Thursday, December 3, 2009

Oh how crazy my life is...

So, my first 5-6 weeks in Niger have been amazing. It’s been hot, for sure, but I’m actually quite adjusted to the temperature to the point where I’m kind of cold when it’s 80 degrees outside. The people are so kind, welcoming, and are so excited that we are here. My host family always encouraged me to keep trying to learn the language (Hausa) and excited to learn a few English phrases.


BUT because of things out of my control my training group is being moved to Madagascar. While I am super excited to have this opportunity, it’s bitter-sweet, because I do love Niger so much. However, I know that things happen for a reason, and I feel like I have hit Peace Corps Jackpot by getting to go to Madagascar.

We will be leaving from Niamey super early on Monday (12/7) morning. Right now I’m not sure when I will be getting into Paris and subsequently when I will be arriving in Antanarivo (the capital of Madagascar). When I get there, I also will be purchasing a new SIM card, so I (hopefully) will get a new phone number quickly. I also heard that there is somewhat decent access to internet there, so I will be able to update this a little better (hopefully).

I will update more about my new post/country as I get the information, but now I will tell you about some of the things that have been going on the past 6 weeks.

I’ve been living with a host family in Hamdy (the village that our training site is in) and we’ve been doing what is called community-based training. Basically, we have almost all of our language classes of 2-4 people in people’s concessions, and cross-cultural lessons at the teachers’ concession. Two days (Tuesdays and Fridays) out of the week we spend most of the day at bisa dutsi (literally means “on top of the hill” – which is where the Peace Corps compound is) and have personal health/technical lessons as well as language class. This was pretty much my day to day life up until November 16th – when we went into consolidation and moved up to bisa dutsi because of the attempted kidnapping. While we were under consolidation we were only allowed to make trips down into Hamdy if absolutely necessary. Fortunately consolidation was lifted on the 25th and this past weekend (Nov 27-29) we were able to go back down to our host families and spend Tabaski (a Muslim holiday where they slaughter a sheep and spend time together – kind of similar to Thanksgiving… sort of) with them. Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a feast up at bisa dutsi! We formed a cooking team (I was on the desert committee) and prepared chickens, potatoes (both mashed and sweet potato casserole), sautéed carrots, stuffing, and green bean casserole for dinner, then had apple crumble (which I made), cookies, and pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. Despite the fact that the ovens and stoves only had two functions (on or off – no temperatures or high-med-low settings), everything turned out to be fabulous!

Let’s see, other things that have been going on… my host sister is a professional hair braider and she has been kind enough to braid my hair twice. It took about an hour and 45 minutes, but it’s so worth it. It looks great and is a lot cooler.

A couple weeks ago, we all participated in the GAD (gender and development) Olympics, where we competed in teams performing different tasks that Nigerians do on a daily basis. There was an obstacle course that involved carrying a baby on your back while carrying water on your head; pounding peanuts into peanut butter; and making tea. My team lost but at least we all had fun.

I absolutely love the people I’m in training with, and I am so excited that Peace Corps was able to keep almost all of us together to go to Madagascar. I’m pretty sure that our training group is/will be a lot closer than most other groups just because we’ve spent so much time together during consolidation and also have to go though this huge move/transition to a different country.

That’s all for now. I love and miss you all. I will post my phone number and new address as soon as I get it.

*I'm on a really slow computer right now, so I can't post any pictures yet.  I will get to it eventually! :(

Sunday, September 27, 2009

It's happening!


Finally, after a very long time of wondering if I was ever going to be able to join Peace Corps, I found out that I will be going to Niger in October working in community health education.  Ironically enough, this is also where both of my parents volunteered.  So, I have an advantage that they have been there before and can give me a few pointers. Everyday, I still go through a myriad of emotions ranging from excitement to anxiousness to fear to sadness to happiness.  More often than not it's an anxious-excited feeling.
The days are flying by right now and I have a ton of things on my to-do list.  Hopefully I won't put my packing off to the last minute like I usually do. :)