letter from Crystal 5/01/08

Hi everyone! I am taking a few hours to catch up on my email-sending. I tried sending this a couple weeks ago but am not sure you received it. :)

Love,
Crystal

See canned letter below and update below-below:

Life in Niger is going well. I'm feeling pretty good about what I'm doing
here. I have been at my village for a month now and it's wonderful -
everything I hoped it would be. It's small, about 400 people live there, and
a lot of them are kids. I am so lucky the previous volunteer had a chance to
explain to everyone what it's like to come to their village not knowing
their language and living in a way very different from that in the States.
They are really understanding and patient with me, are always excited to see
me, and treat me with the utmost respect.

My typical day:
Get up at 7:00 to the sounds of a) women pounding millet or sorghum in their
big mortars and pestles, and b) sounds of animals (cows, donkeys, chickens,
guinea fowl who are really annoying). Yes, I sleep outside because my house
is just way too hot at the end of the day.

7:00-7:30: Wash face and hands, fold up bedding and put it inside
7:30-8:30: My neighbor comes with my water, which I pay her to bring from
the well. The well is kind of far away and there's no way my poor wimpy body
can handle carrying THAT much water on my head for such a long distance. I
pour it into my big clay pot and fill up my water filter (a 3-gallon bucket
sits atop a 5-gallon bucket with a spout on the bottom. The water is poured
into the little bucket and drips through the filter to the big bucket.) I
eat bread with peanut butter and raisins for breakfast, provided I have
bread. If I don't have bread, I cook oatmeal with raisins and peanut butter,
powdered milk, and sugar. If I put a lot of sugar in it it tastes like a
monster cookie! A little note about food - I eat rich people food. My
villagers mainly eat tuwo (pounded millet or sorghum, or corn if they have
the money) with sauce made from leaves and onions and seasonings. It's
pretty good and filling. They eat the leftovers for breakfast. During cold
season there's usually some garden vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, and
carrots that they can eat, too. They make this awesome salad - it's lettuce
or cabbage with kouli-kouli (if you have peanut butter and you extract out
all the oil, you are left with kouli-kouli- lowfat, delicious and a good
source of protein), cassava flour, a little tonka powder (ground hot
peppers), salt and ginger, tossed with oil. Mmmmmm... Okay, it's morning, I
just got up, and I'm a little hungry. Ha ha!

8:30-11:00: If I have chores, I do them now. Sweep my house and concession
(concession is the area surrounding my house. It's like a small, walled-in
yard, granted a yard without grass or anything. Most people do their daily
activities in their concession because it's hot and there's no wind inside
the house. The typical concession has a millet-stalk shade hangar, cooking
area, a walled off peeing/washing area, and an animal area where they tie up
their donkeys, goats, sheep, camel, whatever.) because if I don't sweep I
may get a (gasp) chariot spider - a fist-sized spider that scorpions ride
on, not kidding - or a snake or red ants.. scary! So yeah, I sweep under my
millet-stalk bed and around my latrine with a broom that is basically a
bunch of long grass tied together with a string. I wash my clothes if I need
to, refill my water bucket in my bathing area so it can get warmed by the
sun during the day, wash dishes, whatever.

Usually people swing by in the morning to say hi - my neighbor Rabi, my best
guy friends Issoufou and Issya, sometimes my friends want to play cards so
we play cards (this crazy Nigerien game that's kind of like euchre without
trumps; hard to explain) and listen to Nigerien and Nigerian music on my
shortwave radio (the best investment ever! Now I can listen to the BBC and
it is wonderful to have an inkling of what is going on in the world -
elections in zimbabwe, the olympics and tibet, the us housing market.. good
stuff).

11:00-2:00: This is "me" time. I take a nap in my house (by now the sun is
so hot that it's cooler inside), eat lunch (macaroni with vegetables or
tomato sauce or powdered milk sauce or a PB sandwich or rice with beans and
fried onions), read, write in my journal, whatever. Sometimes Issoufou's
wife has him bring me food, which is nice, or Rabi brings me some cooked
beans.

2:00-5:00: Sometimes I put off chores until now. Sometimes I walk around the
village greeting people and hanging out with them. My favorite are the old
guys who hang out in the middle of town, the "town square", if you will.
It's where the mosque is, the 2 "shops" (they're tiny and hardly have
anything), the chief's house is nearby; basically it's a 40ft x 40ft area
shaded by a couple of trees right in the middle of town. The old guys lounge
around on mats or just in the dirt and move around during the day to stay in
the shade. Whenever I walk by they shout greetings and sometimes if I'm not
going anywhere I sit with them and we talk and they help me with my Hausa,
which is sometimes hard because some of them don't have teeth. Or I go to
the well and talk to the women as they pull water, or I head over to the
Fulan encampment and work on my Fulfulde. The Fulans are another culture of
people here; in my village we have the Hausa people and the Fulans. The
Fulans speak both Fulfulde and Hausa and herd cattle. If you google Fulans
or Fulani or Hilanche maybe you will see photos of these beautiful people -
they wear beaded jewelry and have their hair in different braids than the
Hausa people. The men grow their hair long and fluff it out afro-style. The
kids' heads are shaved except for a little pouf in the front and one in the
back. And the men and boys wear these long purple tunics over pants and
these very traditional-looking, pointy straw hats. They often carry around a
big stick to use for herding cattle. The Hausa people and Fulani people both
have beautification scarring on their faces, which is also beautiful,
especially on the women.

5:00-7:00: Make dinner or eat stuff people bring me - tuwo, rice, whatever.
Hang out. I don't know. Stuff. Run around talking to people. More of the
same thing. My work here is basically learning Hausa and hanging out with my
villagers. Sounds easy, I know, but it's actually really challenging because
speaking Hausa can be exhausting, and when someone's trying to explain a
word to me and I'm not understanding.. it's tiring, really. The worst is
when I go to baby-naming ceremonies or weddings where there are women from
other villages. They don't understand that I've only been in the village for
a little while and that I'm still learning Hausa, and they speak to me
really fast and are impatient when I ask them to repeat themselves and then
they announce, "she doesn't know Hausa." Or, most recently, women from a
fellow volunteer Balkissa's village said, "Balkissa speaks Hausa but SHE
doesn't." Fortunately my neighbor Rabi always sticks up for me; she is
wonderful, but at first I took it personally and started feeling bad and
that these people are basically saying I suck and I don't try and then felt
crappy. But I came up with a better solution, and when I found myself in
this situation yesterday, I just told them, "hey, have patience. Hausa is
hard." And they seemed to accept that.

7:00 is prayer time, so I hear the Iman making the prayer call and I have to
go home. From 7-8 I get ready for bed, laying out my mattress and bedding,
and after the dusk prayer (usually 8:00 or 8:15) I bathe (out of a bucket),
brush my teeth, whatever, and if I'm feeling up for it I go out to the town
square and hang out. There's usually a lot of village men there buying
cooked meat from the butcher, hanging out talking, whatever. Then I go to
bed!

I got a kitten a couple days ago. His name is Kitty-Kitty, because my
villagers are just really proud of the fact that they know that word (from
the last volunteer). He's cute. He meows a lot. He's playful. He'll be a
good companion, I'm sure.

Yesterday I traveled from my village, Korap, to Konni, the "big town" where
I do my Peace Corps business. Sunday we have a regional meeting so I'll get
a feel for what's going on here, and saturday I'm going to Tahoua - the big
city! - to do some banking. I've never been to Tahoua so I'm pretty excited
and hoping to hit up an al hadji (rich person) shop and get some American
groceries. Korap is so small that you'll probably not see it on google maps,
but you may see my neighboring village, Fari. It's 1km from my village and
is a bit larger. Nearby also is Rafi and Gazurawa.

My trip from Korap to Konni was eventful. My friends Issoufou and Issya
walked with me the 3-4 miles to the main road, Issoufou insisting on
carrying my bag (gotta love Nigeriens!). We were on a bush road when this
big dump truck came zooming down the road toward us. It slipped in the sand
as it boomed around a curve and ran off the road maybe 40 feet right in
front of us. It was heading toward us sliding sideways.. pretty scary... but
please don't worry too much, I'm being careful as much as possible!

As for health, I've had bacteria twice in the last month and have had to
take Cipro. No problem.. I know I'm bringing it upon myself when I eat
village food like salad and leaves and stuff. It's not too bad but usually
involves a fever, which can be scary and kind of sucks. And I've had a few
colds, mostly because of the strong wind and dust that blows around here.

Okay, I'm going to wrap this up now.. I'm getting hungry and my computer
tolerance has certainly dropped since I've been here.

And now for an update:
I went to a possession dance. Although Islam is big here, animism is still present in many ways. A neighboring volunteer's village had a possession dance so my friend Issoufou and I went there to check it out. There was a fenced off area where the dance took place, and deep inside, beneath a tree, there were musicians playing the eeriest music on traditional instruments; a calabash drum with broom-like drumsticks and a reedy instrument playing a melody. It was dark and there was a strong wind. The people dance to the music, which attracts the spirits, and eventually they become possessed. You can't really tell when someone's possessed, at least I couldn't. They just danced. But people gather around them and ask lots of questions, fast spit-fire style. The spirits know everything, and when someone's possessed they can relay that knowledge. So people ask things like how the growing season will be, their family's health, etc. It was really interesting and exciting.

Mom, someone brought packages from Niamey last week and yours wasn't included. I'm starting to feel a little nervous that maybe it's not going to make it, but I will see when I get to Niamey in two weeks. Becky and Joe/Mary - I got your packages, almost at the same time! Joe/Mary, I already wrote you a letter about it but am too lazy to type it (this keyboard sucks), but I really loved the photos and your awesome letters and the LifeSavers and condiments. Mmm... real ketchup... :) Becky, I shared the People magazine with my homies at the hostel and it was definitely gobbled up by everyone. I really enjoyed it, especially reading about New Kids on the Block and the pregnant man. Totally weird. And then I ordered fries from the local restaurant and ate them with In 'n 'Out Heinz ketchup and it was great because ketchup here tastes like crap. And the trail mix and sesame yummies.. I'm just holding onto those until I get back to my post. :) If you guys feel like sending me more condiments, feel free. The local restaurant here sells hamburgers and fries (though not the same as in US of A) and I can get mustard and mayo at the store but not good ketchup and no relish, either. OMG, I miss relish. Now I'm thinking about brats. I really miss pig products. Could you please send me a brat with saurkraut, relish, chopped onions and mustard? Thanks, I appreciate it. I didn't think to include pig products on my blog survey about what food I'd miss the most. So far it's not meat, it's not chocolate, it's not fresh veggies (because we still have them), but I'm hurting for cheddar cheese and pizza (which I could make if I had something other than laughing cow cheese but I don't) and pork. I'm pretty sure a strong, aged cheese like Tommy's sharp cheddar would make it through the mail. (hint, hint) Becky's package made it here in 2 weeks. And crackers. Wasn't a huge fan in US, but want them here, maybe because of the salt. I eat so much salt it's insane. You have to when it's 120 outside every day and you're chugging liters of water. And while you're thinking of sending me stuff, mom.. maybe you can think about seeds. Just stuff some in an envelope, wouldn't be too hard. Whatever you think can handle strong sunlight and crappy soil (I know you're familiar with crappy soil!). Rainy season's coming and that's the time to grow things. I heard sunflowers grow.. it'd be cool to try blackberries if you think they can survive. Whatever you think would work. Or desert plants, like aloe or whatever Becky has there in Cali (cacti?). Hook it up, g-funks!

Okay, so maybe this is the time to mention visiting your daughter/sister. Mom and dad, if you can make it, I'd recommend coming at the end of hot season (the hottest time of the year, ha ha) or during the rainy season next year as that's the time where there's no strong wind and dust. Mom, I would really worry about your asthma with the crazy wind we get. So yeah, mid-April to August would be ideal. The scary thing about rainy season is that I've heard there are mosquitos, but hey, you guys are from the woods; I'm sure you can handle it! The storms are supposedly intense (not that wimpy Michigan drizzle) so we'd have to chill inside my tiny little house during them, but I know you guys are hard core and can handle it. And for the rest of you! Once you get here you'd need $100 tops per person to last 2 weeks. I know flights are expensive, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a developing country and you would never forget it. Christopher and the new baby could stay with the 'rents, you guys can take a romantic camel ride in the savannah through mesas and beneath the setting sun.. it would be a great way to celebrate your anniversary next year. ;)

All right, I'm going now. I love you and hope to hear from you all soon! Feel free to share this letter with whomever you like.

Love,
Crystal