They are almost literally all over you. The incident that spawned the utterances of this blog's title was no exception. A bunch of us were hanging out at the edge of the market street, waiting for our ride. This one particular well dressed merchant had noticed my penchant for purchasing camel leather boxes and so kept pushing a large one with a rounded lid. As I really had no desire to carry this bulky one home with our limited baggage situation, I politely and repeatedly answered him: "Non, merci" (no mercy?) My hostess then helped me by firmly explaining to the salesman that he needed to leave me alone.
Next thing I knew, this fellow had surreptitiously slipped by my hostess, and was resuming his sales pitch with me, in a very quiet whisper. The poor man, I just burst out laughing at him. He didn't seem to mind, as he barely paused for a breath in repeating the sales price to me, over and over and over. Finally, our ride arrived and we began boarding the truck. My friend and I, at the back of the lineup for the truck, had shopped together a bit, and I had explained to him my strategy for dealing with over aggressive merchants. I would start talking rapidly to them in English that they likely could not understand, and could say almost anything to them. That's when I heard my friend make the infamous remarks of our title, with the salesperson responding with the most perplexed look.
While wearing a hat with a Canada flag on its front, I heard "Aw, Canadien" many times in the market. Most of the time I would holler back "Aw, Nigerien." I was usually unafraid to speak back to the pushy merchants. One fellow in particular who relentlessly held three bracelets in my face with the sales pitch "Cinq milles, cinq milles, cinq milles, cinq..." was hard to take. Later when he was banging a drum near my ear and close to the ear of another friend who was much less brassy than me, I implored the salesman to "Get out of his face" and to "Take this drum and shove it." As you can guess, neither line was effective.
Still later, I was waiting at a corner of the market, with several men grabbing my arms, trying to lure me into their respective stores, while I waited for a salesman's "associate" to bring me a green Niger soccer shirt from elsewhere, but which never arrived. Tiring of the constant pressure on my mind, the noise in my ears and literally being pulled in several directions, I then became a pushy tourist and directed the merchants to line up side by side for me to take a picture of them. All at once they let out a collective groan and actually backed off for a few minutes. "Wow, I can't believe that actually worked."
Yet another time, I had followed my host into the market to purchase some fish, only to lose sight of him due to the long line of merchants that developed on his tail. When I turned back to wait for him along the street, some other merchants came after me, offering me tomatoes, oranges and anything else they held in their hands. Once again, I retorted with "Non, merci" and smiled as best that I could. And again, I came up with an idea.
Being a life long French student, I recognized an opportunity to practice. I began pointing to their wares and repeating the French word for each, "toe matt", "air ee coe", "pamp el moose." Each time I looked them in the face, seeking approval for my very basic display of vocabulary. Then I glanced further out into the street where I began commentary on various sights in the traffic speeding by.
I saw a number 22 Dallas Cowboys NFL jersey ride by on a motorbike and I exclaimed: "Aw, c'est le veston d'Emmitt Smith qui a jeue pour les vaches des garcons de Dallas." Of course, this was totally lost on my listener (as it most certainly would be on any native French speaker.) Then, I noticed a passerby wearing the jersey of an Italian football star, Totti, who plays for FC Roma. Excitedly, I began pointing to the number 10 jersey and talking about the Italian star,
en francais, how he had scored an overtime goal in the World Cup and then had run around the field holding his thumb in his mouth to celebrate, not only the goal, but also the recent birth of his son.
I was then amazed that my listener, the tomato salesman, actually understood me. Not just my rudimentary French dialogue, but also the content about Totti's exciting goal in the World Cup tournament. The merchant stopped selling me tomatoes and we actually connected for the rest of the time I stood with him at the edge of the market. We were from vastly different cultures, but we realized that we still shared an awareness for and knowledge of personalities and events outside our respective spheres of influence. For a few minutes, it was no longer the battle of Nigerien merchant versus Canadien tourist under the hot sun. Instead, it was a couple of guys sharing their love for football on a street corner in Niamey.
I think of this incident often, and I think of my new Muslim friend in Calgary that I met at a Christmas party for my wife's English faculty and students last December. I really connected with my new friend in Calgary that late Saturday evening, over ginger ales and party food. I am planning to spend an evening with him and our wives, and to share more about each other's respective faiths and religious practices.
So often, caucasian North Americans seem to isolate people of the Islamic faith as "them and us" and to keep noncaucasian people at arm's length, without realizing that they are regular people, too . The people our team met in Niger are beautiful people, are extremely friendly and were appreciative of any friendliness that we showed to them. I am now embarrassed to remember occasions when some local Nigerien people would come to greet our team, and our first reaction was to stand at a distance and take pictures of them, before we realized that we needed to get closer and greet them, too. It is so important for us North Americans to venture out of our comfort zone occasionally and discover that it is really not that scary to get to know people who are different from us.
For all you Christian readers out there, have you hugged your Muslim friend today?
