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

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

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...

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

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...

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!