Can you tell we've been trying to knock some African countries off our list? Niger was actually just a fly by the seat of my pants lesson and meal. Friday night, when Asa was at work, our air conditioner went out. This is not amazing, as it is still topping 90 degrees (with heat indexes into the 100's) everyday. Asa is the one who takes care of things like that, not me, so he swapped a day to stay home on Saturday to get someone over to take care of it (a big chunk of money later, it's fixed). Also, sidenote: good thing we didn't lose electricity when Irma came through, turns out I'm pretty whiny about not having air conditioning.
Anyway, that meant Asa was home for a meal when I previously thought he wasn't going to be. We're trying to front-load our countries since October plans are pretty up in the air, so I'm looking for any time we can get a country in. So I started googling trying to find something we could have for a quick dinner that night, enter Niger, the 'Frying Pan of the World', named as such because it's so hot.
Niger should not be confused with its neighbor to the south, Nigeria. They are both named for the Niger river, the third largest river in Africa (after the Congo and the Nile). The Niger river brings the much-needed water to the savanna and grassland areas of Niger. It runs through both Niger and Nigeria and empties into the Gulf of Guinea. If you're talking about what you call the residents of Niger, they are Nigerien, not to be confused with the residents of Nigeria who are Nigerian. Basically that last vowel makes a difference.
Niger has recently been in the news, and not for the best of reasons. Four American soldiers were ambushed and killed there just last week. Since our president has been mum on the attack (as of my writing this- posting was a bit delayed due to waiting to publish until I had all the previous blogs complete), we found it important to note the four green berets who were killed.
They are:
With the unrest in Niger, it's no surprise there is an official US Department of State Travel Warning. Terrorist organizations, armed robbers, smugglers and kidnappers run rampant outside of the capital of Niamey. The Diffa region along the boarder of Chad and Nigeria is particularly dangerous, though the ambush took place near the boarder of Mali.
Even US Embassy personal can only travel outside of the capital in the daylight, and even then in a minimum of a two car convoy, including armed Nigerien government escorts. Despite the attack, the current US Travel warning is still from April, but even then the warning stated: "Mali-based extremist groups have crossed the border and carried out multiple lethal attacks on Nigerien security forces."
Beyond the threat of terrorism and violence, Niger has a slew of other problems. It's a developing country who consistently ranks as low on the United Nations Human Development Index. The economy depends on two things: agriculture and uranium ore. But, a country who is 90% desert can only relay so much on their crops, and the periodic droughts and desertification aren't helping. The Sahara is literally taking over farm land. Uranium isn't exactly a big money maker, as the demand for it internationally isn't what it once was.
Waterstraut Sidenote: We've been talking about what to do once this project is over. Peyton wants to cover the periodic table and learn about the elements. I'm totally on board with this one, we've never had a big Science based project, and that one sounds fun and versatile!
But, back to Niger. Life there is tough. They lack birth control, and as a result have high fertility rates and are dealing with all kinds of overpopulation issues (take note, GOP!) The people in Niger for the most part are poorly educated and living in poverty. They lack health care and infrastructure.
A country like Niger presents a unique challenge for me, as well. While I love doing this project and teaching current events, a little history of a country now and again, and giving the boys perspective on what life is like in other parts of the world, sometimes coming up with some 'fun things' to talk about gets difficult. Finding landmarks in the tiny countries, or the countries with so many challenges can be difficult. Not being repetitive is also important. I don't want every country to melt together in their minds.
In Niger, we have the Agadez Mosque. The Mosque sits in Agadez, Niger right on the edge of the Sahara, and is considered the gateway to the desert. Since regular building materials are scarce in that part of the world, buildings in the desert area of the Sahara make due with what they have: mud, straw, and pebbles. The mix is dried in the sun creating what they call 'banco'. It's basically a type of adobe.
Built in 1515, the Agadez Mosque's minaret is the tallest adobe structure in the world, standing at 88 feet tall. Fun story time, me during this lesson: 'Do you guys remember what a minaret is?' Hayden: "Yes! The minaret of Jam" It was a shout out back to our very first country, Afghanistan. (Also, side-note: my blogs were way shorter back then!)
Niger is two thirds desert, so anything that survives there has to be tough. This is where the Tree of Tenere comes in (this area has impressive sand dunes too). This 10 foot tree was estimated to be over 300 years old, the roots stretched down 100 feet, it was considered sacred. It was the only surviving tree in the whole Sahara Desert. There wasn't another tree for 250 miles. But, that all ended in 1973 when a drunk truck driver hit it and knocked it down. I mean, don't you have to be really, really drunk to knock down the only thing standing for 250 miles?!?
Of course, no African country is complete without some animals. Here we had the Niger Giraffe. The last self-sustaining herd of these West African Giraffes live in southwest Niger.
Niger might have giraffes named after them, but they also have a dinosaur named after them! The Nigersaurus was 30 feet long and had over 300 teeth! It had a weird flat face, and is one funny looking dino.
The boys made their Niger postcards.
Calib's featured three suns since it is so hot Niger is called the 'Frying Pan of the World'
If you look really closely on the left side of Peyton's postcard you'll find the white and light brown colored dama gazelle. These are the biggest gazelle in the world, and are critically endangered (with less than 400 remaining in the world). They are a national symbol of Niger.
To nobody's surprise, Hayden's included all the animals we talked about: the giraffes, the dama gazelle and the Nigersaurus.
For our quick meal we had West African Toasted Baguette Sandwich with Spinach Scrambled Eggs.
Like I said, most of the land is not great for farming in Niger, and what they do grow is mostly things like peanuts. Basically fruit was hard to find, so since they were colonized by the French, we put out some fruit from France, with grapes and apples. (I mean, I had it on hand, so it worked).
This dinner earned three spoons up.
I'll give you two guesses who wasn't the fans (ahem, picky eaters Peyton and Hayden). They ate it. But, they didn't love it. I mean, if they eat it, I still think it's a win.
Worth noting, we put it on softer bread because some of us (ahem, Calib) have braces and it's hard to chew baguettes that are a little crustier.
In true American fashion, we all agreed it would be even better and more awesome if you added cheese and bacon. But, that's just us.
We colored Niger in a light green above blue Nigeria, to the left of pink Chad, and below red Algeria.
Since Niger was the end of a ten country group, it was time to vote on collections. I thought we had some good ones this time around.
That's 130 down, 66 to go!
Next Up: Malta
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