Niamey

This is city life with its bright lights, street life, restaurants and 24 hour shops. But it is city life on a limited scale. You would hardly notice the light pollution in Niamey. That's because there are relatively few lights to pollute the atmosphere. If you can't see the stars here it is more likely to be because of smoke from the wood fires outside the houses and alongside the street traders’ stalls than for reasons of artificial light.

The traffic is heaviest in Niamey compared to elsewhere in this country. But the traffic will be Mercedes, Land Cruisers, Toyota taxis, donkeys, camels and lots of mopeds all sharing the same lanes on the roadways. It's one of those aspects of life that I have not managed to get used to here. As you travel on the two lane bridge that crosses the river Niger - and you usually travel slowly because there may be hand carts, donkey carts or oxen just ahead of you - you are conscious of the endless stream of people on the narrow footpaths on either side of the roadway. You become conscious of the number of camels using the footpath as well. So it’s people, people, people, and then camel with huge load of wood, people, more people then more camel with more wood, people, camel, people... You can tell the expats who have been here a long time - they don't notice this pattern anymore. You do need to be careful, though. At least one frightened camel wrecked a new people carrier when it got spooked by a car horn and lashed out with its hind legs. There is no spare space on the bridge and a camel kick is going to connect with something! Needless to say the camel didn't have third party insurance so tough luck on the owners of the new vehicle.

City life is interesting for reasons other than its traffic. You see men discreetly relieving themselves on the pavements, makeshift barbecues selling chicken livers and goodness knows what else, cigarette stalls, book stalls, tyre repair huts, fruit and veg. stalls and myriads of children in tatty clothes begging. The smells vary from the rich smells of spices and cooking to fumes from two stroke engines. From the smell of honeysuckle type flowering plants draped over the walls of the houses to the distinctive smell of human excrement at various street corners. For those of us from the cities where exhaust emissions are monitored, human waste disposed of in a more sanitary fashion and flowers so highly bred that they have little scent there is no getting used to the smells of city life in Niamey. You just never know what you might smell next.

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To journal from Niger.