Camel Love

Thank goodness that all the VATS were right. Things do get easier as time goes by. My house is starting to feel a little bit like a home even though the walls are practically bare and everything I presently own fits in two trunks and on one table.

I am quite impressed but not terribly surprised that practically all the citizens in Sagafondo learned my name, my house’s location and the reason for me being there in the first three days and I’m sad to admit to not have done the same for them. This means that every person I meet acts as my best friend and I am quickly becoming an expert at greeting people every 10 seconds the way I would greet a very dear friend that I hadn’t seen for 2 years. Language, work and integration are all progressing well and somehow, although this may also be no surprise to those who know me, I manage to fill my days with busy activities from morning to night. I think I might be the leader of my stage of least books read in these first weeks at post. My count is 1. Pillars of the Earth.

So I wanted to dedicate this post to camels. I think this is the one aspect of Niger I will never get used to. I wake up in the morning and outside my concession I see a mini-caravan of five camels walking by, loaded with hay or wood or other goods to be transported. I will be walking to the mayors office and see a man holding the leashes of three camels, all of them obediently walking behind him, completely at peace with the hiarchy even though each of them is 10 times the size of the man and God knows how many times stronger. Funny how things work out sometimes.

If an American child could come and see what I see on a daily basis, that is to say wild camels used in farmwork they would probably stop, point and stare, maybe even proclaim out loud; look a camel! This is why I find it ironic, although you are free to disagree, that these American children would react the same to camels as Nigerien children react to me. They stop, point and scream “ANNASARA, ANNASARA” as if they can’t believe their eyes; was that really a white person that just passed by?