...two things. First of all, there are intermittent power cuts every night in Maradi. This creates a problem when you are trying to sleep in comfort, because if the AC doesn't work your two options are to open the windows and invite in the malaria-carrying mosquitos or to sweat it out...the night before last I opted for option number two in addition to a cold shower, but then the hotel's generator kicked in which meant that I had AC but also what sounded like a huge idling lawnmower right outside my window. And since I had cranked up the AC I found myself freezing in the middle of the night.
The upside of this is that during power cuts the numerous outdoor bars and restaurants in Maradi that are situated in gardens are much more pleasant...there is not a lot of ambient lighting in Niger, so to cut it off altogether makes for a more peaceful Bière Niger drinking session. Speaking of, Bière Niger comes in big bottles, because why bother with a small bottle when you can have big, and is pretty strong...
Second, every morning I go to the RAV workshop early in the morning to discover that it hasn't started yet...apparently the woman who has been contracted to provide the coffee, tea, food, and beverages for the workshop is mafia-connected, so her prices are way too high but there is no other option, and on top of it she is always late. So everything gets started late...no big rush. But the thing is, the work has been done, two groups of students will present their forum theater pieces this afternoon.
But in any case things here definitely move slowly, and service is a whole other issue. Yesterday we were at a restaurant trying to order some food but they were out of almost everything, so finally we just asked for a salad with whatever they had...after probably 45 minutes they came back with potato salad. Enfin bon. The other day I went to a restaurant that specializes in a Nigerian milk/yogurt thing, but when I ordered it they were out...how do you run out of your house speciality?
On Tuesday afternoon I went to a forum theater performance with Clemence, the wife of Djibrine's colleague Bernard at GRET, a Paris-based development organization. Clemence had never seen a forum theater play; this was in Hausa so neither of us understood the details but she at least got the sense of how it works. While waiting to meet her in front of the bank I made friends with the guards who offered me a seat and some tea.
In general I like Maradi--it's relatively calm, although the motorcycle/car/donkey/camel traffic on the main drag can be intense...I'm going to take a second tour of the market today, since we head back to Niamey tomorrow...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Forum Theater in Maradi
Today is the second of a five day training sponsored by RAV here in Maradi. A group of teachers are being trained in the principles and structures of forum theater, and at the same time a group of about 150 students ages 13-15 are engaging in theater exercises...today they broke into small groups, each one run by one or two teachers, to start creating forum theater pieces. The themes are prevention of STIs/HIV/SIDA; women and children's rights; educational rights, particularly for girls, and...I forgot the last one. I floated around and observed the small group work--it was particularly interesting watching the groups rehearse and seeing how much I understood even though the plays are in Hausa. Theater is best when it is clear, visual, and emotional, so to take language out of it is a good test.
The youth participants are focused in their work, but honestly, all the same, they are like teenagers in the US...I love watching them interact. Most of the girls wear colorful veils and the traditional two piece costume, although some of them are now starting to appear in sweatpants, t-shirts, even shorts.
Observing the process of "teaching teachers" is always helpful for me...I've been thinking about how much of this process to codify, how much to leave to the individual participants to discover on their own...
Otherwise, Maradi is a pretty decent place to hang out for a while. I've been catching up on sleep and trying not to let my digestive system go haywire on me.
The youth participants are focused in their work, but honestly, all the same, they are like teenagers in the US...I love watching them interact. Most of the girls wear colorful veils and the traditional two piece costume, although some of them are now starting to appear in sweatpants, t-shirts, even shorts.
Observing the process of "teaching teachers" is always helpful for me...I've been thinking about how much of this process to codify, how much to leave to the individual participants to discover on their own...
Otherwise, Maradi is a pretty decent place to hang out for a while. I've been catching up on sleep and trying not to let my digestive system go haywire on me.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Road Trip to Maradi
On Friday, the workshop culminated with a demonstration for RAV's board and some of the artists in the network, as well as administrators for some local NGOs. It went really well--the participants described the process, we showed various steps in the creation process, including tableaux, and then presented one of the short forum pieces and two of the participants, Rachid and Edouard, joked the forum together. Everyone agreed that it went really well. This group was challenging in a way that the group in Ouagadougou wasn't in that they are all so experienced that at first I think they felt like they didn't need another workshop, that they knew everything already, but by the end, they were really appreciative.
Friday afternoon we left Niamey for Maradi, the third largest city in Niger and the commercial center. It's about 10 miles from the Nigerian border. RAV has been supervising a training conference in forum theater there for the last several months, so a team of trainers needed to go back to provide additional training and observe the work that the local teams had accomplished.
So a road trip in Niger is very different than a jog from SF to LA in the United States...the highway is two lane (barely) with stretches where they are repairing it and you have to drive on a dirt side road, cows and goats in the way, huge trucks that seem to break down everywhere with no shoulder, etc etc etc. Maradi is about 450 miles from Niamey but it tooks us more than 12 hours altogether...the first surprise for me, though, was how beautiful the landscape is, particularly because it's the rainy season. The land is very flat, with an occasional red dirt hill, so you can see for miles...red earth and very green trees, fields of grasses and vegetables, and grass huts with domed roofs that ended at a point like a meringue...at night we saw incredible lightening storms miles away. At sunset we were passing through a nature preseve and Djibrine told me to turn around...and there was a giraffe hanging out on the side of the road. I think I read that Niger has one of the only remaining giraffe herds in West Africa.
We arrived in Doutchi, the halfway point, late at night, in the rain...and once stopped, the car would not start. Long story short, after trying to push start it and then wandering around for a while and finally hiring some local boys with motorcycles to drive us around, it was clear that a mechanic was not available until morning. So we left the car and found a hotel.
It took most of yesterday to fix the car, turned out it was the alternator. Now I have a bunch of new french vocab...car parts! We got on the road again late yesterday afternoon and arrived in Maradi at 1am this morning. Driving across Niger, through tiny villages and towns, was fascinating. There were times where we stopped the car to buy food or drinks and I sat there, surrounded by crowds of people going about their small town Africa Saturday night business with nothing but flashlights to light the way, speaking Hausa, and realized that I was the only white person for miles...but aside from the occasional crowd of kids begging, just like in Burkina, people are so welcoming...you never just say hi when you see someone, you ask them how they are, how their health is, how their family is, how they are dealing with the heat, if they slept or ate well, etc etc.
I have also eated some seriously interesting roadside food. Here it's grilled meat here there and everywhere...we stopped for some, guess what, grilled meat, and the first thing I noticed was a cow tail sitting on the grill. Apparently that is put out so that you know what animal is currently on the grill, kind of like a little advertisement or menu...
So this morning I am going to observe the training. I like Maradi so far, it's more calm than Niamey, but has an energy all the same...fewer cars and more motorcycles, white sand instead of red, and it's not as hot.
So, more from Maradi later...
Friday afternoon we left Niamey for Maradi, the third largest city in Niger and the commercial center. It's about 10 miles from the Nigerian border. RAV has been supervising a training conference in forum theater there for the last several months, so a team of trainers needed to go back to provide additional training and observe the work that the local teams had accomplished.
So a road trip in Niger is very different than a jog from SF to LA in the United States...the highway is two lane (barely) with stretches where they are repairing it and you have to drive on a dirt side road, cows and goats in the way, huge trucks that seem to break down everywhere with no shoulder, etc etc etc. Maradi is about 450 miles from Niamey but it tooks us more than 12 hours altogether...the first surprise for me, though, was how beautiful the landscape is, particularly because it's the rainy season. The land is very flat, with an occasional red dirt hill, so you can see for miles...red earth and very green trees, fields of grasses and vegetables, and grass huts with domed roofs that ended at a point like a meringue...at night we saw incredible lightening storms miles away. At sunset we were passing through a nature preseve and Djibrine told me to turn around...and there was a giraffe hanging out on the side of the road. I think I read that Niger has one of the only remaining giraffe herds in West Africa.
We arrived in Doutchi, the halfway point, late at night, in the rain...and once stopped, the car would not start. Long story short, after trying to push start it and then wandering around for a while and finally hiring some local boys with motorcycles to drive us around, it was clear that a mechanic was not available until morning. So we left the car and found a hotel.
It took most of yesterday to fix the car, turned out it was the alternator. Now I have a bunch of new french vocab...car parts! We got on the road again late yesterday afternoon and arrived in Maradi at 1am this morning. Driving across Niger, through tiny villages and towns, was fascinating. There were times where we stopped the car to buy food or drinks and I sat there, surrounded by crowds of people going about their small town Africa Saturday night business with nothing but flashlights to light the way, speaking Hausa, and realized that I was the only white person for miles...but aside from the occasional crowd of kids begging, just like in Burkina, people are so welcoming...you never just say hi when you see someone, you ask them how they are, how their health is, how their family is, how they are dealing with the heat, if they slept or ate well, etc etc.
I have also eated some seriously interesting roadside food. Here it's grilled meat here there and everywhere...we stopped for some, guess what, grilled meat, and the first thing I noticed was a cow tail sitting on the grill. Apparently that is put out so that you know what animal is currently on the grill, kind of like a little advertisement or menu...
So this morning I am going to observe the training. I like Maradi so far, it's more calm than Niamey, but has an energy all the same...fewer cars and more motorcycles, white sand instead of red, and it's not as hot.
So, more from Maradi later...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
La Patronne
I am fighting a stomach ache that I got from an extremely spicy meal I am partially responsible for preparing...yesterday evening Sara, one of the workshop participants, invited us to her house for dinner, and I helped her make it. This was after an afternoon spent sitting on the patio at my guesthouse with her and a henna artist who created an incredibly beautiful design on my hands and feet. It was nice to spend time with two women when so much of my time here is spent with men...the majority of the workshop participants are male, most of the people I know here are male...it's so complicated. Polygamy is legal, fewer women work, the debate is framed differently...but then again the women I have met here are strong.
The workshop ends tomorrow--we are going to finish with a demonstration of one of the short forum scenes created, this one about a female boss whose power is undermined by a manager below her. Different cultural context, but not an unfamiliar problem...it seems like the workshop participants have gotten something from the workshop, and I have certainly appreciated the theoretical exchange that we have each morning, followed by getting up on our feet.
This afternoon I went to a birth celebration--big tents were set up outside the family's house, where guests come, sit, listen to music and stories, eat (I had just eaten lunch but when the food was put in front of us, Edouard, a theater director who is in the workshop, said here we eat even when we're not hungry...so I ate), and generally pay their respects to the parents. I'm glad I went, even though I stuck out like a sore thumb (an expression that I attempted to translate with little success).
Tomorrow I am going to Maradi to observe a training mission with RAV; so I'll experience a road trip, Nigerien style...
The workshop ends tomorrow--we are going to finish with a demonstration of one of the short forum scenes created, this one about a female boss whose power is undermined by a manager below her. Different cultural context, but not an unfamiliar problem...it seems like the workshop participants have gotten something from the workshop, and I have certainly appreciated the theoretical exchange that we have each morning, followed by getting up on our feet.
This afternoon I went to a birth celebration--big tents were set up outside the family's house, where guests come, sit, listen to music and stories, eat (I had just eaten lunch but when the food was put in front of us, Edouard, a theater director who is in the workshop, said here we eat even when we're not hungry...so I ate), and generally pay their respects to the parents. I'm glad I went, even though I stuck out like a sore thumb (an expression that I attempted to translate with little success).
Tomorrow I am going to Maradi to observe a training mission with RAV; so I'll experience a road trip, Nigerien style...
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Taking Tea and Making Theater
I spent yesterday afternoon and evening with Ali, a friend that I met in Burkina, the master tea maker...we sat outside his house (not exactly a stoop, more like a dirt front yard) on a mat and drank tea and hung out with various people who came and went, including Nanna, who is in the same theater company. We then piled onto motorcycles and went first to a Senegalese restaurant (I think my body is still battling the oily food I ate there...) and then to an open air bar with trees and sand. I tasted my first Bière Niger, very good.
This morning the workshop went really well. We created short forum theater scenes and talked about ways to convey clear messages. The group is working together really well and I feel more comfortable...the huge advantage of working with people who already have a lot of theater experience is that they know exactly what to do! It's not often that I have that chance...
Another thing I noticed in Ouaga and here is that West Africans joke around a lot...I don't really think the word plaisantrie translates well, but I really appreciate that people don't take themselves too seriously.
This morning the workshop went really well. We created short forum theater scenes and talked about ways to convey clear messages. The group is working together really well and I feel more comfortable...the huge advantage of working with people who already have a lot of theater experience is that they know exactly what to do! It's not often that I have that chance...
Another thing I noticed in Ouaga and here is that West Africans joke around a lot...I don't really think the word plaisantrie translates well, but I really appreciate that people don't take themselves too seriously.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Bienvenue au Niger
It took my plane an hour to land in driving rain...for a second as we got tossed around I thought maybe my number is up but since I trust in this vague, all knowing universe that has some plan for me I decided to trust it.
The delay in landing was matched by an immigration and customs process that took about five times as long as it needed to. But patience is a virtue...
The only other West African capital city I have to compare to Niamey is Ouagadougou--Niamey is on the banks of the Niger river, so it's more green. We went down to the banks on Saturday, people were fishing in it (last night I ate some river fish which was the best-tasting thing I've eaten so far in West Africa) and there are villages along the edge, houses made of brick, gardens where plants and flowers are cultivated, and riverside restaurants and bars. The river is huge, muddy right now because it's the rainy season, but beautiful.
Niamey is also more spread out and calm...I'm still pretty disoriented, trying to recognize the street I'm staying on amongst all of the others...I'm driven around more than self-directed, but I'm starting to find my way.
One thing I have noticed is the mix of people...Taureg men in turbans and veils, some women in veils, many in beautiful fabrics, people with lines on their faces from the purposeful scarring...
Saturday night I went to an open air concert...it was a beautiful night, which was especially noticeable when the power went out, the group had to continue acapella, and I could see the stars...which I will never stop remarking, look the same everywhere in the world, we are connected by the sky.
Today I started the workshop for Réseau Arts Vivants. We are going to start each day with a presentation by a different participant on a specific aspect of Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theater, this morning it was Alfred Dogbé, who presented a beautifully succinct (not surprising, he is an important writer here) assessment of what the group should consider...this group is different than the one I worked with in Ouaga: quite a few of them know each other, most of them have a lot of experience with forum theater, and there is a desire to examine, critique, and innovate...I am looking forward to this process, the exchange...it's so interesting doing the workshop again, remembering the first time I did it in French, in Africa, how scared I was...now I'm not as afraid but I have different challenges: to manage the fact that I really feel like an outsider, to be respectful of their needs as a network of professionals who want to continue this work after I'm gone...
This afternoon we all went to lunch together--of course, even though I am eating much better than I did in Ouaga, I still can't keep up...this is remarkable in a culture where women are supposed to be a bit rounder. But I'm trying, and Djibrine is making sure that I eat...but in the end, I'm a skinny white girl, right? Mais merci à dieu for drinkable yogurt, beer, and ice cream...
The delay in landing was matched by an immigration and customs process that took about five times as long as it needed to. But patience is a virtue...
The only other West African capital city I have to compare to Niamey is Ouagadougou--Niamey is on the banks of the Niger river, so it's more green. We went down to the banks on Saturday, people were fishing in it (last night I ate some river fish which was the best-tasting thing I've eaten so far in West Africa) and there are villages along the edge, houses made of brick, gardens where plants and flowers are cultivated, and riverside restaurants and bars. The river is huge, muddy right now because it's the rainy season, but beautiful.
Niamey is also more spread out and calm...I'm still pretty disoriented, trying to recognize the street I'm staying on amongst all of the others...I'm driven around more than self-directed, but I'm starting to find my way.
One thing I have noticed is the mix of people...Taureg men in turbans and veils, some women in veils, many in beautiful fabrics, people with lines on their faces from the purposeful scarring...
Saturday night I went to an open air concert...it was a beautiful night, which was especially noticeable when the power went out, the group had to continue acapella, and I could see the stars...which I will never stop remarking, look the same everywhere in the world, we are connected by the sky.
Today I started the workshop for Réseau Arts Vivants. We are going to start each day with a presentation by a different participant on a specific aspect of Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theater, this morning it was Alfred Dogbé, who presented a beautifully succinct (not surprising, he is an important writer here) assessment of what the group should consider...this group is different than the one I worked with in Ouaga: quite a few of them know each other, most of them have a lot of experience with forum theater, and there is a desire to examine, critique, and innovate...I am looking forward to this process, the exchange...it's so interesting doing the workshop again, remembering the first time I did it in French, in Africa, how scared I was...now I'm not as afraid but I have different challenges: to manage the fact that I really feel like an outsider, to be respectful of their needs as a network of professionals who want to continue this work after I'm gone...
This afternoon we all went to lunch together--of course, even though I am eating much better than I did in Ouaga, I still can't keep up...this is remarkable in a culture where women are supposed to be a bit rounder. But I'm trying, and Djibrine is making sure that I eat...but in the end, I'm a skinny white girl, right? Mais merci à dieu for drinkable yogurt, beer, and ice cream...
Chillaxing in Casa
The cheapest route to Niger is with Royal Air Maroc; the only downside is a 12 hour layover in Casablanca. But I don't really see the opportunity to see a tiny bit of another country a downside. It was surreal getting off the plane, realizing that I was back in Africa, feeling the hot air...
Casablanca is a huge city. It seems that everyone has a satellite dish, even people living in tin and wood shacks. The mosques here are different than the ones I saw in Turkey, with a single tall minaret/tower. I went to the Grande Mosquée, which I believe is the biggest in Morocco if not Africa period...it is stunning, built around a huge plaza on the edge of the sea. I got lost in the medina, tiny streets with piles of spices, lots of live chickens, cafés and vegetable stalls...and then realized I was exhausted and decided that the best way to spend the rest of my day was to treat myself to something truly relaxing after the incredibly busy period I've been through recently.
So I found Hammam Ziani, thanks to lonelyplanet.com. Hammams are baths and steam rooms, separated by gender...I went to one in Turkey where I got a very rough massage from a large Turkish lady but I was willing to try again. I went for the full treatment, which meant that I had one woman who took care of me for two hours. She started by soaping me up with fragrant olive oil soap, had me sit in a steam room, then rinsed me off, and proceeded to sand every last dead skin cell off of my body with a loofah/glove implement, then she covered me in hot clay and wrapped me in plastic, leaving me to marinate for half an hour...then she rinsed me and gave me a full body massage. All of this for 300 dirhams, or about forty dollars. I feel like a new person.
The other thing that I loved about the hammam was the fact that, in a muslim country where (even in a cosmopolitan city like Casa) some women are veiled and the cafés are filled only with men, this was a women's space. I was befriended by a mother and two daughters who were there together, and I will forever remain grateful to the woman who took such good care of me. I felt like she knew how much stress I had been carrying.
The other thing I noticed in general was how incredibly warm, friendly, and helpful people were. I have heard so many horror stories of western women travelling alone, but for my brief visit, besides a few instances of "salut, ma fille, tu es seule?", I was left alone. All in all, a good way to spend a layover.
Casablanca is a huge city. It seems that everyone has a satellite dish, even people living in tin and wood shacks. The mosques here are different than the ones I saw in Turkey, with a single tall minaret/tower. I went to the Grande Mosquée, which I believe is the biggest in Morocco if not Africa period...it is stunning, built around a huge plaza on the edge of the sea. I got lost in the medina, tiny streets with piles of spices, lots of live chickens, cafés and vegetable stalls...and then realized I was exhausted and decided that the best way to spend the rest of my day was to treat myself to something truly relaxing after the incredibly busy period I've been through recently.
So I found Hammam Ziani, thanks to lonelyplanet.com. Hammams are baths and steam rooms, separated by gender...I went to one in Turkey where I got a very rough massage from a large Turkish lady but I was willing to try again. I went for the full treatment, which meant that I had one woman who took care of me for two hours. She started by soaping me up with fragrant olive oil soap, had me sit in a steam room, then rinsed me off, and proceeded to sand every last dead skin cell off of my body with a loofah/glove implement, then she covered me in hot clay and wrapped me in plastic, leaving me to marinate for half an hour...then she rinsed me and gave me a full body massage. All of this for 300 dirhams, or about forty dollars. I feel like a new person.
The other thing that I loved about the hammam was the fact that, in a muslim country where (even in a cosmopolitan city like Casa) some women are veiled and the cafés are filled only with men, this was a women's space. I was befriended by a mother and two daughters who were there together, and I will forever remain grateful to the woman who took such good care of me. I felt like she knew how much stress I had been carrying.
The other thing I noticed in general was how incredibly warm, friendly, and helpful people were. I have heard so many horror stories of western women travelling alone, but for my brief visit, besides a few instances of "salut, ma fille, tu es seule?", I was left alone. All in all, a good way to spend a layover.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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