One Week Report

One week in Sagafondo Completed. I was reading in one of the training manuals as a word of comfort that ”there will never be a second ‘first month’” and although that is a pretty obvious statement, the thought was extremely comforting. Things here are difficult to say the least; ever day is a physical, psychological and emotional test of endurance. Still, every day I learn a few new words in Zarma, meet a few new people, remember a few more names and what a wonderful thing it is that this first week of explaining who I am a zillion times and why I am not going to give people presents, will never repeat itself. All in all, the week went by pretty quickly…. Especially since I’ve managed to have several different and new things to do every day, while still keeping some routines.

So here’s a rundown of the highlights from the first week:

I arrive on Thursday and thank goodness my latrine whole is dug and walls of woven millet stalk quickly erected so I don’t have to go native and tell people I’m going “to the bush” when excusing myself to go to the bathroom. All of Thursday I spent cleaning because, by the look of it, the interior of my house hadn’t seen a broom for over a year. In reality it was probably a week. By dusk, an extremely dirty, thirsty Maria emerges, dust and dirt everywhere but ready to start unpacking things in her new, clean house. Well clean is relative since a house made out of mudbrick with a roof made out of sticks and straw can never be completely clean.

My Kitchen (above) and

the view of my concession (below)

Note my my finished latrine and amazing shade hangar

After a long bath, the day’s almost over and I set to cooking dinner only to be startled by a bug crawling out in front of my pot. It’s a big one. A cockroach. Perfect. Of course my hut in Hamdallaye and its minimal bug-presence had been too good to be true and I realized that I was now in the ‘real Africa’ where humans, goats and cockroaches all share the same living space. Still I had to eat so I made some macaroni, whoofed it down, resolved to do the dishes in the morning and quickly got ready for bed, finally relaxing under the safety and comfort of my yellow my mosquito net. Even though I’m sure I was inches away from all kinds of critters all night, the fact that I was surrounded by what I perceive as protective netting means as much as if there had been a brickwall between me and the creatures of the night. At least that was how it was in Hamdallaye. Here there’s some kind of bug that I can’t get away from. I don’t know what it is but its smell penetrates everything and so despite being exhausted my nose’s displeasure kept me awake all of the first night.

The second and third day I set out to scope out Sagafondo. Luckily I had paved the way pretty nicely for myself during Live-In because practically everybody knew my name already and for better or worse I spent hours responding to people shouting “Faiza, Faiza, Faiza” before continuing on with the five part greeting in which people ask each other how the body, the house, the children the fasting, the time of the day and anything else is, at that particular moment. Of course, everything is always ‘in health’ even though their house could be falling apart, their child dying and their body old and tired. I did succeed in finding a kitten which is something I’ve been dying to do ever since I learned that keeping a pet is not one of the hundred things that Peace Corps policies forbid. I’ve decided to name the cat Maya which is sort of the word for ‘cat’ in Zarma. Makes things easy when I call for her since people here don’t name their animals.


This next part has been gross stamped in red ink so read on at your own risk. I was happily petting Maya when I noticed a sore on her paw so I got some Neosporin in an attempt to reduce the risk of infection. When applying the cream I notice some movement in the sore and soon something appears to emerge from it. YUCK I think to myself but get some paper and am soon busy extracting larvae, buried under the skin of my cat’s paws and tail. I would have gotten rid of Maya right there and then if it wasn’t for the fact that she had taken care of another gross problem; the cockroaches! She eats both them and the crickets and since I learned from our doctor that the larvae aren’t really dangerous and only need to be extracted for the problem to be resolved, I decided to keep Maya which now, a week later, I’m quite happy about.

Maya - after larvae have been removed

Even though my limited ability to communicate with people is EXTREMELY frustrating and tests my patience on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, I am proud to have performed some integration activities. Twice I have accompanied women okra picking. Okra is a big thing in Bitinkodji and lots of women grow, dry and sell this prickly skinned vegetable at the market in Niamey. Because of the painful texture of okra, people were quite impressed that I remained resolute about the work, staying out in the sun for hours. Without gloves okra can rip up your hands quite badly. I donned a ziplock bag and a sock and that did the trick of protection just as well as a farmer’s mitt. Well, actually it allowed just the right amount of injury sine I did obtain a couple of cuts that everyone demanded to see and laughed when I said that I’m a real Sagafondo woman now. The okra is used to make the sauce that accompanies the millet dish that people eat for every meal, ever day. (yes malnutrition is a problem). Among Peace Corps Volunteers this traditional Nigerian food is known as millet mush and snot sauce. Despite its disaphaling nature, I’ve come to enjoy it quite a lot….just not every day.

Finally I want to tell you about this big meeting that happened yesterday (Wednesday). The practice of decentralizing the government means that every commune is governed by a council of which the mayor is president. Four times a year the council convenes and discusses matters pertinent to the commune as a whole. Yesterday was such a meeting and I’m thrilled to say that ”Introduction of the new Peace Corps Volunteer” was one of seven items on the agenda. The other ones included discussing the results of this year’s harvest, the upcoming academic school year and, of course finances. I’m sorry that I didn’t understand more than a stray word here and there especially because people kept breaking into Fulfulde. (14 out of 17 villages in Bitinkodji are Fulani) My hope is that by next meeting in December, I will be fluent enough to understand everything that’s going on, maybe even ask to have some time to speak about my development work and seek the council’s support.

Council Meeting before I take me seat up at front and get officially introduced

In all the hardships of limited language, bugs, annoying children and heat (rainy season is over so here comes the sun), one thing makes me extremely grateful and happy to be here. People have a TON of kokari, meaning effort. There are already 72 women’s groups in the Commune of Bitinkodi. That’s 1900 women already organized in groups working on various development projects. I saw one of these projects the day I went okra picking. 160 women from four villages hike up to a big hill and use millet stalk and twigs to build fences as a means to keep the sand from blowing away, into the village and the river. You might have hear of the term ‘pushing back the desert’ and this is exactly what these women are doing. It was so inspirational to hear how proudly the woman I accompanied talked about the project, the fact that it was run entirely by women and how important it was to the survival of her community. If all the women’s groups are like hers, I know there is GREAT POTENTIAL for all kinds of microfinance projects, community enhancements projects and sensibilization sessions.

(Note: if you don’t know a sensibilization is a session serving to enlighten people about a certain aspects of life such as the importance of sending girls to school, sleeping under a mosquito net, hygiene or family planning. The session is conducted part by lecture, part by group exercises. Essentially, it seeks to present a perspective and a theory, allowing the participants to come to the realization of adopting x or y practice on their own. Leading and/or facilitating sensibilizations is a major part of a Peace Corps Volunteer’s work.)