So long, and thanks for all the fish..... i mean packages!

You'll all have to forgive me, or not that's up to you. I know I kind of dropped the ball with closing this thing out... just kind of left you all hanging in the UK. I'll try to offer some closure now.

The UK was incredible. We spent two weeks there, mostly in London, and it was a blast. It was also very expensive. I had to constantly tell myself to ignore the symbol on prices. If you do that, everything is very reasonable; but it's hard, knowing that every pound is worth 2 dollars, making everything twice as expensive! I did get to see some Disney references, particularly Portabello Road and the step of St. Paul's. Portabello market was really fun, not quite what you see in the movie, but the time period is a bit different. I was very disappointed that there wasn't a little old bird lady singing at the cathedral, but I suppose I'll cope. Seabass didn't really appreciate my need to go see these places, but humored me none the less. We also met this really neat Australian named Miranda who was as excited as I about them. She was very awesome to hang out with, and had actually tried to stay with Seabass in Niger through couchsurfing, but it didn't work out. We went with her to see a ghanaian band one night, that was awesome, we danced ourselves ragged. Other than London, we took the train up to Yorkshire to visit Seabass's aunt Sue and family. That was a delightful change from the city. The English countryside was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for better hosts. We also went to Edinburgh from one night and met Seabass's dad's friend Joyce, a.k.a. "the Lady Caplan" ... yes, we stayed with an actual Lord and Lady. It was great fun, they're awesome folks, and Scotland is beyond imagination. It was amazingly beautiful, and I'd love to go back and see more of it.

After the UK we headed to Dublin, where we spent one night in the Brewery Hostel, saw the Guiness storehouse, and lived in the airport for a night. The Storehouse tour was pretty cool, and the pint you get at the end was unbelievable. I've heard its the best pint in the world, and I don't have any grounds to argue. We got to hang with Alex and Alison a lot in dublin, and had a wonderful time. We didn't sleep much in the airport, but it was a nice reset so we weren't really jetlagged, just exhausted when we got back. Oh, and the cabby that drove us to the airport thought I was from there :-).

The plane ride was the best yet, we got lots of tasty food, and a free drink. We decided to just break and run for it when we landed, no long teary goodbyes. We'd been through two years in Niger together, and traveled together for a month, but we knew we'd see each other again, so there was no need for water works, right? WRONG! I didn't make it thirty seconds down the hall and started sobbing uncontrollably. It lasted for like 30 minutes, with aftershocks for hours. It was the biggest cry I've had in probably 20 years. Keep in mind that we'd not slept to speak of in about 36 hours, so nerves were shot anyway, but still. It took me five minutes to calm myself enough to ask the info lady how to get to the subway.

I think the hardest part was that it was over. As long as we were still galavanting around, it was still part of the whole Peace Corps experience. But once we touched American soil, that clinched it, we were done. That adventure was over. As such, this blog is also over. I will leave it up for people to find as long as the site doesn't delete it, but I'm not going to post in here anymore.

As a parting few words, I'd like to thank everyone who wrote me and sent me packages. You've no idea how much it meant to me. I know I was horrible about writing letters, and I'm sorry, but I do appreciate it. You guys brightened my life there a lot. I also want to get around to visit everyone, but that's expensive right now, and my money keeps evaporating, so be patient. If I haven't come to see you yet, I will. I'll try to give you some notice first, but who knows, I might just show up at your front door one of these days!

One last time, Thank you, all of you. Thank you for reading my blog, thank you for sending me letters and things, thank you for caring, thank you for being my awesome friends and family.

Thank you.
Kala han fo!

Quick UK Update

I'm loving london, and besides the occassional freak out about prices and things (which would be inevitable wherever I started back into the western world) I'm adjusting quite well.  We've got a lovely place to stay with Seabass's cousin and are having a blast!  I must say this place is very much speaking to me in various ways as a place I'll live for a while, probably in the near future.  We'll see how I feel in a week or so, but don't worry, I've got my tickets booked and nothing will keep me from coming home for a bit to see everyone, just not guaranteeing I'll stay there for years or anything.  And if it helps, at least here I'm much more accessible than in Africa.  Just a crazy idea for now, and you know how many of those tend to work out.  The Peace Corps was really the first that I ever actually acted on.  I'll type more later, but I want to send while my pirated connection holds ;-). TTFN

OUT OF AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hallelujah! It was an insane mad dash, but we survived and are now bona fide Real Ultimate Bad-Asses.  The bus came when it was supposed to, and we were standing there waiting to get on when they informed us that the bus was broken and wasn't going anywhere until the next morning.  We slept at the station and decided that if it showed no signs of moving by 800, we were going to high tail it on bush taxis.  They worked on it a while and at around 9 made us all get on, They put it in gear and moved about a half a foot before deciding we should all get back off.  It seemed as though it would be fixed at any time, so we waited.  At around 1 or so they gave up and decided everyone would just have to wait for the next bus that night.  The problem with that being that our plane was supposed to take off at 605 the next morning and there was no possible way the bus would make it by then.  In addition, we'd sent a couple of bags ahead of us so we wouldn't have to deal with it.  We'd pretty much given up hope of catching out flight when a nice Nigerian fellow who's been living in Ghana and was on his way back informed me that we could get there by 8 or 9 if we took public transport and left right away.  Instantly our spirits lifted and the nice SNTV (bus line) man gave us a refund without any problems, so off we went.  We got a car, a really nice one, and had to pay a bit more, but only had 5 total people in it, just like it was designed for!  Borders weren't too much of a problem, and we really made decent time.  We did lose our friend at the Togo/Ghana border, but it was probably for the best as he was keen on taking us to his house and getting our contact info and all, and really, much as he was a great guy, I've already got plenty of people to try to keep up with.  I just wish we could have given him something for helping us so much.  Once across the Ghana border, we had to find another car, as  the one we had wasn't going all the way.  It was quite a mess and there were plenty of people who were trying to gouge us for 10 times the normal price because we are white and therefore have more money than we could ever use.  Little do they know...  We got a taxi for the normal price though and only had to wait an hour to leave.  Taxis in Ghana do get stopped every 5 miles or so so police can shine in their flashlights as you slowly drive by and see what you've got attatched to your cieling, or so I guess because we were in a taller taxi and that's all they could really see.  We even got stopped by a Ghanaian policeman who told us where the bus station was so we could get our bags. 

Once we got to Accra we had a time finding the station, it's very poorly marked.  But people were very helpful and soon we found Zarma's who helped us out.  We got to the SNTV station at about 10pm, but it was locked up.  There were, naturally, about 6 people making tea right there and the called the guy in charge and he was very nice to come and give us our stuff.  We paid him most of the cfa we had left, as it was really no good anymore to us, he made more for that than most nigerians make in a day, about $6.  Then they found us a car for $10 that would take us to the airport safely (they warned us that half the taxis would take us to their waiting friends and shake us down. We got to the airport and found a cybercafe as well as a food cafe that sold us delicious sandwiches, of the very type that Seabass had been lamenting for just that very day.  There was almost tears at the whole ordeal.  It was such a mad dash that I feel like the amazing race would be a piece of cake.  We got cleaned up a bit and changed into fresh clothing and really didn't have to wait too long at the airport before we could start the whole process of the checking in and all.  The flights went great, save a slight delay in Casablanca, but frankly after everything else, it was absolutely not an issue. 

The only thing that bothered me about that place was this little 8 year old twerp that kept harassing us.  He was just being a brat, trying to steal our cards, smacking my bag (the one with the computer in it, mind you, not a way to get on my good side), raspberrying us and calling me a "wormy worm worm".  I chased him off and told his parentals that he was bugging us, thinking that maybe they'd do something about that.  Later he kept coming and taunting us so I cussed him out in Zarma, which he didn't understand, and neither did his father; but his father decided to come and yell at me for being angry at his kid.  He decided that I was lying about the bag smacking and said that "he's a child, you should respect him".  Luckily for him I was in a very stable mood and he left it at that.  I was actually more worried about Seabass going off on him, which would be a change, usually I'm the one with no tolerance for stupidity!  Long story short, the dude was a dick and his kid is well on his way to becoming the same.  Alhamdulilahi, they were on a different flight and I'll never see them again.

Once in London, everything went pretty smoothly, we found where we were going without much trouble.  There was a bit of Seabass getting caught up in the crowd and zooming ahead.  We were on about 6 hrs of sleep in 72 or so and I was having a hell of a time with my baggage.  ( I don't recommend moving via vacation, just not convenient to haul all your stuff with you )  We got to the right station and his very nice cousin Sammy picked us up and gave us a great meal and a place to stay for the night, complete with hot shower, internet, heat, and a great bed with pillows galore and a heavenly down comforter.  It was the best I've slept in ages.  They made us bacon sandwiches and all and dropped us off to stay with another cousin, Lizzie, tonight.  She's got an incredible television and a Nintendo WII, which Sebastian is enthralled with right beside me. He says Super Mario Galaxy is really fun, even if Lizzie says it's crap.  We got all our travel sorted out today for the rest of the journey to the states, off to Dublin in a couple of weeks on British Airways ( we tried Ryan Air, who wanted to fly us for $20, but they wanted about $320 to take our baggage, Nerts to that!!!).  Then we fly home on 14 Apr, and part ways from there.  I'm headed to pick up a car for dad and drive it home, and Seabass is off home to VT.

Overall, london seems even more awesome than I remember the states being (don't worry, I'm not staying or anything), but I am having issues with prices, the pound being about 2 dollars, and I have to mentally adjust every price I see.  I had a bit of a freak out in the grocery store, Seabass found me just staring at the soft drinks looking like I needed to be rebooted, but I'm doing a bit better now.  Its also very chilly here, which is incredible after 26 months of eternal summer.  I think my favorite part though, is that I can get real dill pickles again, what more does a person really need?

Moving right along....

Again, sorry for the delay, but here's what's up.  I've closed my Peace Corps service and am on my vacation/trip home.  We were going to go to ghana since we've not been yet, but the embassy took a long weekend and we didn't really have time.  We still fly out of Accra tomorrow night, and we're heading there on the bus tonight.  We've been hanging out in Cotonou and Grand Popo, just chillin and enjoying the fact that there are no demands on us right now, and there's nothing we could do about it if there were.  It's kind of the most free I've been in, well, ever.

We'll be in London for a while visiting Seabass's relatives and seeing the sites, then we fly to NYC on the 14th of April and I'm probably out that night on greyhound to get a car for dad and drive it home.  That's not all worked out yet, but sounds like it could be perfect. 

I kind of had my freak out in Grand Popo one night, and now I'm okay with this transition, I just kind of wish I could stop travelling for a while.  Part of me is so excited that from here on out till the states is new things I haven't seen before, but part of me just wants to snap my fingers and be home.

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

Long overdue update

Yeah, yeah, I know... I never update the blog. Well, here you go, I'm throwing you all a bone.

It's been a really crazy month so far. The Ag project review is over now, and the 45th anniversary crap will be done in a week. Then all I have to worry about is installation of new volunteers and I can go on vacation. I'm not sure where I'll go. I might go with some of our wadabi friends to their annual festival. They might even let me paint my face and dance with them, that would be something! I also thought about going back to Benin, it would be a good time, and I already know how it's all done. We'll see what happens.

Things are going good in general. Kevin and I had our birthdays a week and a half ago. We went to Byblo's. It's a Lebonese restaurant. We had all the Babaganoush, Homos, Toubouli, etc we could eat. It was good times. Everyone is also coming in for Swear in, so there will be much good food made and lots of games played and hanging out done...

I also have started reading a bit again. (It's so hard to do in Niamey, there's so much going on) I've started the Golden Compass, part if the "His Dark Materials" series, which is being made into a movie that will come out around Christmas. I want to read it before the movie comes out, or I know I'll never make it through the book. So far it's incredible. In the book, every person has what's called a daemon. It's like a familiar, or an animal entity that is part of you. On the website, you can take a quiz and be told what form your daemon would take. It also allows friends and family to agree or disagree and alters the daemon based upon that as well. I'm not big on quizzes, but this one intrigues me. Please take time to answer the questions and I promise I won't put more stupid quizes up here.

Crazy busy happiness

I've got a house, I've got power, I've got functional plumbing, i've got couches, a bed, a fridge, a stove, and I'm loving every bit of it. I have Souley, Gaston, and Yacouba to thank for it. THANKS GUYS!!!

Things are really pretty good right now. We had a "nacho fry" party the other night. I got a wok and we made a crapload of french fries and some taco fixins and had nacho fries, they were awesome. Then we threw in some eggs the next morning for nacho fry hash. it was awesome. We all went to La Cascade the other day for Seabass's birthday, he's two dozen now.

There are plenty of people coming into town right now for a Globe conference (evironmental and science education training) so Niamey is starting to get a might busy. I'm doubly glad to have my own place. One of the main purposes of the hostel's is to provide a resting place for pcvs for mental health. We don't really get any time off in the bush, we're always dealing with people, even in our concessions people stop by to see us and there's no "safe" place to hide. The hostels are a good place when we need to be away from everything for a day, but not when there are too many people there. That's an overload of a different sort. It makes me very glad to have my house here. I can have private space, my neighbors aren't bugging me all the time -- don't get me wrong, I like my neighbors, but it's nice that they don't come knocking every day -- and I can get away from PCVs if I want. I can actually guarantee myself some quiet time to just relax and take a deep breath and think.

I've got plenty to do with the job. I've got to help rewrite the agriculture project plan, I've got to get a presentation ready for the 45th aniversary stuff, I've got to open 6 new sites, and I've got to try and stay sane. I think I'll pull it off, all but that last bit anyway. I found out today that there is a bridge out on the way to tillaberi, so it will be much harder now to get materials to the new sites. I also have to get approval on houses from the bosses, so I've got to get them out there too. There's a lot to do, but it will all happen as it should, so I'm not going to worry about it. So there.

I have a house!

... with no electricity!  ARG!!!!!!!!!    I got the house monday.  I got furniture and a refridgerator moved in, along with all my things.  But here's the catch:  The electric meter in the house is a prepayed meter that only the government is allowed to use.  Therefore the meter must be changed.  In order to change the meter, Peace Corps had to write a letter to the Ministry of Health (who I believe own or rent the house), who then have to write a letter to Nigelec (the electric company) who then have to change the meter and turn on the power.  We're stuck somewhere in the Minstry of Health right now, and I'm told it could be next thursday or so before I get power.  Now, I normally wouldn't mind, I lived in the bush without power for a year, no biggie.  But i don't have a bed outside here, and it's impossible to spend much time inside without cieling fans going, which requires power.  So essentially, I can't live there until next week.  I know it's not that big a deal, I should be thankful for my health and blah blah blah, but someone is keeping me from living in my house because they can't take 5 minutes to right a freakin' letter!

 

Nothing much new happening, really.  I've been pretty focused on getting the house stuff done.  I do finally have a pairing for the World Wise School program, (Hi Mandy) which is sort of a pen pal program so that students can learn about the world from PCVs in the field.  I'm very excited to start, but I have to wait until school starts there next month.

 

I guess that's all I have for now.  The podcast site is being stupid again, so I'll get one up as soon as it straightens up and starts acting right. 

Might be getting a house! WOOT!

It's true! I might be getting a house in a matter of weeks, or even days!  No guarantees, but it could happen.  Not that I mind living with Genghis, it would just be nice to have my own place.  I do worry about living alone though.  I like having people around.  At least the "dream team" (seabass, kurt, alex, alison, and myself) will probably end up using it as a hostel.  I hear that there are two places their looking at for me. 

 

One is called the village francophonie, and is 4k from the bureau on paved streets, so that's kind of nice.  Alex and I rode our bikes up there yesterday to check it out.  At first it looks like a little chunk of american suburbia.  The streets are all paved and all the houses are nice but look the same.  It really looks like a suburb of Pheonix or something.  Then you get there and realize that over 90% of the houses are empty.  It's really creapy, it's like everyone just packed up and ran away.  There are restaurants out there that are really nice, but have been closed for years.  The wierd thing is that the development is only about 2 or 3 years old!  It would be nice and quiet out there, but there wouldn't be anything to do, I worry I'd go crazy.  The houses are really nice though, and I'm not completely ruling it out. 

 

The second place is near the hostel in a neighborhood where some of the bureau folk live.  That would be a much better location, but I've never been there and don't know what the houses are like or anything.  Hopefully they'll show me both houses and let me pick, but I think that's me being optimistic.  I'll probably just get assigned something.  Hopefully I'll know soon though, either way. 

 

In other news, I've been fairly busy with the new Regional Rep. job, which is finally into full swing.  It's really nice to have things to do, it just took me a bit to get back into productive mode.  Things are generally good, and there's only 8 months 19 days till COS.  We've been trying to revise the COS trip plans to be more flexible, in case one of us doesn't go for some reason.  I think we've decided to "couchsurf" around europe, and go on some winery/brewery/pub tours.  We've added the couchsurfing to give us more to do while we're there.  It's a website/club type thing where you can look up people who live where you're going and are willing to let you stay on their couch for free.  You have to contact them and ask, and they can say yes/no if they think you sound normal or like a serial killer.  It would introduce us to lots of local people who can show us around the regions and know where all the cheep food is :-).   I was worried about the trip because Kurt is the driving force behind the breweries, I'm the one psyched about the cruise, and seabass is into both.  If one of us backed out, the other two would probably not be as keen to do the whole trip, and would probably just cancel it.  I don't want that to happen.  I'm not backing out, and if I'm staying here for the full tour, I want to go on the cruse dammit!  So this way we'll cut lodging costs and have something exciting to do for the whole trip, even if it's just hang out with random new people for a day. 

 

Well, that's long enough for now, I think.  I will try to get a new podcast up soon, I promise!

Things are looking up a bit

I'm finally starting as RR.  I don't think there's an official start date yet, but i'm just doing it.  I think right now we're just clearing it through washington anyway.  Tomorrow I'm going up to Ayarou with Sangare to do site development.  It's almost all the way to Mali, and I hear they have a fun market on sundays.  I'm also moving in with Michael.  The hostel is driving me crazy, especially when there are so many people in town.  They newest group just got done with a training and are lingering around, and the oldest group is about to have a Close of Service conference, so their here early, and the place can't handle that many people without me going insane, so I will stay at Michael's.  It's nice there.  I moved my stuff out of Sadore the other day on the shuttle.  The hardest part was the cats (she had kittens again) we got the kittens boxed up, but Lefty wouldn't stand for it, so I had to hold her the whole time.  We got there and she wigged out.  She's still around, but I don't think she likes me very much right now.  She'll cope.  I also got the iBook up and running the other day, its nice to have my own machine again.  Turns out I spent two months trying to get a cd that I didn't even need to fix it, it just needed the date set... ARG! Stupid Apple! But it's all better now. 

 

That's about all I know for now. 

Vacation and work

Well, I'll be honest with you, it's good to be back in Niger. I never really thought I'd here myself say that, but it's true. (not that it wouldn't be better to be back home, mind you) Vacation had it's high points and it's low points, just like any other part of Peace Corps. I definitely learned that the gender count has to balance for a successful trip, and one must be willing to go on one's own if the need arises. I spent the first week with just Alison and Rachel. They are very nice girls and good friends, but I felt like a third wheel. They also tended to get plenty of attention from the local males, and didn't seem to mind. That left me to either tag along and be bored, or go out on my own, which was difficult as my french was horrid, and the Beninese weren't so great with the English. It was still a pretty relaxing trip, and it was very nice when Seabass came and met us there 1 week in. It gave me someone to talk to as well, and it was easier to break into groups. Unfortunately, I ran short of cash a few days early and ended up going home by myself, which is a long story you don't want to hear, and I don't want to rehash. If I were doing it again, I would ditch the girls, stay in the cheap rasta hotel on the beach for half the price, and eat street food. On that plan I could have stayed there a month! maybe next time...

I seem to have that problem a lot on vacations, though. I tend to not like to spend exorbitant amounts of money on vacation, and like to go with the cheapest accommodations and food around. Often that's the only way I can afford to go in the first place. I'm perfectly happy to slum around and just enjoy a new backdrop. I must not be very good at explaining that ahead of time to other travelers, though. Either that or I just end up going with the group, even if I can't really afford it. I'm starting to think I should just get a trusty hound to bum around with and call it good.

Work wise, I'm still waiting to start the RR position. I know the bureau has plenty to deal with right now, but I really would like a satisfying job, something I can do that will make me feel useful. I'm hoping to find something out tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. The frustration really gets to me sometimes. Not just with the job, but with pcv's in general. I would have thought they would, as a group, have more respect for others than they show here. Don't get me wrong, the vast majority are great people, especially on an individual basis. It's when there is anything unmarked siting around and people take before asking, or you get a large group and they get carried away with the partying. Arg. I really need to get a different house, the hostel is nice and all, but I don't think I can take living there for another 10 months. I am supposed to get a house as the RR, but as with any bureaucracy, I don't think it's gonna be this week... Micheal did offer to let me crash with him for a while. It would be a nice break, a mini vacation at the very least.

I'm not really complaining, well I am, but not for sympathy or anything. I pretty much have my own self to thank for this situation. It's amazing sometimes how lots of little things and decisions end up together and you just stop one day and think, " How on earth did this happen?!" It's not always a bad thing, but sometimes it's just one of those things and you just have to step back and figure out what to do next so you don't end up worse off than before. Overall, I'm doing okay, and don't worry, if things go wonky, I've always got the option to wash my hands of the whole thing.

WooHoo!!!!!

Well, I got the RR position in Niamey, after much negotiating with my program director.  I'll be living in Niamey, eventually in my own house, and keeping track of 25 or so volunteers.  I'll also have a big hand in selecting new villages for volunteers.  It should be fun, and I'm excited about it.  It will have it's headaches, but what job doesn't?  I'll still be working with ICRISAT from Niamey and communting down there once a week to meet with folks.  It's nice to have that decided, since I'm going to Benin on tuesday and don't want to have to worry about it.  That's right... I said Benin! where they have oceans, food, and NO WORK!  It will be wonderful!  We got our visas applied for the other day, and pick them up tomorrow.  I'll be off the radar while I'm down there though, so don't expect updates or emails... I'll try to find the odd cybercafe to give an update, but no guarantees.

In minor news... we went to a fashion show last night that Alex and Alison were modeling in, it was quite fun.  It was a local designer named Kadi, who is probably the biggest designer in Niamey, maybe Niger.  She had an awesome place, felt like we were in a rainforest or something it was so green.  I'd like to go back and check out the guys clothes, I could use something apropriate for lounging on the beach :-).  This afternoon we're going to an embassy guy's house for a pool party, those are always fun!  Hopefully will get a new podcast up soon...

Friday!! Woohoo!

I've not felt this way about a friday in quite a while.  But that's what I get for changing posts.  The grass is always greener...  It's still hot, so I'm hiding inside in the a/c.  My new project is to learn dvorak.  It's a keyboard layout that is said to be more efficient than qwerty.  Right now I'm pretty slow at it (12 wpm), but I'm getting faster. 

Okay, that took way too long to type, back to qwerty for now.  I went to a cybercafe last night.  It looked like a nice place, but the computers were very slow, which was sad as the internet seemed very quick, and they were all set to french.  They had them so locked down that I couldn't change it.  ARG! I will not be going back.  It is interesting though that I'll intentionally learn dvorak, but I refuse to switch to french when it is all there is.  I think that's part of it, I'm not against learning something new, especially if it's more efficient, but I'll be damned if you're going to force me to learn something when there's no good reason they can't accomodate all languages!  Sorry about the rant, it's probably not the last time you'll hear about this one!  We've been planning to go around and rate all the cybercafe's in Niamey, I guess we should get on that soon.  Right now there is only one computer on the internet at the bureau, so I'll be going out to cafes more often until it gets fixed.

I'll be in niamey for a week now, doing some training seminar thing.  Hopefully by the time I come back out here to ICRISAT I'll know about the RR thing, hopefully I'll be the RR.  Wish me luck!

I've turned in my application, and it should be less than a week now until I find out about the RR position. I worry though that it will be delayed because of a training workshop we have next week. The regional trainer is coming in and they want a few pcvs, including me, to participate. It has something to do with improving our new volunteer training and also staff development. Who knows. It will be a nice change though, I'll actually get to sleep in until 7ish or so. This getting up at 6 to catch the ICRISAT bus is getting old.

Dad made a comment the other day. He said that I'm not happy unless I have something to look forward to, some event or change. I guess I never paid attention before, but he's right. I do enjoy the anticipation of events, changes, etc. It's true that when there's nothing to be excited about, or I don't know what's going on in the future, I get very frustrated. As long as I know what's going to happen, and I have some input or control, I'm happy. I enjoy setup and planning, but long term maintainance (read monotonous boredom) doesn't thrill me at all. Take the Hostel for example, it was a challenge, it needed reorganized and updated. I very much enjoyed whipping it into shape and developing a management system, but now I could be happy to give it to someone else. I did all the setup, I just don't want to maintain it. Once something becomes too easy, monotonous, etc, I get bored with it. I don't know why I'm rambling about it, just an insight I've come across.

I think at this point most of my friends are out in the bush and not planning to come in until our meeting in a couple weeks. Michael did move to Niamey though, and is about as bored as I am in the evenings. We've been eating a lot of meat and fry sandwiches and surfing the net a lot. That's my day really; work, bus, meat & fry sandwich, and the internet. If only i could get rid of the first two and turn down the heat!

Update (Long overdue...)

I must apologize for not updating sooner.  I do keep fairly up to date on the audio blog though.  Right now I am working at ICRISAT, the International Crop Research Institue for the Semi-Arid Tropics.  They do research on how to improve crops, introduce new foods, regenerate land, etc.  They try all sorts of crazy ideas, and most of them flop, but every once in a while something comes up that can really make a difference.  I'm working with the sahelian eco-farm project.  It uses a nitrogen fixing tree to improve the nutrients available in the soil and can drastically improve millet yields.  I am also working with a millet breeding program that is trying to select varieties that are more appropriate for the growing season here and will produce more food.  For the time being, I am living in the hostel in Niamey and commuting to work on the daily bus.  It's working out okay, but is only temporary until either ICRISAT builds another house, or until I get a different job in Niamey.

 

The hostel is coming along nicely, we've rearranged a few things, made some improvements, and things are going well.  For the most part, everything has been well recieved, now we're working on a decision making process that will turn it into more of a democratic system than a dictatorship.  (not that I mind being the dictator, lol)  The biggest problem is that it is the "national" hostel, so volunteers from other regions forget that it is the Tillaberi volunteers primary hostel and get into the "community property" mindset.  They start to think that it's noone's, therefore everyone's, and they can do whatever they want to trash it.  We're slowly chipping away at that idea.  Hopefully the establishment of a regional representative for Tillaberi (just like all the other regions have) will help legitimize us as a region in our own right, and people will start respecting us and our hostel.  That is the job I'm applying for.  I would basically coordinate support for 25 or so volunteers in the region around Niamey.  I hope to keep the millet breeding program as my primary project, and I would get a house here in Niamey.  I'll know about that in about 3 weeks.

 

In other news, we had planned a trip to Agadez, but that got cancelled when the rebels started killing folk again.  I'm hoping to go to Benin with Seabass, Alison, and Rachel at the end of May.  That's really the only vacation I've got planned so far.  We do however have elaborate COS plans to spend a month in Europe, then cruise home on the QE2.  I hope that all pans out, it's a prime motivation for staying here! 

 

I guess that's all i've got for now, I'll try to keep up with this, but the podcast will probably be updated much more often.  Ta ta for now!

To the village...

Been in Niamey for a week now.  I rode my bike in last Sunday, that was a trek.  100km, or about 60 miles, in just under 8 hours.  It was a fun ride, but I don't think I'll do it every time I come to Niamey.  I've been here working on reorganizing the Hostel in Niamey with Seabass and Alex.  We've been ridiculously busy with it for 3 or 4 days now, so I haven't had much time to chat, shop, and do other normal Niamey things.  It's enough work to keep us busy for another week, but we all have to go back to the bush today.  We're making definite headway, and have a surprising amount of support from the bureau as well as the other volunteers.  I expected more volunteers to complain about changes, but they took it vey well and are eager to see the place cleaned up.

I'm going back out to work on the grain bank in full force today.  I really want to have it done by Jan 5, but I'm not sure it will happen.  I wanted to move out of my village then, but I'm starting to realize that that's not feasible, and I will probably have to do it around the 16th or after.  That will aleviate some pressure on the bank, but I worry that it will just let them procrastinate and in 2 weeks we'll be in the same boat we are now. 

I need to get a couple things done here at the bureau then head out, so ta ta for now.

It's been forever, sorry 'bout that

I have a bad habit of forgetting to do things once I find a fun new thing to do.  Like forgetting to write blogs when I discover the wonderful world of pod casting.  I apologize.  So much has happened lately and will happen soon, I'll try to give you a rundown...

I came into Niamey a few days early and cleaned up a room in the hostel to put my folks in.  It turned out quite presentable, for Niger anyway.  I picked them up on the 4th, which was very exciting.  It didn't hit how long I'd been away till I saw them again.  I also hadn't remembered the airport correctly, I thought it was a dirty crude terminal, but nope, it's a modernish (if small) airport.  Who knew?  We went to the hostel and chatted until about 5am, then I put them to bed and went for some sleep myself.

On their first day, we went to the Grand Marche to get some fabric and took it to a tailor to have a dress made for mom.  Next day we went to the Musee (or zoo) which was interesting if kind of depressing.  The animals are in miserable digs, but still neat to see.  The artisan center is kind of neat too, though not a place I would shop regularly.  We went out to Sadore, my new village, on Wednesday and got a tour of Icrisat.  We stayed with Anna that night and just hung out the next day before catching the bus back to Niamey.  We picked up mom's dress on Saturday morning and barely caught the Post Moto before it left town.  There was much hanging out in Balleyara, then we saw the market on Sunday.  Dad rode bikes with Cathy out to my village, while Mom and I bush taxied it.  We had a party on Monday; my villagers killed a goat and made a delicious red rice.  Next day we saw the mesas and the brick making process.  Wednesday we came back to Niamey in a bush taxi.  It was a pretty mild one, not too awfully cramped, but enough to give them a taste.  We hung out in Niamey on Thursday and they went back to the airport Friday morning.  Luckily they got to ride in a Peace Corps car and have a chaperon, since Liza was also going home on that flight.

I'm here in Niamey still, going home on bush taxi in a couple of hours probably, might stay till morning.  The next few weeks in the bush will be crazy.  I have to get the grain bank finished by Jan 5 if I want to move out then.  I will be there a week, then come back to Niamey for Christmas and Hostel business (Alex, Seabass, and I are the new Niamey Hostel managers).  It is really crunch time and I need to be there to motivate the villagers to get the darn thing done.  After move out, I'll spend a week at a "training of trainers" session then in Feb I get to help train the newbies for two weeks, then stay for a week of mid service training while they're checking out their new posts.  It's going to be nuts, with lots of time out of the bush.  It's crazy, but at least it's not boring, right?

I have changed the address to the left there, and that is where I'll be getting my mail from now on.  I would like to send a heartfelt "Thank You" to all who have written me and sent me things.  I very much appreciate it.  I'm pretty well stocked on things for now.  I will let you know if I need anything.  I'm good on coffee, tea, batteries, sunflower seeds, and drink mixes.  I would love to get some photos though, you can never have too many of those, and they're cheep to send! I do appologize for not writing more letters.  I have tried to sit down and write a few, but then I realize they're mostly the same, and the same as what I write here.  I'll try to send some in the coming weeks, though.

I guess I'll cut this off for now, and maybe throw up a new podcast :-)

Happy Yesterday!

I hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving.  We did here.  We had a lot of good food, including mashed taters, chicken noodle soup, green beans, salad, stuffed mushrooms, filet mignon, and squash soup.  There were a couple of groups that got together for dinners, then we all met at a pcv's place to play cranium. (my team won)  Got to talk to most of the family on the phone, which was very nice.  I hadn't talked to many of them in months.  We killed 2 chickens to make the soup, which was a new experience for many, very educational. 

I got a new blackboard and chalk for the school in my village.  It's new this year and they don't have much in the way of supplies.  I'll take it out next week on the shuttle, they'll be delighted.  We've got over 50 kids that attend school every day, hopefully the next generation in Holoballe will be able to read and write! 

I get to be a trainer for the new group in february.  Two weeks on the training site eating great food and chatting with a whole new group of pcvs.  It will be a lot of fun.  I'll probably move villages before hand, which will be nice - less to worry about after the training.

I got a new donkey.  It's all white with blue eyes.  It's not very good with riding yet, but it can pull a cart.  It came with the pcv's who were moving the horse across country and doing educational sessions in villages as they went.  They couldn't get it to pull their cart, so they got another and couldn't sell this one.  They were broke, so I bought it from them when they got to Balleyara.  It's turning out to be an okay donkey though.  Might sell it to the villagers when I move.  I'm not sure I want to walk to Sadore with the donkey, and I doubt they'll put it in the land cruiser.

Going back out to HB tomorrow morning bright and early, then will be back in a week to pick up the folks, WooHoo!  I hope they have a good journey here, and I'll do my best to keep them entertained once they arrive.  I've got plenty planned, and my villagers are excited to meet them.

There's a whole bunch of new audio posts up, so enjoy those until I get back into town.  That's all for now!

Here goes nothing...

I got the audio loaded. There's even a nifty player on the left side of the page there for you. For those of you who listen to podcasts, you can subscribe with the button underneath, and for the rest of you you can just listen on the site. I know they are a bit out of date, but it's a start. I will try to start recording every day or so, and publish them when I get into town. Probably whenever you see a new entry here, there will be new audio. but, on with the news...

I got back from Zinder today, that was a long bus trip! 12 hours is a long time, even when you have three seats to yourself. Today I got to ride in the newest bus that had tv's and speakers over each seat. That just means it's more annoying when they play the local music. There's no escape! If I hear that song with the laughing/crying/pooping baby again I might go balistic!

Zinder was really nice though, kind of a smaller version of Niamey. They have restaurants and such, artisans, etc. They just don't have grocery stores and nice western style restaurants. The transit house there is really nice as well. I'm jealous every time I go visiting. Balleyara's hostel is nice, but it doesn't hold a candle to zinder, or even Gotheye, at least they have cement buildings. Oh well, soon I won't have one at all, but it's a fiar trade to have an air conditioned office with internet :-).

I am going back to the bush tomorrow, and I'm not sure when I'll come back into town. I think I'll be in for the COS party on the 17th, but it will only be for the evening and I probably wont' get on the computer to chat much, MAYBE i'll have time to update the blog, but I'm going out again the next day. I've got to get this grain bank rolling! Hopefully the villagers have done some work without me, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I don't know if I'll make it into Niamey for Thanksgiving, we'll have to see how the bank is coming along. I should probably pick either thanksgiving or the COS party, as I haven't been in the village much lately. We're also down to less than a month till Mom & Dad come! It will be a lot of fun showing them around.

Wish me luck on the grain bank. I'll try to get the audio going. And that's all for now!

Zinder, Here I come!

Came in to Niamey for an FAO training on Farmer's Field Schools.  It seems a great program where farmers and gardeners get together and discuss what problems they're having and what solutions they can use.  Unfortunately, we really don't have time to implement it for gardening season this year.  We'll probably do a watered down version, which is kind of what they should be doing anyway.  Anyway, it's been a long three days.

As a highlight, I got to go to the Marine Birthday Ball last night with Alex and Alison.  It was great to go to a formal event here, we have some semi formal things like swear in, but nothing black tie. Granted I don't have a suit or anything so I wore Seabass's boubou (forgot mine in the bush).  There was great food, dancing, and an open bar, WOOT!  It was a good time.

Tonight at 4am I head out to Zinder.  It's about a 12 hour bus ride, so that will be fun.  At least its not a bush taxi.  And I'll have my omnipod with me, so I can listen to some music or watch a movie.  I'll be visiting foks out there, and talking with some about work.  Then friday, back here, and out to the bush again on sat.

It's going to be an incredibly busy next few months, what with the grain bank, seed distribution, visitors, christmas, moving, and training newbies.  I'm hoping to be one of the lucky few that gets to spend two weeks training the new group and eating great food back in Hamdalaye.  It will be great though, especially after the move to Icrisat!

So far I still have Tarzan, but Djibo says we need to sell him as he's to skittish to ride much.  I'm okay with that as I could use the money, and maybe I'll get a horse after the move. 

I'm going to try an audio blog, so I can inflict my voice upon you as well.  I can record entries in the bush on my omnipod, and then upload them for your listening pleasure. I'm still working out the technical details, but I'll keep you posted.

I think that's all I've got for now, but I'll try to post again friday night.