Buh-bye

I'm discontinuing my blog. I never write in it anymore, nor do I feel the inspiration to take photos to post in it. I used to be proud of my blog, but now I'm not motivated to do anything with it.

It's okay, I'm doing all right. This is something I've been thinking about doing for a while. And now I'm on vacation so I actually have time to use the internet and take care of some business.

Au revoir! Thanks for reading.

Crystal

News from Niger

Things are looking up this week. I found a place to live and a new roommate, my classes are going well, I got paid so I can finally buy groceries and get a haircut, and I went Black Friday shopping. I'm not often in the mood for clothes shopping, I think it's stressful and tiring, but I was feeling good so I went to the mall and found a lot of great stuff. I bought a pencil skirt in darkwash denim. It fit and was only $18 on sale and I've always wanted a pencil skirt to show off what my mama gave me. I'm pumped.

Saw the movie "127 Hours" last night. It was amazing, though not for the faint of heart. It's about a guy who's out hiking in Utah and gets his arm trapped between a boulder and a canyon wall. All he has is climbing gear, a Nalgene of water, and a crappy multi-use tool (Leatherman knockoff) with a dull blade. You can guess what he did to escape.

I also saw "Burlesque," starring Xtina Aguilera and co-starring her silicone-enhanced cleavage (it was everywhere!) Fun movie, though.

I called my friend Darey from Niger. It was great talking to him. I asked about the cows (they lost over half their herd with the drought last spring) and his response was "They're there," meaning "not so great." He said they are patient and when the time is right they'll find a way to get more cows. Then I teased him about his braids (he cut them off last year when his brother died - only old men shave their heads in his culture) and told him I'd give him one of mine and he can attach it to his head. Then I asked him to drink some hura for me (millet with sour milk and spices), and he asked me to eat some American candy for him, then I told him to eat kilshe for me (Nigerien beef jerky, it's amazing), and he told me to eat some potatoes for him. He's still adorable after all this time.

Next I'll call the village to see what's shaking there. I am a bad friend for not calling them on Tabasky (The Hajj holiday) but I was working and also didn't have money to make calls. I'm sure they'll get over it. :)

So yeah, that's the latest.

Stressed

My life's been crazy lately. Some things have been very difficult for me. Not only has there been some bad and sad family news (my dad has cancer, although benign, and my aunt suddenly passed away), but I'm struggling with a new career and now I'm having some roommate problems. Let's just say there's been some miscommunication between us (ahem - mostly from his side) that has evolved into a somewhat sticky situation, and now I need to move out. So I'm looking for a place to stay, as always seems to be the case for me while I'm living in Madison. I'd also like to mention that the first session of my job is a trial period, so I'm not even sure I'll be working there next term, and that further complicates the housing search because I don't want to sign a lease for a place when I may not even have a job in this city. So should I stick it out with my roomie until Christmas, when break begins, or move out asap and live somewhere else for only a month? I swear, my blood pressure has gone up a hundred points in the last week.

Kitties and bags

The first week of classes was rough, but now that I have the hang of things (for the most part), I find myself becoming bored. I'm also living a very frugal lifestyle (read: I'm broke), so I've taken on a couple of hobbies.

I applied to become a foster parent for a cat from the Humane Society. I really want a kitty, but am not willing to commit myself to adopting one for good. I think fostering one would not only help a kitty in need but fulfill my cat-petting cravings without the commitment involved in adopting one. Oh, and sometimes there are mama kitties with babies!! Who wouldn't want a box of kittens in their closet? I meet with the lady from the HS on thursday.

I've also taken up a drawstring-bag hobby that I used to have in Niger. (Team Konni, anyone remember this?) I take colorful fabric scraps and hand-sew them into little bags. I've figured out a way to make them with no visible seams and with liners, therefore they are reversible. Last night I stayed up way past my bedtime making one. It's to hold my laundry soap.

Today my Muslim students were fasting and then, right during our reading lesson, busted out a bag of dates to break their fast when the sun went down at 4:30. Tomorrow's the big day for them. I gotta call my peeps in Niger and congratulate them on celebrating the Hajj.

Early Evaluations

We just finished our second week of school, and the students got to fill out early teacher evaluations for us newer teachers. This is so we can learn how we're doing and find ways to improve during the next 6 weeks of classes.

My evaluations for Reading 500 were good, which isn't surprising because that's my best/ most well-behaved class.

My Reading 400 evals were good, except some people complained about "all the writing assignments" I give them. Seriously? I consider a couple of 2-paragraph book reports to be not that bad. This is supposed to be a college prep course, and if they expect to attend college without ever writing anything about what they read, they're in for a BIG surprise.

As for grammar class, well... let's just say there was a big range of opinions. One guy complained that I didn't remind him to give me his homework and that I don't even know grammar so why am I teaching it? (a really good point, but I'm trying really hard.) I think this is the guy who misses half of each class and was the only student to fail the exam. On the other hand, a different student said I was her favorite teacher. So there. (ha ha) My favorite thing is that since these are ESL students, their grammar isn't all that great. "She not good teacher. She different, " so that just adds even more hilarity to what they're writing.

I am thankful for these evaluations and get to talk to my boss about how to address my students' needs. I'm also looking forward to some classroom management advice. My Reading 400 class is out of control - people yelling across the room to each other in Arabic, the girls talking incessantly while I'm trying to give directions... it's seriously driving me nuts.

A rainy day here in Madison, not that that's stopping all the Badger fans from walking around in their red sweatshirts. My roomie's out of town and I just realized I don't have anyone to hang out with. Hm. So I am chilling out downtown and doing "computer chores."

Still alive!

Wow, I have been really MIA for a couple months. I know what you're asking - "wtf, Crystal?" Yeah, life's been crazy.

I started taking my TEFL course in Madison, WI back in September. It was very intensive but super fun. First, I'll tell you what TEFL means. It's "Teaching English as a Foreign Language." It's what you'd use to travel overseas and teach people English. It's different from ESL (English as a Second Language) because ESL is for people living in an English-speaking country. You need a lot more schooling than what I had to become an ESL teacher. EFL is for people whose countries don't use English.

I had four different classes - Speaking Skills, Reading/Writing Skills, Lesson Planning, and Grammar. The grammar class blew my mind - did you know we have twelve different tenses in English? "I was going to," "I had been wanting to," "I had wanted to," etc. Wow, crazy. Every night I was swamped with homework assignments and lesson plans to hand in the next day. I didn't have good cell phone access at my home and no internet access outside of school. This is the point when I fell off the face of the earth.

Included in the Lesson Planning class was student teaching for two hours a week. The student teaching was my favorite. The school I was enrolled in is connected to a larger ESL school, so I got to practice on some of the students. I taught an intermediate-level conversation class. My students were from a variety of places, but most were from Saudi Arabia and South Korea, as is the norm at this school. They were wonderful and willing to work with me and my clumsy teaching. We had a lot of fun in our class.

BTW, the students at the school are in their early-to-late 20s and are studying English so they can get into a U.S. university. So it's mostly a TOEFL preparation program.

Then I got a job at the ESL school. Apparently they have the highest enrollment they've ever had, and needed more teachers. I started there last friday and have been working there ever since. The first week was hard. I know how to teach a conversation class, but instead I was given two reading classes, a grammar class, and a writing class to teach. Yikes! So I had to figure out how to teach those and familiarize myself with the materials and I only got 1-1/2 days to do it.

But I survived. My grammar class is the most challenging for me at this point because, as a native English speaker, I never had to learn the grammar that ESL students need to know. My reading classes became easy once I figured out the textbooks. And my writing class is my favorite. The students have to write in a journal once a week and I get to read it. Fun!

I've been making friends with a lot of the students. I have a couple of Saudi girlfriends and there's a couple of West African students I like talking to. Last night I saw "The Town" with my friend Ruqayyah, then we went clothes browsing. I taught her what "cougar" is and we talked about the differences between "f you" and "f me" (it was mentioned in the movie.) She's adorable and we had lots of fun.

I've been living with my friend Djam, who needed a roommate in his 2-bedroom apartment. I needed a place to stay, and at only $300 the rent is very reasonable. And it's a good location, next to the library, buslines, a Walgreens, and a grocery store. Djam's a great roommate who makes delicious African food and cleans up after himself. He also makes me coffee every morning while I'm in the shower.

So yeah, things are going well. I'm enjoying my life in Madison. It's so nice to be in the city again.

Bittersweet

Saturday I will be saying goodbye to my life in Grayling and moving to Wisconsin to take my TESL certification course. The class is 5 weeks long and I will be gone for no longer than 6 weeks, but moving from Grayling marks the end of a period in my life.

I will go from living with my wonderful parents and brother (and cat) to being on my own again. I've only lived here for 9 months, but it feels like forever. I don't know if there will be a period in my life where I will live in Grayling for this long again. I have come to consider myself a resident of this town and not just a visitor.

Things I will miss about Grayling:

• Living with my parents - fun, relaxed people, no rent, no bills, no grocery expenses. There's always someone willing to join me on adventures and to offer support when I need it.
  
• My friends - George and Lorna, my homegirl Liz, the Peace Group, drum circle, bank and K-Mart friends and customers, etc.
• The beauty of the area - tall pine trees, "natural" rivers (i.e. log-filled and impossible-to-get-through), crystal clear lakes, rugged bike and walking trails, Hartwick Pines.
• The lack of retail development - you really feel like you need less when there's less to buy.
• My darling sweetheart Juan who's stolen my heart these last couple of weeks. I will miss his beautiful smile, great sense of humor, and firecracker personality.
  

But small-town living ain't all it's cracked up to be. I guess unless you have a family, there isn't much here for entertainment. There's certainly a lack of non-alcoholic venues where you can meet other people, unless you count flirting with someone in the produce aisle at Glen's. I'm pretty excited to meet like-minded liberal free-thinkers in Madison, attend university events, buy ethnic groceries and cook for myself, and ride my bike for transportation.

Hello, Madison! Goodbye, Grayling!

News from the village

I just talked to my friend Issoufou, from Niger, for about 30 minutes. It was so great, it was like we had just seen each other yesterday when it's actually been over nine months.

We used to talk a lot, back when he had a cell phone. But he sold it to buy food for his family, so I would call other people in the village but wouldn't get a chance to chat with him. Now times are looking up and he bought another cell phone and was able to call me. I was out of town and my mom answered the phone. She used my Hausa-English cheat-sheet we keep by the phone to say, "Zeina is not here. Who is this?" Her Hausa's improving because this time Issoufou didn't have to correct her on her pronunciation. :)

Issoufou is doing well. Actually, the whole village is doing well. They got plenty of rain for their crops and didn't experience any flooding like other villages. That was a relief to hear because I keep hearing on the news about the famine in Niger, followed by flooding that swept away people's houses and ruined their fields. I was glad to hear that Korap wasn't affected by this. I was also happy to hear that other villages nearby who had had problems received food assistance from the government. Thank you, Niger government, for not forgetting the villages.

Other good news - his wife, Omeima, successfully gave birth to their baby daughter, Mariam. She and the baby are both doing well, but she asked me to send her some warm clothes for their daughter for the upcoming cold season. I spoke to Issoufou's mom, and when I asked her if she carries the baby around she said, "No way! She's too white for me to carry around." (some babies are very light-skinned until they get older.) Then I asked her if the baby has a nose (another thing they joke about, not liking a baby because it doesn't have a nose), and she goes, "no, she does not have a nose!" Ha ha. It was great having this sort of banter again.

Then Issoufou shared with me the story of Idi Buzu and his cell phone. He lost it somewhere, probably in the city nearby (Konni). A few days later he called his number and spoke to the person who had his phone. He told the guy, "hey, this is my phone you have. Can I get it back from you?" and the guy was like, "yeah, where do you live?" So Idi tells him, and the guy is in this village about an hour east of ours. So the guy promises Idi that he'll somehow return the phone. Issoufou relayed that they're skeptical the guy will actually return it, but we will see what happens.

Some bad news - this girl, Suyeba, had a baby but passed away during childbirth. Issoufou said the baby's doing okay and other women are looking after it. He mentioned that it's because she had two babies close together, like only a year apart, and it's not good to do that. The woman's body needs time to rest between births. I'm just glad that's common knowledge - now if only people would follow that advice and start using birth control to space out their childbirths. And if only pregnant women didn't fast for Ramadan. And if only there were enough food to feed all these children...

I gotta call a couple more people, especially on thursday when they celebrate Id al Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan.

Oh, and finally, Issoufou asked about Mandy and how she's doing. I said she's doing well, living with her fiance and working and stuff. Then he goes, "what about you? when are you going to find a husband?" and I said, "I met someone and we hung out the other day. I really like him, and we'll see where it goes." And he goes, "what's his name?" so I told him (translated into the Hausa version of his name, Yahaya), and he goes, "I will be praying for you and Yahaya to make it." It was so sweet it brought tears to my eyes.

Africa Fest

On August 21st, my mom and I attended Africa Fest in Madison, Wisconsin, hosted by the African Association of Madison.

I had been to Africa Fest once previously, back in 2007. I remember having a ball seeing African dancers, hearing wonderful music, and hanging out with friends. It was the first time I'd seen Djam's portfolio and realized what a talented artist he is.

Djam spent most of the day in his booth trying to sell drums.


His cousin, Aggo, is one of the event organizers.


There were tents with exhibits displaying items from different cultures. In the North Africa area, my mom got henna done.


There were some foods for people to sample, too. I was really excited to taste tiger nuts again. And I had some delicious yogurt mixed with couscous and a little sugar.

Tiger Nuts - they're crunchy and kind of taste like coconut.


I saw some cool shops with imported African goods. I recognized a few things. My mom tried bartering with a Gambian shop-owner for some perfume. It was $5 for a little tube, and I told her she should try offering $10 for 3. When she tried bartering, the guy told her no, then proceeded to ignore her. She would have paid the $5, but he wouldn't talk to her any more, so she walked away.


There were a lot of great music and dancing acts. These people invited kids to join them onstage.


My favorite act was this Igbo group performing a New Yam Festival dance.


Tani Diakite excited us with his beautiful Malian music.


The group WADOMA was awesome and had lots of drummers and dancers.


And this group played Moroccan music, interpreted by a beautiful belly dancer.


Mom and I made a new friend - Kofi, one of Djam's friend's kids. He is such a sweet little guy!


I didn't meet a single Nigerien person there, though I did find one guy who spoke Hausa and got a picture with the Niger flag.


Afterwards, mom, Djam and I went out for pizza. Mom and I split a pitcher of beer and got a little loopy before heading back to our hotel for the night. Overall, Africa Fest was a great time and I can't wait to go again next year.

Food delivered to Teyiss

I received an email from Darey along with some pictures from when the NGO RAIN delivered food to his village, Teyiss.

This year has been tough for the people of Niger. Not only has there been famine for the people, but their animals have been dying from starvation. Animals mean everything to Wodaabe people - they spend their lives caring for their herds of cattle, which are then passed down to the next generation. This year Darey's family lost 1/3 of their herd.



The remaining animals aren't doing so hot, either but Darey says they are slowly recovering now that the rains have come.


The bad thing about rainy season is that mosquitoes multiply and people contract malaria. This is especially dangerous for kids, and the problem is compounded when the kids are malnourished.


The people of RAIN have started meeting with the people of Teyiss to see what their needs are and to figure out how to start working with them.


They also brought them 12 sacks of millet and 8 bottles of vegetable oil. Wow! (Darey's the guy in the orange with the gray turban)


Click here to donate some money to RAIN and continue helping the people of Niger.

Farm fun

Today's been a long day. I did a lot of things:

My mom and I went to her friend's house, a guy who keeps a really nice little farm, even on our poor, sandy Grayling soil.



I got to pet his friendly chicken...


And we played with his nice little dog, Princess.


He cut us some collard greens...


Dug up red potatoes...


And gave us some corn. We had a great time!


Tonight my mom, our friend Cathy and I processed the collard greens. It took forever. We washed, sliced, blanched and packaged them into freezer bags.


Also today we visited my friends Patrick and Abbey's house to pick up some sourdough bread starter. Patrick made his own starter using the wild yeast found on blueberries. Right now we have some dough made and it's hanging out in the fridge until tomorrow morning, when we'll bake it.

I helped Cathy scrape paint off her garage today, as well. And we repaired the Boy Scout tent poles (replaced the worn-out elastic that holds the poles together).

So yeah, it was a great, busy day. I love long weekend days because that makes the weekend seem longer.

Exciting stuff

My life is kind of hard to describe. I can't decide if I'm happy or not. The day-to-day stuff is more boring than I'd prefer. I miss living in a city where I can walk/ride my bike everywhere and know lots of people to chat with. Sometimes I feel like there's nothing happening, no reasons to laugh uncontrollably or jump around with excitement.

But there are a few things that have really excited me lately. Now I will share those things with you.

I've joined the NLSC (National Language Service Corps) as a charter Hausa-speaking member. The NLSC is an organization that provides language assistance to government agencies. They have a database of members who speak languages from all over the world, and contact those members for assignments when needed.

So first it was really exciting that I was asked to join. My Hausa's okay, but not awesome, mostly conversational and not at all technical. But apparently it's good enough because I was surprised to see an invitation for membership into the NLSC. They are looking for other African-language speakers, so all you RPCVs should check them out.

Then I got an email from them saying some agencies are looking to hire African language-speaking people for temporary translation projects. I applied and got an interview, now we'll see what comes next.

Second, I've joined RAIN for the Sahara and Sahel, a NGO that helps the nomadic Wodaabe and Tuareg people of Niger. When I first came back from Niger I contacted RAIN asking if there's a way I could help my nomadic friends in Niger, and mentioned my friend Darey wanting to find help for his village, Teyiss. They told me they'd consider helping Teyiss when they had more money to work with, and I figured that might take a while.

The chief of Teyiss.


Well, I was really surprised when, a few weeks ago, RAIN contacted me and said they'd like to start helping the people of Teyiss. They told me to connect Darey with their local representative, a Nigerien man named Mahmoud, and they would see about starting some work there. Well, today I spoke with Darey, and he told me RAIN has sent money to Mahmoud to buy food for the children and animals of Teyiss! I was so excited!

The kids of Teyiss.


My third exciting piece of news is that I translated my resume into French using Google Translate and sent it to Darey to give to the teachers in Agadez so that I can find a job there teaching English. It's kind of a long shot, considering the Niger government went for months without paying school teachers their salary because they didn't have the money for salaries (or because of corruption?), but we'll see what happens. How cool would it be to live in Agadez, an ancient caravan town on the edge of the Sahara, as an English teacher?

Blueberry Pie

A couple backbreaking hours of blueberry-picking weren't without rewards. Two weeks ago we feasted on two delicious blueberry pies.

The berries...


... assembling the pies...


... the finished product.


Yum!

Happy belated July 4th!

Fourth of July weekend was a pretty eventful one. I didn't go anywhere special, just hung out with the fam, but we had a lot of fun.

Saturday:

Saturday was a hot day. My mom, Chico and I went to Traverse City to the Cherryland Festival to see the Blue Angels. We parked on the other side of town in the mall parking lot so we could take the bus downtown, thus avoiding traffic and parking issues. Once we showed up at the mall I went inside the grocery store to ask about the bus (it was supposed to show up there at :40 after, did we have the wrong place?) and this guy standing in line offered to give us a ride. So we got a ride in his nice Mercedes to the downtown area.

The Blue Angels were neat, but not uber-exciting. I spent most of my time try to avoid sitting in the sun. I actually was so un-enthused about the whole thing that I didn't find any photo-worthy moments. The bus-ride back was long and hot - we were in the very back seat and the air conditioning unit was directly over our heads and blowing cold air out in front of us so that none of it blew on us. And the windows didn't open. Plus this guy was standing in the aisle next to me and he smelled kinda funky, I'm not gonna lie. We were on that bus for like 40 minutes. When we finally got home we were all exhausted from the heat and sun.

After a few hours of rest we attended the Grayling fireworks show and it was great. I am so proud of our town for providing such a nice fireworks show for the community. We sat near the courthouse and it was like having front-row seats. Of course we saw people we knew, including Tom's doctor.

Sunday:

Sunday I had plans. I noticed in the paper that the local state park, Hartwick Pines, was having a
19th-century Independence Day celebration. So my dad, Chico and I attended that. It involved the park historian, Rob, reading the Declaration of Independence, then an old-fashioned baseball game.

Dad and Chico watching the game. I'm not sure who the guy in the orange shirt is.


Picking teams for the baseball game. The guys in the red represent the 1890s-era baseball team. They also played by period rules, including pitching to make the batter hit (rather than strike him out) and no stealing or sliding. The game was really fun to watch.


Some of the players were small. They were so cute! I think in some plays they were "favored" so they could make it all the way around the bases.


We stayed for a few innings, then went blueberry picking. It was really freakin' hot out but with the breeze we felt okay. We picked enough blueberries so that, combined with the ones I picked a few days before with Shawn and Liz, we had enough to make two blueberry pies. The blueberry plants are about 10" high so it was backbreaking work, but it was worth it.

Blueberries


Stay tuned for pictures of the blueberry pies.

My mom and I went kayaking that night down our section of the river. It's a slow, easy river, but has lots of obstacles in it, like logs and sandbars (not that I have photos of any of them.)




This is from an old train bridge that crossed our span of the river. In some spots of the woods you can still see the trail from where the tracks used to be.


So that was our July 4th weekend! It was pretty great to rest and hang out with my family. Tomorrow I will post blueberry pie pics.