Hasty journey to the field station

Today, I went on "mission" to Dalli (Tanout) to get some footage of the environmental changes that have occurred at the field station, since the project's arrival in 1987. It was a fun job but a challenge because how do you capture live footage of something that isn't moving? I'll let you know in some time if the footage was used for its intended purpose!

The field station has certainly changed over the years! It used to be a barren field.

Just looking at the contrast between the field station and its neighboring fields, and you get a sense of what the field station looked like from the start (though much worse). Trees are important, but establishing them is no hasty business.

The greatest challenge however was keeping my balance on the roof top of the car. You wouldn't believe how strong the winds are! However, after three hours I had acquired about one hour of footage and was satisfied. After two hours in a warm car, we came home to no water (this was the second day), but I walked over to my cousins to have a shower and a cup of coffee (I needed that after all that exhausting heat!) before taking Thomas out for a riding lesson. A full day, in other words!

Isthar

The Mirriah market

This morning, we drove to Mirriah; a small community situated about 20 km from east of Zinder. The journey took more than half an hour however, because the roads were so deteriorated and the Suzuki (which is not mine...) did not want to end up in every other hole...

Sunday is the market day of Mirriah (every city has its own market day, which enables to the businessmen to go from one market to another the whole week - in Zinder, the market day is on Thursdays) but although it was noon, it was surprisingly empty. People found the weather too cold; we however found it quite windy and some had trouble with all the sand that settled in our eyes...
Anette and Sofia tasted sugar cane for the first time. They said it was nice, but they did not need more than a little piece before being satisfied. Obviously sugar cane is very sweet, but it is also VERY rich in fibers, which is why you can walk around with it for a long time without finishing it off as you have to chew and spit all the time. Good mouth exercise!

Here, Renate and Sofia bought shoes, but I couldn't get the children (that flocked around us) to move away from the camera...

Every market is split into several deparments, and as we were seeing everything, we took a quick tour to the meat market.

The meat however was far from tempting, and I think both Anette and Sofia were happy that Hassane goes directly to the slaughter house to fetch the meat that we eat at home... Remember though that meat is a luxury item which few can afford. Most people in Niger are vegetarians, but not by choice but out of necessity.

Ah, in the end, we ended up finding quite a lot of little hand made things. Mirriah is a nice place to go to if you're looking for items made of stray, brick or calabash.

Clay turned into artwork - what more is there to say...?

Another of Anette's famous people's portraits!

In the end, we made it back to our car, but only because there were more things to discover...

Ishtar