Hopf in Niger: . . . and other duties as required.

You all know this line in a job description - the one at the end of a list of duties - which states:

Other duties as required

I am still learning what all is required in my new job, I know language study and bookkeeping is a small part of it, but still remain a bit confused on what exactly an International Worker does. BUT, I did find out what my other duties as required are:

Changing Tires on my truck!!

The Lord was definitely watching out for me the other night though, as the tire did not go flat until I reached my yard - for it was almost 11pm, my cell phone was dying (oops) and I have never changed a flat tire before! (I am familiar with the concept of the procedure, but my cars in Canada never had a flat, so I had never changed a tire before.) I drive into my yard, head to the house after greeting my guard, Karim, when he calls after me: 'Madame, le pneu!' (Madame, the tire!). I walk over, and sure enough, I hear a slow and steady hissing stream of noise and watch as my tire slowly deflates itself.

I call my teammates in the morning for a ride to prayer meeting, and while there he asks Lisa to show me how to change my tire. (We thought he was joking!) In the end though, I am glad to learn this new task - who knows, I may (will certainly) need this skill out in the desert one day. And Lisa was honored to be trusted with the task as well!

We both had our tasks for the day - mine was single-handed: learn how to change the tire; hers was a bit more complicated as it was multiplied by 6!! Lisa's 'other job duties as required' included:

project manager

chief photographer

comic relief

Instruction Manual reader (interpreter)

Spare tire fetcher

moral support

We also had an audience - as my guard Ifostane heard our giggles and hoots of laughter - and came to investigate! He offered to take it off and go get it fixed, but we managed to convince him that I needed to learn how to do this in case I was ever out alone in the desert. (We used a wonderful French phrase - which does not translate directly to English - but the gist is 'it is necessary that. . . .' and generally leaves no room for argument - though the artisans use this to indicate I must look at their wares or exchange my local currency for the american dollars they accepted from a tourist, neither of which are a must! As much as I loved learning 'il faut que' in class at Laval, I am now a little tired of hearing it all the time - still like using it though!). Anyways . . . Ifostane left us alone, but wandered in and out of the yard to keep his eye on the progress.

The entire process took us two hours - minus the water break in the middle! But we had (likely way too much) fun!! We dutifully read all the instructions - just as if I was doing this alone. The instruction manual was a little hyper-safety-conscious as numerous cautions were repeated 4-5 times:

ensure no one is in the vehicle

do not crawl under the vehicle while it is jacked up

While these are valuable pointers, we felt that we did not need to be reminded of them after every set of instructions! When the book told us to turn things clockwise or counter-clockwise, we both needed to visualize our clocks (with me looking at my arm - watchless - to figure out which direction to turn the wheelnuts or the jack-raiser-thingy). At one point, Lisa indicated something I needed to do in non-technical terms and then asked if I understood the instructions. Of course - I too 'speak female' - so I knew exactly what she meant!!

At one point we decided, while I was adjusting the position of the jack, that I should be using my left (and not right) hand. If I should loose a hand, better the left; as in the Muslim society the left hand is 'taboo'. Though the regulations surrounding this in Niger seem to be less strict than in other countries, the left hand is still referred to as 'the other hand'. The left hand is used as toilet paper and if you want to insulte someone, you offer your left hand or offer money with the left hand. We discussed the situation and concluded that there may be some leniency if someone was missing their right hand - but decided to 'play it safe' . . . so the left hand went under the truck!

So . . . for your visual pleasure - photos of our fun!:

figuring out how to put together the 'jack-raiser-thingy':

Lisa fetching the spare tire:

lining up the jack (note: left hand going under the truck!!):

reading the instruction booklet:

checking the picture - for a visual on which direction is counter-clockwise while turning the 'jack-raiser-thingy':

the instructions indicated (in relation to these two pieces) 'keeping them firmly together' . . . they did not cooperate and I had to reattach them many times!: