Cold-season is upon us! Actually, it is half-way done! Niger started to mercifully cool down in early November and should stay pleasant until about late February. The nights get down to the mid-50’s (FREEZING) and the days are probably more like 85-90 and dry. By now my body has adjusted to the new degrees of heat so anything between 60-80 is chilly, 80-90 feels AMAZING, 100-105 degrees start to feel uncomfortable, and above 105 is just hot. The dry heat is a blessing for a girl who has lived in the boggy Florida pan-handle and the marshes of Washington DC/Northern Virginia’s Potomac area. My hair air-dries in a matter of minutes and looks better than it could ever look without a blow-dryer.
Cold-season is a time for gardening and that is what I am doing with the Falmey Women’s Union named “Tontoni” or “growth”. We are planting: Salad, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, hot peppers, and green peppers. We would love to have carrots, onions and potatoes too, but unfortunately my project financing has not come in yet and the time marches on. We will make due with what we have though! What else is there to do? The women will use the produce to either help feed their families or to sell for extra cash around the house. Either way the cold-season gardening activities should help them out as we move into Hot Season and the “hungry” season. This is typically throughout the months of April, May, and June. The stores of food from October 2010’s harvest will start to run low and people will have to ration until the first yields of the rainy season come in, usually around mid-July. This past year’s hungry season (Apr-Jun 2010) was terrible but the harvest that just came in should hold people over MUCH better for 2011. Any extra help these women can get to stock up or save before the hungry time is a victory and that is what we are trying to do with the gardens. The follow-up project to the gardening this year is to acquire a quality metal fence around the space so the women don’t have to build a millet stock fence every year. I am in the process of finding funding for this, but the agriculture is the most interesting thing I am doing right now, second to an English-French letter exchange that is.
The Christmas holiday in Falmey was modestly celebrated. The Presbyterian congregation of 10-15 held a service on Saturday and the Pastor’s family cooked up food for a large luncheon. My friends in town who are aware of the Christian holiday greeted me on it, but they were not many. This did not bother me because it is indicative of one of the best things about Niger, the religious freedom. There is no tension between Muslims and Catholics, although all the Muslims want me to convert when the topic comes up. They do not harass me or speak ill of Christianity, but merely exhibit a passive sympathy that I am not a part of their comfortable Muslim world. In a way I have the feeling that we are constantly agreeing to disagree. Everyone goes about their day in peace. My villagers are more than happy to include me and educate me on their religious holidays and if I had the ability to explain Christianity, I am sure they would listen patiently and celebrate with as much gaiety as I. I have no problem getting excited about the feasts of Ramadan, Mouloud, and Tabaski…religious observance or is it all about the food? I have the same difficulty making the distinction with American holidays! Their daily life is full of prayer (literally, five times a day) but clashing religious principals have yet to come between me and my life here.
That said, religion and culture are so entangled here that social and cultural differences, stemming from religious beliefs do occasionally interrupt the flow of life for me. This very afternoon I received the following text message from a Nigerien colleague who speaks English: Hello, Happy Christmas! Islam do not allow men to share hands with women except their parent/relative. So excuse me if I do not later share mine with you. Bye.
In America this is rude, and my American sensibilities were momentarily shocked and insulted. However, I live in Niger now. The male/female dynamic is dramatically different and I must understand this and adapt my behavior so as not to offend my host country. I can respect my colleague’s beliefs and genuinely want to minimize any discomfort he feels in my presence. He has shaken my hand in the past when I offered it, and now I understand the unease it must have given him. We all pick and choose our battles and this is a small thing that I am willing to give up to my friend so as to avoid embarrassing scenes in the future. I suppose it helps that his view is not widespread. Most professional men in Falmey will shake my hand. If it were the opposite, then perhaps I would have spent more time fighting to be treated equally with handshakes, instead of insisting upon my right to treat street food as it is meant to be treated. I will never be able to let go of my right to take food on the go and eat and walk at the same time!
0 comments:
Post a Comment