Bringing out the mares

This afternoon, Ali came over with Chinada to take both the mares to the race track. Chinadahas not been around much after they moved to their new home. During the weekends, he has been away (there has been racing in both Magaria and Matameye) and during the weekdays, I have not asked him to come. Chinada has not been in my good books since he asked me for a motor cycle, and I think Ali wanted to patch things up a bit - as Chinada is like a second son to him, and Ali knows he has my confidence.

A funny and unexpected thing happened though: Ali galloped for the first time since I don't know when! People were cheering "Ali, Ali" as he spurred Sahara into a cantor just as he passed the crowd. I was thrilled! You see, Ali used to be a jockey in youth, but stopped galloping after he started training them. Don't ask me why, that's the way things are done. I understood that when he refused to run with me in October and I set off alone instead.

Now, Chinada had other horses to run as well, but Ali did a good job keeping the two mares together, even though both of them were full of anticipation.

Now, greetings in Niger are very important and at the race track, there is a unspoken rule that whoever arrives last has to walk around and greet all the people he knows; both his friends and the people that are higher in hierarchy (meaning, those with more money or influence). Being neglected is one of the worst insult here and if you do not get around to greet everyone by the end of the day, they will feel slighted and think that you do not care. Now, I always take care in greeting all my friends, but as you know, I don't always follow the rules. If Ali greet me and takes my one hand with both of his, I will answer by giving him both my hands as well. This is a gesture that shows equality and makes people confused; for in their eyes, I am a "horse-owner" while Ali is simply a "horse trainer". Now, today, I was not the first to arrive, but the three of us (Anette, Sofia and I) started by walking straight to the track. The first ones we greeted were of course Ali and Chinada. After a while, I turned around and walked over to the Snow Man, a friend of mine, whose company I enjoy. The Gold Man however is not among my aquaintances, and I so I never walk up to greet him. Despite this, we have never yet missed out on a greeting - ever - since we started meeting at the race track. No matter how much distance I keep - at the end of the day, he will always have found an occasion to barge in, wherever I am. Having worked hard on his social skills, all my friends are now his aquaintances as well and as soon as I approach them, he follows. Though he will not adress me first (he knows better, because I might just turn him my back and nothing would make him more ashamed than to be slighted publically), he will start talking to whoever I am speaking to. After a minute, he will turn around and greet me as if I am his best friend, but by then he knows that I am waiting for my friend to continue my conversation, and will not leave my friend just like that. Now, on top of it, my jockey is now his jockey as well and my horse-adviser, Ali, has also started doing some small jobs for him. I actually asked the Snow Man which horse he thought Chinada would end up riding if both a horse of a mine and a horse of the Gold Man were to participate in the same race. He answered without the slightest hesitation: "Yours!" Fortunately for the Gold Man that I have only two mares then...

For Sahara, today was her very first offical race, and she proved to be the exact opposite of Arwen last year (when Arwen did her debut), possessing top speed (which Arwen lacked) but having little endurance (which was Arwen's strong point and the reason why she did so well right from the start). Sahara started off well enough and kept pace with the other horses for about half a lap, before starting to lose ground. She came in last (as last as you can be) and I lost €5, but I did not mind because I wanted her to get the experience. Besides, I actually prefer working with an underdog than all the expectations in the world. Believe me, there will come a day when all the other horse owners will refuse to let their stallions race against her, but she is young and does not need to hurry. She's already doing a good job just eating like a horse, developing her social skills and growing in width.

Fortunatly for my honour (if I even care about it), I still had Arwen left and she was very keen to be taken to the race track.

Pregnant or not, my mare wanted to race! Which she did...

She ended up on second place, beaten only by a horse that the Gold Man bought for about fifteen times as much as I bought Arwen... Though Chinada was satisfied with his "revanche", he did not feel that Arwen had her usual "gudu" (speed), so maybe it was little junior helping out.


Ishtar

The first few days

I can’t believe how quickly time has passed... I’ve been in Zinder for… four full days (sorry, had to count…) and everything is so relaxed. The days pass quickly and without stress, and it’s only when evening comes that I start thinking about all the things I would have liked to do, but didn’t even come to think of during the day…

The first few days were spent getting in order. We’re still far from done but at least we’re getting there. Both Anette and I have unpacked our things (that is, I still have a suitcase full of horse equipment left on the floor…) and that feels like an achievement. On Friday afternoon, after several hours of hard work cleaning the kitchen, we went for a walk before sunset… Though I hadn’t planned on it, we ended up going to Ali’s, where I, to my great delight, found Arwen in an even better shape than when I left her! She had grown in size and it was much more than her pregnancy – in fact, she looked like a brand new horse! And that explained to me why the fodder hadn’t lasted, because this horse had been eating a lot more than one month of salary during the time I had been away!

Ali wasn’t home, so we then went over to Josef and Renate, where we planned my father’s birthday the following day. He had said beforehand that he didn’t have the energy for any celebration, and, seeing that it’ll be my turn tomorrow, I sincerely understand him, but at that point, we didn’t just want to let it go unnoticed – despite the fact that the house was pretty much up and down. So Josef, Renate and Tabita sneaked in at eight thirty and we woke him up in bed. With presents and chocolates. It ended up being a nice, calm day…

On Sunday afternoon, Anette and I went to the race track. Although it was in the middle of the Ramadan feast, there were only two races – mostly with novice horses.

Everyone asked for Arwen and I was surprised by the number of people that had gone to see her when I was away. Now why would they do that? It turned out that I have set a new trend in Zinder. Last year, when I got Arwen, they didn’t believe that mares could run. I never really understood the commotion when Arwen showed herself at practice but in retrospect, it was their aha-moment. Mares actually do run… E.I. happily informed me of all the horse owners that had followed my example and purchased mares themselves and I couldn’t help myself but to say: “But I thought you guys said mares couldn’t run!”
“Yes, but that was before we saw the success you had with Arwen!”
Lol… So my “secret” is out and Arwen will be getting more female competition… It doesn’t matter because I didn’t buy her to watch her run. However, if her reputation is such that her foal will sell at a high price, then I’ll be very satisfied. Maybe my little hobby won’t be that expensive after all… J

Now as for the social mingling, Zinder’s race track is a funny place where you meet all the who’s who of town together with their entourage. And I noted another interesting thing about Niger. Because everybody is watching everyone, people are careful with whom they greet and when. I was very happy to scan the area behind sunscreens but I noticed that it made people very hesitant when they wanted to see me.

“Is that really you Ishtar or is it a look-alike?” E.I. said when he saw me. As if he didn’t recognize me… He just couldn’t meet my gaze and therefore was afraid of making a fool of himself! Imagine if I had turned my back on him or something; people would have talked about that for ages…

I guess this is one of the reasons why I love the racetrack so much. You have everybody’s eyes on you (they know all the gossip there is to be told about you, your horse, your horse keeper and your jockey) which means that you can actually make an imprint by turning their hierarchical system upside down. When I see Ali, who is “just” a horse keeper, I shake his one hand with both my hands, which is a great sign of respect. When I pass The Goldman however, one of the most influential men in this city (who wanted to date me when I was sixteen and obviously hasn’t changes his mind), I only nod in his direction and he cannot even be sure that my nod was meant for him.

The Goldman however is not one to be put off, so in this case, he waited for his opportunity and when I followed E.I. out in the fields to have a look at a horse of his that had fallen in, the Goldman was quick to follow. Last year, I got so irritated by the fact that he was constantly following me around and intruding on my society, but now I have gotten used to it. The fun part is that because of his interest in me (whether that be as a female, a European or a human – I am still not sure) he is now conversing with people beneath him and everybody is watching him. Because he rarely gets my attention, he puts on all his charm towards whoever I am speaking to and other people take after his example. So we are setting a new trend, just like with the racing mares… J

And I must admit that although I cannot make him leave even if I would wish to, I have a lot of fun putting him in place. Nobody does that to a rich man but I have nothing to gain from him, so why should he be more than my equal? I may be a woman but humor with a touch of stinging sarcasm (well aimed, of course!) gain a lot of respect in this society. I really don’t understand why he so desperately wants us to be friends because I am rarely nice to him (or should I say gentle with him?). It always ends with a small crowd of people laughing at him and I always find a weak spot in everything that he says. He is persistent though and for that, I must give him credit for. But if teasing him can make him a better person as well, then why not? After all, he does listen to a lot of the things that I tell him and he often comes back to show me that this or that has changed. Personal development – just my favorite…

That said, time has now flown away and I’d better be off in order to get some rest…

Sei gobe!

Ishtar