My First Real Post in Africa

Hello everyone. First off, I'd like to apologize for misspellings and errors as I'm using a French keyboard, which is extraordinarily different than an English. Forgive me.

Let me assure you that I am alive and well, but since the last letter I sent Dad I've had a multi-day session of what in Zarma is known as gundekar, literally "a hit to the stomach," meaning massive amounts of diarrhea. This may disgust you, but it's a serious fact of life in Peace Corps Niger that we've all had to deal with multiple times. This country messes with your sense of personal boundaries in part because your body and mind are put to such an extreme test at such a young age.

We've just finished our live-in, which is our first week in village followed by two more weeks of training. After that, we swear-in and have two years of a radically different life than the one we knew in America. I'm in the Balleyara cluster in Tillaberi, but unfortunately, since this is a public blog I cannot be any more specific than that. My village is large for an AG post, and its almost entirely Bella. These are the black Tuaregs, who, centuries ago, were the slaves of the northern Arab Tuareg. There are many issues surrounding this, but if you would like to know more, you will have to mail me for more in-depth information.

I've decided that it's going to be entirely too difficult to synthesize all that I've seen and experienced in Niger thus far, so I'll try to post themes that I've noticed, and since I am an English major, language will be my first topic. I'm studying Zarma, which is the second largest ethnic group in Niger, but I will also learn a little bit of Tamaschek because the Bellas mix the two languages.

A few things about the language, and then maybe the culture will be easier to understand.

1. There is no word in Zarma for please.

The closest one can come is to say "Irkoy se," which means "For the love of God." This can lead to several frustrations as the most common phrase from children especially is "Ay no..." or "Give me." They rarely expect you to hand things over, but it is still a major adjustment to have these demands continuously made of you.

2. The pronouns in Zarma are the same for all uses.

For example, "Ay" means "I, me, and mine." "A" means "he, she, it, his, her, its, him, and her." This means it is relatively easy to speak Zarma, but hearing it is another issue.

3. Every word in Zarma has at least two other meanings in no way related to the first.

This can lead to some fun and a lot of frustration. For example, "Ay haw haw haw ra" means "I tied my cow up in the wind," as "haw" can mean cow, wind, or to tie up. "Ay zama zama ay gonda zama" means "I won because I had a knife" as "zama" can mean knife, because, or to win. So you can see that not only can the words change, but the parts of speech and uses can change as well.

4. There is no distinction between "I want," "I love," "I like," and "I desire."

This may fall under the last point, but during our stage one of the girls tried saying she didn't want sauce and had plain rice for a week because her family thought she didn't like sauce.

5. My English is slowly deteriorating because I get so little practice.

If I start to sound strange, or use terms like "has a lot of effort" or "how's the tiredness" or "I am in health" it's because these are very Zarma ways of saying things. In addition, my maturity level has dropped tremendously, so I've learned way too many "sanniyamo" literally "zero words" that are way to inappropriate for polite conversation.


That's all I have time for now, so I'll be off. I'll finish this another time, whenever I'm in Niamey next. Don't expect another update for at least two weeks. There are many things that I want to say but either don't have time for or cannot post in a public forum, so if you want to write me, you have my address. Sorry for the long post, but you had to expect it after seven weeks off.