House Hunting in Niger

Step 1:  Stop on the side of the road and ask somebody if they know who the local neighborhood realtor is (usually an older man).

Step 2:  Find the realtor after stopping in several places where he was supposed to be.   We tell him what kind of house we are looking for and he assures us he has some to show us.  He crowds into our car and we drive in the opposite direction of where he says the house is.  He explains that we have to find the man with whom the owner left the keys for the house.

STEP 3: We find the man, we have the keys and now we drive to the vacant house.

Step 4:  We pile out of the car and look at the house. 

Step 5: We find out that the house is either too small, too expensive, isn’t finished yet (but will be in a week!),or is already rented.

Step 6:  We take the realtor home, give him $2 for his trouble and exchange phone numbers in case he hears of another vacancy. On a good day we might see 2 or 3 houses.