Le premier verre est aussi amer que la vie

Every week, I give a 5 - 10 minute presentation to my co-workers at Guting Elementary School. In the beginning, I assumed that it would be best to make presentations about the United States. I talked about the places I knew well: New Orleans and Illinois, as well as cultural practices like Halloween. However, I noticed that my co-workers were never incredibly interested (most faculty members use morning meeting to finish grading before classes start) and one of my co-teachers commented that they had already been exposed to most of what I talked about by previous Fulbrighters.

So much for originality. I decided to do a presentation on France. I talked about Lyon, about the roses in my grandmother's garden, and about food. I brought some crepes to share with them, which worked miracles in getting their attention.

In continuing with this trend, I put together a presentation on Niger today. As I was flipping through information on the internet to confirm the things I'd picked up on from my mom and our trip to Niger in 2006, I found a saying that I remember hearing from our Tuareg guide when we were drinking tea and eating grapefruits in the desert:

Le premier verre est aussi amer que la vie,
le deuxième est aussi fort que l'amour,
le troisième est aussi doux que la mort.
 

(The first glass is as bitter as life,
the second glass is as strong as love,
the third glass is as gentle as death).

Each glass refers to the change in taste of the tea over the course of drinking three cups. At first, it struck me as a little strange to be an American talking about Niger to a bunch of Taiwanese. However, these places and people are not as disconnected as they first seem. After a little more research, I realized the tea used by the Tuareg is gunpowder tea - also known as zhu cha (珠茶)! It's mainly grown in Zhejiang Province but there is also a variant grown in Taiwan. Goes to show there are connections everywhere.