Pangea 2008

Have been in Niamey for about a week to work with the Pangea music/dance/theater festival that some PCVs have organized in association with a local music school (the only one that I know of actually). Monday was focused on traditional music, Tuesday was focused on blues, jazz, soul and funk, Wednesday was hip-hop, Thursday was theater, and Friday was the closing ceremony and concert. It was fun to hang out while some of our PCVs jammed with the Nigerien musicians. I wish I had more music ability, especially on guitar. Kinda a lame description of events, check out Will's page, he actually has interesting things to say; I just take pictures

Check out the link to my Pangea photo album on Picasa
Or
Facebook (with more pics of friends)

So in the week since my last post we’ve had rain maybe twice. I’ve played football once. I’ve gone to the inspection a handful of times. Nothing super exciting.

Finished “The Corner,” the book following people living in inner-city Baltimore; living the corner life of drug use, abuse, and sales. Good book, a lot of what I studied in College is in there and it makes me wonder if anything has really changed in the ten plus years since the book was written. We certainly don’t talk about it anymore with terrorism and elections and the Iraq war grabbing all the headlines. Though we really, as a country, need to do some real soul searching as to how we want to shape the future of our land. Do we want an institutionally entrenched underclass or are those who have willing to give a little to even the tables with those who have not? If not enough to achieve equality, at least raise themselves up to discredit and disband the economic motivations behind the open air drug markets; the corner.

Jobs. Real rehab programs (which need to include jobs). Improved schooling with support and real post K-12 opportunities, like jobs and continued education. These are the things that we need to be addressing. Why aren’t these things that any of the new presidential candidates talk about? Why isn’t there a national discussion on how to revitalize our urban centers from their post-industrial distress?

I always thought we should employ people from these urban centers to help rebuild and refurbish them, kind of like a New Deal jobs corps.

Though I guess the reality of the situation is that in a post-industrial America is that jobs have divided themselves into two categories: high paid jobs requiring high education and service sector jobs, tending to be low pay and with a low educational demand. To increase the ability of the service sector workers to make a decent living we need to increase wages and provide health care to protect everyone from the knockdown punch of catastrophic illness or injury, or in the case of my last book, drug addiction.

Plenty of time to ponder all this in much more depth, but for now I’d like to have another coffee, a main reason I’m rambling on with this issue.

This week is just about up. It’s been fun to hang in the NY, to eat good food and see my Annasara friends. Today I’m back off toward Gaya, though with a stop in the bush to visit a friend, climb his mesa, and hit some golf balls. Smart kid had a couple of irons sent to him and pays village kids pennies to go chase the balls down and bring them back. Should be a good time. Gonna go grab a bush taxi, catch ya’ll later,

JK

We're not in the US anymore

Feeling good tonight. Maybe it was the grand Guiness I drank with Okey, or the pork I ate for lunch (Malanville is amazing... ah, Benin), or the completely understood conversation I had just now while getting a post-beer tea and egg sandwhich... Or maybe it's that this place has really become home. I feel comfortable here. Not like in the US, but it's nice and safe, and puts me mostly at ease.

That said, let me relate my day and its expansion of the intrinsic knowledge that this is notthe US and maybe never will be anything like it.

Awoke early to a phone call from Kelsey. Always a welcome awakening and today like none other as I was excited (scared?) for her airplane jumping and especially excited for the 6 weeks before I see her.

Did laundry and then hopped on my bike for a quick jont the 7km or so down to visit Megan in Malanville. Nice ride; cloudy, not too hot. Only slightly drenched in sweat by the time I got there. The purpose: to eat PORK. Living in a muslim country (98% officially) pork is pretty much non-existant. I miss it. I miss my hogs and swine. Hence the early rising for a pork lunch. The place we went was nice enough. It attracted a lot of people from the bar across the street, and you'd be surprised how many people can be DRUNK by 11:30.

We did get to pick out our own piece of meat and eat it while watching the lucky living pigs wander around and munch on decomposing trash, happily unaware that tomorrow it couls be them we're eating. Note if you come: get here early or be ok eating fat, though PORK fat is pretty darn good-tasting after a 10 month hog-fast.

Over lunch I got some scarry news from Megan and the main recollection that I am not living in America anymore:
Apparently the police in Malanville caught five bandits who had been working the road south of town, riping off trucks that rolled through. After arresting them, a mob show decended on the station demanding the prisoners as it was believed they were responsible for the death of a driver. The police, fairly enough, declared the prisoners would go to a jail in Kandi, 150km South. The mob was none too happy, but left.
Now I don't know if it was an attempt to be sneaky or an attempt to give into the mob demand in some way, but the police apparently decided it was best to send the suspects to jail on a rented bush taxi with only two officers as escort. They didn't make it 100 yards. A reformed mob stopped the car, dragged the handcuffed suspects out and BEAT THEM TO DEATH with clubs, sticks, fists, and feet. Each was killed in a mob frenzy, save for the escorting officers who were apparently too afraid to even get out of the taxi and a woman apparently involved with the bandits, who was only badly beaten.
This happened not fifty feet in front of Megan's house, and had she not gone to the market she would've been there to witness the bloody scene, which was apparently so bad people were running away and blood stains were left until the next day's heavy rain.
It's been hard trying to explain to people why this was wrong. "But they deserved it" is the response. Mob rule. Africa is really in the hands of mobs. Mobs and those who can stir them up. Look at Kenya's recent elections. South Africa's anti-immigrant riots. Rawanda. The only places mobs fail to achieve their goal is where they're crushed or subdued by strong government and police/military support, employing superior firepower.
The concept of organized justice, the attempt at fairness, level-handed and level-headedness is missing. Blame it on weak governments and judicial systems. People will automatically consign the fate of individuals with little or no debate or viewing evidence. What good is all that? Especially to a mob stirred to a frenzy. Never mess with angry Africans mobs. Scary.
Safely back in Gaya now where only student protests have actually hinted at this facet of African life, though people in Niger have equally been known to beat to death people accused of thievery. Though in all fairness, I doubt this is an "African" thing as much as weak police/judicial/governmental problem. It's just that this, poverty and frustration, and heat all add together for a dangerous stew that can easily boil over here.

Ok, but really I do like it here and I do feel safe... that was just a little ranting about mobs. Even Italy has mobs, and they're fighting over TRASH. That's so lame.

Return to Gaya

Been back in Gaya for about a week. Had a good time out in James' village helping him get his world map project up and going. We got almost all of the painting done, save for the Pacific Islands. What a pain they are to paint. It's a fun project and one that has obvious and seeable results. The map looks great.

So today is a day that harkens back to Seattle: drinking tea, eating pancakes, listening to Nirvana, and watching the RAIN drizzle down constantly this morning. It stormed last night, starting around 4AM and it's now 8:39 and the rain has greatly slackened but still here. A good excuse to take a long morning, making a good breakfast and to have a warm cup of tea. I even took a break from my morning workout routine.

The only disapointing part was when my cat shat in my hamper because it didn't want to go out in the rain. Yuck. Not that my clothes smell great, but they didn't smell like cat poop. Now... well now they need to be washed even more.

Oh and the flies are also sheltering from the rain on my porch and they're never too much fun to hang out with. Too many of them.

Roof leaks in the kitchen and the back bedroom, will go talk to the prefet about getting it fixed.

Currently reading "The Corner" about inner city street life, drug dealing, and heroin addiction in Baltimore. By the same guys who write for The Wire TV show (So I'm told), which I've watched a bit of and enjoy. This book takes me back to the University days cause it's basically a sociological study along the lines of much of what I studied there. Makes me wonder how things are going there now. Cities in America have pretty much treaded water the past eight years as the nation's attention has become more externally focused with the threats of terrorism and all. I hope whoever is the next president will bring more light to the problems. More likely the democrats as Barak will have to pay attention to his black base or Clinton will have to pay attention to the working class base; both of which will definately have a stake in what's happening in the US's inner-city, post-industrial environments.

Definately, these places have to re-invent themselces as technology, turist, financial, service, and administrative centers in the new economic times. Seattle was lucky as our traditional labor hasn't totally changed. Timber has moved North, and Boeing is out-sourcing more and more work, but on a whole we're pretty well off. Better than Baltimore.... Detroit, D.C., Chicago, Flint.... these places are in need of jobs. It's a long book, I'll have plenty more time to think about all this.

Widgets, Gadgets, and stuff

So who would have thought that I would actually get more tech/internet savy HERE. But today I learned to integrate my blog into my facebook and to get a e-mail subscription feed set up and to be able to update by e-mail and to change my list of other peace corps blogs to list them by most recently. Wow. Thanks William Jones (he thinks his blog is cooler... but he does have more e-mail subscribers...) Subscribe to my e-mail list cause I chose to have it list how many people have subscribed and it's said that only ONE has, and it's me.

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"

Garden Greatness

From 4/4 -

So, I think I've found perhaps, if not my new favorite place, at least a new place to add to the list of favorites. After the mesa airstrip, the garden I visited this afternoon is a great spot to relax. Omar's garden is out past the Project Frutier buildings and orchards. Maybe 2km from town proper. It's mostly orange trees. One grafted Mango tree whose fruit I was definately eyeing, but after being given a giant bag of organges and tangerines I didn't really fell like asking for them.
Me and Ousmanne took a ride out there this afternoon; Omar's the president of an association that is meeting next week and Ousmanne's wife's group is going to be asking for a loan and he wants me to be there. Pretty much your typical white person can get things locals can't normally get. Omar's association is really a grouping of groups. They've gathered different collectives of work-based groups to increase their ability to ask for loans; power in numbers. Unfortunately for Ousmanne, I'll be in Niamey next week [where I am at the moment], but it was nice to come out and see this garden anyway.

This morning I had a little talk with my inspector. I've been trying to stay independant from the inspection, to do my own thing as I've always been accustomed to doing. I'd set up an appointment with the directors of my local CEGs to discuss getting English books, more specifically the 25% community contribution the fund requires. Well, after informing the inspector of this, he sat me down and we had a talk about how things have to go down.... yadda yadda. Nothing I haven't heard before, but all the same, this is the first time it's actually gotten involved with my work. But really he made some good points. Here it is necessary to start with the highest authority and work your way down. I made the mistake of going directly to the directors of my CEGs and I guess following that, the director of CEG 1 went straight to the people in Dosso, our local supervisory area, and claimed that he had already received 900 english and had kindly donated 300 to CEG2. He and my inspector have been at odds as of late. I guess the director was caught taking money from students, a no-no, money should be taken by the COGEs (like PTA) only. Don't know the story, but they are not getting along and I don't want to be caught in the middle, so I'll try to stick as strictly as I can to the downward path of Niger project development. I can see the director of CEG1 as a somewhat shaddy guy, he's always asking me what I can give him. Not the school mind you, but him. And where did all their chalk go to? CEG2 seems to have enough....
Anyway, I've cancled any meetings for the near future and will try to involve the Prefet and the Inspection more to try and follow the proper channels.

Today 4/10-
Another frustrating project development: I was denied funding for a conference I was trying to plan because my local partner was put down as the Inspection in Gaya, which technically is a national organization instead of a local one. So instead of letting me know this months ago when I submitted my proposal, my project was just left off a list of what was approved. No communication, even after multiple requests for updates on my project's status. Frustrated, unfunded, unsupported... un-loved? At least being in town to follow up on this and to do another conference on radio work gives me the chance to make blog posts

Watching the Birds

From 3/22-

Went out to my friend Kim's village, Bella Kujo or something like that. Took a ride out on a small, bouncy, and very leaky boat, one could say canoe I guess, to see the birds. It's interesting how the river shrinks down to a series of disconnected lakes during dry season with luscious grass lands in between; great for bird watching and cattle grazing. Actually, there were thousands of birds (and many cattle as well). Mostly these black water-birds. Kinda like a small duck/loon mixes. Saw some herons and even a hawk as well. Took a bunch of pictures; too many as usual. (And I found out later that I hadn't cleaned the lens of properly before shooting so I had lots of dirty pictures.... such an amateur mistake... grrr.... Guess that's all I really am no matter what I would hope to become)
Guess this has been my first trip into the bush, at least my first trip unsupported by a Peace Corps car. My first real bush taxi ride, though to be fair we did get an open back truck so it wasn't that bad. Shared it with a sick fulani woman and her two attendants (mother and... sister maybe?). She was in bad shape. Couldn't even stand up on her own. The bastard driver tried charging them 15,000CFA to go to Gaya (for perspective we paid 750 each). Finally he ended up getting 5,000CFA, still way too much. We stayed in the truck and made sure he drove them straight to the hospital in Gaya. Me and my buddy James both gave them a parting gift of a couple thousand CFA to help pay for meds, transport, etc., but it really wasn't looking good for her. Sad.
Happy note: Watched the finals of the local CEG football (soccer) tournament today. CEG 1 won, my closest CEG and where I have my French lessons. I was happy for the director, he's a good guy. Good match. Ended 1-1, even after extra time. Went to a shoot out, which was even up until the 13th/14th shot.
Tomorrow is Easter. Plans: Play football in the morning, go to church, watch more football, work on radio show, make Pico de Gallo, eat Pico de Gallo, maybe get a couple beers with Okey later. Should be a good day.

Follow up: Check out my photo album of birdwatching pictures. Fulani women turned out to be okey. It was a lung condition of some type, but I saw here sister a couple days later and she said the women was going to be ok. Good to know. Easter was a good day, Football and more football. No Pico de Gallo, but had some good homemade spanish rice like food anyway.