sky-silver blue that we had when i was a kid. same interior and everything. and ive also seen a couple of party jeep cherokees! love it.
love naye/ayesha
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