What's Not to Love?

Ahh.. Just a relaxing friday morning with nothing to do :) So Rose and I have been splitting up the weekends so that the only day one of us is not there is Saturday- either one of us take of friday and saturday, and the other, saturday and sunday- this way our food donation from the nearby hotel gets picked up every day and the animals don't miss out. Anyway, life is smoothing out and routine is slowly setting in. In some ways I am so glad to be here in Niamey- life is just so much easier!

10 things I love about living in the city:

1- Electricity!!!! It's so wierd staying up past when it gets dark at night!! (Why, yes... that does mean that I went to bed around 7 o'clock some nights in the bush)

2- Obviously my job is a huge part of loving where I live- I love what I get to do, I love having schedule in my life again, and I hope it never gets old!

3- Food. Wait, let me refrase that. Veggitables. After a year in the bush with often only onions and garlic (when I was lucky) for veggie-nutrition, I had lost a bit of weight... which I have promptly gained back...

4- I love the conglomeration of languages here in Niamey!! I greet people in an assortment of 4 sometimes 5 languages every morning (Hausa, Zarma, French, and even an occasional English 'Good morning' or Tamacheq)

5- My new house. It's this big, old, french style house, probably a zillion years old. My roomie, Maeghan and I call it 'Netherfield' :) I love that its surrounded by huge trees, it's made completely out of cement (kinda like a cave..) with tall ceilings and a cute poarch wrapping around the front. Oh! And we're putting in a tree-swing..

6- Cloth and Taylors.. So Maeghan has gotten me into the cloth shopping habit.. There is so much cloth here in such a variety; the typical West African colorful prints, beutiful cotton cloth, Mauritania cloths, pretty much anything you could want. Then, all you have to do is get a good taylor, give him a magazine picture of what you want, measurments, and poof.. two weeks later, really cute clothes, at about a quarter of what you'd pay in the U.S.

7- Internet Access!!!! I love reading the news!!! It's such a novel thing... I'll admit I'm becoming re-addicted to facebook..

8- Because it's the capital, I get to see a lot of volunteers coming in and out- so I'm getting to know a lot of peace corps volunteers I probably wouldnt have otherwise.

9- To go along with that, I'm getting to know the Peace Corps staff a lot better too. It's great seeing them every day and chatting with people I hadnt talked to much before.

10- The WestAfrican Culture of the city. Niamey has a whole different atmosphere than the bush. While I loved the bush as well, Niamey has this vibe that's hard to explain.. I guess it's just a little more relaxed from the strict, Muslim atmosphere of more rural places. Plus, working at the Musee National, I'm getting a good insite to the history and culture of Niger, both as a westerner sees it, and as Nigeriens see it. They have so much pride for the history and culture, and the longer I've lived here the more every now and again I feel little snippets of that pride myself.

So, some of the things I suprised myself by not including in this list:

-Transportation- while I thought taxis would be so convinient and a great change to walking three hours or biking to the market or main road, I miss my bike terribly, and have started walking a lot more to avoid the hastle of taking the taxis..

-The 'Anasara Novelty'... I thought that living in the city with so many other 'white' people, it wouldn't be such a novel thing to see me, and I could blend in a bit more... nope. I'm still a specticle. In fact, the other day I was in the Mule's cage at the zoo, and 2 Nigerians come up and ask if they can take a picture. 'Sure' I replied, I didnt care that they took a picture of the mule... 'well, should I come in the cage then?' I got a little angry and told him of course he couldnt come in the cage. I assumed he just wanted the mule in the picture and I was messing up the shot. So I was like, 'Fine, I'll get out.' I get out. He then turns and snaps the picture of me. Apparently it was the mule that was messing up the shot.

-Food- like resturants, cheese, other expensive items not even found in the bush.. or Konni... I admit I went crazy the first couple weeks and spent a ton of money, and now I'm back to normal, using my powdered milk and eating cous-cous and pasta.. I will admit it's nice to have the option of good food.. Even if I don't take it.

-Toilets and Showers. To be honest, I couldn't care less anymore if I take a bucket bath or a shower.. which, I'm in a really bad habit of neither becasue it's so cold these days... I either force myself to take a cold shower every now and again, violently shivering for the 5-10 minutes I can stand it, or, head to the hostel and make use of the hot water there. ahh. As for the toilet upgrade, I dont know, I miss that latrine in a weird way.. I was saving a lot of money on toilet paper in the bush..

Ok, so that's that.. One more quick comment. With about 10 months left of service, I can't help but get a little ahead of myself wondering what to do after Peace Corps. I can't say I've made any final decisions yet, but I have a couple options I'm weighing the possibilities.. I'll let everyone know when I've figured it out!