And a Couple More

Here is Pelele in the brown dress. She’s a little sweetheart. I tell people she’s my girlfriend when I get asked if I’m looking for a wife and get tired of answering seriously. There was a baby naming ceremony at her house and here’s a picture of her new sister Sharifa getting her hair shaved off, as is the tradition when a baby reaches a week old.

Here’s me with my friend Rabe, and me with my neighbor Souyaba hiding from the camera. I look terrible. But I blame that on my having gotten only 2 hours of sleep the night before, staying up in celebration of Nadine’s wedding. And plus, the camera always puts on about ten extra pounds…

Also, check out Nouria being wonderful (I adore her) and another of my fada (actually in retrospect, the pic of my fada is with the other post, but you get the point).

Awesome seeing everybody. Awesome being back. Good times.

PS Sorry. All the posting of these pictures got messed up, so they're mixed between this post and the next, and not necessarily with the post with the corresponding caption... You'll figure it out. You're smart.

Back to Matameye, In Pictures

Alright. It’s been a little while. Apologies. I don’t have any real excuse. Since finishing at Hamdallaye helping with the newbies, I made it back out to Zinder, and was reminded of how much I hate that trip and how hideous the roads are by an overturned truck. I heard no one was hurt, but it’s a nice little reminder of what a disaster much of this country’s infrastructure is.

Finally being back in Matameye was awesome, and maybe it’s only noteworthy in how normal and comfortable it seems to be back. It felt like home pulling into Zinder at the end of that heinous bus ride, and even more so the next day as I pulled into Matameye itself.

Many who saw me in the states probably thought I was crazy getting all anxious and worked up about finding gifts to bring back to people here in Niger. Well, take a look at the gifts I ended up with. And even all these were nowhere near enough. People came out of the woodwork when I got back. Here’s a brief representative dialogue I must have had fifty times over the past few weeks:

GIFT ASKER: Hey Ismael, where’s my gift that you brought back from America?
ME: The gift? Ummm… I don’t even know you’re name. As a matter of fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before in my life.
GIFT ASKER: So should I come by your house this afternoon or tomorrow morning to pick up my gift?

Yeah, they can be pretty insistent. It’s just something cultural where they want a little token, but it can be overwhelming when I brought back stuff for over a hundred people and there are literally hundreds more who seemed to have expected me to bring them back something… Whatever, not much can be done about that at this point.

As I said though, being back in Matameye was awesome. And as for seeing my good friends (my fada, my soccer players, neighbors, and others) it has been wonderful.

Also a good friend of mine, Nadine got married. Some of you heard about her on my trip back… A story for another time. But her wedding was a big deal. People were in town from all over. There’s a picture of three girls dancing in a line during the celebration. Maimouna, the farthest to the left, is a neighbor and good friend of mine. The picture of the kid with goggles is… ummm… Awesome. He was dressed up for the wedding, but as for why he’s wearing goggles… I’ve got nothing. He just has a natural instinct for style I guess.

There was a sad and frustrating element of being back as well. The end of school exams were basically a disaster. Only 13 of about 160 students passed their end of college exams and 0 out of 30 candidates passed their end of lycee exam… On top of that, a couple of my friends, as anticipated, won’t be allowed to go back, while some others tensely wait to see what there fate for next year holds… The situation is what it is. I’ve discussed it already elsewhere so I’ll move on. (The girl with the scar down her nose is Shu Shu one of those badass 13 who did pass her college exam).

So those are the pictures. I actually had go back to Niamey for our mid-service training. It just ended and it was good to see other people from my training group. But I’m really looking forward to getting back to Matameye and getting things rolling there for this coming school year. Ramadan started a couple of days ago and when I get back to Matameye I think I’ll try and take another try at doing the fast… I’m working with a couple other volunteers trying to organize a small girls conference for college girls in the eastern part of Niger, and also trying to organize a work and health program for girls in the villages surrounding Matameye. I’m also working with the local library trying to start a computer literacy program, and of course there always seem to be an overwhelming amount of social obligations in town, but for the most part, things will remain slow for a little while until school comes back into session. Time flew here this past year I can’t imagine that this next one won’t do the same.