|
The team
poses for a photo as they enter the
tiny oasis town of In Gall. From Left
to Right, top row: Mike Hettwer, Nels
Peterson, Ronan Allain, Gabrielle
Lyon, Luke Mahler, Carol Gudanowski
Bottom row: Jeff Stivers, Joshua Miller,
Paul Sereno, Andy Gray
The early morning cacophony
in the tiny desert oasis of In Gall
is impressive. At five the mosques
call Muslims to early morning prayer
– crackly loud speakers and
impassioned beckoning welcome the
day. Roosters crow, dogs bark. A shuffle
of flip-flops on the gravel of unpaved
roads scratches continuously as people
walk past the compound. A radio turned
up full volume plays traditional Touareg
music – the strumming three-stringed
guitar, two drums, a lead vocal and
back-up women’s voices chanting
in a repetitive, rhythmic song. The
music floats across the many walled
compounds into our own.
In Gall is composed entirely of walled
adobe buildings; it is a town of mini-forts.
The team, like much of the rest of
In Gall, lies sleeping in the open
air of the compound.
Jeff wakes
up.
People are stretched out on cots
or curled in sleeping bags, as the
soft dawn light of morning breaks
over them. On one side the slumbering
team is hemmed in by the three Land
Rovers – the vehicle armada
we are relying on to get us into the
desert and back out; on the other
side they are walled by two trailers
packed to overflowing with our tools,
food, wood and collecting equipment
and an 800-gallon green water tank.
The ground is carpeted by more gear:
water tanks, a stove, a propane tank,
boxes of car parts, a wheelbarrow,
backpacks, sandals, canteens.
The Wodaabe
After two days of driving –
and last night’s festivities
- the team has good reason to be tuckered
out. There must have been more than
a thousand people gathered for the
music and dancing. It was a non-stop
fashion show - Touareg women in black,
white and red shirts and skirts dotted
with silver sequins; Fulani men with
faces pained red, or dotted with little
white dots and yellow circles and
stripes wearing tall ostrich feathers
in their hair; Fulani women with big
hoop earrings and black lace shawls
– even the camels were garbed
with red, turquouise and yellow leatherwork.
In a few minutes Paul will wake the
team up and the day at the races will
begin – camel races that is…
The annual
Cure Salee – “salt festival”
– brings together a cross-section
of the nomads of Niger for four days
of music, dancing and competitions
- including a fashion show and camel
races.
Getting to the town of In Gall on
the edge of the desert took a gargantuan
effort that not only launched the
2003 Expedition to Niger, but brought
the fledging team together. However,
the stop at the fossil site at Marandet
on the way to Agadez refocused the
team’s energies on the fossils
awaiting us in the field...continued
|
