Meet Sue Rosenfeld. She runs the program for exchange students for Boston University here in Niger. If you google Niger, the first hit is Sue Rosenfeld. When you ask her long she’s been in Niger, she’ll tell you to the day how long it’s been, every time. Today it’s twenty six years, five months and three days. She comes to our house once a week to watch some version of reality tv on the Embassy-supplied American system. Lucky for me, Sue is addicted to American Idol and Survivor. We watch our shows, then we talk about books.
Sue raised the chimpanzees the National Museum until they were old enough to live on their own. Once she came over and tossed her key ring on the sofa. It weighed more than she did. I went through the keys one by one and each was a story. Two small keys were identical. “What are these for?” I asked. “The key to chimp cage at the zoo. You can have one if you want.” I put it on a necklace.
Sue lives without air conditioning, because her students do. She speaks English of course, but also French, Zarma and Hausa. She has superstar celebrity status in Niamey, if you go in a restaurant with her, it’s like you’re there with Madonna, better than Madonna, because here they may not know who Madonna is, but they WILL know who Sue is. She received an award from the National Ministry of Athletics for her involvement in basketball, (Camille, age ten, is taller than Sue.) She is Judy Blume’s first cousin. She once had her dress torn off at the zoo by a chimpanzee.
In this photo Sue was dancing in the first rain. Scarlett had called us while we were at lunch to say “The sky is red,” (it was going to rain for the first time in nine months.) Sue’s response: “The eagle flies at midnight, what are we talking about here?”
From the Quoteable Sue: Why have cat when you can have a dog? Why have a dog when you can have a chimpanzee?
twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?" 
Leave a comment