Back in town

Thursday evening I came back to Niamey. Everything went well and I'm happy to have this experience. Maybe later today I'll start to upload some photos and write about my trip!

In the village Mamouri

Change of plans

Tomorrow is election day, so we're leaving early (very early!) on wednesday instead of tuesday. As people are not so happy here about the politics there can be some trouble. And the military might close all the roads coming in to Niamey so leaving the city might be difficult and take time. But don't worry about me! As long as you stay on "neutral" places you won't be in trouble.

Diffa

On tuesday (probably) I'll go to Diffa, a region 1000 km from here and I'll be gone for about 2 weeks. I won't have access to internet so you know why I'm not updating my blog. But I guess I'll have plenty of things to tell you about, and many photos to show when I come back!

Boubacar

This is Boubacar, our personal fruit and vegetables salesman:


He comes to our house occasionnally and shows what he has and we say what we want. It has happened a couple of times that I've been alone in the house when he comes. Lucky for him, because I'm the worst when it comes to bargaining. But he's happy when he leaves. I found him quite charming and original, so it's hard to stay "firm" with him and say "oh no, 2000 CFA is too expensive for these carrots". I just say "ok"... (I do bargain a litle though, but I guess not even half of what I could). As he is old and goes by bike from the other side of the river (in the heat!), it makes me even more easy with him.

Erratum to "tip of the day"

After complaints, I'll correct myself. If you're not sure the person is dead. You stop and pick him up. Don't talk to anyone, and do all this very quickly. Then you drop him off at the nearest hospital.

Exotic lunch

For lunch today I had this:

"Ningj" (or something like that) and fried flour

The ningj you can eat with some spicy sauce or dip in sugar. By itself it tastes like potatoes with no taste. The fried flour tasted fried. All this for only 0,3 €!


Then Tarlif, our daytime guard, gave me a cup of tuareg tea. Tuareg is an ethnicity in Niger. You drink just a small cup, like espresso, and it tastes sweet and bitter. The photo shows what it looks like. The tea is made in China.

Tip of the day

While driving on the countryside in Niger, do not stop if you accidentally hit someone to see if the person is ok. If he's badly hurt or dead, the local's might come after you and cut you into small pieces. You should go on and stop at the next "gendarmerie" (the police, sort of) and tell them about the accident.

Quiz

If you can tell me what each item is that we bought on the "big" supermarket here (the biggest one that sells european products) you'll win 1 000 000 F CFA! Click on the image to see better.

Meatballs

On Sunday I did meatballs for my housemates, Monique and Talata. It was a big success. I'm quite proud of myself as I never really have done this in Sweden... Especially the brown sauce that comes with. I had to adapt myself though to Africa:


As I didn't find any "ströbröd" (brown dried crumbs) I had to crumb some biscuits with this african mortar


As we didn't have any electricity from the morning until the evening, I worked in candle light.

The brown sauce! It didn't get as good as my grandma's though

We ate and everyone was happy and said it was good!

Internet and comments

From yesterday afternoon until this morning we had no internet. Internet comes here via a cable through the mediterranean sea. Then somehow it goes to Benin and then it comes to Niger. It is not unusual that this cable gets broken (either deliberately or by accident). This time it was broken in Benin.

And about the comments. Quite a few of you (both from France and Sweden) have told me you're having problem posting comments. I don't know what's wrong. But when you read this you know you're not alone! Anyhow it is nice to know that you have tried and that you think about me =)

African concert

We went to the CCNF, centre culturel franco nigerien, yesterday night to see a concert withMalam Maman Barka. He's the last biram (an instrument) player. It sounded like this:

I found it nice, even if it's not what I usually listen to. The percussion man impressed me when he did a solo at the end.

I experienced a new way of how the audience shows its apprecitaion to the musicians; a man walked up on the stage and put a bill on the man in blue's sweaty (and therefore sticky!) forehead:

This was the instrument, the biram, the man i yellow used:


Malam Maman Barka is going to do a little tour in Europe. He's going to England, Denmark and... Sweden! So you in Sweden can experience this too.

Taboo

This week the small children started school. Before the school starts, it gives a list of all the material and school books you need. There was one in the house, about the history and geography in Niger and also a little about the rest of Africa. I skimmed through it as I was interested about this. And then I came to this page:


The chapter is called "The Races". It tells about the different "races" in Africa. The photos you see from the left are: "A black man", "a white man" and "pygmeans" (this is written under each photo). It says that "the white people lives in the north of Africa, the ethiopeans are a mix of white and black people and that one "race" (don't remember which) has some asian traits in it". When I found this I got a little (or very!) shocked because of:
1. This is an extremely taboo subject in Europe and I felt uncomfortable reading it. It would been a huge scandal to find this in a school book!
2. The children are actually using this book to learn stuff. Which means that they learn that "humans consists of different races". And apparently the school find this perfectly normal.

I think this is one of the biggest cultural differences I've experienced here.

Mail, garbage, water

Let me tell you about how ordinary things for me, and I guess for most of you, works here.

First of all, there is no "garbage service". You have to take care of your own trash. We have two buckets, one for organic waste and one for the rest. Our daytime guard takes care of this. The organic waste we compost. The other stuff Tarlif (the guard) either burn or give to a guy that comes to collect trash occasionally, and then put it somewhere else.


About the water; I drink the tap water. It is perfectly clean (but not that cold!). The water comes from the river Niger. I am glad that I don't need to feel bad about using the water here. There is plenty in the river. And, even if it's not used yet to serve the whole population in Niamey, there is a big aquifer under the city. The wastewater/sewage you need to take care of by yourself however. We have a tank (don't know where!) in the garden.


And about the post. The houses doesn't have any mailbox. If you want to recieve mail, you need to get a post box. So, if someone would like to send me a letter. This needs to be addressed to IRD's post box. Then IRD will give it to me. But the other thing about the post is that it takes around 3 weeks to get something from Europe... And vice versa...

Restaurant Shanghai Garden

We went to a chinese restaurant yesterday. A little more "upscale". I took beef chop suey. It was ok, but not delicous! I have to write as well that all the times we've been to a restaurant, there's only us and some other guests, usually other europeeans or americans. It's nice to almost have the whole place by yourself. But it reminds me about the class distinction here, and that is less nice. For the first time in my life I'm considered as "rich". I have not experienced it by myself yet, but there are some restaurants that have a dress code. You need to be well dressed to eat there. Except if you're white...

Kladdkaka (sticky chocolate cake)

Yesterday I made a cake for the first time here ; the traditional swedish "kladdkaka". Unfortunately it didn't get that "kladdig" (sticky). It got hard as brick. This is not my fault. It's the gas oven's. My housemates wasn't that impressed, but amused.

I had to hit it to split it.

Recipy

I want to share a recipy to a very good juice cocktail I had on Thursday.

You need:
*water
*a coconut
*a pineapple
*vanilla
*minth

You grate an equal amount of pineapple and coconut. Put it in the water. Then add some vanilla and minth. I have not done this by myself yet. I just asked for the ingredients and this is what I was told. So you have to experiment with this by yourself! When it taste good, you know you did it right.

Le Gourmet

Yesterday I managed to convince Cécilia and Sébastien to go to Le Gourmet. Since last time, when my belly hurt, I've wanted to go back so I can really enjoy what I eat. I was sad when my stomach was full and I couldn't eat more. It's delicous! Ok, I have to post this quickly now. Just to see the photo makes me hungry!

Were I work

The entrance, with the guard. The thing on the right with the roof is used as a "lounge" during the day and as a place to pray.

The main IRD building

My office. You can get a glimpse of all the maps I'm working with!

Ni Ke Biyo, Ni Ke Koira

Today I've learned how to diss a guy in Djerma, the local language. You simply say the title of this post. It means "Take your black feet and go home on your white path". When you walk on sand, the paths are supposed to be white.

Visa

This morning I gave my passport to the man at IRD who helps you to get your visa extended. This afternoon I got it back with the extended visa. Now I can stay until the 30th of june next year if I want to. I'm still astonished on how quickly it went.

I need to quote what this man said to me this morning: Along with the passport, money and the visa form, I had attached the invitation letter from IRD and my airplane tickets. The man asked "what's this for?". I said "Just to certify what I'm doing here and that I have my airplane tickets to go home". He answered "You don't need this, you pay, that's all".