Living in Niger

So I moved into my home last Friday!!

Though, excited that the painting was finished and my house was ‘ready’, I jumped in with two feet – barely thinking through some of the logistics. This has made for some humorous experiences, to say the least!

First Breakfast – 2 hours!:

Friday morning I bought my staples for groceries, dropped them off at my house and then headed back to my director’s home. I hauled the rest of my stuff over later in the afternoon. Unpacked a few essentials, made my bed and then headed off for supper with my teammates. When I got back home around 11:30, I discovered that the hot water tank had no water and the tap to fill it did not seem to work. No problem. I headed to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up and decided I wanted eggs and sheep-meat sausage on the croissants I bought the day before – a special breakfast, for my first day in my new home. Well, I realized I needed to wash some dishes and the eggs that I bought the previous day. As I had no hot water, I set about looking for matches to light the stove so I could boil some water with which to do my washing. After 15 minutes going through all my bags and boxes from the store and unpacking a fair amount of items, I still had not found the matches. So I settled on my croissants with nutella. After I ate, it bothered me that I had not found the matches, so off I went on my hunt again. I finally found them in another bag in my room, so I set about to make my special breakfast again.

The first 10 matches netted me no gain in lighting my stove – I had problems coordinating which hand needed to do the extinguishing of ‘a’ flame once the burner was lit. So, with my right hand I held the match to the burner and with my left hand I turned the knob on the stove. Once the burner lit though, my left hand extinguished the flame – and I was left still holding a burning match in my right hand. Oh – I tried switching hands – to no avail; whichever hand holding the match continued with the burning match while the other hand extinguished the flame on the burner!! I finally got the coordination down pat, but took another 5 or so matches before I learned how to turn the flame down low without turning off the burner again. Yikes.

So, after all that work to boil the water for washing, I decided I needed to not only wash my dishes and two eggs for breakfast – but all the eggs I bought. I also made a coffee with the remaining hot water. Once the eggs were washed, I then had to start the whole above process again in order to cook my eggs and sausage. Having eaten my croissants, I went on the hunt for the toaster I had bought from my retiring teammate and toasted some French bread. So, two hours later – voila!! - breakfast! (or, early lunch).

I then had a shower and discovered that even though I had no hot water, the water coming out of the cold tap was warm enough from the heat outside! In fact, as Saturday night was hot and humid, Sunday morning I decided that the ‘warm’ cold tap water was too warm and alas, it could not get any more cold!

Wednesday – Washing:

Today, the repair guy came over to fix the broken water tap outside the house (which runs the water in the water heater) and my swamp cooler (nifty thing with a water wheel inside which flows the water over straw mats and a fan which sucks the hot air through the water mats, thus cooling the air and then blows the cool air through the house).

As the water for the washing machine is run through the hot water heater, I was excited to be able to do some washing. The repair guy fixed that tap first and moved on to the swamp cooler. I promptly put my washing in the machine and moved on to another area of the house to continue with my work. The next thing I know, the repair guy is knocking at my front door. I figure he is done his work, but all I catch of his fast words is water and kitchen. As he had shown me that the water heater was full and the water coming out of the hot water tap, I assured him that it was working. Finally he told me to follow him and I finally managed to catch a few more words – the water had to do with the floor and I arrive at my kitchen door to discover a flood! My washing machine has flooded the floor about a ½ inch deep with water and it has begun to move into the dining room. I slide through the mess to turn the machine off and try to figure out who to call. I come back to the (long, galley type) kitchen with a broom to find the repair guy on one end with the head of a broom (no handle) trying to push the water down the long length. My guard comes running in with a squeegee-type thing to push it out the door and I try to assist with directing the water flow outside (as opposed to into the dining room) with my broom. I tell the guys that I am just washing my clothes and my floor at the same time and we had a good laugh. (Someone is coming tomorrow to fix the machine.)

After that is all done, I am left with a kitchen full of flies and a damp floor. I set about trying to kill all the flies with the fly swatter. Who knew that one could break out a sweat killing flies? So anyways, I stopped counting after 30 – I believe that I killed close to fifty (and there are still a few strays that I have yet to get). At one point, I decide that I need to sweep up the dead flies – for I am re-killing the dead ones and walking past the live ones – it is hard to tell the difference when they are on the floor. By this point though, thankfully, most of the sandy puddles at the end of the kitchen are dry enough that I can sweep the sand and flies into a pile, instead of spreading the mud around.

Phew, what an afternoon!

Thankfully, by the time I stopped the machine, my laundry was at the spin cycle – so I was able to hang up my clothes.

Wednesday – Supper:

It is taking me a while to get used to the difference in some of the basics though. Today, I brought my laundry tub inside and set it on my bed (next to the dresser) and then realized that my bedsheet was now sandy because the laundry tub had sat on the sand while I took my clothes off the line.

I now also need to remember to keep my water bottles in the fridge full of filtered water (I almost ran out of water last night as I was more thirsty than I had bottles and the time it took to refill them) and I also need to remember to make more milk when I get low.

Tonight for supper, I decided to make crepes – it’s a comfort food for me. Well, I had to make milk first. Then I realized that the flour and the sugar were still in the freezer and I had not yet taken the time to sift them. I then sifted the flour, discovered no "goodies" – so decided to wing it with the sugar; until I threw in a spoonful and saw something small and black go in the batter too. Who knows what it was, but it was frozen and dead. (I suspect it was just a grain of sand.) As I finally poured the first bit of batter into the pan, I remembered that I did not have a flipper. I began searching for something else to use. Having already thrown out one burned and melted spatula after the breakfast episode, I knew those would not work. The next flipper-shaped thing I saw was my fly swatter (no, mom – I did not use it; it is plastic and would have melted too!). I finally settled on my large serving fork. As I stood in the kitchen and played with the gas heat, and then ate my somewhat burned crepes; I realized I was grateful for two things: that I had food to eat and that there are no fire alarms in the house!!

Well, that describes my first few days of living in Africa in my own house! It has been an adventure. One I likely should have ‘planned’ better, but I have had fun. C’est la vie! Though some of my other missionary friends in Canada told me that life would take longer to do the basics in Niger, I had not anticipated any of the above hilarities! (Granted, once I am settled, I will hopefully have most of the basics figured out and the basic life will not take quite this long!)