A go waani Zarma cine!

A couple of words about living in a paper-poor world:

Some obstacles posed by this situation are so apparent they need not be said: School began a week late this year as students waited for their notebooks to be delivered. Books, the sweet rotten-smelling pages of infinitely valuable books, are desperately scarce. Children here cannot draw. I've spotted only one Nigerien newspaper since moving to Ville, and I live just outside the capital. I received coloring books from my (endleslly generous) aunt and have since given them to my two favorite teachers for their students. Both asked specifically for them when the rumor arrived that I had coloring books, and after I handed them over, both flipped through and gazed at every page. Fifteen million lifetimes without a single journal. This nation suffers a shortage of crossword puzzles, cookbooks, dictionaries, magazines and the simply delightful transfer of letters. Oh, and I don't know about you, but my memory has become quite reliant on the sticky note.

Okay, I can wrap my mind around--and adjust my habits to--the lack of napkins and papertowels, but I honestly miss toilet paper. And tissues. It's cold season, afterall, and everyone is sick. What else is there to do but blast snot rockets? In public? No problem! (There is at least some chance I will be regarded as a heathen when I return.)

Still, I draw the line at shootin' shit ou'cha nose on bush taxis. C'mon man, there are five of us on this bench made for there, and the windows of this van are cracked and jammed shut. Oh, that little girl lacks health, you say? Oh yes, there she goes, puking into the same sort of thin, plastic bag that I purchase my eggplant in. At least her mother managed to catch it, I suppose. Both of my feet are asleep, and the shrill speakers of that guy's cell phone can't mask her heaving with their atrociousity of Nigerien popular music. There is a bowl of millet spewing across my numb toes with every leap and jump we traverse and another spilling into my lap, where it pools in the dip of my zarra. Now you're going to act disgusted by the vomit odor trapped in here, Mr. Booger? The more force you use to push yourself as far away as possible, the further I am shoved on top of the hot, swollen body of the sparkly woman next to me, whose baby, drawn on eyebrows smeared in a comic arch, is now playing in my crotch's sandbox of millet grain. Yes, perhaps now is the perfect time to answer your phone, sir. Assalum Aleikum, indeed.

There is a reason that 45-minute ride barely costs more than one USD.

Two months ago I saw a camel in one such vehicle, and I thought, "wow, that's absurd." Now the memory only makes me wonder how much money the camel's keeper must have been receiving to justify purchasing so many seats on the taxi.

And to address the question on everyone's minds: no, I have not yet ridden a camel. Rest assured that when that happens, there will be pictures.

Because I do have a camera in country, now. After the unfortunate death of my Nikon during Ramadan, I was left with no choice but to attempt to describe this crazy world in print, a frankly impossible feat. Even photos, of course, fail. Still, they help, and I promise they are coming. In Sha'allah. And I promise to make a genuine effort to resist posting the beaucoup of pictures I take everyday of my dog.

I will be returning soon to Hamdy for IST (In-Service Training) where I will spend the better part of a month in the happy company of the other members of my training class, the vast majority of whom I have not seen since Steph's memorial. I'm dreading her absense, and that of the couple of others who have returned to the States, but I'm more than a little psyched to go. After, I am permitted to begin funded projects, so watch out Ville-I-cannot-here-name. Djamila will be comin' back with force.

In light of this long-awaited work, I would like to report what we're grappling with here, just to get everybody up to speed.

Some facts about Niger:

Land size:489,678 sq mi with the majority of the population concentrated in sourthern portions that lie within the Sahel, an arid region of Africa to the immediate south of the Sahara Desert, which covers 80% of Niger.
Population: roughly 15 million

Let's begin with the most dire statistics:
Average children per woman: 8 (highest in the world)
Population growth rate: 3.6% (highest in the world)
Population below the age of 15: 49.9% (US: 21.7%)

As an education volunteer, the following statistics must also be noted:
Adult literacy: 16.5% (take note that this is literacy, not illiteracy)
Children in primary education: 30%
Children in secondary education: 5%

And, well, these are just sad:
Children malnurished: 40%
Population living on less than 1 USD/day: 61.4%
Population living on less than 2 USD/day: 85.3%
Per capital GDP: $175
Doctors per 100,000 people: 4 (US: 276)
Life expectancy: 45.6

(CIA WorldFactbook, Niger; UN Report)

The next time you see one of those Sponsor-a-Child commercials on late night television, look a bit closer. Chi'kin Niger.
So yeah, to, kala tonton.