NigerMap
May Many people confuse Niger with Nigeria. The two countries share a border, but otherwise have little in common. Nigeria is English-speaking and exceedingly wealthy. Niger is French-speaking and incredibly poor. The country’s coat-of-arms looks like a dumb clown face. This face haunts everyone who deals with Niger’s governmental institutions.  Two trash cans made from the feet of a dead elephant stand in front of the museum at the zoo.  Even though the country is one of the poorest in the world, the African custom of wrapping every purchase in a plastic bag is positively flourishing here. Even a pack of gum will be handed to you in a plastic bag. This is a sort of African way of demonstrating a high standard of living, of proving that „we’re just as good as the West.“ The bag, of course, is tossed out into the street immediately afterward. This is why a typical landscape inevitably includes a tree covered in plastic bags.  And if not a tree, then everything else is covered in plastic bags.  Homes are quite modest, made out of clay and straw.  The soil is red. There are few trees.  The little round structures on struts are granaries.  Those who can afford it use clay blocks for their fences and walls.  A prosperous village.  All the trees are crooked, so the poles made out of them are also crooked. On the plus side, they seem to be sturdy.  Nigeriens are incredible friendly. In neighboring Benin, everyone within a hundred-meter radius covers their face at the mere sight of a camera, whereas in Niger everyone simultaneously raises their hand in greeting.  Women.  Mangos for sale.  The country is very beautiful and unlike any other.  It’s too bad all they got was desert.  Then again, new deposits of uranium and oil were discovered here recently, so maybe things will pick up soon.  Cars over there.  The cow resembles a hippo.  A truck.  The trucks here are so ancient and decrepit that they often literally fall apart on the road. That chunk of dirt with a branch in the foreground is actually an emergency warning triangle set out by the truck’s driver.  The tires are quite remarkable. You won’t find ones like these in another country even at a trash dump.  Islam is slowly taking over Niger.  Everyone brings a little plastic teapot with them to the bathroom—to wash their private parts afterwards.  A license plate.  Annual vehicle inspection stickers turn into a honeycomb over time.  NiameyMapAll the fences and gates are lit with fluorescent lamps. One is pointed into the yard, the other out into the street.  This isn’t a post box—it’s a switchboard enclosure.  This is the post box.  But it’s probably better to mail your letters directly from the post office.  Caution, children.  Electrical boxes are protected with additional bars on the outside.  A traffic light.  A policeman directs traffic.  The capital.  Across the street from the National Assembly.  Street signs.  A curious caption under the yield sign. Instead of „Yield,“ it says, „You don’t have priority.“  Refrigerators for sale.  Electrical work in progress.  A vendor of various potions and folk remedies.  Tree saplings with protection from goats.  The capital’s trash cans.  A literal illustration of the fight against tobacco.  Rules of conduct at the zoo.  A Nigerien cow.  Who’s my little snuggle wabbit?  Some guy just bought a mattress.  A lady with a bowl on her head.  A girl with a bowl in her hands.  Camels haul sections of a typical Nigerien fence along the highway.  A driving school.  The municipal landfill.  A French kilometer marker post. We drive onwards.  |
