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Fulbright Program for U.S. Students

Fulbright U.S. Student
Grantee Newsletter

Issue 7 | April 2008

Seeing the World with New Eyes
table of contents

 Program Updates

A Haven of Ishak

by Maggie Fick, 2007-2008, Niger

“Walla-a-HOWL-lee!," Ramatou exclaimed, as she clapped her hands and implored me to understand her response in Tamashek, the language of the Tuareg people of Sahelian West Africa. Luckily, I didn’t need the assistance of my translator, Assalama, to know what Ramatou was saying. I had been interviewing Tuareg women in encampements (tent settlements) in the desert of northeastern Niger for the past two weeks and had become accustomed to this enthusiastic response - especially with reference to the particular question of whether men respect their wives.

“Of course,” Ramatou had said. “Of course Tuareg men respect their wives.” In each tent I visited, women told me about the importance of respect in Tuareg society. The Tamashek word for respect is ishak, and most women repeated the colorful word, “walla-a-HOWL-lee” when I asked them if they knew what ishak is. “Someone who has ishak respects their neighbors and family and helps them when they are in need,” an older woman named Fatima explained.

 

Maggie Fick in Niger, 2007-2008 
Maggie Fick, 2007-2008, Niger
 
In a small Tuareg settlement most commonly reached by a day long camel or donkey ride from the nearest market town, someone “without ishak”—a disrespectful person—would be very alone indeed. In Tuareg society, the bonds that hold families and friends together help them to survive times of drought and celebrate times when Allah has blessed their animals with food to eat. These societal bonds are reinforced by ishak, a profound and serious commitment to caring for others and showing them that you value their contribution to the community. This bond extends from young to old, woman to woman, neighbor to neighbor, husband to wife. Without even looking, each day, I would witness a husband sending a son or nephew to fetch firewood so his wife wouldn’t have to, or a daughter massaging her mother’s arthritic hands. Ishak brightened every day, just as the little fires outside of every tent polka-dotted the sandy landscape as the sun dipped beneath the horizon each night.

During two weeks of research in three small Tuareg communities, I sat with Tuareg women in their tents and asked them about their lives. I asked them about their families, their marriages, their thoughts on divorce, polygamy, birth control, and climate change. With the help of my 18-year old translator, the only Tuareg woman in a fifty kilometer radius who spoke both Tamashek and French, these women shared their stories and taught me about their culture.

I came to Niger to study gender roles in Tuareg society, and to see how environmental, political, and social forces are changing traditional Tuareg culture. My Fulbright grant allowed me to be curious, to ask questions, and above all, to experience the joy and gratitude that comes with visiting a welcoming and gracious society. I have been inspired by the Tuaregs’ example of warmth, generosity and ishak—these traits are keeping Tuareg people hopeful and strong as the possibility of dramatic change to their traditional lifestyle looms.

I will do my best to preserve a snapshot of the women I met and to express their own ideas and thoughts about their society so others can learn about their unique way of life. There’s a good chance that if I come back to visit their settlements in ten years, Ramatou’s, Fatima’s, and Sidi’s tents will be gone. But somehow, I feel that no matter where the Tuaregs go and how they adapt, strangers will always be welcomed as friends and "walla-a-HOWL-lee," and the Tuareg will continue to respect and care for each other.



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Submitting Photos to the Fulbright Photo Gallery


We are now collecting photos from the entire current cohort of U.S. and Foreign Fulbright Student grantees.


-- The first time you submit photos, please send an email with your contact information to sallen@iie.org or tclaudino@iie.org. This email should not include any attached photos and is simply to notify us that you will be submitting photos to a specific gallery.

-- Please indicate your grant year and the country in which you are engaged in your Fulbright program. Photos from non-U.S. Fulbrighters are organized by home country; photos from U.S. Fulbrighters are organized by the country in which they are conducting grant activities. When in doubt, please send us an email with your questions.

-- With all submitted photos, you must include a caption that clearly indicates your name, country and a brief description (i.e., the title of the event attended, location where the photo was taken, etc.) of the content of the photo.

-- If you would like to create your own gallery of photos instead of submitting them to a country gallery, please notify us and we will create a personal gallery for you. Again, please make sure to add captions to each photo you submit.

-- You can only add photos, not delete them. If you need to delete photos, please contact us.

-- Click on the link below to enter photo gallery's home page:

http://photos.fulbrightonline.org

Enjoy using the Fulbright Photo Gallery!



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Spain... And the World

by Eric Cates, 2007-2008, Spain ETA

My experience as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Madrid has been global in more ways than I expected. As if Spain – with its incredible diversity of peoples and cultures – weren’t enough, Fulbright grantees find themselves learning about and interacting with people from other countries in Europe and around the world.

Take for instance the secondary school where I teach. My classes include students from Bulgaria, Norway, Canada, Moldova, Belgium, Poland, Morocco, and China – not to mention many immigrants from Ecuador and other Latin American countries. My time spent in the teachers’ lounge and school cafeteria has yielded numerous conversations with teachers and staff from Honduras, the Dominican Republic, France, and Bulgaria. And in the process of implementing the Model United Nations program at my school, I’ve become much more aware of global issues and the challenges faced by particular countries, especially those in Africa.

Eric Cates in Spain, 2007-2008 
Eric Cates, 2007-2008, Spain ETA
 
Probably the most “global” experience I’ve had so far was a weeklong trip to Liverpool, England near the end of October. I traveled with the head of the English department at my school (Isabel) and seventeen of our Year 4 students. The purpose of the trip was to give our students the opportunity to practice their English, experience the daily life of a British high school student, and see how Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night (an annual event commemorating the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot in which conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London) are celebrated in England. We observed and participated in classes at a British high school, explored various points of interest in Liverpool, and visited other cities in the area. While the Spanish students spent the afternoons with British students, Isabel and I got to know the foreign language teachers at the high school. One night particularly stands out in my mind: Isabel (Spanish) and I (American) were eating and conversing with a French teacher from Paris - at an Italian restaurant in England!

My international acquaintances extend beyond my activities as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. At the church I attend in Madrid, I’ve come to know people not only from diverse regions of Spain, but also from the Netherlands, Germany, Peru, Cuba, and Canada. Through my activities with other Fulbright grantees, I’ve become good friends with graduate students from all over the United States, Mexico and Chile. Finally, I spend nearly every evening eating dinner and chatting with my apartment mates from Valladolid, Spain and Quito, Ecuador.

What better way to establish positive international relations than working abroad as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant? In the field of education, I am in constant dialogue with students, teachers, and school staff, and I am presented with countless opportunities to learn about and explore our world through school trips and programs like the Model United Nations. The Fulbright Program gives me a year to delve into these things and more, forming relationships and reaching a depth of understanding that the tourist or traveling business person could hardly ever attain.



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A Call for Articles with Photos


We welcome articles with accompanying photos for future issues of the Fulbright U.S. Student Grantee Newsletter. Articles should ideally be about your experience of being abroad as a Fulbright grantee (and cultural ambassador), and any relevant and/or unique musings you might want to share with your fellow Fulbright grantees and others interested in the Fulbright Program. The length of the article should be no more than 500 words and not require much editing in order to be published. The accompanying photos should show you engaged in program activities, or be illustrative of your article's content. Please submit your articles with photos within two weeks of the release of this newsletter. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to receiving your articles!

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