Sunday, December 09, 2007

Surprise! I'm still alive!

I could say I'm sorry, but it wouldn't do any good, so I'll just update you and call it good. Lots has happened. There's been thanksgiving, vacation, COS conference, and that's just the big stuff.

Vacation was awesome. I went back to Benin, to Grand Popo. I wanted to go somewhere I knew so I didn't have to worry about things. I wasn't looking for adventure, I just wanted to chill on the beach for a few days. I took Kelli Van Zee with me, from my stage in Dosso. We got along great and had a lot of fun. The bus rides were almost enough to make it not worth it, but we're trying to forget about them. I had another week of vacation after the Benin trip, but it turned out to be just like any other work week, oh well.

For the COS conference, we went to Park W and stayed at a rather nice resort place in Tapoa. We had sessions every day, but there was plenty of time to relax, swim, watch babboons, and chat with our stagemates one last time. It was a nice time to look back on the last two years and start wrapping it up.

Thanksgiving was incredible. The embassy brought us a Butterball turkey and half a processed ham. Jonathan took over on the Turkey and did an excellent job. The ham made me cry. We also killed and roasted a rabbit, and I made a bunch of grandma's two-stories. There were pies, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mac&cheese. It was truly a spectacular showing.

Tomorrow some of us are helping out at the Ambassador's retirement carnival. They just want free labor, which is fine since we just want free food :-). On tuesday the boss comes back into country with my new computer. :-D I bought a MacBook Intel Core2Duo 2.16GHz 160GB 1GB Superdrive bluetooth etc. I know it's a mac, but notice the Intel processor that will make it run any OS I want to install! WOOT!!!

Anyway, that's my update for now. Here also is a link to the Google Gallery I set up with house pics. Enjoy!

Djimi's House #37 Rue YN-63

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome to hear more of your experiences. It is hard to believe that in a few months you will be back in the states.

We are so looking forward to your homecoming. Seems like you have been gone for so long.

The holidays make it even more apparent.

Have a great Christmas.

Love and miss ya!

Aunt Jenny

Sara Bishop said...

I'm glad you had a good thanksgiving. We missed you over here, Brad made his first turkey. I'm glad you posted pics of your house, it looks cute!!

Sara

Unknown said...

Djibo, you get the email on your blog cause I don't know your email address:


Fofo tout le monde,

As you are probably all aware, I am making a quick trip to Niger at the end of this month. I will spend a few days in Niamey, go to the village for a few days and then return to Niamey for a day or two. I am looking forward to seeing any and all of you who are in Niamey when I am there! For those of you in Niger, I would be happy to bring small items to you upon request. For those of you in the US, I would be happy to carry small packages to Niger. Please send them wasi wasi to:

5766 60th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105

I will be arriving in Niger
the night of Friday Dec. 28th/ damn early in the morning of the 29th at 1:55am.

I will be departing
the night of the 7th at 2:45am.

My sister is coming with me and looking forward to the trip. We will be in Niamey for New Year's, unless there is a party in Dosso or somewhere.

If you have any ideas about how to get from the airport to the hostel at 1:55am without any cfa, that would be great. I can probably just overpay the taxi guy in Euros. But if there is a Peace Corps car going to the airport that night, let me know. Also, if there is a car going out to the Balleyara region right after new years, itd be sweet if we could bum a ride.

I hope you are all samay.

Kala tonton kaina.

Clark

(PS I have a one year visa and a small amount of money and I hate my job in the US. If anyone knows of something really exciting I could do in country until I start law school in the fall, lemme know.)

Anonymous said...

Hi. This is me speaking. I wanted to say merry Christmas and happy summer. Dec. 21 + 6 = June 21, right? I know you're doing great things there, and I'm looking forward to seeing you back in this part of the planet before too long.

DDY

Sara Bishop said...

Happy New Year to my Jimmy-shaped friend!!!

Sara

Anonymous said...

Good to see you're doing well... haven't talked to you in a while, and I've been pretty bad about keeping up with your blog.

You're coming back soon! If you want to be a bum in Manhattan for a while, I've got a big basement with nothing in it (I bought a house). You're welcome to hang out for a while if you like; we'd all love to see you.

Take care, and take it easy!

-- Travis

Anonymous said...

Forgot to mention... gratz on the Mac. We've all become Apple fanboys since you left; they're hot stuff.

-- Travis

Bishniak said...

28 days to go! march 16 is so close now.

Bishniak said...

20.. 20 days until the Captain returns

Ah AH Ah Ah

/thunder
//lightning

Bishniak said...

7 Days! 1 week!! Wow!

Do you have any itenerary on when you're coming home, who's picking you up, which airport, etc?

Travis said...

Hey, if you're going to visit Manhattan, warn one of us. We want to throw you a party.

Only four days to go! Wheeeee!

-- Travis

Beth said...

Hurray! Your coming home.. we miss you like crazy. Let me know when you plan a trip to Manhattan or KC and I will book a flight to come visit!

Love Beth