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

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??

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...

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!

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

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