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Niger Travel Blogs

Background: Not until 1993, 33 years after independence from France, did Niger hold its first free and open elections. A 1995 peace accord ended a five-year Tuareg insurgency in the north. Coups in 1996 and 1999 were followed by the creation of a National Reconciliation Council that effected a transition to civilian rule by December 1999. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with minimal government services and insufficient funds to develop its resource base. The largely agrarian and subsistence-based economy is frequently disrupted by extended droughts common to the Sahel region of Africa.

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By tamaffa
January 29th 2006

Here i am again Africa » Niger » Niamey

i made it here with little hassle, when i get my computer in to a cybercafe i will have a story about my quick and not-very-exciting-jaunt in morroco entitled "morroco is like scotland" as for now i am here a little kid asked me for a cadeau before coming in here and before that i was at yussef's sister's house entertaining a bunch of kids with my sierra club planner looking at all the pictures with the neighborhood men skeptically looking on and asking one of them in zarma what my name was, i could've told him, oh well. sometimes i [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
November 29th 2005

windingwinding down Africa » Niger

we took our first final today it went ok even with the redundant questions and the completely illogical "logic fill in the blank sentences" our prof brought us little cakes and a bag of meat. the gross kind of meat, the intestine meat, probably goat. the little cakes had "poire" and "mauka" written on them pear and mocha but we thought it said "poivre" pepper but they were good normal white cake, not quite american normal, but edible, not like my birthday cake with butter icing that was just butter. i'm eating meat now despite the fact that it is sold [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
November 29th 2005

francophonie games Africa » Niger

the francophonie games are coming to niger 7th-17th of december a lasting evidence of french colonialism, countries once under, and still associated with french rule send athletes for a kind of mini olympics. the stadium is right down the street from us and we can go and watch rehersals for the dance troupes at night, quite exciting we got invited to be in a dance but considering we've only had 1 dance lesson i think we'll have to politely decline all of the walls are getting hastily white washed, a women's group sponsored a whole bunch of old oil drums to [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
November 14th 2005

burkina trip(waylaid a little) Africa » Niger

Burkina Faso what used to be Haute Volta is west of niger it is a lot greener, they have two rainy seasons, and a lot more developed. they have public trash cans, lots more permanent buildings and bushes in the middle-of-the-road medians. people, men, are a lot more forward in there walk by "hey how's it going" accosting methods. and two particuler individuals accused the whole group of us of racism after we had been seemingly having a nice conversation, he then threatened handu with a rock, dropping it and laughing and his friend grabbed my wrist and seethed some choice [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
October 28th 2005

purse snatching Africa » Niger

walking with yussef, who was wearing a white bubu outfit, it was 8:20 P.M. just outside the C.F.C.A., we were going to get a solani, yogurt in a bag. There was a guy across the street praying in the roadside mosque, but otherwise the street was pretty empty, it being the last prayer of the day. No taxis, the usual crowd near the food vendor, we were passing the biker-bar-next-door and i thought it was odd that this guy was stepping off the street up the curb towards me instead of making more room, and, ZIPPP with a quick yank, my [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
October 21st 2005

it's so hot... Africa » Niger

that when farida tells me tuesday was 120 degrees and wednesday was 115 i am incredulous cause i thought it wasn't that bad. [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
October 21st 2005

homestay week Africa » Niger

this week was homestay with our nigerien families i was with Madam Rabi and her two teenage daughters Samira and Lafisa and their cousin/helper Saratu. they lived in a tiny compound with an outside concrete courtyard with a toilet and place to "shower." all the cooking happened outside on two stands with fire underneath. inside was just two rooms, maybe ten by ten each. the from room had the t.v. a big shelf armoir thing a little table and the chairs and the back room had a big bed and was mostly storage since they sleep outside when it's the hot [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
October 21st 2005

snippets of my trip to agadez and konni Africa » Niger

so we went to Agadez and Konni a couple of weeks ago now and i was hoping that i would have a big blog, or lots of little ones of what i saw, but school and homestay and just living here has taken more time than i thought making it difficult to fill y'all in, but here are some images that will hopefully give you an inkling/preview of what i (hopefully) will elaborate on soon... Agadez is in the north of niger, a 14 hour drive that we did in two days on terrible roads in our sweltering hot van, the [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
October 14th 2005

on going to school in niamey Africa » Niger

before going to class don't forget: chalk a bucket of water and a sponge for erasing a cup and a pitcher of water for the teacher the key to the classroom in the building fifty feet from where we live having class in the classroom is the best; there are four office style desks, cushy chairs, a view of the mini village with mini fields behind our place and AIR CONDITIONING that gets too cold sometimes oddly enough. teachers answer their cell phones during class Addo, my culture and society of niger prof. answered his one day "Allo monsier ministre!" in [View Full Entry]

By tamaffa
October 9th 2005

on softball tournaments in niamey... Africa » Niger

so it's the mini hot season here in niger and we played in a softball tournament this weekend. whoo we had a game in the heat of the day yesterday on a dilapadated field that just emanated heat. and our pitchers couldn't pitch so they were very lonnnnnng innings. we were in the social leauge and got beat by three teams of kids and the peace corps team from burkina faso but we got on the board and made good plays(a double play by me, oh yea) and HAD FUN! one of the teams of kids had this tiny third baseman [View Full Entry]

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