daily photo niger

tauareg women

Now when you see the Volkswagan Tauareg around town, you'll have an image of the people it was named after. Also from the Curé Sale

cure sale

Normally the biggest festival in the country, the Cure Salé draws nomads from an area as large as something like Texas and California put together. Because rebels have been hassling tourists (I'm downplaying it) in the North, the event was called off this year. I spent part of the afternoon transferring onto a cd some photos a friend took at last year's Cure Salé--part carnival, part nationwide state fair, part family-reunion, part blind date. I am going to post a few since they are about as "Niger" as you can get.

This one is from the most beautiful camel contest.

running

 

Peter goes running with an international running group called the Hash, which is billed as a drinking group with a running probelm. The Niamey Hash doesn't go in much for the drinking part, except for coke and fanta. Every week they pick a different scenic spot, usually somewhere we've never been. Finding the spot is always a little tricky--"turn right on the road with the rice mill and go until you see a group of trucks, or maybe one truck." This week they got lucky and found the group. Stefan went and walked the three-mile loop with Peter.