Bush taxi's, language exams...

So, as promised, I'm going to do my best to get some pictures up here. It has proven harder than I thought to get my pictures uploaded onto the internet because of the slow conection time, but if I cant get some on the blog, I have at least gotten some onto facebook :)

So, once again we came into Niamey today, to do a little shopping at the Large Market here as well as use the internet. So our training sight is only 30 K outside of Niamey, but let me tell you about traveling in...
So, we waited at our Tasha (like a taxi/bus station) this morning for about an hour and a half- which is actually really good- last time we waited close to three hours for a ride- and finally a medium-sized red open back truck (which looked like it drove right out of the late 70's) showed up. So, first about 15-20 100 lbs bags of grain are piled in the back, then around 8 goats are loaded, then about a half a dozen chickens are tied to the rack of the truck, then about 25 people piled in. This is very typical bush taxi... fortunately I got a spot sitting on the rack of the truck above the cab, so it was a nice ride.
But wait, theres more... we also happend to get the bush taxi that somehow only had one good wheel.. about 13 K down the road one of the back tires is flat, so, after everyone piles out of the truck, we change the tire, and everyone piles back in.. About 5 K further... we hear a strange flapping noise now coming from one of the front tires: no worries, it's just the tread comming off, so we pull over and one guy pulls out a machetti and cuts the 'extra' tread off, and we happily continue down the road. THEN, as we near Niamey (about 3 K out) the OTHER rear tire becomes flat. I dont think that vehicle would pass inspection.
So, after tire #3, and because we were so close, we flagged down a taxi and payed a double fare to get here. Honestly, though, this is very typical traveling, and almost every bush-taxi experience has a similar story.

So, moving on, we took our Language proficiancy tests day before yesterday, and (yay) I passed! So, no worries, I will be swearing in as an official PC volunteer next week. Its been a stressful few days but only a week left of training then its life in the BUSH!