Bonjour. Sannu. Ca va... Who is that great white slob anyway?

After seven straight days with insufficient rest and sleep, we have some down time today. I take the opportunity to sleep late, but in doing so, I miss the departure to the market, a few blocks away. Our hostess assures me that I can walk there on my own, and find the others from our team. No problem... Right.

Outside the gate I must photograph the small herd of Brahma cattle that has congregated in the street. Suddenly, my film has run out. As I change films in my Canon Rebel XS (the brilliant guy who sold me the camera said that the last two names of the camera both describe me - rebel and excess), a group of children surround me. I manage to disperse them somewhat by offering to take their picture ("Go back a bit; a little more; a little more"; then you turn and run).

As I wandered out to the Madaoua portion of the East-West Highway (sort of a Trans-Niger Highway, actually built with Canadian funds, and most recently resurfaced with Belgian funding), I work my way down past various shops along the way. I shake a hand that extends to me from a parked vehicle and I get honked at a couple of times when I have to venture onto the highway to get around various vehicles and other obstructions at the side of the road.

Various Nigeriens greet me with "Ca va", "Bonjour" and "How are you?" I keep responding: "Sannu, sannu" which is "Hello" in Hausa, the local language. I realize that I must pose a striking figure: overweight, middle-aged white guy with baggy pants, limping along in sandals that keep catching in the loose sand, squinting through glasses clogged with dust, and looking like he has no clue where he is headed.

Narrowly surviving a collision with a motorcycle that wiped out a few feet from me, I take a couple of wrong turns, but manage to retrace my steps. Two well dressed men on a motor bike stop to assist me, but I am not communicating well in french today (as usual). "A gauche! A gauche!" I then realize that I need to make a couple of lefts to reach the market, my ultimate goal in this quest.

I wind up on another corner on a paved street with a small roundabout in the centre of the intersection. I pause to photograph the traffic circle and its occupants: a bicycle and a cow. Upon realizing that I am likely no closer to the market place than when I left the compound, I head back. Once home, I just finish latching the gate when the rest of my team return from the marketplace. I did enjoy the dusty walk by myself and was satisfied that I had most likely provided some unexpected entertainment for the residents of Madaoua today.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007