Besides all the work and projects that you have been reading about in this blog, I thought I’d try to give you an idea of what the travel is like–not the airplane–you all know about that. I can’t really give you (and don’t want to) the bone crunching experience of driving off road through the Air mountain range–hours on end–at the end of the day the sun blazing through the windshield blinding you. I can’t adequately describe the intense heat of the days turning into bitter cold nights as we approached the desert..again I don’t want to and I think you can guess at that. But I can show you what our camps look like, our cars, and some of the many surprises we find or make as we go along. Yes the work is gratifying (as well as frustrating and exhausting) but the rest of the trip–the many surprising, glorious, fascinating, silly, curious and astonishing things are what keep us going. Here are some of them…
I love to introduce someone new to Niger for the first time–this trip it was Alissa. She is a seasoned traveler and professional photographer and agreed to come along as an interpreter. I was delighted to be freed from that constant task and I wanted to show her some of what delights me about Niger. She had wanted to see the Wodaabe festivals but the season was at its end. I asked our friends at Foudouk if they would give us a demonstration–Becky and Pat had never seen one either–in spite of trying each year–so we had a mini gerewol just for us.
After our training was done at Tamesna we packed up and left for Iferouane–a long two days of driving through tortuous terrain. We broke it up by stopping at Eres N’Tagba, a large Tuareg community very much in need of matrones. This is one of six communities we hope to add through our “local training program”. We will pick them up and bring the chosen two to Tamesna for a training program in February.
Women in Eres N’ Tagba who will choose two to be trained as matrones.
We spent the night with the Giraffe of Dabous and continued for the always long, but this year brutal, drive to Iferouane. There had been so much rain that the roads, already non-roads, were really indistinguishable as roads and as a result we arrived 2 hours late and missed our welcoming party.
So they sang and danced in the dark and then led us to our camp for the next five days.
Our Iferouane camp.
The next four days were spent training matrones, visiting potential new projects and old ones–repair of a school roof, 50 goats purchased, women’s leather co-operatives, potato gardens thriving since planting last year–
Iferouane knows how to party–they welcome us well, but they sent us off with a fabulous fete.
The women sing and clap for the dancers–the women dancers start …
Iferouane dancers are known for their exuberance…
creative costumes…
and agility…
Supplied by the women who work leather (who I so enthusiastically support and you can too ) they are also known for how well they dress their camels.
…and the we say goodbye to Iferouane
So we load up the cars and head out for the dunes and a couple of days of vacation.
We drive through the mountainous, boulder strewn landscape that surrounds Iferouane.
Stopping at communities who have asked for matrones to see about the viability of training two from each. Here the women of Tizerzeit approach.
Tizerzeit is known for its lovely petroglyphs 5000 years old. It has also been a battleground in every rebellion. In 2013 when I visited, after five years of rebellion, we could not climb up to see the petroglyphs since it had not been cleared of mines.
As we drive into the dunes the challenges of desert driving begin. Here we are trying to get to the other side of a large dune where we have camped before–to find a new site. You can see the tracks of the cars traversing new lines of dunes.
This is a familiar site to anyone who has traveled in the dunes. The lead car should be the only one to get stuck as the followers can see what is in store–and they can push us out. Handy to have 20 military along for this.
Every evening when we find the perfect spot–the drill is to get to the top of the highest nearby dune as soon as possible. This sometimes takes an hour or more and must be postponed til morning.
Sidi and Becky are always there. I’m the one in black with the white face.
Alissa enthusiastically adopted this ritual–photographer that she is– often missing breakfast or dinner because of her extended dusk and dawn wanderings.
A kind of euphoria starts taking over–Becky and Pat–sisters– usually ramble together. You always know where they are because they are always laughing.
Nights are spent around the fire telling stories, playing stupid games or listening to Alhassane play the guitar–sometimes dancing the Tuareg shuffle.
One night we arrived at the fire in turbans which hid our mustaches–thanks to Becky and Pat–this has become something of a tradition started last year on halloween. It has morphed into a “when least expected” surprise.
This surprise led the crew to burst into fits of laughter for the entire night. The mustaches never came off that night and reappeared periodically throughout the rest of the trip.
Days, when not driving or climbing dunes are spent looking for neolithic treasures, or fulgurite (glass tubes created when lightning strikes the sand), or pottery shards–everything in this sparse land is remarkable.
One day when leaving our camp we saw a man walking in the middle of nowhere. He had seen us go by the day before and walked several hours to find us to sell us something. He did not find us and, disappointed was on his way back to his camp when we found him. He wanted to sell this amulet. I bought it immediately for the $10 asking price–an effort like that deserved a reward.
This trip –on the cusp between the hot and cold seasons–we were rewarded with epic skies.
On the way back to Agadez we ran into several caravans. Some were returning from Bilma with salt and dates , others were transporting the camels for sale in Nigeria and others have found new work carrying out the ore for processing to find gold.
A final group photo with our military escort–home safe again.
bonjour
votre description de votre petit voyage de plaisance est très sympathique
si je comprends bien vous avez été à Foudouk pour cette petite demonstration de Gerewol; avez vous eu des contacts avec Nassamou Malan , Mokao Doula et /ou l’instituteuir.
j’ai l’impression que la matrone de Foudouk qui fut dans les premières ne travaille plus beaucoup depuis qu’il y a une infirmière au dispensaire.
au sujet du dispensaire de Foudouk , nous avons un problème au sujet duquel j’aimerai avoir votre avis:est-ce utile de dépenser plus de 1000 euros'(panneaux solaires,batteries, frigo) pour pouvoir installer un frigo ; en effet savez vous si ils peuvent avoir et garder des médicaments qui doivent être conservés à environ 3/4 degrés centigrades comme des vaccins pour les personnes et surtout les animaux (moutons chêvres vaches)
connaissez vous d’autres villages oµ il y a un champ de froid de ce genre et est ce utile ?
Merci de me donner votre avis ?les leaders de Fouidouk vous demandent ils de les aider pour tel ou tel projet?
avec toute ma sympathie
Louis de Ryckel
It is fantastic to see everyone doing well. I hope the domes are serving the community well. I think of you all and your work often!