Agadez 3

How do you find a nomadic village?
Our sampling strategy made it possible for very small, and sometimes mobile villages to be chosen. One of theses was Anoujjab. It was supposedly about 25 km south of the town of Ingal. I was very excited about seeing Ingal, because it is the site of the Cure Salee, and huge gathering of nomadic pastoralists who bring their livesstock to the area at the height of the rains when the desert is covered with water, which is very salty due to the high mineral content of the water. The cattle are brought to drink this water, which acts as an anti-parasitic. It's also an important social and cultural event. We were too late by three weeks - the water was gone and the nomads dispersed. Oh well. Anoujjab was not on the map in the health center, but one of the older men knew of a nomadic group often in the area called Ajjab, and we thought this was probably the same group. We brought him with us as a guide, and stopped at the market, where we found out that this group had migrated to an area north of Ingal, and they told our guide approximately where, so we set off across the desert in search of our "village". On the horizon, you can sort of make out the mirage, which I learned that day is especially compelling in the desert - it really does look like a lake in the distance!
On the way, we ran across several nomadic families on the move. This is a small family with their donkeys, but coming up on a large group traveling with numerous camels was amazing.

One thing that cannot be said of men in Niger is that they don't stop for directions. The way you find a village, or find out whether your team has passed through that village, is to stop and ask the group of men under the nearest tree, or on the nearest camel, or with the nearest flock - we were constantly stopping and asking directions.

Our guide (in the lighter blue) was great about jumping out of the vehicle and inquiring the whereabouts of Ajjab. On this day, everyone seemed to know this group - they were always just a little further.

They went that a'way!
Stay tuned...