National football and a bowl full of....

Updated 4/14

So I'm now 25. Spent my birthday day, Friday, at our radio workshop. I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time, but as it dragged on to Saturday I definately began to loath going and thought of all the other things I could be doing. Especially for my birthday. But it all worked out. Saturday night we went out to dinner and then dancing afterward at a club near the Petite Marche. Good times. Me and my buddy Johnathan celebrated together (his is the 14th)
Yesterday, we went to a national football match (Niger vs Ghana). It's a qualifier for the next round of the African Cup of Nations. This time however they're not letting players who compete on foreign soil play in the qualifiers. They may even extend the ban to the tournament itself. So it was Niger vs the Ghana B squad. They won 2-1. See William Jones for pictures. Oh and see his blog from April 1st. There are some big things going on here!

First time I had gone into our national stadium. It was pretty nice. Very nice by standards here, though the actual pitch was a little worse for wear and needed new grass in front of the goals.
It's pretty telling of a country when the refs get riot squad protection onto and off of the field, the rival coach and players are applauded by the local fans and the home coach is pelted with bottles, booed and jeered. Niger is afraid of an international incident by having their guest referees assaulted (needlessly afraid, as they were also applauded by the fans). The fans love Ghana for showing a strong face for African football, but oh boy, don't you dare lead the national team through a long series of loses. If I were the Niger coach I would be fearing for my life. He's definitely not a popular man.

Forgot to post this last week so here's a little anecdote I thought y'all might enjoy:

From 4/1 - Though not a joke

"Today I was going to the radio station after passing the morning away at the inspection. A frequent enough experience that I know the street food on the way between the two. This morning I decided to hit up the one right across the street from the radio. No fried rice, so I got my rice and beans (with a side of macaroni... ) and took a seat on the bench to eat.
I ate for a minute or two when the guy next to the guy next to me pulls out a calabash with a woven cover. Sitting atop the cover are some rings. It looks like they could be made of copper or some sort of goldish metal. The quality is ok, but the bands are small, not very ornate. The guy starts calling out that he has medicine to sell. I ask what type and he tells me the rings are the medicine and out of nowhere appears this bowl full of wriggling scorpions. Well not really out of nowhere, this Indiana Jones type of scene of bugs crawling over bugs was just under the thin woven cover. Isn't that always the case?
Turns out the rings ward off the sting of scorpions. Though luckily if they do sting, you just rub the ring on the spot and it will go away. Best to cover all your bases.
So, to test this, the guy next to me dons a ring and jams his hand into this moving shinny black mass of giant pinchers and tails with visible venom sacks. He pulls out a good sized bug and I watch horrified and with anticipation as the thing crawls around his hand and arm, waiting for a strike. None comes and he puts the scorpion back. None too soon I might add for the woman who runs the food stand hasn't stopped screaming and telling them to put the bugs away since they first appeared, especially once one was liberated from the confines of the calabash. Irikoy beri!!
So by the time I leave, a couple of minutes later, the guy has sold three or four rings and has gathered a good sized crowd. Guess a bowl of scorpions is as much a spectacle here as it is in the US. I didn't buy any saying that there are no scorpions in town. Unfortunately a guy there who I know chimed in that he was stung in his house just a couple days before and that he was going to buy a ring and that I should. So now I'm scared of scorpions in my house, but that's ok, I'll take my chances"