Life in the Bush- Peace Corps Niger

On to Peace Corps, Ethiopia!

2011-10-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hi all!! For those of you that havent heard, I have reapplied for the Peace Corps and am heading off the Ethiopia on the 4th of October, 2011.
Here is my new blog address: http://backtothebush-ethiopia.blogspot.com
Thanks for following me through my time in Niger!

Evacuation, COS, and Lessons of Peace Corps Niger

2011-03-02T06:22:00.001-08:00

And two months later she finally writes again... I'll start where I left off, and probably break this into two posts (there's a lot to say)

Funny how you can have the next year of your life planned only to have it erased with one phone call. I think it was the 15th of January, at the ostrich site- it had been an increadibly productive morning and one of the first few days I really felt confident and successful at my new job; around noon I get a call from our safety and security director. 'Due to the latest kidnapping in Niamey, Peace Corps has decided that the volunteers safety is at risk and that we will be evacuating from the country as soon as possible.' Ok, so the statement he actually read to me lasted probably 10 minutes, but as I got off the phone, Im not sure I could have told you 10 words of it, only a numbness and the thought 'I'm leaving'.

That was the beginning. Note that this is evacuation number two for me, number one being a little over a year ago from the Tahoua region- and I would like to say that I took it a lot better the second time around (less tears). The message did however include 'drop what you are doing and go home and pack immediately', yet I sat teary-eyed with the ostriches for about 2 hours, then pulled it together, and sat for another hour with Abdou, Abdoulai, and their families (the site workers) and broke the news to them.

The next few days are a blur of packing, traveling in to Zinder with one of my pcv neighbors by riding in the sarki's car to the village on the main road, taking one of the worst bush taxi's I've ever had in my 28 months in country (just how many times did they take that car apart during the 6 hours of travel time?!) Though, it was hillarious that we had a 'personal guard' for the trip. Followed by a bus to Maradi, a bus to Niamey, 3 grueling hours that same evening at the Peace Corps bureau clearing all our accounts and what not, and finally, on a plane late that night to Casablanca, Morocco.

Evacuation Conference, Rabat, Morocco.

I'm not sure how many of us entered that conference thinking we were going to directly transfer to another country, but far more than actually did. We spent roughly a week looking over our options- to tranfer to another country (should there be an opening), re-enrolling, or COS. I was pretty determined at first to continue through a direct transfer, and was offered a position in Lesotho working at an Orphanage, but after some serious thought, I turned it down realizing it really wasn't what I wanted to do- I was just scared to move on without a plan. Much of the conference was how to deal with life after Peace Corps, i.e., how to write your resume, how to interview for jobs, and how to answer those dreaded 'return home' questions. After this emotionally draining week, I officially COSed (Completion Of Service) on January 21st, 2011. I feel good about my decision, and looking back on my service, I have no complaints.

So, what have I been doing between January 21st and now? I'll save that for the next post.

As the Last 'Peace Corps Niger' post, it's hard to summ up the past 2 and a half years of my life. How do you explain an experience that has completely changed me? So instead, here are a few things life in Niger taught me.

1) PATIENCE. Every day for two years, 'sai hunkuri' ('until patience'). Nearly every aspect about life in Niger demands patience- the language, the heat, the chariot spider... and waiting 4 hours for a bus that you, a large crowd, and a variety of livestock, wait for and then takes another 4 hours to get 40 K, is ok.

2) People are so friendly, and mean well. (even the ones that ask you to marry them in that pompus attitude) Everyone everywhere was happy to help me get where I was going, to invite me to dinner, to have me take their baby to America...

3) Eat what youre given. Stewed leaves, raw locusts, strange nuts found on that hill, sead pods, or that unidentifiable 'bush meat' that could be anything from a hedgehog to the neighbor's cat- Sometimes thats all they have, and they still were eager to share it with me.

4) Maggi makes anything taste good. (Even raw locust.)

5) How to drive a donkey cart: use a stick. Some of my favorite times in Niger were just riding the ostrich site's donkey with the cart attached, hauling millet stock from the field to the pens...

6) Everything is relative: hot vrs. cold, clean vrs. dirty... oh, and in the bush, hair-washing is a bi weekly activity.

7) To sleep almost anywhere. 130 degrees and packed in a bush taxi? No problem. A nap on the tile floor during hot season? Definately.

8) The art and joy of eating with hands. Trust me, it takes a little practice to be able to get it from the tray to your mouth without losing half of it on the way, but, food tastes better if you eat it with your hands.

9) To hand-wash clothes. I can get them cleaner than that washer machine.

10) Not to forget all the many lessons of the Zoo! How to raise a baby hippo, how to catch an ostrich, how to NOT catch a baboon, how to yell at kids in 4 languages, traditional medicines and what they're used for, and how to safely feed lions at the Niger Musee zoo (trust me... it's not the same as anywhere else.)

11) Lastly, that very few people in the world get the chance to have the experience that I did; my memories are hard to explain and my feelings of Niger and the Nigerien people are hard to convey. Peace Corps was the best decision I ever made for myself, and just as Peace Corps describes it, "the hardest job you'll ever love."

Working to set up millet stock screens on the ostrich breeding pens

Colors of Morocco!

Haily and I, the final two of our AG/NRM stage, at our Evacuation dinner in Morocco.

Life with the Ostriches

2010-12-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

My new village has roughly 4,000 people, is settled in a small ‘mountain’ range, and about 500 k to the nearest anything. Maybe further… Other than that, it’s small enough to feel at home, but large enough to not feel obligated to know everyone. There’s electricity for 8 hours of the day, 4:00 pm to 12:00 am and the nearest water pump is about 10 feet out my front door. I have a smallish house used as a kitchen, a large two room house used as my main house, which they just finished- when I got there it didn’t have a floor, and only a feeble little door that didn’t shut properly, but when I moved in we brought with us three bags of cement and screen windows and doors. Two weeks later and two additional bags of cement later (which I bought from a market 50 k away and had sent out to the village on a car) the house is finished… Well, they put a new door on it- that doesn’t shut, but other than that it’s great. And then in one corner of the concession is a little house with the latrine. It’s almost too much space for one person, but I have to admit it’s nice. Unlike my first village (in Tahoua region) I don’t have kids poking over my walls every 10 minutes, or women coming in to tour my house (and ask for all my possessions) uninvited, or those goats that somehow got in my concession in the middle of the night and have eaten half my shade hangar.

The village itself has primary and secondary schools (elementary and middle schools), a good sized health clinic, and several other important looking buildings that I haven’t figured out what they are yet (I did find out one of them is a library). Oh, and the Sarki of the area lives here (sarki is Hausa for ‘king’) and has a small mud-brick ‘palace’ (if you will). Niger is very interesting in that it still has a large influence of traditional leaders. (Differing from the government leaders) Most villages have a ‘maigari’ or village chief, most areas have a ‘sarki’ or ‘king’ reigning over several villages in a larger area, and Zinder is even home to the Sultan, obviously the highest position.

Moving on… the Ostrich conservation site is about a 20 minute walk from the village and set at the base of the mountains. There are two guards/caretakers for the site (Abdou and Abdoulai) and their families, and then me. Keep in mind this is also backed by several organizations, namely the Nigerien-based organization, CRNEK, and the Sahara Conservation Fund, and a whole team of people in the states (such as the St. Louis Zoo, Disney Animal Kingdom, etc.). In a nutshell, I work with the team to address problems/needs of the site/birds and then with the site keepers to implement the potential projects and changes. The site consists of two large sections, the Eastern and Western pens, each pen broken down into two holding pens, and ten breeding pens. Right now we have only 8 birds; 4 males, 3 females, and a female 6 month old chick, so everything is focused in the eastern pen. Hopefully a few years down the line we’ll have both pens filled.

We’re just getting in to breeding season, so the moment I got there I’ve been working to get things set up. First, switching their diet from a maintenance diet (they were receiving wheat bran and corn with a supplement of limestone) to a breeding diet (Beans and sorghum with a limestone supplement- we’re working to find an additional bone meal type supplement). So I spent one day with the caretakers teaching them the proper dietary amounts, weighing and measuring the different feeds, etc.

Another project we’ve been working on (that’s so far proving to be far more effort than I thought it would be) is to put up screens between the breeding pens and then separate the birds into pairs into the pens (currently we have a group of 5 in one of the large holding pens). With the three screens, one was made with millet stock, the next I tried woven mats sewn to the fence, and the last one we resorted back to millet stock. The biggest problem has been getting the birds in to the new pens. I’m still working on that one. Because the gates are so narrow, they either completely pass by them without seeing them, or are too scared to attempt to go in. So far I’ve tried to lure them in with food (melons) by leaving a trail (I feel like waiylee coyote trying to catch the road runner..), since that isn’t working, I think my next plan is to move their entire grain/water dish near, and then in the new enclosure. If THAT doesn’t work, then it may have to resort to setting up a temporary chute and herding them in. I want to keep this as stress free for them as possible, but we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s the general goings on of my job. I already miss the Musee like crazy- especially the primates- and I hope they’re doing ok without someone there to give them some attention. Oh, and my baby hippo- I really hope he’s weaned to grass soon, then I’ll stop worrying about him too. And of course all my friends and the keepers I got to work with.

With a little of my spare time in my new post, I’ve gone walking up and down and around the mountains and saw two Dorcas gazelles, several ground squirrels, and what I think was a hooded vulture. I’m still waiting to see the potas monkeys, I’ve been told I have a few weeks before they’ll be down on the site all the time (I see their prints in the sand a lot). Also there’s this one mountain that stands alone; I’ll try and add a picture of it. There are all kinds of stories surrounding it that long, long time ago it was a stronghold during all the wars and that there are massive caves in the mountain which they hid their armies and all their weapons. The story is that the caves are still there with all the weapons from the wars, but that the entrance is caved in, or that nobody can find the entrance. I spent an entire afternoon climbing it and searching for caves… which, there are several (or maybe just small holes, I don’t know), so I may have to come back with some rope and a flashlight. I’m getting a new Peace Corps volunteer neighbor only 10 k from my site… I really hope he’s into hiking… or spelunking…

Anyway, the first two weeks at my post have been really great- I love the village, I love the landscape, I love my new job, I think it’s going to be a great 3rd year in Peace Corps!

Before I left, the Musee had a little ceramony and presented me with a certificate (they even had a tv crew there.. it was a little over kill and a little intimidating) This picture is me and all the keepers I worked with throughout the year

Posing for one last picture with baby bouban: he wouldnt hold still- he gets really distracted by feet...

First few days in my new village: this is me and the two guards/caretakers on our way to the ostrich site

This is Jullien, 10 year old male ostrich. They love these wild melons (they're not the delicious melons youre thinking of) and if I walk in to the pen with one him and Aisha (the female in his pen) they get a little over excited....

This is thelone mountain I mentioned earlier. Dont let the photo fool you- its HUGE, and really fun to climb (I climbed up around the back side, it slopes a little better there)

Last few days in Niamey

2010-12-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

One week left of Niamey life, then no more delicous resturants, internet at my fingertips, fresh fruits and veggitables, cheese, cell phone reception, or English conversations... The closer I get to December 10th, the more I keep splurging on things 'one last time'. Kinda like before I left the U.S. for Niger, strange how the list of 'things to splurge on' has changed though. To be honest, I can no longer remember what that 'one thing' I had to have before I left was. I remember really, REALLY missing candy and junk food for about the first 4 months of service, then I just stopped thinking about it. I've discovered most of my favorite foods I can actually make myself (like scones....thats right.) and fresh foods tast soo much better.

oops, let me back up a little bit. I think in my last post I mentioned that I was hoping that I would make it back mid December for my month home leave. This was, however, before I had discussed with the organization I would be working with. After discussion, we realized it would be breeding season for the ostriches, and it would be really important to have someone at the site. Which is just fine, but also means no christmas at home this year.. We'll shoot for 2012 holiday season :). Currently I'm concidering mid-March, mid-April home leave, trying to hit Easter (also attempt to avoid the 120 degree hot season), but we'll see. So, that said, I move straight up to the site after my original COS date.

I think the hardest thing by far will be seeing the rest of my stage excitedly pack up and leave for home, exciting vacation destinations, new jobs, and grad school. I remember when the first group of my stage left a year ago (back when we were evacuated from the Tahoua region), it makes one increadably homesick to watch everyone move on and know that you have a year left. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm very excited about this new job and about the village, location, and everything, it'll just take some transitioning.

My shade hangar project (which is taking a rediculous amount of time considering their small size and light work involved) is finally underway!!! If all goes well, it should (InchaAllah) be done by the end of the week. Other than that, its just a matter of training and transitioning one of the keepers to continue the food donation program and then I'm officially finished. This is another part of the new post that will be hard; this has been such a fun job and amazing opportunity to work here at the zoo. The keepers and everyone I worked with were so friendly and helpful- it'll be hard to say good bye.

This is all I have for now- once I move up to my new post I'll share more of my exciting job at the Ostrich conservation site :). Merry Christmas everyone, just in case I dont get a chance to write again before then. Wish I could be home to share the holidays!!

Our COS trip included a trip to see the giraffes!

Just pausing for a picture..

2 years in Country! The remaining 2008-2010 AG/NRM stage

The beginning of the end... or the end of the beginning?

2010-10-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

The weeks keep flying by so fast I can hardly keep up with them. Older volunteers always said that your last few months go by way too fast, now I'm beginning to see what they mean.
Last two months until the official Completion of Service date (December 10th)!! Two months of a new place to live, finishing things up, and planning for the future. With new changes taking place; PCVs moving in to Niamey, a few people getting ready to leave; the house I was living in is getting two more PCVs- so peace corps is letting me live in a nearby apartment for my remaining two months. Yesterday I officially moved in- big change #1.
Big change #2: I officially got the position! Working with Sahara Wildlife Conservation , I'll spend one more year here in Niger, in the Zinder region, working in Ostrich rehabilitation and conservation as a project assistant! I'm so excited! To move back to the bush and use more Hausa language, to continue to work with wildlife here in Niger (though I will miss my baby hippo here at the zoo!!) and see and work with the people of Niger through an NGO perspective. Especially because I hope to work toward a Biology/Zoology/Wildlife Conservation career, this will be a great experience and I am really excited!
I'm just beginning the extension-of-service process for the job, once I finish (in a week or so), I'll have all my information; when I start the new job, the dates of my home-leave, et cetera. My plan and hope is that I can take my home-leave somewhere around mid-december (it's a month long) and then start the new job in mid january, but we'll see how it goes.
I have to appologize- I feel like the past several posts have been nothing but updates, and a little short on the stories and experiences. Here's one to help make up for it:
Ramadan was last month, and here in the city it was a whole different experience than back in the bush. Either way, I love the Ramadan fete- everyone is dressed in their best for three days, plus good food and sharing, and the best part is everyone is so welcoming even for someone who is not Muslim, nor participated in the month long fast, I felt included in the festivities.
This year, before the fete I was told that the Zoo hosts a festival for the three days of fete. This included a live concert and dancing for most of the day, games and carnival-style stands where one could win prizes, food of every flavor, shape and size, and, of course, the animals were always there for viewing. Not knowing what to expect, I arrived early on the first day of fete- all the workers looking a little frazzled like they were preparing themselves for a long day. By 11, the gates to the grounds were packed by about 50 metres with a loud, pushing mob of people excitingly awaiting to enter the Musee. The resident vet spotted me and beckons me over- he glanced down a long list and says, 'Balkissa, you're stationed at the hyena/jackal area.' Oh. no problem.. I wasnt exactly sure what was going on.. give tours? answer questions? No, crowd control. 'Keep kids from climbing the fence and sticking their hands in the cages.' Ok. So I head down the hill, to my new location, where another keeper (assigned to the nearby chimpanzee area) spots me and waves me over. 'Balkissa! here's your stick' and hands me a long broom-handle like stick.
If you've even been to a nigerien event- sporting events, concerts, whatever, there's usually a couple guys with sticks working as crowd control.. trust me, the sticks arent just props.. I was crowd control for the hyenas and jackals. Surely the crowds wouldnt be that bad? Wrong. everywhere you look, a sea of people- crowding to see this and that, pushing to get up as close as they can to the cages. HOW many times can you ask politely for someone to GET OFF a cage before they even hear you??? No idea, they never heard me when I asked politely, and I had to result to loud cranky yelling. While I did get pretty good at yelling at people (I can say 'get down', 'stop that' and move away' in 4 different languages...), I admit I probably wasn't very good with the stick- I didnt use it very much, mostly on rude teenage boys who just laughed when I yelled at them for kicking the jackal cage- and even then they laughed still, because I hit them so lightly... in which case I resulted to shameing them, telling them they had no respect, Allah knows all, etc. That usually worked.
It was a long three days, thats for sure. I did enjoy seeing everyone in their new ramadan outfits, and it really wasnt too bad with all the delicious fried food being sold right behind me. Plus the musee staff came around each afternoon to give all the workers a meat sandwich and yogurt. So, maybe a tiring celebration, but still fun!

Extending BACK to the BUSH??

2010-08-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

The gorgious scenery of Zinder- these were in Liz's and Ari's villages (respectivly)

Not a whole lot of time, so just a quick update and some pictures! Well, ok, that wasn't completely honest... the truth is, I've been working in the rain all morning, and now I'm in the Peace Corps Bureau, and the remote is broken for the air conditioner...in the on position... so I'm freezing.

Zoo update- Work is good and starting to slow down. I'm still waiting on funding to come through for shade hangars for a couple of the cages, plus waiting for the baboon cage to get done, so things have slowed down- which is a nice change of pace. To keep myself busy I've been helping out with the different areas, cleaning, feeding, etc. The baby hippo, Bouban, is getting huge, but still healthy and cute as ever. Baby green monkey is also doing well (still no name). Today, one of our Docas Gazelles, (Clyde) got his hind left leg caught in the fence, panicked, and fractured his leg getting himself out. The vet set him in a cast and everything and now he seems to be doing alright.

So... I've considering it for quite a while, and I'm pretty sure I want to extend for another year in peace corps here in Niger. There is an NGO, the Sahara Conservation Fund, that works with Ostrich and Antelope conservation all around Niger, and they have a position for a PCV working out in the eastern part of the country with the Ostrich conservation. Which woulde be great- BACK to the bush, but still get to work with animals! So, I've applied, and I think I have a couple weeks before I find out if I got the job. Not to jump ahead of myself, but should I get the job, peace corps gives all third-year extendees a month home leave... home for christmas??? maybe :)

This is the front of the Sultan's Palace in Zinder!

Last but not least, our little baby green monkey!!!

A trip to Zinder...

2010-08-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm getting worse and worse at this blog! I'm so sorry I havent updated, once again, in over a month. This time I'm serious, I'll do a lot better.
In my defence, however, this last month has been a whirl-wind of activity and I feel like I've been running nonstop since the beginning of July... I keep waiting for it to slow down, but with only 4 months left of my 'official' service, I think it's only going to gain speed like a rock rolling down the hill.
ANYWAY, I appologize in advance for the long post, I have a whole month to report on after all.
Work:
The zoo is GREAT as always- Baby hippo, healthy and happy, he's up to 15 litres of milk each morning, I'm concvinced that he's still hungary after, I'm just having a hard time convincing the vet too (it doesnt help that its kinda a tiring ordeal to feed him- he's getting big.. and frisky). Baby monkey, still healthy and happy, and, scarily enough, big enough to get curious and wander away from his mother, as well as small enough to fit through the bars... red flag?
I tend to get a little frustrated as 'Niger time' is not the same as 'Nichole time'; things like, the baboon cage that's ALMOST done, which has been ALMOST done for about 8 months now, which means I can't outfit it until the workers finally get around to it.. Or, everytime it rains , if it's still raining the next day, nobody seems to show up until late morning, because it's raining. I understand its raining, but animals still eat when it rains.. honest.
Other than that, I've been spending my time with my daily feeding of the monkeys, warthogs, chimps, busy cleaning out cages when people have the day off, and each time it rains it creates a massive mud bog in the crocodile pits, so thats a full afternoon of fun :)
Life besides work:
About a week ago I finally left the city for a bit and headed out east to Zinder! I have some great pictures on my camera, so next time I'll have to remember it and upload them. It was a fairly short trip, 8 days, 2 of those strictly traveling- the bus ride is a little over 14 hours one way. (after living in this country I will never EVER complain about an 8 hour fight, EVER again... that sounds kinda nice right now). So, after one day on the road, I spent two full days in Zinder Ville, got to visit Zinder PCV's houses, the Sultan's palace, and the Artisianal village (baught some really cute earings made out of coconut shells!!!). Also met with the Enviornment agent there- he wants to start a zoo and asked if I could meet with him and discuss his plans, construction layout, etc. He wanted me to come back to meet with the builders from Nigeria, but I dont know if I'm going to have time for that before December. So, after Zinder, I headed out to the bush and spent 2 nights at Ariana's village, and then 2 nights at Liz's village- BOTH villages were great and a huge difference from back home in Tahoua region, and even back home in Tilleberi region. between hiking up mountains and wandering though baobab forests, as well as hanging out with their villagers, it was a great trip, and so nice to get back to the bush for a few days.
Sadly, the day I arrived in Zinder,I got a call from home with news that my Grandma had passed away. I tried for a minute to put it together how I could get home for the funeral, but with a day-long bus trip just back to Niamey, plus two days of flying, including a $2,000 plane ticket, I couldn't see how to make it work. I'm so sorry I couldn't be home, I will miss her very much.
In a matter of days, the stage right before us will head home, having completed their service. I still think of myself and them as having just arrived not too long ago- two years really isn't as long as I thought it was! Myself and a couple others from my stage are planning the leaving stage's completion-of-service dinner and party, so it should be fun, but sad to see them all go.
As for leaving myself, someday it'll happen, but I don't think I'll be leaving with the rest of my stage- I still havent decided more than simply extending my service for a year. I have a few ideas and opportunities, but nothing official. (I dont want to announce anything I'd have to take back a month later!).. Although, I probably should get going on this decision thing soon.. running out of time!

wow time flies!

2010-07-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

5 months and counting... no, not really. COS date is officially December something, but I'm still trying to fingure out what I'm going to do after (extending?). It's amazing to think I've been here this long and to look back at all the experiences. Especially to look back at all the things that shocked me before that now seem day-to-day, like watching heards of cattle cross the busy intersection, or a couple goats on the top of the car, or buying fruit, veggies, or anything really, right out the car window. Actually, America seems so inconvinient that you can't buy phone credit out the car window, can't head to the produce market and select all the best produce and name your own price. In fact, it now seems like a really silly idea to put everything you'd ever want to buy in one big store, with fixed prices. ugh- where's the fun in that?

Anyway. The job is great still- I don't think I could ever get sick of working with those animals; there's always something going on and something to help out with. The baby hippo is still healthy and consuming around 15 litres of milk a day and getting big enough that it's getting tricky to restrain him sometimes. I always think its so cute when he prances around and nudges your leg, but will it still be cute when he's put on another 500 pounds? I think yes. Which reminds me, a few weeks ago a film crew came in and filmed us feed the hippo, which resulted in random strangers asking me if I was 'that hippo-girl they saw on tv'.. interesting.

It's been a really great experience to help with this and probably one of the best aspects of my job right now- it makes me realize how lucky I am to be this hands-on with such amazing animals- I really hope I get to do things like this the rest of my life. Though I was frustrated at first that there was zero information on the internet about bottle-feeding baby hippos, I did discover a hippo named jessica down in South Africa who was raised from a calf. She now has her own fan club.

In other zoo news, our female Green monkey had a baby! I still havent gotten any pictures of him/her yet, but I'll try to take a few.

Other than work, life in Niger has been overall busy but rewarding. It's been a lot of fun having the World Cup going on- its such a different atmosphere than in the U.S. where most people don't even know it's happening. Football is a really big deal here and its hard not to get really into the WC. With the Buvette at the zoo having a tv, and that I don't have a set work schedule I've kept up pretty well. Even though Niger doesn't have a team in, we had several neighboring teams- Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria to cheer for. Which made the US/Ghana game reaaally interesting.. we went to this pub that shows the game on a projector- the place was packed wall to wall, all the Nigeriens were for Ghana obviously, and then us few people in the back of the room rooting for the opposite team. People got pretty excited. If truth be told though, was happy to see Ghana continue on (the Ghana/Uraguay game was even more exciting but we wont get into that).

Ok, thats all for now- I'm going to try to keep it short, but my goal is to write three times this month to make up for my lack of writing last month!

This is Kalia, our oldest hippo- she likes to hang out and weave back and forth by the fence while we feed baby bouban (or jibo as some people have started calling him). She loves attention and rests her chin on the fence to try and lure someone away from the baby and to her instead :)

Hippo Video

2010-06-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

This is the baby hippo about 3 days after we got him- still had trouble with the stairs of his pool!

Hippo time!

2010-05-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay between posts- this time I have an excuse at least (well, not really). My computer is in the shop; after weeks of having it freeze up after 5 minutes of use, every time I turned it on, I decided it was time to take it in. Turns out it was packed with viruses.. you know its bad when the technician shames you for never running a virus update- I tried to explain that I would have, but that it's just so time consuming, but I just took the shame instead. I still dont have it back yet, he's putting a new antivirus on it- and updating it... and setting an automatic update... Anyway.

So life at the zoo is still jam-packed with action and I am usually pretty exhausted at the end of my work day (a good exhausted). I'm curently waiting for funding to come in for a shade hanger for the mule, working to repaint some of the animal information signs, trying to find some sort of rope swings for the new baboon cage, and still keeping up with daily things of collecting and feeding out the food donation from the hotel, chimp enritchment, baby-hippo feeding, and cage cleaning (I try to work in whoevers area that has the day off). If I have any extra time in my day, I'll take the mule out to graze in the big grassy area by the back gate.

While we had hoped that the baby hippo would have grasped the concept of drinking out of a bowl, or even a bottle for that mater, he still refuses. SO, every morning we prepare about 6 litres of milk; myself, the Vet, and at least 4 keepers jump in, the keepers get a net over him and the vet tubes him while I pass him syringe after syringe of milk- it wasnt so hard when he was a little baby, but now he's probably close to a 300 pound baby.. try restraining that. Its all worth it though when he nuzzles his cute little face on your leg. Awwww! Who wouldnt want a baby hippo?? By the way, his name is Dien Bouban- 'Dien' meaning 'son of' and 'Bouban' being the village he came from.

Ok, moving on from the baby hippo. One story from my day. So, this morning I was hosing down the chimp/ monkey area, which neither of the chimps appreciate much. Well, today, unfortunately for me, Bebe had somehow gotten ahold of a massive branch and thought it was a great game to shake it at me and watch me retreat at top speed. After about 5 minutes of this I gave it up as a bad job deciding I'd rather not have to go to the PC med office for concussion caused by 'chimp with a stick'. (that would have been an even better story though...) Then I moved on to the monkey cage where chewy, a little vervet monkey, caught me off guard and pulled out a handful of my hair. Maybe it wasn't such a great day.

Hot season may just be over(knock on wood)- last night we had a huge rain storm with impressive thunder and lightning that continued into a drizzly day today. I think the temperature said 29 C when I got up (about 85 F?) ahhh. bliss. After 5 summers in the northwoods of wisconsin I thought I'd seen my share of impressive storms, but the storms here are amazing! Aside from the high winds, heavy downpour, and briliant thunder and lightning, storms are usually preceded by huge sand storms- it's harder to tell here in the city, but back in the bush it literally looked like a wall of sand rushing in. I just hope the rains start comming to the rest of Niger. With the draught and famine situation all throughout Niger, I talk to my village often and it sounds like my village is doing better than other areas- they all asure me that the new grain bank is helping immensely- so thank you everybody again for donating! Though I do love my new job here, I sometimes wish I could be back at my village helping with the grain bank and seeing its progression. Oh well, c'est la vie!

One more thing- in about 2 weeks I'll have officially been here for 20 months- meaning I'll have technically 6 months left of my service! I can't believe how fast time flies!

Baby Hippo and a Lion Autopsy; just life at the zoo :)

2010-05-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

Whew what a week.

First off, if I may, I'd just like to say it is rediculously hot here. I think since the last time I wrote it's been at least 115 degrees each day (some days up past 120 F) and rarely falling below 95, the one exception was after a nice 'mango rain' we had (the good things about Niamey) it cooled the place down considerably- we're talking 105 during the day and even down to 85 at night for a couple blissful days. For the most part, I think it doesnt get any hotter here than in the bush of my last village, but it did cool down at night there to a comfortable sleeping temperature, whereas here, it never really cools down enough to stop sweating. Dont worry. I have it all worked out- I sleep in the back yard on a cot, and I've strung an extension cord out the window so that I can have my big stand fan (best thing Ive ever baught for mysef) blowing on me all night.. Ok, moving on.

So apart from the heat, it's been a good, though busy past couple weeks. Last week the Musee hosted an Artisianal Festival- we had artisans come from Burkina Faso and around, as well as bands and dance groups from both Niger and Burkina perfrorming during the day and at a big concert at night. I got some great video of the dance group that hopefully I can attach, but we'll see. The only obligation I had toward the festival, because it was artisian related and not zoo related, was giving tours saturday of the zoo, which was fun.

Few days after that, we got more big news: Up the river at a little fishing village the villagers had killed a large hippo that was ruining their fishing and causing problems- made me a little angry, but, the point is, they discovered the hippo had a baby who was still nursing, so the musee agreed to take him in. We just got him a few days ago and we're still working on getting him to drink milk from a bowl. He's about the size of a really large dog, which makes me just want to climb in with him and give him a big hug (dont worry, I'm kidding... sort of.. but seriously.). To make room for the new hippo, we moved our male hippo in with one of our females- personally I think 4 hippos is plenty... but who knows what'll happen.

A bit after the news of the new hippo was more drama. Our oldest lioness, Fati, got beat on by the male in the pride during feeding time. She was isolated and watched closely, but with the beating she took combined with her age, she didnt get up for a day and a half. That afternoon myself and the lion keeper were watching her when we finally both looked at each other and realized she was dead. After the initial sadness of the situation, I was excited that I would get to watch her autopsy. So the next morning behind the lion house, I got to observe as the vet took a sample of each of her organs for testing. Its times like these how disticly different Niger is and made me smile. Like, trying to get the eyeball out, two different people had their fingers shoved up the eye socket arguing about how to get it out, or, when the vet asked where the paws were- "they're inside"... "all four of them?" "no, just two.." "Two?? Where's the other two??" "Well, so-and-so took them because he wanted them..." and then after it was all over the Musee workers hovering and cutting themselves a bit of lion meat/fat/intestines/anything else.

Ok, last but not least, part of my big week- yesterday was May day and the big workers holiday! So, who knew, but here in Niamey they had a parade!! and I got to be in it! Basically every work organization/company got together in a matching pagnae outfit with their business logos and had banners and 'floats'. Yes, there were even 'floats'. The musee's float was a pickup truck with a hyena in a cage, and on top of that, a Jackal in a cage, and a crocodile in a cage. Then we all walked or rode in the truck. Besides our own float of course, I have to say I did enjoy the float that was a pickup truck with a operating table in the back, with someone laying on it, and a few people dressed up as doctors.. It was a lot of fun to be part of the parade and see all the other people representing their work.

On Safari: A few days in Parc W

2010-04-07T02:35:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted- I'm really sorry!! I have quite a bit to write, so prepare for a long one..

Yesterday we got back from our mini vacation (about 3 days) from Parc W... thats right, on safari. :) The parc is spread though Burkina, Benin, and Niger and named for the 'W' bend in the Niger river running through it. Though it was hot season, it was still gorgeous and a huge change from the sahelien landscape of up in Tahoua region or really anywhere further north, but from what we heard, this was the time to go, because the animals tend to gather around the diminishing water holes during the hot days. Anyway- so it was just three of us volunteers- myself, Maeghan, and Nathen who went, along with Hadji Moussa, or good friend, regional PA/driver for peace corps. It was a lot of fun to say the least (not to mention my first safari!!); we rented a car, drove down and stayed a couple nights in a great campsite by the river. Our guide, Ishmael, was really nice and also spoke Hausa, so the two days were spent driving through the trails of the parc spotting warthogs, red monkeys, green monkeys, baboons, antalope, buffalo, gazzelle, and... ELEPHANTS! Oh, we also saw numerous colorful birds.. the guide was great- every antelope, monkey, and bird we saw he could tell at a glance what species it was, whether it was male or female, etc, not just in French, but also in Hausa and even sometimes in English.

Anyway, so a little Hausa wildlife language lesson: Warthog= Giado, Monkey= Biri, Elephant= Giwa, Lion (which we werent lucky enough to see)= Zaki, Antelope= Barewa, Hippo= Dorina, Hyena= Kura, Crocodile= Kada, and Birds= Tsuntsu. Study hard. I will test you all when I get home.

I think my favorite part of the trip was easily the Elephant spotting- they're so big and beutiful and we got to watch them from pretty close. When I got back to the Musee a couple of the workers asked why I didn't bring one home- I told them I tried, but it when the parc people saw it in the car the refused and I had to leave it. :)

The Musee has been great- Rose, the other volunteer, has officially, as of a week and a half, completed her service and now I'm all alone at the Musee. No, it's really been great- I've tried to put in at least 5-7 work hours each day, and I'm enjoying the task of setting my own goals and creating my own projects. Things I've been working on as of late: The new baboon cage is nearly finished, so I've been working to furnish their cement cages with tree limbs, and reliable waterdishes- it's been a huge problem in the old cage- what they did was make a cement hole in the ground for water, which over the years cracks, water empties in about 10 minutes, and then he's left without for hours. Problem is, can't open the door to put in a new waterdish, so the poor baboon has to live with it. Right now I have a hampster-style waterer hooked to the outside, but it too rusts quickly, leaks, and will soon break. So, to solve the problem in the next cage (which they again put in cement holes for the water) I have some nice stainless steel water bowls to install. Wow, that was really interesting.. a whole paragraph on baboon waterers. Sorry. Anyway, I've also been working each day on a project started be the last volunteer, where the local hotel donates all their fruit and veggie peels/ meat scraps, etc., so each day a take a couple hours to collect it and feed it out to all the monkeys, warthogs and porcipines. I'm still working with the mule, just to get him out of his small inclosure to graze and use his legs- maybe someday to do pony rides, but I'm not sure, his hind legs are in pretty bad shape and his joints have lost a lot of movement probably due to arthritis. Anyway, I am also hoping to put together a brochure for the musee to help with tourism, and maybe eventually a website, and lastly, working to update all the animals information signs- a lot of them have worn off and you cant read the information anymore.

Ok. Moving on. A few of us went to a Niger vrs. Nigeria football game a couple weeks back- exciting!!! This was the first Niger game I'd been to- neirly everyone I talked to said that Niger never wins, blah blah... BUT, the game was great, and a lot of fun, and... WE WON! 2:0! It was a good day. Rose and I got all dressed up in our Niger jersies and face paint, hair bling, and then danced in the cheering section- all the cheer-songs were in hausa! My favorite one was at the end we sang, 'Nigeria, sai wata rana! or, 'Nigeria until another day'. Also, some of the people I work with said they saw me on TV.. "Balkissa! I saw you on TV! You were doing this (jumping up and down with cheering-arms motion)!"... great.

Ok, one last thing, one of the Jackals at the Musee, Wylee just had pups!! There are two of them- really cute. I'll let you know their names in a week. (Nigerien tradition you know :))

Traditional Medicine Anyone?

2010-03-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Though I just posted less than a week ago, it's been a great couple of days and I couldn't help but share.

This weekend I got a huge suprise- I got a call from one of my villagers back from my old post saying he and another of my villagers had come to Niamey just to visit me! To give you an idea, this is at least two days of traveling and a bit expensive for 'bush-people'; I was really flattered and excited that they would come all this way to see me.

So we had a really nice visit, and I asked them if they'd like to come to the Musee and I could give them a tour. Neither of them had ever been to a zoo before or seen any of the animals in it so they were both really excited (and I was excited too). So, the tour is going great, I loved giving it in Hausa, and we actually attracted a bit of a croud- I think a lot of bush people come and just wander around because they can't speak french or cant read the information signs, so when people heard me explaining things in Hausa, we had about 10 people latch on to the tour.

Every animal we saw got a 'wah!! Wayyo Allah! or Allah Ya Sarki!!'... So just for the satisfaction of hearing my villagers 'oohs and aahs' I would jump behind the railing and pet the hyenas or feed the hippos.. it was great... then we got to the lions.

So. I need to first give a little information. Lions, here in West Africa, apparently have some 'medicinal' purposes (I guess I should say traditional medicinal purposes).. People, especially from the bush, feel that lion urine and lion crap make great little home remedies. I've asked several times what exactly lion urine cures, and as far as I've been told, just about everything. I think the translation I got was 'it makes your body strong'...

Anyway. So we get to the lions. My villagers suddenly get more excited than I've seen them throughout this whole tour. I get ready to wow them with some lion knowledge, when they turn to me excitedly, 'Balkissa, can you get us some poop??!!' (shot down.) I was like, oh... uh, maybe.. I mean, Im not sticking my hand in the cage to pull out lion poo-balls, but I find one of the keepers of the area, one of my friends, and ask him. Apparently he does this all the time, so he's like no problem, puts it in a baggie and I give it to my villagers. Oh no.. thats not all. Now we want the urine. My friend, the keeper, is kinda an interesting guy himself.. we joke and call him 'owner of the bush' or 'savage' because he's often seen behind the monkey cages cooking up a couple of hedgehogs (one day he had caught a cat and skinned and roasted it!). So he happily sits down with my villagers, they're drinking tea and talking about medicinal uses of cat crap, it's the heat of the day (around 110 degrees) and I'm sitting there listening to all this and wondering, why me? Anyway, through about 40 minutes of serious bargaining (my name being thrown in every now and again as "we're friends of Balkissa! Lower the price!"), they finally fork over some money and we walk away with a bag of poop, and a soda bottle of cat urine.

I'm not in a great mood at this point (sunburnt and dehydrated) but I continue the tour and as we near the end, one asks, 'uh, Balkissa, can we get some crocodile poop?'... They left the musee that day happily with their little bags of crap. (literally.)

Sorry this is a long post, but wait, theres more. Part Two: An Afternoon on the Niger River!

Ok, so this same day (it was a long day) The Hippo/Crocodile keeper had invited Rose and I to come down to his house by the river and he'd take us out on the river in his boat (called a Kalo-Kalo, a traditional wood Songhai boat, I can't remember what we'd call them in English). It was possibly one of my favorite afternoons in Niamey. We went out on the river, he paddled us upstream for a while (of course we were wearing life jackets, peace corps.) and gave us a riverside tour of the city- it was amazing how different it all looked from on the water. I also loved the cool humidity of the water and surrounding swampy areas- all being used for gardens and rice crops. It was so beutiful and so different than Hausa land I am used to. Women washing clothes, kids splashing and laughing, men in their boats throwing huge fishing nets; it was pretty awesome. Oh, so we hear this deep cry in the distance, and sure enough, there's two hippos swimming in the river!! We didn't get too close of course, but you could just see their heads poking out of the water.

After we got back on shore, we watched his friend fish from shore with a net, and then he gave us a tour of his family's gardens. Everything, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mint leaves, peppers, not to mention mango, papaya, and guava trees. The hospitality in this country is really wonderful and we then went back to his house where his wife cooked us dinner and we drank traditional tea. First time- she fried these fish for us, small enough that you just eat the whole thing, break off piece by piece. They were really good, save the head, which involved a poping and squishing of fishy gooeyness squirting in your mouth as the eyes and vessles burst.. But a good experience :)

Anyway. My adventures of the last couple days!

Its a hippo!!! (no seriously, it is.)

Tuareg Wedding and Mangos!!!

2010-03-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

Whew! These past two weeks have flown by. After four exciting days of hostel-arrest, we were able to head back to our houses, then, another two days later, I was able to head back to work at the Musee (it's in the downtown area). So, politically, things seem to have settled; theres still different oppinions floating around that I'll hear as a get into a taxi, whether the Military Coup d'etat was a good thing, whether people are happy or sad Tanja is out of office, what the future outlook is like, etc.

Back to work was great after being gone so long, I really missed all my animals :) It really makes you smile when a baboon or hyena rubs up against the cage asking to be scratched. Unfortunately, due to getting the flu only one day after going back to work, I was basically on house arrest... again- for three more days. To be honest, it hasnt been the most productive or enjoyable February I've ever had.

So, back in February was also a big event for our friend Ginger, an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer- I'm trying not to get too crazy with the Peace Corps acronyms: you can be a PCVor PCT... talk with the PCMO, your APCD, AO, PA or even the CD, about AG, NRM, CHA, MCD or CYE during PST, IST, or MST, that is, before your COS, because then you'd be an RPCV...you with me?)

Anyway.. so big event for Ginger, an RPCV, who has been here for over three years, and currently teaches at a school here in Niamey, got married! She married a tourag guy named pepe and had a beautiful traditional tuareg wedding. I'd never been to a tuareg wedding and it was really a fun experience. We started out early in the morning, got all dressed up in our uniform outfits (kinda like bridesmaid dresses- she picked a particular kind of cloth, then we went and baught it and took it to a taylor and got an outfit made) showed up at the house for what the call the 'fatia' which is a prayer (all the men outside with the Malim and all the women inside) that basically 'officializes' the wedding. This is also when the two fathers sit down and negotioate the dowry, set the marraige 'rules', if you will, and such.

So after that, the women put Ginger under a blanket and we walked her up the street to another house (I think it was Pepe's familys house) and we got to sit in a room for about 6 or 7 hours. It sounds boring, but it was really fun (in the bush I could never seem to last more than 4 hours sitting at a wedding, but it was a lot more fun knowing the bride and speaking some English) Anyway, again, men and women are in different areas, but as far as I know they stayed at the other house and visited until the evening hours. It wasn't all sitting and waiting, there was constant music and dancing, henna and braids getting done, taking pictures and chatting, and eating DELICIOUS food. Definately the best wedding food I've ever had. in the morning there was this wonderful milk-millet porrage stuff that tasted like pudding and bread, then the big afternoon meal including a delicious rice and lamb sauce dish and a meat-millet paste, it was all so good!!! Tuareg women can cook apparently. Anyway, we all had to up and leave around 4, but later in the evening, they bring the bride (under the bridal blanket) to the grooms house, tons of people come, they have more dancing, and the bride and groom dance together. I'm sure I've forgoten little details, but it was a great experience. Congrats Ginger! Barka da Aure!

Thats about it for new events around here, work is great and I still enjoy every day of it, oh, so hot season is also creaping in.. right now my little outdoor thermomiter says 35 degrees (in the shade of my poarch) celceus, so I think thats around 96 ish farenheight. The good thing though- MANGO season!!!!! We have two mango trees in our yard and one is chocked full of mangos (we ate the first one off it last night-yummy) the other ones just a little slower.. late bloomer... Anyway, so there's the silver lining of hot season: Fresh mangos, mango juice, mango jelly, mango sauce, spicy mango salsa, mango chipoltle......

Drama in Niamey...coup.

2010-02-20T02:45:00.000-08:00

It's been an eventful couple of days for Niger, especially Niamey.. Just to quickly let everyone know, I am fine and safe and things here are settling after all the drama. For anyone who didn't read about it, there was a Military Coup d'etat last thursday, in which the military stormed the presidential palace, took the president into custudy along with a couple other ministers to an undiclosed location in Niamey to get him to resign. Anyway, Ill let everyone look it up themselves so I don't mistate anything.

On a personal account, I was close by the area when it started, but Peace Corps was fast as lightning to get me and all other PCVs into a safe place. I could make this story as dull or embelished as possible, but I think I'll save the embelished version for another day :)

I do, however, want to say this was not dramatic 'African' military scenario that you see in movies. Things are really calm here in Niamey in the aftermath and I have hardly seen any military out on the streets. I did enjoy the 'victorious' marching music they played on the and some great music videos once the radio stations and TV stations were in military influence.
The interesting part, which I won't spend too much talking about in a blog, is the reaction of the public. People are very calm, and going about their daliy lives...
Anyway, thats all for now. As for us Niamey PCVs, we've been consolidated the past couple of days, and as things have relaxed we are enjoying our first day of space away from the hostel!

The Many Adventures of me and my New Bicycle

2010-02-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Well maybe not so many... give it time. But yes! Finally! I got a bike!! And, believe it or not, it's even BETTER than my one in the bush!! Well, not that the one in the bush was bad, but the frame was huge and I usually had to do this hop-jump thing to get up on the seat.. Anyway. So me and my new bicycle, or, my new bicycle and I, bike all around the city every day and even entered a bicycling for aids race. Ok, seriously now.. So yes, there were about six of us from Peace Corps (including our country director and assist. country director!) that joined a bicycle for aids (or SIDA as it's called here) event. Before the actual race they did this little promo 'race' with the director of the race, a couple other important people.. and us 6 peace corps, biking a quick fake lap with the video crew in the back of a truck in front- so I may have been on tv... It was a lot of fun though- after our little promo tour, we lined up for the real race, they actually had a girls heat and then a boys heat.

In a country like Niger, it's not every day you see girls doing things like riding bikes or looking sporty and strong, so I was really impressed with the girls and really proud for them. I remember back in the bush I was watching a little soccar match between mine and a neighboring village (just some local boys) And not a single woman thought it would be ok if they stopped and watched- I remember watching the game with a little 7 year old girl, and then I turned and asked her if she liked to blay ball. "I can't play soccer!" she laughed. I was kinda taken back and asked why not. "Because I'm a girl! Girls can't play!" and trust me, she wasn't the only girl who felt that way. Imagine, 7 years old and already having that kind of mind set.. Anyway, thanks Mom and Dad for letting me do whatever I wanted when I was younger.

Oh, so the outcome of the race.. The 6 of us each only did one of the two laps (I didn't want to take away from those girls that had been working a lot harder than I) but I will say I was it second at the end of my lap... (maybe you can catch a replay on ESPN or something...)(that was a joke).

Anyway, to continue on my bicycling adventures, I am now a city biker and terrified almost ever meter of the way. Growing up on dirt roads in the country (not to mention the last bike I owned in the states was pink and purple with a unicorn on it...) then biking only on the sandy roads through the bush the past year, these city streets are nerve wracking.. Every time I come to a roundabout or a left turn I have a mini panic attack. Especially because, I mean, not to complian, but at the roundabouts in this country are poorly designed. Just saying. Here, if you're on the roundabout you yield to somone comming on... its somwhat controlled because theres stoplights at every entrance, but STILL. Thats NOT THE POINT of a roundabout. Anyway, no its getting a lot better. At first I was almost causing accidents glancing around and behind me so much, now I just signal with my hand and say a little prayer.. :)

Other than that, life in Niamey's been pretty great. Got to go to the wedding of one of my language teachers from back in training the other day. Me and a couple of the other PCV's wowed the croud with our African-dancing skills (I got some great pictures of drummers and a guy with this traditional Oboe looking thing called an 'Algaeta' see picture up top) Oh, any my second b-day in country's commig up! 2 weeks and I'll be 25.. uh. that seems so old.

What's Not to Love?

2010-01-22T00:44:00.000-08:00

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!

Reminisces of the Bush and adjusting to life

2010-01-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

First post of the New Year! Better make it a good one...

To begin, New Years was fun, a group of us went to a Nigerien rap concert (that was an experience.. concidering I've never been to a rap concert in the states!)- I think I'm getting old though; the concert was too loud and I was way too tired by 2:00 am, but otherwise a fun New Years!

Wow, I was reading through my last blogs and I realized there was so much I left out from my village experience! The things I really miss now, I hardly, if at all, mentioned! So, I'm going to try to fill in the blanks within the next year on culture differences, the people, what I miss most... I admit, the reason I was reading through them in the first place was that I was a little bush-sick. I really miss my life I had there and the unexpected friends I made. So, for the next portion of this post, some of my reminiscents of bush life:

First- the people of my village. As I read through old posts, I couldn't believe how much I'd left out some of the most important people of this last year! I don't want to put too much information out there about anyone, so I'll just use first names (no harm in that, right?) First- my home-away-from-home, Aisha's house. Aisha was one of my best women friends in the vil, she and her husband are absolutely open and giving with everything they have. Aisha and I would study little Hausa pamplets together to improve her literacy/my Hausa- usually ended up just me reading to her in Hausa... which got a little akward- most of her pamplets were given to her by medical/ sanitation type NGOs, so every now and again I'd find myself reading about something potentially akward... like condoms and STDs... best part is that it would just randomly don on me half way through the paragraph what I was reading out loud ('oooooooohh...'). Aisha and her family were always willing to help and were the first ones at my meetings. Oh, and she was a FABULOUS cook... ate her food more than my own (ok, I ate ANYONES food more than my own).

Next, Hilimou was also one of my best women friends and she always had a smile on her face. I absolutely loved hanging out at her house, and we never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Half our conversations were dedicated to arguing over my weight- she would tell me to drink lots of Hura (spiced millet and milk drink) so that I would get really fat, and I'd argue, 'but I don't want to be fat', she'd come back with, 'fat is beutiful! You need to get fat to find a husband!' Then we'd go back and forth on random other things... sigh, I miss her!

Hankuri, whom I believe I have mentioned before, is both my grandma (well, maybe great grandma) in the village and my best friend. If I was ever upset about something, no matter what it was, she was always on my side- whatever was wrong, she would do anything in her power to make it right. This one very frustrating afternoon, I was sitting with her and I told her my horse had no hay because the kid who was supposed to go get it had no honesty.. She says, ok, lets take care of it. We go find kids to pick hay for the next day, the we head out to the bush and we pick a bundle of hay! I just loved watching her whole face light up when you show up at her house, and I was so glad that on the last day I was in my village (had no idea it was my last day) I spend the day with her and we walked an hour to a neighboring village to a wedding. If I had one more day in my vil, I'd probably spend most of it at her house, helping her pound millet, or just sitting with the zillions of kids that always are there.

Idi was one of my best guy friends in the village I loved hanging out with his family even if he wasnt around. (we'd catch the ducklings and watch the momma duck freak out, then laugh.. hmm. yes I'm an animal husbandry volunteer...) Anyway, Idi and I would just hang out and talk most of the time- he was my official villiage counterpart, so anything I had going on he was in on and ready to help. We used to talk about anything under the sun- things like, explaining that at 12 o'clock our time, it was 5 am in America.. why? Well... then I'd explain about the sun and the earth and rotation... I got a little too technical sometimes, but he was always eager to hear more. He loved the world map I painted and would watch me paint and ask which countries where which, where America was, etc. My favorite memories are of when he thought this combination lock I had was amazing- so I gave it to him and taught him how to use it. for three days he unsuccessfully tried to use it, then one morning (around 6..) he knocks on my door, Look! I can open it! and then shows me. I loved it. He was one of those rare people that you just wanted to give tons of gifts to because he never asked for anything and was genuinely happy to be your friend.

Ok, just one more, this is getting long, Oumarou and Hiyali were the two husbands to the two families in my family concession. Both were always helpful and cheerful- Oumarou one dy caught me giving my horse a pepperment- he thought it was hillarious that I would give an animal a piece of candy and didnt leave me alone about it for weeks! Hiyali was one of my really good friends, and luckly for me, really liked my horse. He took as good of care of her as I did and I'd hear through the village that he'd ride her out to the bush and back bareback when I was gone :) Sigh.. good times..

Anyway, enough reminiscing for now. the zoo is going great and the animals are starting to really get used to me.. maybe even like me! (I get the evil eye from a monkey every now and then.. actually, there's this one monkey that thinks I'm the scariest thing on two feet and has a fit if I'm standing too close (thats gotta be good for the self-esteem! Lol)), but the baboons like me well enough now, so it all weighs out :) We're starting to get some projects started: first, working on a volunteer program with the University, so we'll start training new volunteers here soon, second, we've been working with our mule, Barry, and hope to have him up and going for pony-rides one day (more on him later!), third, I've started researching possible funding sources to build either a hyena or chimpanzee habitat (not so successfully, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know!), fourth, we really want to get a website up and going for the Musee, so I've been looking into how to go about doing that. Definately enough to keep us busy anyway! Oh, just a note- mail here in Niamey is kinda atrocious, and I still havent seen packages that were sent over a month ago. From what I hear, not a package goes by that doesnt get opened and peaked into... or stolen from.. or eaten out of by a critter.... but no matter what is missing when I do eventually get it, I really am thankful for everyone's support and letters/packages!

Clyde- one of our two Dorcas Gazelles!

Merry Christmas from Niger!

2009-12-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Whew- with daily internet access, you'd think I'd write so much more- I guess I've started taking the internet for granted, always figuring 'I'll write tomorrow'...

First off, Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year! I can't believe 2009 went by so fast, and even more, I can't believe I only have a year left of Peace Corps! (aughh! what am I going to do??!! Still havent really figured out what I want to 'be' when I grow up!)

Anyway, Christmas in Niamey, I've gotta say, I was a little worried about. I'm the only one from my old region here right now, plus the only one in this region from my stage, so I don't know many of my new region. I was expecting it might be a bit of a lonely Christmas, but I was wrong- as much as I really really loved my last region, the people in this region are pretty awesome and Christmas was great. I'm really glad to be a part of this region now. Not only did we have DELICIOUS food (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, apple pie...), but being only 9 of us, it was a cozy christmas with christmas movies, board games, and 'santa', who brought each of us a stocking full of treats :).

Moving on- working at the zoo is going great and I love the daily interaction with the animals. Being my first zoo experience I'm learning a lot and even those less-exciting tasks, aka, scrubbing hippo tanks, or cleaning out the baboons water is fun (seriously) and I love having a little more structure in my job again. So, now that I've done about three weeks, heres what my workload has looked like:

Monday through friday, get there about 8 or 9 am, shadow/assist in one of the areas (5 total), doing things like cleaning out/hosing down the cages of wharthogs, hyenas, baboons, jackals, monkeys, or chimps, filling up waterers, sweeping out the bird cages, mule, ram, goat, crocadile pens, and feeding the livestock, including the ostriches and elan. So after the morning, usually around noon, Rose, the current volunteer (we're going to work together until she leaves sometime around march or april), and I head over to the nearby hotel for the food donation they give (veggie peelings, old bread, old fruit, etc) and then spend a couple hours hand feeding it out to the chimps, monkeys, baboons, civit, etc. To finish our day, we usually spend about 30 to 45 minutes working with the mule (Barry)- whom we hope to get saddled and bridled and 'pony'-ride in a few months. Other random jobs have included chopping wood and giving tours, and yelling at kids... the later, more often than anyother job. One thing I really love about this job is that it makes me so excited to research everything that I'm working with and I'm learning a lot. Anyway, thats usually the end of my typical day, around 3 or 4 ish, often we come back in the evening if something's going on, oh and we take the weekends off.

One thing I'm not to keen on in this job is that EVERYONE stops and stares ('look! it's an anisara doing WORK!') and then watches you for about 30 minutes.. (I mean, seriously, is it really that entertaining to watch me roll up the hose?!) Sometimes I wonder if I'm more part of the exibit that working for the exibit..

Anyway, thats all the news for now- I really really am going to try to write once a week (new years resolution!... that and learn french!) The longer I'm here in the city the more I miss the bush. I loved how simple and peaceful everything was, and ok, I'll admit, I loved being that one foreigner for miles; I loved being that voice for the women in my village, 'cool' and important because I have an education, and a celebrity (seriously, 15 minutes of fame?.. I got a year!) I even miss the kids, who all they want is to sit a half inch from your face and pull out your arm hair.. Don't get me wrong, I love my new post and wouldn't trade it for any other job, but I do miss my village!

Well, thats it for now- I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas and I'll write again next year!

Sunset over the Niger river!

Little Village, Big City!

2009-12-03T07:53:00.001-08:00

Finally I have news! After a few weeks shuffling our feet around the city, most of us now have options and have made our decisions.

First the good news- I've been waiting anxiously to hear about a job here working at the zoo, and, as of this morning, I officially have the position! Which means I'm not going to have to leave yet!

The zoo position will be night and day compared to my past experience in this country- there is such a huge gap between lifestyles of Nigeriens in the bush and Nigeriens in the city that it's like jumping a few hundred years forward (I'm using WIRELESS internet right now... I didn't even know that existed here). I am really lucky to have experienced the bush life and will miss it.. However, I think I'm also very fortunate for the oportunity to experience the city life too (and work in a ZOO!?! Who gets to do that every day??!!) I feel I'll leave this country with a better understanding of the country and the people.

So, as far as daily routine, I couldn't tell you for sure until I start (anywhere from 2 weeks to a month) but I think it'll be around a 6 day a week job, mostling feeding hippos, hosing down hyenas, cleaning out the lion cage, you know... typical stuff :). On a side portion, I'm hoping to continue the past volunteers work is working towards developing a website for the zoo (maybe a sponsor-an-animal type program) and working to find funding to build a chimpanzee habitat. (She- the previous volunteer- is woring right now to build a lion habitat) The problem with the zoo is lack of funding- which results in poor housing, lack of food, too small cages- which leads to poor health, etc. etc... Another problem, I guess related to housing, is that kids, or anyone, has easy access to any of the animals. If a kid wanted to hop into the hippo cage, its literally a matter of stepping over the fence. The hyena cage is close enough to stick your hand in. Anyway, the point is, kinda dangerous for both the people and the animals.

Basically, it may just be my dream job and I am so excited! I guess all these security problems/evacuation all worked out in the end :).

Now, the bad news... Because of all this going on, a lot of Peace Corps Volunteers are choosing to take an interupted service and head home. Especially those in my region and other parts of other reagions who were evacuated, starting all over again in a new village is a pretty daunting and overwelming idea, so I really can't blame them for saying their goodbyes and heading back. I think from my stage, at the moment, there are somewhere between 6 and 8 choosing to go home. A few (5 maybe?) from the stage after us chose to leave, and a couple more from the stage right before us are thinking about it. To make it even harder, the Oldest stage, who was about a month away from completion of service were asked to leave early, and the newest stage, who were still in training, are now being relocated to another country in the continent. So through and through, our numbers fell drastically..

More 'good' news (gotta end on a good note!), yesterday, myself, Heidi and Lindsey all got our hair done.. Heidi and I with 2 bags of extention hair and rasta braids... it only took 7 hours (no seriously)... We look pretty cool if I may say so...

Right, Left, and bottom left: Just a few zoo pictures!

Below right: Lindsey and I at our Halloween party in Tahoua (wasnt big on costumes- unless the Niger-outfit counts!) Very bottom- Colin and I donned our fancy tradition wear for Tabaski celebration at a friends house

abrupt changes

2009-11-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

This'll be short, but it's overdue for an update.. I've got news..
First, to start out with something a little more light and fluffy, I BAUGHT GRAIN FOR THE GRAIN BANK!!! It felt like a huge milestone and I was so proud of everyones work when it was finally stored and set.
I was still working on my womens garden plans, but still unsucessfully searching for someone to fix the well- other than that, we were ready to go.. (water's kinda important, I guess...)
Anyway. SO.. there was a securty incident in the Tahoua region- I know I'm being a bit vague, but I'm not sure just what is appropriate to mention right now.. I think you might be able to find some sort of news update on the internet... Anyway, long story short, we were picked up from our villages and a few days later we get an annoucement that we are evacuating that region.
I think the hardest part is not getting to say goodbye to any of my villagers, followed shortly by a horse I baught only 2 months ago, which my villagers are working on selling for me.
Its been a crazy couple of days where everything seems to just have fallen apart. Not only did I lose my village, but also my reagion; my American family/support system this past year. Peace Corps is being really great about our safety and are working around the clock- and, InShaAllah, it'll all blow over and we'll be back to work in no time. As for those of us in the region, I think we have some options and I'll keep everyone updated what turns out. I haven't heard the options yet, but I'd venture to guess that it'll be something like, go home now with an 'interupted service', or new village in a new region. All I can say though, is that I love it here; I love this country and this job and I'm going to stay if I can!

2009-10-31T04:07:00.000-07:00

I was so sure last time I posted that I would post again before leaving Niamey... then I got a phone call from my villagers that my horse was colicing...AUGH... pretty much I was a nervous wreck for about 6 hours. I spent about 3,000 CFA just on phone credit, first calling my villagers numerous times asking all symptoms, and feeling completely helpless, then calling the L'evage (vet) setting him up to drive all the way to my village to check on her. Then, after that point, my villager calls back, 'oh, shes doing much better now, she doesnt need the vet'.. So I begin another round of phone calls to cancle the vet, talk to my villagers to get the whole story- it worried me a bit because they were a bit vague with the details.. What they did tell me was that she was laying down and wouldnt eat anything (panic?) and then they 'gave her medicine' and she was fine. When I returned from NiameyI asked what kind of medicine they gave her. They replied, traditional medicine... ok, and what exactly was it?... Well, you take a shoe made of cow leather, and tap her stomach. What? and that worked? Of course. So there you go- next time your horse colics, tap it with a leather shoe. At first I was like, no, thats rediculous. But the more I think about it I guess if it was just a gas colic, like they made it sound like, taping on her stomach might have done something... hmmm. Anyway, moving away from the horse drama.

In the final prep stages for this grain bank- I have a seller all lined up next week to meet with and discuss buying/transport. Its been a little more work than I though it was going to be- but it'll be worth it.

Thought I had rid my house of scorpions when I moved in and haddent seen one for a while... until last night.. there he was, sitting in my window. First I just sat and shined a black light on him (ever tried it? its cool...) but then I finally just killed him. I usually let them live, except one of my friends/ fellow volunteer reciently got stung- it was hiding in her house in a shirt that she went to turn right side out. After that story, I'm not sure I'll ever let em live again. Its not that theyre deadly, or, at least not in this part of Niger, but they apparenly hurt and burn like crazy.. No thanks.

One more quick story- so the other day I was sitting with my friend Hilemo at her house, and these two girls (around 10 or so) timidly walked up and just stared... So Hilimo asked them what they wanted and they were like, we've never seen a white person before! I didnt even think that was possible anymore, but they explained that they were from a village way out in the bush, and as they were passing through my village with their family, they heard there was a white person there, and just had to see.. usually when kids stop and stare I find it kinda akward, but this time i couldnt help but smile:)

Just a little stress... its a good thing

2009-10-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Well, its been another couple of weeks and it's already October... First, I would justlike to complain that the french need to just type on the same type of keyboard as the rest of us(sort of joking) , and my typing speed has reduced by about 30 words per minute... so if you catch any mispellings, its not my fault... ok, well now it is- after spending about 5 minutes seaching for the @ key, I begged to be switched to a different computer (most you can switch to an english keyboard setting, just not that one)
Anyway, it's been a good, if not slightly hectic couple weeks- although Ive long since realized I'd rather have a stressful, busy week than one with nothing to do... The grain bank plans are coming along- me and a few of the women from my womens group swept and cleaned out the storage building for the grain, and my good friend/village construction worker is going to cement all the little holes and cracks while I'm gone to finish it up. YAY.. then all we have to do is wait for the funding to get to country, buy the grain, and wait.. Thank you everyone so much for donating- it's such a good feeling (and relief) to be able to work with these villagers on such a big project. I seached on line today to see how much was left to fund, but it had been taken off line because it was full- THANK YOU all so much!!!
The world map is finished, and I have a newfound respect for just how many countries there are in this world (trust me... after labeling all the countries is just Europe with a paintbrush, you'd see what I mean). Now, I plan to do one the same size but just of Niger- so while I'm in Niamey I'm going to hunt down a good map with hopefully climate zones, and all the communes, etc. Then, in a few weeks, when school gets in to full swing, I'll hopefully spend an hour each week with the primary class and do some geography games'n stuff..
The biggest headache of the week has been this women's garden- not the garden itself, but getting this well repaired. The people who were originally going to do it are no longer able to, so now we're going to a different village to ask these other people.. I say 'we', but really it's my work counterpart thats doing all this. So, while ideally we'd like to plant as soon as possible, we're waiting a couple weeks until that gets done. I had a meeting with the women who are interested a couple days ago; first, the meetings alone sometimes turn into a fiasco, I have to repeat everything I say about 3 times (first time SOMEONES talking, second time everyones talking to shut the one person up, and third time it usually goes through) and then someone else has to repeat what I say once for the old ladies in the back, who, no matter what, cant seem to understand more than a dozen words of my Hausa... Anyway, so I get the message across, we discuss everything, then, casually, I ask, what should we plant? well, everyone answers at once- SHU! SALATI! KARROTI! TOMATER! TONKA! POMME DE TERRE! ALBASA!... Needless to say I spend probably 20 minutes of every meeting with my pencil paused above paper looking a little lost.
So the horse is doing great- completely night and day from when I first baught her- I REALLY wish I had taken a picture of her at the market- she looked like a half dead horse.. Now, I spend about 20 minutes just cantering and galloping through the bush just trying to tire her out (not that I'm complaining...) She's also a total mare and increadably moody... I think I've changed her name to Sahara- a little Cliche, but eh- what the heck...
Oh, so on my way to Niamey tomorrow- the new AG/NRM/CHA stage is coming in and I was selected to be one of their VAT's (Voulanteer Assistant Trainer) so a few of us are heading in for a training and to see the 'newbies' off the airplane. It's nice to get out of the village, even though I hate leaving behind the horse.
Anywho, thats my life thus far, not much more to tell. Village life is great as always, learning new things everyday- I didnt know peanuts were conected to the root of a plant.. I helped 'de-peanut' the peanut plants the other day, and I was like, wow, the peanuts are covered in dirt... who knew? I kinda felt like a failure of an Agriculture volunteer...

Horses, grain banks, and Ramadan- oh my

2009-09-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

Wow- once a month is pretty shamefull... I'm sure I've left everybody in suspence... So, past month in a nutshell: baught a horse, working on funding for grain bank, humid as heck, painted girls education murals (that might have been last month) Almost done with my world map, Ramadan, planning a womens cold season garden, planning the repair of a traditional hand-dug well for that project, kinda want to buy a goat... I think that covers all the important parts.

So lets talk about this horse- shes about 15,2 hands high Id guess, almost a gruella color (lets just say a dusty sandish brown with black) with three white socks, a blaze, and a white splotch on her belly. She has pretty good conformation for a Niger bush horse, but she was so skinny when I baught her that I got a decent price for her (although, I think I got the 'anasara'price- 'white person'..) Ive had her for three weeks now, and between her and recent piles of work, I havent gotten out of the bush much for internet time, but thats a good thing. Days are litterally flying past and I cant believe septembers almost gone.. So, I went up to my big animal market, thats not too far from my village, Id guess about 26 K or so, brought the saddle and everything with me, and went straight into the market. So there were about 20 horses total that day to look from, but most werent within my price range. So when I first met her, she was timid, shy, and just really miserable looking not to mention skin and bones. (Shes a total princess now). Anyway, well, I rode her home from market, and 26 K on a tired horse took much longer than I thought it would... Not to mention hot... and I couldnt get that darn America song out of my head ("I've been through the desert on a horse with no name..."), but I eventually got there about 4+ hours later. My villagers have been so excited about her and love to brag that their 'batura' is the one with the horse. I was so worried about what would happen with her when I had to leave the village for a couple days, but the first time I left her, I came back a day before they expected me, and her area was imaculately clean, she had a fresh pile of hay waiting for her and a full bucket of water, and someone was out in the fields grazing her. It made me realize that they feel a sense of pride to care for her, and I havent worried since.

Ok, for non horsey people, we'll move on. Ramadan was a really good experience- I have a new respect for the huge effort it takes to fast for a whole month. So, during all daylight hours, they are not allowed to drink anything, eat anything, smoke, etc. Every morning at about 4, they would wake everyone up to drink water and eat, and then every evening after the 7 o'clock prayer, they would break the fast. I only lasted 6 days in the fasting, after that I baught my horse and I let it slip. It was really hard- not so much the food part, but not drinking water at all during the day, in 100 degree heat, was a huge challenge. However, there was something very rewarding and a sense of accomplishment every evening when you broke the fast. One of the other traditions I love in my area is that people will go to the nearest electricity town and buy a bunch of blocks of ice and sell them in the bush villages- there is nothing like a little ice... I love ice.. Anyway. So the end of ramadan was about a week ago, and there are 3 or 4 days of fete following the siting of the new moon (lunar calandar- as soon as the new moon was spotted, Ramadan ended). The days leading up the the big celebration were a lot of fun too- all the girls (myself included) get their hair braided, get henna done on their hands and feet, and get a new outfit made. Then the day of the celebration, everyone goes around greeting each other, kids get small change or candies, everyone is bringing each other food- I ate three complete DELICIOUS meals that day thanks to the generousity of my villagers, as well as had meat galore. I had baught 4 kilos of dates to pass out as my "salla gift"- it was a lot of fun. Also, the men also attend an extra 10 o;clock prayer that they do just outside the village- I felt slightly akward, but they all insisted that I go and that it would be great to take pictures- (I took pictures all day that day) so Ill try to get those us soon. Anyway, it was a great bonding time in my village and I thoughouly enjoyed my first end of ramadan celebration.

Ok. Whew, moving on. So, we are FINALLY getting started on our village grain bank!!! My villagers are so excited and keep asking me when we're going to buy the grain (I have to tell them over and over that we're waiting for it to be funded from people in America). There's so much to get done in the next few weeks, that I get almost frazzled thinking about it.. Weve got this room for the grain, that we'll scrub out, cement all the bat entrances, and lay down pallets for... I have to organize a grain storgage workshop with the Agriculture agency and a money management workshop for the women running the caisse. The part that makes me most nervous of all is that grain is starting to get really cheap right now, because its harvest, but in about a month and a half, prices are going to be high again so we really have to buy before then. Which, THANK YOU so much everyone who has donated so far!!! My villagers really are so excited and just so thankful that they're given this chance for a grain bank. I've never really been the type that enjoyed asking people for money so thank you all for your support. If you still want to donate (I think we need only 1000 dollars more! were getting close!) You can go to peacecorps.gov, click under donate now, and then you can either type in my name, country of service, or my home state, and it will pull up my project and show you how to donate over the internet. Thanks again, from me and my villagers.

Thats about it- I've got a couple other things just starting- planning for a womens garden (to sell veggitables for income generation) going to do another tree nursery with moranga trees ( the leaves are VERY nutritious and a great nutrition reasource during hot season when there is no produce)- my goal is that before I leave, every family will have a tree in their family concession. Oh, and I need to get to planning some geography lessons to work with the school kids on that go with my newly painted map, and I kinda want to buy a goat... I always said a wanted one as a pet as a kid, my parents I dont think took me seriously...

Back in the BUSH!

2009-08-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, exactly a month since I wrote last- the internet has been either down, or incredibly slow (as in, 45 minutes didn’t even get me into my email inbox) and this is the first time I’ve been in with working internet. Well, month after vacation- its been really good to get back into the swing of things. Been out in the fields working with my villagers, whom, because of recent drought throughout all of Niger are incredibly fortunate to have an ok crop of millet this year- parts of the country have literally had to replant 3 or 4 times because of lack of rain and honestly have little to no crops… so that’s kindof hard to watch- they work all day every day for the grain their family is going to be living off of throughout the year, and I just cant imagine how it would be to see that crop fail planting after planting.
On a lighter note, work has been fun and picking up! (FINALLY!) My latest projects have been a lot of painting- which is a really good change from planting… So, myself and another volunteer, Meaghan, planned some girls education sensibilization murals in my nearby market town- they turned out really good! So we did two- one at the cultural center, and one at the secondary (?) school (the French school system still confuses me). So the first one has a cartoon figure of a girl in a class room raising her hand- to the side of that says: “Rishin Sani Ya Hi Dare Duhu”, a Hausa proverb meaning; Lack of Knowledge is darker than night. Then beneath that we had in French a little blurb about the education of girls can benefit everyone and to send girls to school. The second mural was pretty similar, with a similar cartoon girl sitting at a desk, and to the side, “Allah, Ya Ce, Tashi in Taimake Ka.” Another Housa proverb which is basically, ‘God helps those who help themselves’. And the same French message on the importance of girls education. Anyway, so the whole project was a lot of fun- we worked with a couple of the JICA volunteers (Japan’s equivalent of Peace Corps) in the painting and just spent a couple of days at it. Hopefully the murals and a couple radio shows we plan on doing later, will just get people thinking and opening their minds to girls education.
In my village, last I talked to my school headmaster, we had around 4 girls in all of 35 students in school. It is a little frustrating to ask parents why only the boys go to school- usually there’s a conversation of, oh, she has too much work to do, or, she’s at more use at home, or worse, well, she doesn’t want to, plus, how is that going to help her get married (educated women tend to not be as quickly married.. hmmm)? Especially in the bush, even most girls have an outlook of, knowing how to read and write isn’t going to help me get married, have lots of kids, and pound millet/pull water each day. I feel like sometimes a woman’s status is based on how many children she has- most women are so timid and intimidated when they’re around men, that very few get the respect they I think they deserve- I try to hint that women’s education is a way of ‘evening the playing field’ so to speak, but I think it’s going to be a slow and gradual change. I do feel like it is getting better- it just takes time!
Anyway, enough on that topic, so after we finished the murals, I took the paints to my village and I began a world map in my school. Since the school has very limited resources, they don’t have a world map and I doubt most in my village have ever seen a world map (one day a women asked me how long the bus ride to America was… “isn’t it next to Nigeria?”… um a little farther…) So there’s a world map booklet with a grid to help paint in onto the wall. So I’ve just started that, and so far I’ve got about half drawn up on the wall in sharpie- it’s kinda a pain, but still a really enjoyable project!
OK, so. It’s official- I am going to the animal market next week to buy my horse! I still have a lot to get done before that, (like, buy a saddle, put a stick in the ground to tether him to, buy a 50 Kilo sack of millet, oh, and hire about three little kids to pick 3 big bags of grass/weeds for him each day) oh, and the saddle in the market is going to cost me about 20 us dollars… pretty amazing considering the last saddle I bought was several hundred more than that… I’m pretty excited J So donations of peppermints will be greatly appreciated!

2009-07-26T01:35:00.000-07:00

The first picture- The Point of No return, Ouida, Benin next, Liz Myself, and Ariana on a hike through the rainforests of the Volta Region, third, One of our little monkey friends in Tafi Atome just eating his banana...

Fifth, the Wli falls- just the lower ones, since it was rainey season, we couldnt hike to the upper falls. Below, me feeding the monkeys, next the fishing port at Cape Coast, I loved this scene- I think it'd make a great watercolor painting...

Next, on the river at a small fishing village near the Green Turtle lodge, after that, at cape coast again, these two boats and the flag just looked too picturesk to pass up.

The bridges at the canopy walk in Kukum Rainforest, and Liz, Myself, and Ariana pausing for a photo on the rope bridges.

Ok, so I have a bunch more photos on my facebook page, but I figured this was enough for one post!

Vacation Part 2! (sorry this one's kinda long...)

2009-07-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

Well, my plan to write in Ghana didn’t work out too well… We probably spent numerous hours in internet cafes in Accra, but most of that time was used in TRYING (unsuccessfully) to upload pictures… so much for the idea that that would be easier in Ghana…
Anyway, Ghana was absolutely beautiful- so much water and greenery, almost made me wish I was in Peace Corps, Ghana. After our day and a half wait in Lome, Togo, for our Ghana visa, we left (straight from the Ghanaian Embassy) for a village called Kpalme, Togo, which had bush taxis through the border to Hohoe, Ghana in the Volta region. I think we got to the bush taxi station around 1:30, but we waited there for 6 hours…. for a 32 K drive. Oh, and we had to personally wake up the border guards to get our passports stamped. The Volta region of Ghana, however, was definitely worth the hassle. After what we voted our most rundown-sketchy hotel of the entire trip (that’s saying something considering we averaged about 7 USD a night per person), we got up early and (well, switched hotels first) went to the Wli waterfalls. Absolutely beautiful walk through the tropical rainforest up to the Wli falls, where swimming was an option we of course couldn’t pass up. It was FREEZING, but this is coming from the land of never-under-98-degrees-farenheight. There was also a hotel/restaurant a short walk from the tourist centre with a beautiful view of the falls and delicious food. I think that was the point that started our chain of eating out like queens (or pigs), and that’s probably where a good portion of our trip money went… that and football jerseys (ok, SOCCER) but anyway. So the next morning we set off to Accra, stopping at a monkey sanctuary in a village just outside of Hohoe. For about 5 Ghanaian Cedis we got a bag of bananas and a 15 minute walk through the trees… but we also got to feed the monkeys, so I guess it was worth it. What you did was hold out a banana, as tightly as possible and about 5-7 little monkeys would attack it- it was gone within 5 seconds- once we were out of bananas, they wouldn’t come down from the trees.. the tour was over.
On to Accra, capitol of Ghana. We were a little overwhelmed how much this city is like AMERICA!!! Every kind of food just around the corner, a MALL, even a big movie theatre!!! We watched our first big-screen film in 10 months, The Proposal, and maybe because it had been so long, it might be one of my favorite flicks. Our real reason for going was to see when Harry Potter 6 was playing (a crucial element in our vacation) but it wasn’t out for a week- so we made plans to come back… other than that, Accra was pretty exciting as we happened to be there the same time as President Obama, but we didn’t see him (unless you count seeing his helicopter overhead.. I do. ) To be honest, we didn’t make a huge effort to see him- we weighed out our possibilities; mall and the movies, or waiting outside a building for 7 hours in hopes to glimpse the back of his head… The Obama paraphernalia was astounding though- everywhere you looked were banners, posters, flags, t-shirts; all with Obama on it (even little American Flags with Obama’s face in the stripes). It was really great to see how much support Obama has in Ghana- or really in any West African country I’ve been to- if they hear you speak English, the first thing they say is “Obama!”.
After one night in Accra, we went down to our first on-the-beach reservation spot, a big Rasta-type resort called ‘Big Milly’s Back Yard’ (Milly being this sweet little old British woman). I think it would have been a lot of fun and a couple days of relaxing, but we kinda got of on the wrong foot with this place. When we first showed up, at about 5:15 that evening, they were like, sorry! You were late, we gave your room away! LATE? We had no idea 5:15 was late. Especially for a laidback backpackers resort. Anyway, so they took us down the road to this Black Stone hotel… possibly second or third on our list of not so great places to stay… But we moved to big Milly’s the next day. As we were sitting on the beach, there were a couple of Rasta guys talking about us. Their tactic was to talk about us in Hausa so that none of us ‘white people’ could understand them… but when we turned around and asked in Hausa who they were calling white people and why they speak Hausa, it was fun to see the surprise on their faces..HA.
True to our form so far, we only stayed one night in this place and moved on to Cape Coast the next morning. (We did 9 hotels in the first 10 days of our trip) Cape Coast is a gorgeous fishing-type town on the coast, with the Cape Coast Castle just a walk down the beach from our hotel (the Oasis) The castle itself was very pretty and a really interesting part of African slave trade history. We took a tour of the castle and got to see the holding chambers for the slave men and women- tiny little dark damp rooms for 200 to 500 people. Even worse were the chambers designed to hold those that rebelled- small, windowless chambers where they were put in for 48 or so hours or until they died; this was also reserved for the women who refused to be raped by the military captains and always ended in death. Because the fort was originally built for trade of goods and then later converted to slaves, the rooms were so small and dim and stuffy that it was hard to be in them for a few minutes with 20 other people on the tour- I can’t even imagine what it must have been like.
Other than touring the castle, we spent our day perusing the shops on the streets of Cape Coast, and then watched some Ghanaian dancing at the hotel- it was a good day… The next morning we were off again for Kukum national rainforest where we got to do a Canopy walk (which I learned is only 1 of 5 public canopy walks in the world..oooh) We got to walk out on these swinging rope bridges 50 Meters above ground- the view was BEAUTIFUL and it was a great experience… It may not have been such a great experience for the guy in our tour group who was terrified of heights and thought there was only one bridge instead of 7… bet that was a nasty shock (he let us know with a few choice words)! After Kukum, we bush taxied on to the Green Turtle Lodge, an eco-friendly backpackers beach resort (full of West African NGO volunteers from all over the world all on a quick vacation before heading home). Here, we finally relaxed and stayed for 5 days- the food was DELICIOUS, and the best part, I only spent 115 Cedis (around 85 dollars?) for everything- food, lodging, boat tour, everything. I’ll definitely be back! There’s not much exciting to write about this portion of the vacation, except that lying on the beach for 5 days does in fact get boring. For Ariana’s birthday, one of our favorite staff members, Naomi, baked her a cake, and we got all dressed up… Liz and I had a dance party at one point with some of the staff, and we spent the evening dancing around a fire with the locals to the drums (I’m serious.) Bet not many people can say they did that for their 25th B-day! We did also take a canoe trip through the mangroves, but it wasn’t much to shout about, and we spent most of the time worrying about crabs falling from the trees (they were EVERYWHERE) but we did meet some fun people, returned Peace Corps volunteers, NGO workers…
Anyway, back to Accra, saw HARRY POTTER 6!!! it was awesome… one of the highlights of my trip. Which is good, because following that was a 24 hour bus ride to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, followed by what was supposed to be only an 8 hour bus ride (but took 13) to Niamey. All in two days (or three? I may have lost a day in there…). Oh, and the 24 hour bus ride? We left 4 hours late… and the one to Niamey? Never went over about 45 miles an hour. It was fun.
Either way, were back home in Niger and it’s actually really good to be back! It’s so nice to speak Hausa again and to be understood, and I really missed the hospitality of the Nigerien people. Nigeriens really are the most welcoming and friendly people I’ve met in West Africa and are genuinely happy you’re here. That’s not to say Ghanaians aren’t nice, just that it’s good to be home!

Some Benin and Togo Time

2009-07-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

I am right now sitting in an internet cafe in Lome, the capitol of Togo... I don't know which makes me more excited- the amount of water they have, or the amount of green-ness... Or maybe the food... Anyway, so far its been a pretty sweeet vacation. So I'll give the play-by-play.. We left on the 4th of July from Niamey and got on what was suposed to be only a 16 hour bus ride, but there was a bit of an accedent along the way and our bus swerved off the road to avoid an oncomming semi truck who was passing another semi truck. We were fine, the guy doing the passing was fine, but the semi truck that he passed was forced off the road and flipped. So the bus stopped for a good three hours to get the guy out.. Guess it just goes to show that Benin roads and drivers are about the same as Niger's... (I think Benin has better roads though)
Moving on. So after an increadably long bus trip we finally arrived in Cotonou, Benin, stayed the night, and then headed first to a spot called the 'point of no return', where African slaves were walked down this path to the beach and put on their boat... never to return. It made that whole portion of history that much more real- especially to see the land they were taken out of (BEUTIFUL) only to be shoved on a boat where half would die before reaching a daunting final destination. So that was a really good experience and I'll try to get the pictures up when I get back to niamey.
After that, we went to a fishing village called Grand Popo (I'd live there just for the name) and stayed at this Regge/Rasta place on the beach called Le Lion Bar. It was so awesome and chill of a place, we're still wishing we'd just stayed another night! Basically we just lounged around on the beach listening to Bob Marley and sipping from coconuts.. oh good fish too.
Ok.. Moving on, the next morning we took a boat cruise (the hollowed out tree trunk kind) on this river (cant remember the name) and whent to a VooDoo village and got to walk around with our guide. It was REALLY interesting and made me realize there's a lot more to VooDooism than flying white flags and little pin-cushion dolls- Its really fascinating- I really want to do a little more research.
After the Village, we continued up river to a coconut grove and drank coconut milk and ate coconut.. Kinda amazing how that little kid could just shimmi right up the coconut tree..
Anyway, not to cut the story short, it just gets a little dull- we traveled to Lome, this morning we applied for the Gahnian visa, which should be ready tomorrow, and we've spent the day at the peace corps bureau here and down at the market doing a little (or a lot) of shopping.. Tomorrow, off to some hiking and waterfalls!
I'll try to write again in Ghana!

Chariot Spiders Anyone?

2009-06-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Off to Ghana in less than a week! (I’m pretty excited…) First a little recap on the last two weeks in the bush: Finished planting all our stuff- millet, beans, ground nuts; started the next process, which they call ‘noma’, basically tilling the entire field by hand... You can probably guess I didn’t help out too much with this part. After about one row, I was like, whew, well guys, good work, the sun’s out, I gotta go home… That one row was more than they expected me to do in the first place, so I think it was ok .. Had my first women’s group meeting on our Grain Bank project (I’ll talk about it more when my proposal gets on line to start the funding) but I’m really excited and I think these women are going to do an excellent job- they
So I’m pretty sure I mentioned that I got a cat about a month ago; so there’s a sad story now about that… The day I got back into the bush Musuru (that’s his name.. it’s just the Hausa word for ‘male cat’, but it sounded cool ) was perfectly healthy and really cute and excited to see me, probably because I’m the only one in the concession that doesn’t terrorize him, but anyway. So, that night we had a huge storm (irrelevant…sorry) and the next morning I couldn’t find him anywhere. Then I heard these little whimpers coming from underneath my cika-bed (millet-stock mat propped up on mud bricks) so I look under it and there he his, laying there whimpering. So, he can’t get up or anything, and to be honest, the moment I saw him I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to make it. So for about three hours I just had to kinda sit and wait, not being able to do anything for him- I tried to keep him hydrated, but by the end he was having muscle spasms and couldn’t breathe. I was so frustrated that I didn’t know what it was or what to do about it- but later on that day I found a dead scorpion that was in a couple chewed pieces. So my theory is that sometime during the big storm he either went in the house or under some dark corner to escape the rain and got stung and then tried to eat it, or, tried to eat it and then got stung, and, because he’s still really little, it killed him. It was sad. Oh, and possibly the worst part is the Nigerien perception of pets- my women’s group leader came in during those three hours and just looked at him and was like, ‘eww, don’t put that thing on the mat, its dying… you can just get a new one… lets go to the fields!’. Most of my neighbors were kinda like, oh its no big deal, you can just get a new one. Frustrating. Proudly I can say I kept my cool and didn’t cry… in front of them.
Sorry, but one more not-so-up-beat story: So that same night, I was going through the routine, getting ready for bed- it’s about 8:30 and it’s dark outside, so I have my headlamp on. I take a step out of my house and I see a large spider-like figure shoot across the ground at high speed… TWO of them. Oh- and they’re about as big as the palm of my hand. My cat just having been stung and killed by a creature, I freak out a bit and run back inside cowering.. They’re Chariot spiders, and they run around at top speed and they have these huge arms. They’re totally harmless, but the worse part about them is if they see light they kinda go crazy and charge it; so for about an hour and a half every time I got the courage to leave my house and set my bed and bug-net up, they would come flying out at me and ‘chase’ me back into the house. ( I finally put on some hiking boots, a rain coat, and gloves and set my bed up in several short increments) Needless to say it wasn’t one of my favorite days in Niger (I watched “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” on my Ipod, it helped the situation) So the next morning I tell one of the men in my family concession that there is a large chariot spider in my concession and that he needed to kill it… Actually, the exact translation was, ‘there is a too-big spider in my shade hanger, you need to give it death”… Anyway. He got the point, I went to market, came back and he was like, uh, Balkissa, I looked everywhere, I couldn’t find the chariot-spider.. So then I felt like the girl with a monster under the bed (literally) and was like, no! I SAW it. Well, a few days went by with no sign of them, and it wasn’t until the past couple of days that I saw them again. Don’t worry- the initial fear of the things kinda left, now when I see one, I just jump about a foot, turn off the light and leap into bed (which I have learned to set up BEFORE it gets dark). Ok. Moving on.
We're heading to Niamey for a few days before heading down to Ghana, so I'll try to take advantage of the fast 'city' internet and put up some pictures!

Countdown to Ghana and Planting time!

2009-06-14T09:19:00.001-07:00

A little less than three weeks til Ghana and counting!!! Actually I thought I woundn't be heading there until August, but as of today, the official plans moved up... about a month, which I think will actually work out better as I think August was going to be a little busy with Grain Bank preperations in my village. (which will hopefully work out funding-wise... there's a bit of 'wahala' in the funding department as most of our usual funding sources seem to be 'out of money until further notice'.)
But planting season has finally come and these past few weeks I've enjoyed heading out the the fields with villagers and planting millet. This is how it goes: First someone (usually the man of the family) creates lines with the 'Kwasa', a really heavy version of a hoe, and creates holes about a meter apart in rows about a meter apart. Then, behind him comes the children, women, (and me...) putting seads in the holes and covering it up with sand by foot. It really does go quickly, but most families have 3 or so fields that are huge pieces of land and work several days straight to plant them all. I wanted to take pictures and post them of planting, and I still plan on it, but, as of right now my camera is "out of batteries"... AKA, I have been completely worn out with my villagers on the picture front.
I can no longer walk down the paths of my village without someone demanding a picture, or asking me "when I'm going to give them that one picture I took 4 weeks and 3 days ago with the donkey or the little kid drinking hura"... that type of thing. I understand the excitement and fascination with my camera and pictures, but I've decided its high time for a rest until the excitement dies down- then I'll slowly bring it back out. But back to planting. So. We've planted our millet. As soon as I return to my village, we're going to intercrop beans and peanuts/ground nuts in the same fields, so fun's not over yet!
So today Leah (Fellow region volunteer) we're walking down to one of the 'ElHadji' shops as we call them, side note, an 'ElHadji' shop is I guess a really REALLY small version of a grocery store.. well, it's usually one room and they sell an asortment of 'western' stuff, toiletry items, juice, milk, canned goods, sometimes exciting stuff, like today, PRINGLES... Wow, back on topic.
So, today Leah and I we're walking to this shop and we had a really entertaining converstaion that all started with someone offering us a mango.
This was the converstation: Mango guy: Bisimillah (holding out the mango) Leah and I: Allahumdulillahi! (as we continue walking). Ok, what it means in my head: mango guy: want a mango? Leah and I: Oh, no thanks! But, literal translation: Mango guy: 'In the name of God!' Leah and I: Thanks be to God! Which, doesnt really make sense. But we that it was hillarious when we broke it down to the literal translation. Theres a lot of that in Hausa I feel like- even in the everyday greetings, literally when you ask greet someone in the morining with "ina kwana?" literally it's saying where's sleep? or Kun Tashi Lahiya? (how did you sleep) literally means You rose in health? And then there's these "all-purpose" words like, 'Sannu' that means, hi, thank you, sorry, and slowly, all depending on the context... Anyway, thats about it for now, I'm planning on doing a full two weeks in my village before comming back in in prep for vacation, so I'll try to write again then!!!!

To Buy or Not to Buy.. No longer a question

2009-06-02T02:28:00.000-07:00

Well its been a long couple of weeks in the bush, but not much to report on... It seems my villagers are just twittling their thumbs til the rain comes- I'm pretty sure I'm just as anxious, but more for it to be a cooler temeperature than in excitement to plant my fields.
I have bee seriously concidering buying the horse now, mostly after I took a trip up to the big animal market in Badagishiri and took a look at the horses.. I have to let you know about this one, I was pretty sure I was going to get (I even told the guy I might come back in a few weeks if he's still there) He was all black with three white socks and a stipe, super sweet, and only four years old, and, compared to many of the other horses in the market, reletively nutritioned. When I asked the man how much, he told me 150,000 CFA, which is about 300 USD, but I didnt haggle, and if I were to buy him for real, I think I may have gotten him down to 100,000. ANYWAY. So I thought I had found my horse. So I get home, start making plans for my big purchase. I talked to my neighbors and they were all for letting my put him in the large 'family' concession as theres no room in my personal concession. Things were looking good. Then I went on the search for Hay... After this question my villagers shattered my little dream with "HA HA, you cant buy hay til harvest! You'll have to wait til October!" I was very sad. So, then I was like, can I buy it in the market town? they said yeah, but it would cost 1,000 CFA a bundle. INSANE price. 1,000 CFA is about 2 USD, and that would mean I would be paying 30 Mille a month on hay alone, plus a big bag of grain, another 15 Mille, with a grand total of 45 mille a month just to feed the horse! Wich, anyone who's owned the horse and did the math (90 USD) would be like, 'uh, thats insanely cheap..' but, when you live off of two USD a day, it's not looking to feasable. So the end of my sad story, is I'm back to my original-reviesed plan, to wait and get the horse during harvest. I'm sure I'll find one that I like just as much as that one, but I still cant help being like, "I want THAT one!!". SIGH.
So other than horse drama, I haven't had much to do.. With my Chemical Fertalizer project, I wrote my proposal, and we're just waiting for the forms to go through so we can start funding, so nothing to do but wait. I did, however, start a little Moranga tree pepiniere- I planted about 45, but still have a ton of seeds, so I might plant another 30. In theory, after about 3 months (moranga grow really fast) they'll be pretty close to ready and I want to do a big sensibilization and then give them away (nothing makes people more interested in a project than free stuff) after they've listened to me ramble about the nutritional value of Moranga (look it up- it's really good stuff, seriously.). So I guess, actually, I'm kinda going to be like one of those 'knife-infomerchals" things in the mall where you have to sit through their boring demonstration to get the free knife set, but hey, maybe someone will retain something :)
I have been really lucky lately with produce- For the past couple months it's been mainly onions and mangos, with an occasional eggplant, but just the other day I found CUCUMBERS in the Tahoua market (which I always disliked, but now theyre delicious..) and, today, I found bananas and pineapple in the Konni market. I was very excited. The End.. I just read that and realized how boring my life must be if thats what I fill my blog with. Oh well, it's exciting stuff here.
Well! All for now, my hour's bout up, let me know any questions or if I've left any gaping holes in my experience-writings!

Rain! Work! Cat! Ghana?

2009-05-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well, its been about a week or so since the last post, so its about time to write again I guess...
This past week has been extremely hot, but with not one, but two suprising middle-of-night rain showers in my village! The sound and smell of rain is probably almost as exciting as.. well, I dont know, its just really exciting. The first night it rained, I wasn't prepared ("one month til the time of 'sky water'"-'sai wata guda, akwai lokacin ruwan suma'- thats what my villagers kept telling me) so, that night at first I was really excited sleeping under my woven-grass shade hangar, when I felt the first rain drops.. about 45 minutes into the storm I was soaked through and freezing (I didnt know it was possible to be 'freezing' in 93 degrees..), so needless to say, the next chance I got I went to my market town and bought a large roll of plastic, and waterproofed my shade hangar. The second time it rained it was bliss....
So a small piece of big news, I got a cat! Yes, I am alergic, but I got him anyway; he was sitting at this little cafe stand near the peace corps hostel and I just asked, can I have your cat? and they said yes.. So I put him in a box and traveled the 3 1/2 ish hours to my village.. Its a kitten, so its still really whinney and obnoxious and drives me a bit crazy, but suprisingly, he's growing on me :) Still no name for the thing, so send ideas my way.
WORK! Finally, I feel like I have stuff to do! Right now Im in Konni buying seeds for my big field project Im planning... Well, actually I wasnt really planning it per say, it just kinda fell into my lap. So, I was talking to my women's group leader in my village, and I asked, so, can i help you with your field this season? Learn the ropes, figure out how to do it, so that next year I can do my own field project? She was like, sure! That'd be great! So, then a few days later I was talking to her again, so what are we going to plant? Well, we're planting millet, beans, and peanuts... ummm... how big is this field? Oh, we have two of them... What?? oh... so you have the seeds? Oh, no- you should go buy them. Oh...
So instead of this just being a learning experience, I'm going to work with one of the agriculture programs here that does improved crops and seed varieties- I'll plant some of their 'improved seeds' and work with them on data collection to help them create better seed varieties with higher yield. So, trail by fire.. it'll either turn out great, and it'll be a nice demo plot for my villagers to see an imroved seed variety, as well as improved techniques (chemical fertalizers, etc), or, the test-'improved' seeds could turn out to produce less yield than the local variety and my villagers can just enjoy watching the 'batura' (white girl) working in the field. Anyway.
Other than that, not much new to share! Its been hot, sweaty, and it seems neirly everyone (volunteers) is escaping off to Ghana to spend a couple weeks on the beach. I was going to wait on a vacation and buy a horse now, but, as my villagers have pointed out, horse feed will be pretty expensive right now until harvest season-- so I might jump on the band wagon and head to Ghana sometime in August and buy the horse, instead, coming October, harvest season.. which seems so long away, but I've already waited 7 months, I spose I could wait a few more! And, with a trip to Ghana, maybe coinciding with the time of the Harry Potter 6 reliese of course, the wait wo'nt be too bad!

A few photos!

2009-05-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

So, not much time left on the internet after uploading these so just briefly: the first one, some kids in my village- they all love cameras and getting their pictures taken- it gets a little overwelming sometimes! The second one is at the zoo in Niamey- never have I ever seen a hippo this upclose before!!

Next is also in Niamey, just a mechant hauling his wears from one place to another- the way they can carry stuff on their heads.. A-mazing!! Next is some SWEET henna I got done in Tahoua, Heidi and I splurged for her B-day last march!

Some of my Fulani neighbors and their camel- I love the hats they have, I'm determined to buy one, but since usually only the men wear them, they might think it a little odd... so Im going to wait until I have a horse and they already think that odd for a women to ride a horse.. so Im just going to add the hat on!

Oh the Heat... and my first big village meeting

2009-04-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

So, 8:30 in the morning and it’s already 100 degrees… If today’s like the last 3 weeks, by noon our thermometer will be 120 (in the shade). SIGH, I am slowly learning how to deal with the heat, heat-rash, etc.. basically just jump in the shower fully dressed and then lounge around in wet clothesJ Works great here at the hostel, but I’m still trying to work it out in the bush when I’m rationed to two buckets of water a day!
Anyway, I’ve been at the hostel the past couple nights to write my proposals for my two projects- grain bank (co-op) and chemical fertilizer bank. Though I really enjoy my village, its really nice to take a break in the hostel where there’s showers, fridge/freezers, an oven… So, only been here two days but definitely have caught up on my cooking- made French toast (twice), cookies, chili, and cake! In the bush it’s just so hot to turn on the oven during the day that I cook as small amount as possible- I’ve dropped in on my villagers more often for hura or tuwo (both made of millet- hura a milk and millet drink with pepper, tuwo, a ground millet gelatinous patty with sauce on it) which is really starting to grow on me.
About a week ago I held my first big all-village meeting- it was so nerve-wracking! I will never again complain about any form of public speaking in English; holding a meeting in a language I barely speak with over a hundred people may have been one of the most intimidating things I’ve done. It’s amazing the things you take for granted like ability to communicate. When I first decided it was time to have my first meeting I talked to my village chief and we discussed the day and time- we decided Wednesday at 4- except actually we discussed it as being ‘Foloa’s market day’ around the La’azar (4:00 prayer call). I love time in this country! Because most of my villagers don’t own a clock or watch nor do they even know what time it is ever, all that goes on is explained by the Muslim calls to prayer times (and even then its give or take an hour or so). Anyway, I show up to my own meeting at 4, and it’s only me, my women’s group leader, one of my good friends, and the village second-in-command guy sitting in the room… I couldn’t help but get that ‘nobody likes me enough to come to my meeting’ feeling and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself J Well, by 5:00, our little one room school house was PACKED from wall to wall, it was great! They explained the tardiness that they couldn’t come until the livestock came in from the bush from grazing, duh.. (Silly me, what WAS I thinking!) But overall, I was very pleased with how the meeting went- they understood all my questions and I got my answers, and better yet, I understood all their questions and was able to give them answers, so overall, a success.
For all of next week I’m here in the hostel as the RR fill-in (Regional Representative) while the current one (Marcus) is on vacation. I’m actually kinda excited for the chance to get all my proposals written out and sent in, as well as maybe get some future project proposals written for future projects I have in mind, basically just do a bit of 2-year-planning and get some things started. Either way, I’m SURE I’ll find some time within the next week to write again!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Well, the heat is a learning experience if nothing else... I've learned that everything's pretty relalive- when its 120 degrees outside, sitting in a 90 degree hut feels like air conditioning. No seriously..
I don't know how many times over this easter weekend we discussed how nice it was when it finally cools off for the day (at about 6:30 or so) and then looking at the temeprature and realizing its still over 100 degrees.
So, Easter was different but good- me and a few other volunteers from my region went to Easter mass in the morning, after which Leah and I made french toast for whoever wanted it followed by chocolate cake (thanks for the mix dad). So, it was a nice Easter over all.. no chocolate bunnies or marshmallow peeps (which would have been little more than chocolate or pink sprinkled blobs) and no hidden baskets or eggs, though, we thought about hidding stuff for people to find... without them knowing (You know, cell phones, shoes...). Easter Mass was really great- I've only been to this particular Catholic church one other time (for christmas actually) but the music especially is really fun. They use traditional drums and theres a lot of clapping :)
But moving on, village is really great- because it's so hot, there's really not much you can accomplish in a day. I've met with a womens group in my village organized by a local NGO a few times to get a little more familiar with their group and their work.
They have an Animal Fodder 'bank' or co-op, and they manage their own Caisse. They're a really motivated group and they really put in a lot of effort to their work. What I hope to help them with is to keep better records in their group and during meetings; they also really want to extend their 'bank' to also having a grain bank and a chemical fertalizer bank. So, my new project I'm going to take on is to get them organized and write a proposal for the funding of the initial grain and chemical fertalizer. I'm actually really excited to have my first 'official' project starting and I'll keep you updated. They were so excited when I agreed to look into the project and see of funding possibilies. What I think I'm going to do is Peace Corps Partnership funding, in which I write a proposal and friends and family, or anyone who finds it interesting can donate any kind of amount to it online. (don't worry, I'll keep you updated!)
Anyway, short post, but the internet is slow today and my hour's almost up! Happy Easter!

Equestrian Center,Transportation and Post...

2009-04-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

So, come tomorrow around 11 o'clock, Im on my way back to my village... It's been a looong few weeks and I am more than ready for a little village time!
So, recap on the past few days- left Niamey around 3:30 (bus was suposed to leave at 2, but I've moved on) BUT, and this is very exciting, not before I was able to go to the EQUESTRIAN CENTER of NIAMEY!!! (go ahead and read that part again) I was so excited when I found the place, I mean, who knew that a third-world country would have an Equestrian Center??? I didn't until I walked by it and had to go in.. there are horses... and they look well fed- something I havent seen in a while. I got so excited that I was telling anyone in sight that I ride at home, and that I jump and that I went to school for Equine Science, and that I love riding... and blah blah blah... Im not sure half of the people I stopped understood me; since it's Zarma land, most of them only spoke Zarma and French- neither of which I exactly know, but, fortunately a lot of the Equestrian vocabulary is french, so I think they got my point. I did tell them I was going to return one day and take a riding lesson- sad part is, its about an arm and a leg price... even after you convert it to US dollar.. hmmmm, and I might need to learn a bit more french if I hope to get anything out of it. I wonder if they'll need a housa/english/french riding instructor after 2 to 2 1/2 years... only joking (sort of).
ANyway, sorry about the side track, SO- we got on our bus, and 6 hours later we arrive- about 9:30 at night. So here I am with a backpack on, a huge box on my head, and I have this massive 'Al Hadji' bag (kinda a big square duffel bag type thing thats really cheap but holds literally EVERYTHING) that I was trying to carry along with it- poor Heidi and Lindsey had to help me out so we could get it all back to the hostel. My other option was to hire a small child to carry it for me, but I didnt see any around- when we stopped at this one village I payed a boy to bring me macaroni and sauce from a nearby place so I wouldnt have to get off the bus- I told him to put it in a plastic bag- actually, it sounds wierd, but EVERYTHING is in plastic bags here. Everything from flour and sugar, to water and cooked food is sold and stored in plastic bags. (you buy a bag of water, bite of the corner, and just drink it that way- its really quite convenient and I dont know why I havent thought to put water and leftovers in bags before)
ANYWAY, sorry about the side track, again, so, because I only have a market car directly to my village from a village on the main road on thursdays, I hung around at the hostel for the past two nights.
Postal service... As I'm guessing you'd guess, its not entirely reliable, however, we've come to realize that if packages are being sent somewhere NOT Niamey, they dont open your stuff- its great! So today, one of the guys in my region mentioned that when he went to the post office today he saw that I had three packages (thanks Mom, Dad, and Grandma/Grandpa Hadden!!!) So I treck down there, head in the back door, to the office and check our mailbox for package slips. (no key required- well, maybe if we actually OPENED to mail box, but they dont care if you just walk behind and check :)) So, no package slips, so I just head over to the stack of packages and sort through them until I find my three, then I ask the really nice ladies who work there if they'd write my slip up, as I sit and chat with them for a while. As you can proably tell, the mail system is a little more lax here than back in the US... So, after taking my slip down to the border customs guards (with Nigeria) to get is stamped, me and my three packages climbed aboard a motorcycle and headed back (dont worry, with a helmet, totally PC legal)
Either way, it was like christmas this afternoon and I think I may have had a few jelious stares from my fellow PCVs... Thanks tons for the packages!!! Now, the tricky part will be getting it all back to my village- it may have to go in incraments...
Anyway, thats about all the excitingness I have to report. In about a week and a half I have a team meeting back here, so hopefully I'll have some exciting stuff to report on by then.
Most of all Im just really excited to start working! I have a lot of project ideas, and I am a little nervous to put some of them into practice, but excited none the less. Maybe by a week or so Ill have a little of that to report on as well! Its starting to finally feel like Im a "real" Peace Corps Volunteer!!!

PICS PICS PICS!

2009-03-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick pictures!!!
Ok, so left to right, top to bottom: This is one of my villagers camel, in this picture he was hanging out at the well just getting a bit to drink...

Three of the boys on my village, kids are always so happy here it seems!

This is a group of Fulanis near my village (when I went to a baby naming ceremony) I sat and chatted with the a bit, here they are resting in the shade making rope..

This is a little girl on her way back from the well- it amazes me that they are able to balance such large amounts of stuff on their head!! That is one of my goals while here.

This little girl is my good friend Mariamma- I love this picture because it completely captures her personality!!!

This is one of my Hakimi's (Village Chief) daughters-she's mixing together the millet and milk for the afternoon meal of Hura drink.

Niamey, Pictures, and Randomness...

2009-03-15T01:48:00.000-07:00

PICTURES!!!! (FINALLY!)

Above Left: one of the girls in my village with a gord full of goats milk which she will spend a while shaking to then add to Hura, a millet-milk drink used for the breakfast and lunch meals. Top Right: Heidi, Lindsey, Myself and Colin, all dressed up for a night out after Kokowa! We were so excited that we didnt look 'bush' for once, that we took a picture... Below left, one of the more exciting matches we watched with a painful stratagy to get the other guy down... Below right, my fulani friend was showing me how he 'herds' the animals- or more accurately, how they'll just follow him. All the people in my village intrust their animals to the Fulanis durring the daytime to take them out to the bush to graze, and they return in the evening- you can see my Fulani friend in the lower right corner- he's a pretty cool guy, he's making me a sweeeeet fulani necklace while Im in Niamey.

The first week we were here in country I remember asking one of our language teachers what Niamey (capitol of Niger) was like... she replied, "It's just like America!" I rember thinking...um, no not really... Then, after 4 months in country and in the bush, I have returned to Niamey, and I swear its JUST LIKE AMERICA!!! It's crazy how living with nothing, in the middle of nowhere, and just making-do with what you have can change your outlook (or lower your standards of living...) but Niamey, which I was first thinking, 'oh no... I'm in a third-world country and I can't even buy deoderant' is now, 'OMG, they have EVERYTHING here, even peanut M and Ms!!!' (still no deoderant- don't worry, I have some from home).

So, yes, we (my whole stage) are back in Niamey for three weeks of training, called IST (In Service Training), before heading back out to the bush. It's really been interesting to see everyone after three months out (which felt more like 2 weeks) as well as to see how some people have changed so much in such a short period of time, myself included. I feel like we're all so much more self-sufficient and confident to just do our own thing. Also, I guess because we've all changed a bit, I may not be as close to some people as I was before. It was an interesting realization when I thought to myself, 'I need a break from all these Americans...'.

Anyway, its been an ok week of training, with two more down the road- it's been hard to sit and focus is classes after total freedom of bush-life- I think my attention span shrunk!

Either way, I suppose its been a nice holiday of good food, movies, resturants, going out, and speaking english- so I can't complain too loud!

However, on thing I've found frustrating is, once again, language. Just as I was beginning to feel confident and capable of conversing in Hausa, we head back to Niamey- Zarma land! So once again I can't fully comunicate with people (a lot of merchants speak a little Hausa, but not enough to have a decent conversation) and I'm worried the little Hausa I have is slipping away!

Anyway, So I have a plan... it's a selfish one, but here it is. I am hoping to buy a horse (or a camel). No, it will probably not help my village in any way, and strictly be for my benifit... Im hoping to save enough of my Peace Corps pay to cover most of the funds, but, I think I still need to do a little research on how much feed and care will cost in case I don't have enough. I'm pretty sure, if nothing else, a horse would be a great moral booster :) so thats my plan as of now...

KOKOWA!! (Wrestling- Niger style)

2009-03-02T01:31:00.000-08:00

These past few days I have felt more like a tourist and less like a resident of Niger! One of the big traditional sports in Niger is wrestling, or ‘Kokowa’, and this year those of us lucky in Tahoua region were lucky enough to have the championship tournament for the past five days in Tahoua. So, these past couple days a few of us headed into Tahoua to see part of the tournament as well as some of the other events that have been going on during the big event.
A bit on Kokowa- as far as I can tell it’s very similar to ‘typical’ wrestling, except as soon as one of the opponents hits the ground they lose and (I think) are out of the tournament. (I’d have to do a little research- you can only grasp so much sitting and watching) While I’ve never really been a huge wrestling fan, I was totally entertained and fully enjoyed myself for the 3 ish hours we were there. While it started at four, for some reason, we didn’t think it would be necessary to actually show up on time (NOTHING in Niger is on time), but we were mistaken, there were TONS of people there, the place was packed, and there were massive lines to the ticket area… No fear, we were fortunate enough to be attending with one of the volunteer’s Nigerien friends, who smooth-talked us right up to the front of the line of the ticket window. With no seats available and standing room only, we thought we were in for a squashed, limited-view, nose-bleed section, but, once again, things worked out pretty well- Colin asked one of the guards if he could sit on the ground (about 10 feet from the ring) under the press window area, and we all followed him over and plopped down, fully expecting to be shooed away, which instead we were interviewed by BBC! I hope the locals weren’t thinking, “Darn foreigners!” but I think we may have had some of the best seats in the house; I ended up with some great photos and video, which will (hopefully) one day be one here! The other part about sitting so close is several people that evening and the following day told us they saw us on TV! (I feel so famous) It was pretty great.
About the wrestling itself, it was actually pretty intense, especially since it was the finals. Each state or region in Niger has there own regional tournament (there are 8 of them) and, I think, the top ten in each state attend the BIG one. The winner last year was from Tahoua region, and we did get to see him wrestle… he won… I’m guessing a lot of potential for a two-year-in-a-row victory… You would think that the rounds would go pretty quickly, and some of them did, but some of them dragged on for quite a while, almost 15 minutes.
So after our wrestling viewing, we went to a concert that night which, unfortunately, I thought I wouldn’t need to bother bringing my camera… I was very angry with myself as we sat and watched several groups perform traditional songs/dances… as well as some rap and hip-hop dancing! I think that’s one of the things that strikes me as so fascinating in Niger- people wear everything from very traditional attire- Tuareg, Fulans, Wudabi, Hausa, Arabs, all have distinct traditional wear; yet some of the younger generations look like they just stepped out of a 50 cent video! Especially in Tahoua, and during such a big event, it was really cool to see the traditional vs. modern Niger, all integrated together for a traditional wrestling event.
The other day in the bush, in my village, I was thinking how lucky I was to live in such a traditional place. There really aren’t that many places left in the world that still live in such a simplistic traditional way! I wonder, in 100 years from now there will even be a place like this still? I mean, sure, you can go camping, or head up to the mountains, but even that is turning into renting a fully furnished cabin, or driving a motor-home the size of a small house to some park with running water and electricity hook-ups! I know that’s exaggerating, but I couldn’t help but feel how fortunate I am to be living in what feels like a part of history- which up until I moved here seemed like something so primitive and challanging! It still amazes me that this is how these people live and how I live, and, really, out here in the bush, things haven’t changed a whole lot for probably thousands of years. (Minus, of course, motorcycles, radios, and the ‘bling-bling gangsta’ wear the younger generations are donning. )
I really am having the time of my life here, but just so you know it hasn’t all be roses, here’s one of my more frustrating stories of my week…
So a couple days ago, one of my women friends, who happens to be the women’s-group leader (I have yet to see her hold a meeting…) shows up at my house at 9:30ish in the morning and says, I’m going to a wedding, get ready and we’ll go. Not that I mind, but this wedding was in a nearby village about 6 K away… Again, not that big of a deal, but this women tends to do this often… she often refers to me as “her Butura (white person)” and almost shows me off like some kind of show-dog (she’s a very sweet old lady, I just get a bit frustrated every now and again on the whole ‘her volunteer’ thing) then, as we showed up to this wedding, some lady announced, “Friend! You brought your Butura!” (I just smiled as I grinded my teeth). Also along the same lines of frustrating times in my village, the other day, this same woman came up to me slightly angry and tells me, “you have no truth!” and then continues in rapid Housa I couldn’t understand then walks away! I was a little affronted, but to make it worse, the women I was sitting with at the time, started in on the same thing and repeated what she was saying- I know it was partially in fun, but I was so frustrated that they were telling me I had no truth! When I finally got them to slow down and explain in a way I would understand, I discovered I apparently have no truth because I don’t visit that woman every morning before anyone else… I was not exactly calm nor happy. So then I was like, “I NEVER said I would! I have truth! I never said I would visit her EVERY morning!!” So then they were like, “no, you have no truth. The last volunteer, Raheila, SHE visited her every morning- YOU don’t.” That’s when I almost lost it and was like “I AM NOT RAHELA!” and then said “I have to go now.” And got up and left. Needless to say that is one of the most frustrating, aggravating conversations I’ve had here.
Anyway, sorry for the exceptionally long blog post, but, as this is Niger, I am sitting at the internet place, in where the internet has not been working for the past hour… so to pass the time I am pre-writing my blog… and as there is STILL no internet, it just keeps going, and going, and going, and going….

Random stories of the Week

2009-02-18T06:12:00.000-08:00

Once again, a little over one week later and I'm back on the computer! (its pretty exciting)... As I was trying to come up with some kind of fascinating topic, I decided why not just share a few of my more amusing stories of the week...

So, the other day, I went with some of my villagers to a bridal wedding party thing, which, when one of my village friends anked if I wanted to come, I think she was slightly suprised when I said I wanted to go because this village we went to was over 13 K away. But they were really excited that I wanted to come, so I guess the hour and a half bush walk there and back was worth it.

Anyway, the actual 'party' was, lets be honest, about 4 hours of sitting in a house listening to the other women talk in rapid Hausa, but we did eat a meal there which was very generous- usually one or two big trays are layed out with tuwo (millet mush) and sauce or rice and sauce and everyone eats from the same tray, but as I got up to join the other women on the mat (they insisted that I sit in a chair) the host shooed me back to my chair and handed me my own bowl... this is certainly not the first time I've been insisted upon to not join the others in the communal dish, and I know they are doing it out of respect, but I dont think they realize I'm feel'n a little excluded... lol! I dont know if they think I'll get sick if I eat with everyone else, or if they don't think I'll eat fast enough, but I always get my own... and a spoon ( I don't think they think I'm capable of eating with my hands- oh but I am). The other funny part is they always seem to add and extra dolup of oil, possibly thinking I'm going, 'mmmm, more grease!', but like I say, it's all out of respect and is very nice of them.

One other thing about this 'party' is that I've noticed there really isn't 'inside vrs. outside' voices here... maybe because theyre outside every hour of the day, but they all seem to have one volume- and its not quiet.

Anyway, as we were walking back from this village, there were a couple cars coming up behind us on the road, and as they all moved to the side, a few of the people shouted, "Balkissa! You should get on the other side! Then you can flag them down! You're white- they'll give you a ride!" (this really was a pretty close translation) when I laughed and continued walking, doing no more than waving as the car sped by, they all couldn't believe I haden't used my "forgiener" card to get a free ride. I casually told them I didnt mind walking, and then mentioned that it was a car from the Jica organization (similar to peace corps, but from Japan) they responded with, "oooh, they speak Japanise" and assumed that was the reason I didn't flag them down and hop a ride. I just let that one slide.

I have a lot of interesting discussions with villagers, some of my favorites having been trying to explain 'weird' customs us Americans have. One day I asked a villager what their camel's name was... "Camel" he replied. Then I tried to explain, yes, it's a camel, but does it have a name? "CAMEL!" was again my answer... so then I explained that in America, people give their animals names like people have names. He thought that was HILARIOUS... then I named his camel Frank- somehow something got lost in translation and he was like, "No, it's a Camel"... I gave up.

Another fun discussion I had, well, slightly embarrasing, was that I was talking to some ladies about the sand. (we run out of topics fast). I expained that in america, people make little mini houses out of sand, and wondered why kids didnt make sandcastles here... she got a confused and then as I looked around I realized why... the entire village is made out of mud-brick. I felt stupid.

BIG NEWS: I just want everyone to know that I made a chocolate pound cake... in the bush. You may not realize, but that is a big accomplishment when all you have is a gas cookstove. (I double-boiled that thing and it was amazing.) I have realized that life in the bush has, if nothing else, made me increadibly creative in my cooking.

So yesterday was my birthday (big 24)!!! won't go into much detail, but went up to Tahoua, had a pretty amazing "funfetti cake 'n' frosting" and had a pretty good time :) the end.

Birthdays and Sunas

2009-02-08T03:43:00.000-08:00

I would just like to point out it has only been a little over a week since my last post, I'm pretty sure that's some kind of record...
However, since is has been so recient, Im not really sure what to write about...
First off, my b-day is on the 17th and I will be 24! I feel so old. It's an interesting question to ask villagers how old they are, my typical answers have been, "um... I dont know" (if theyre being honest), "50" (this was from a woman I am more than possitive was pushing 85+), or with kids, they all seem to be 7 or 8... (not sure I buy) But it just seems really interesting to me, comming from a culture in which so much emphasis is put on how old you are and your birthday, to come here where most people dont know or care. I keep just wanting to ask, but wait, isnt it a big deal??? I think we put maybe a little too much emphasis on individual b-days (I say this AFTER my b-day packages have been sent) however, the age thing is good argument- I think I've seen possibly 13-year-olds drive down the street on motorcycles.. a bit scary.
They do however have a "Baby-Naming Ceremony" exactly one week after the baby is born. They usually have guests all day, possibly some music and dancing, and they usually give out food of some kind and meat (if they have the money for it). I recently went to a Fulani baby-naming ceremony (or 'Suna' as they call it, meaning 'name') waaaaay out in the bush from my village. I actually kinda felt honored, first the father found me in the village one day, several days before, and asked me if I would come, which I was really wishy-washy, and said oh, maybe... then the day before two fulani girls showed up in the middle of a class I was attending and asked if I was still coming so at that point I felt obligated..
So, I admit, I thought as I started walking out to the Suna with one of my friends (who happens to be the "50" year old woman going on 85...) that I was going to an actual village. If I'd have thought about it I probably would have remembered that these Fulanis, as many do, lived and moved with their livestock, setting up encampments for a few months at a time. So it was really interesting to show up in the middle of the bush, where they had set up their life under the shade of a few trees. They were all so suprised that I had actually made the effort to head out there, it was pretty great. (Not to mention I gave up going to horse racing with a few other PCVs to go.. or I thought I was, it ended up getting canceled)
Anyway, I did take some pictures, but once again, not really in a position to be able to put them on here, so anjima I will get them up... or send them to my mom and SHE'll get them up :) (right?)

January 29th... into the bush and out of the bush...

2009-01-28T07:04:00.001-08:00

In and out of the bush... I feel like I'm living a double life! Not that I'm a whole different person, but village life definately differs from that of hostel life, and I've come to realize they are both sooo equally important.
So, not much new, just the average Niger living... Heres a little sampler:
7:00-ish am (sunrise): get up, make myself a delicious breakfast of warm milk and peanut-butter cous-cous (ok, lets talk a little about oh-so-necissary food staples of bush life; A)Powdered milk- I'm partial to the Nido and France Lait brands, and B) a nice, au-naturalle peanut butter (I buy it in bulk- aka, I bring an empty powdered milk can to the guy who makes it and he fills it up))
8:00-ish (nothing's exact or 'yanzu' as many bush taxi drivers would like you to believe):put away my bedding (I sleep outside on a millet-stock bed (with matteress) under a mosquito net) do my dishes, you know, all that typical home-ec stuff... maybe a little studying after that (well, by study I mean read whichever novel I'm up to at that point- I've discovered theres a whole world of written literature out there I didnt know about...)
Somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30: take a walk around the village, stopping to chat with villagers for a couple hours (you should all be impressed that my language skills have advanced beyond greetings and talking about pounding millet... I now point at things and either ask what the names are, or announce the name ("goat!" "Chicken!"...) it's fabulous.
Noonish: back to the house- it's too hot and the sun is out. really.
1 or 2:00: now, at this point I shake things up a bit and vary my days from time to time... sometimes I go to the womens literacy class, you know, to observe, study, listen to them talk about me (they're pretty sure I don't understand- boy have I fooled them) and some days I sit and play cards with my neighbor kids- well, by play, realize that these are 10-13 year olds who I am beginning to think dont REALLY know how to play, either that or after several games I still dont understand the seamingly ever-changing rules.
4:00 ish: this is when I go hang out with some of my friends in the village, there are some wonderful people that I have met, some wonderful families that are really fun to just sit and talk with. I've also gotten henna done, and braids a few times. The people are really great and so genrous with everything they have.
S0 at 6:00 on, I take my bucket bath, make some dinner, and to be honest, Im usually in bed by 8:30... It's, as you can tell, a rough life..

So I hope that was enlightening- keep in mind this is only the typical day of my first month- once I get a little busier I'm guessing things might change a bit. :)

All Alone in the Bush

2009-01-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, Not all alone! So, Ive been at my new post for over two weeks now, bringing my total Niger-time up to almost 3 months.. (CRAZY) Time flies...
So, recap, spent a week in my new village before Christmas, headed into the regional hostel for the festivities, a couple days later headed back out to begin the infamous 'one-month-at-post'. The first week in village was a little shakey, lets be honest. New house, new neighbors, new language, and all about 30 K from the nearest PC Voulunteer.. My villagers are really nice though, and just like moving anywhere, I knew it would take a little while to settle in and feel at home. I can now report that the village is awesome and I love every part of it (well, that three-hour walk to the main road is a bit... harsh) I'm really starting to make friends in my village and find out who I want to hang out with and work with (you know, who has the pet cat, who makes the best millett, etc..), and I'm pretty excited about the next few years.
Life's a bit slow right now as really my only responsabilities are to learn Hausa and to integrate into my community.. that leaves a lot of free time!
I've started jogging in the mornings, which is fairly amusing. My villagers find anyone who would run down the road and back, simply for the joy of it really amuzing. Exercise to them (not suprised) is an odd concept as they really just dont have the time or extra energy for wierd activites like running. It does make for good conversation though!

Bush taxi's, language exams...

2008-12-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

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!

Thanksgiving in Niger

2008-11-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

Quick Post!

So, I have a few spare moments here for a quick blog- we're on a little shopping extraviganza in Niamey (capital- which they abreviate NY- a bit confusing.. ANYWAY) and we stopped by the peace corps office for a little computer time... so, forgive the fact that there are also no pictures attached to this blog- there will be plenty later on... someday..

So, just to update- I now know the official location in Niger in which I will be living the next 2 years! I won't write the exact village name (you know, for security..) But I will be living in the Tahoua region of Niger in a village of about 1500 people. I love my spot and the villagers are all so nice and friendly; and to top it off, I have some amazing PC neighbors in neighboring villages... So, not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I've got a couple awesome years comming up- only small glitch is that I have a close to 3 hour "bush" walk to the paved road (but if I get that camel...).

This last week we actually spent the week at our new location and then Thanksgiving at our regional hostels (there are 5 regions of Niger peace corps is in, each has a regional hostel). My new home: I have (pretty amazing) a TWO room mud (adobe/mud) house with TWO windows, TWO tables, TWO trunks, THREE mats, and get this... I have a CHAIR, as well as some other things, but thats what got me most excited. I know what you're thinking.. luxury? Thats what I thought too. Also I have a fairly large concession area, big enough to put in a small garden. My neighbors are really nice I live in a very large family consession with 3-4 families in it (not entirely sure yet..) Three are Hausa families and one is a Fulani family (a little homework is to look up those ethnicities, I dont have time for detail now :) )

My first week in village was a great experience in which I learned I speak basically no Hausa, and the bit I did know had a different dialect... Its kinda like studying Chinease and then realizing youre actually in Japan (ok, I'm exagerating it wasnt that bad- towards the end of the week I was starting to carry small simple conversations) I did learn that you don't need to know much for small talk in Hausa-land, my typical conversation: first step (greeting) Good morning! Hows the work , Hows your family, hows your health, did you sleep well, hows the tiredness, hows the cold (wich is probably 80 degrees F.) second step (state the obvious) Youre pounding. what are you pounding? youre pounding millet. Greeting on your effort, greetings on your work... third step (goodbye) ok, bye.. So- about three days, nothing but that. It was actually kinda fun I think they think I'm either crazy or just stupid but I had a blast- I even got to go to a wedding one day with some A-MAZING dancing, I took video, so I'll do some work on getting that on here.

Thanksgiving at the hostel was absolutely fabulous. One may wonder what you could possibly feast on for thanksgiving in one of the hottest third-world countries in Africa, so let me describe:
the team had baught a turkey a few weeks prior and had spent a while fattening him up pretty good (and he was when I saw him) also we had at least 6 guinie-fowl, also delicious, and the I cant even begin to describe the amounts and varieties of food different people had put together, we had all the traditional mashed potoatos and stuffing, as well as some different dishes with eggplant, peppers, etc- all of which, AMAZING. So for those of you who may have been concerned that I sat on a mat eating Millet thanksgiving dinner, don't be too worried. I far from went hungry.

So much more to write, but so little time, so I'll just finish with a little schedule of events- we have exactily two weeks of training left, next week we have our highly-important language exam in which we have to rank at least intermediate-med or we get to stay behind for two weeks of remedial lang class.. and at the end of two weeks, if all goes well, we have a swearing in ceremony in which we become "official" volunteers (even at the US ambassador's- ooh la la) So, hopefully Ill post begore then, but if not, in two weeks!

Month #1: New Country, New Culture, New Language...

2008-11-16T02:11:00.000-08:00

So, with a little more than one month in, I have to apologize for my lack of correspondence… I had thought (or hoped) that we would have a bit more access to “the outside world”, but I was wrong. So to cram a months worth of information into a few measly paragraphs, forgive me if this blog is both long and random.
On October 9th we (my training group, or ‘stage’ in PC lingo, with 26 of us) stepped off the plane into 49 degree Celsius heat. This was, of course, after having spent close to 24 (quality) hours in various airports and with Air France. All in this stage are in one of two sectors: Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (PC lingo: Ag’s and NRM’s), out of about 13 Ag’s, there are three of us Animal Husbandry specialists, but more on that later. Keep in mind, though our group had only met on the 7th, I feel like we got to know each other fast (a lot of time to kill in layovers) or maybe it was the whole moving half way around the world thing, I don’t know.
Since our first day in country, we have been split up in several ways; after an initial interview, we discovered which language we would be speaking for the next two years and also the general area in which we would most likely be placed (I am learning Hausa, which is mostly spoken further east in Tauha, Maradi, and Zinder regions) also we were divided (according to language) into three villages which we met our new host families we would be living with for the duration of training.
Host family life is both wonderful and challenging on several levels… It is really great to see and experience how a Nigerien family (not a Nigerian family- that would be in Nigeria) is structured and works, while at the same time it’s been a struggle both in lack of language and independence. My family consists of our Baba (father), his two wives, and several children at various ages. I really enjoy and appreciate their definition of ‘family’ as it can include immediate brothers and sisters, far distant relatives, or even someone living with them while studying at school. This, at the same time, makes figuring out who’s who in the family near impossible. Also interesting, is that they really don’t celebrate birthdays, and while some keep track of their age, my host-sister’s age seems to change each time I ask.
The standards of living here are obviously simplistic in every sense of the word. My host family has a large adobe/mud-brick wall around their concession with a large metal door to the road. Inside the concession or compound, my roommate and I have our own smaller concession made of a woven grass wall surrounding our grass hut. No, no electricity, no running water. At night we sleep under the stars in our small concession under mosquito nets, which is on of my favorite parts of Niger so far- well, until morning… around 5 o’clock, the first call to prayer begins over a loud speaker, which starts off the roosters, which starts off the chickens, which starts of the donkeys- which may be the most obnoxious sound in all of Niger, but despite the rambunctious wakeup call, I love sleeping outside every night.
I thought about adding a paragraph in here about the use of the squat-latrine, or bucket bathing, but I feel those two phrases bring about some pretty accurate images, so I’ll leave that out (unless anyone is DYING for more info).
Basically since day one, the typical schedule has been filled with near 4 hours of Language class a day, an hour or two of technical training, and twice a week we get medical and cultural training (and SHOTS- I’m pretty sure I’ve been vaccinated for just about EVERYTHING by now). The Peace Corps Niger staff are pretty much amazing and do a pretty impressive job of getting us to the point of competency in which we can move out to the bush alone.
Just so you know, the idea of me getting a horse, donkey, or camel is NOT out of the question and I am still considering the possibility (or more so which one), but there are volunteers currently that own each of the above animals- I just need to wait until I actually move to my post and get settled in.
There is so much more to add, like I said, this post ended up both long and random, and while I have other things to write, I feel that most deserve their own blog (things like the election, bush taxis, the Hausa language, etc…) But now that we have progressed in our training to the point in which we are allowed to travel by ourselves, I’m hoping to get to the internet at least once every couple weeks and adding a couple blogs each time. That said, feel free to write me all the letters you want!!!! Letters from anyone are key (ask any volunteer) and can make or break a day!
Sai Angima!

Just keepin' ya updated....

2008-09-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

So, my purpose in this blog spot, just to state the obvious, is to keep any one who is interested updated on my whereabouts and adventures as I journey off into the wild blue yonder (or into the Sahara desert) and travel, not to Timbuku, but to a few miles FURTHER into the middle of nowhere, NIGER!!!

First off, I appoligize, I am very new to this Blog Spot nonsense, and it may take me a while to figure out how it all works, but just for now, here's a little basic info on the plans:

I begin staging in Philadelphia in the first week of October 2008 and after I believe will probably be a lengthy orientation, a painful trip to the clinic to get our shots, and good long busride, we (as a group of soon-to-be Peace Corps volunteers) will be bording a plane at JFK to Niamey, Niger. (Via Paris France.. I wonder if you can see the Eiffel tower from the airport.. sigh.)

Three months or more in Niamey are used for training, and from what I understand, it will be well into this training before I will know exactly where in Niger I will be posted for the remaining two years or service. From now until then, I am learning French, Hausa, and Zarma; the three main languages of Niger... my hopes are that I become fluent in one... or maybe speak all three very badly.

MY JOB:

My super-cool official title is Agriculture, Animal Husbandry Extension, and as far as I know, I am doing just that. Most likely I will be raising sheep and goats, and well as assisting local farmers in whatever-agriculturally-related-helpwanted I can.... If you are confused at what I will be doing for two years, don't worry... so am I. I'm sure in a couple of months I will be able to readress this topic... (lets hope)

With any luck, I will be able to post and keep this updated as well as share some pictures over the next few years. So if you happen to think to yourself, 'hmm, I wonder what Nichole is up to these days?' here you go!