So long Niger...Kala Hanfo

So in case some of you did not hear, all Peace Corps Niger Volunteers were evacuated from Niger to Morocco, January 14-17 due to the kidnappings by a terrorist group that occurred in Niamey on January 7th. The two French men were executed in the attempted rescue attempt. Peace Corps made the decision that the country was not safe for volunteers at the time and so the program in Niger is temporarily suspended. Here is more information I randomly found online:

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Niger-Kidnappings-Show-Emboldened-Reach-of-al-Qaida-114127649.html

I received a call on Thursday morning from the security officer telling me that we were being evacuated and to pack all of my stuff. I had only been in my village for a short time and was just beginning to settle in so this came as a huge shock to me. I waited around all day and in the evening they called again to say that there would be a Peace Corps vehicle coming to get me in the morning. The next day we all met in Niamey and then waited until that evening to find out that we would be flying into Morocco the next morning, and to be ready at 4am. Everything happened so quickly I almost felt like we were just going on vacation to Morocco and that we would be back soon. I don’t think I realized until a couple of days ago that we were never going back to Niger.

After we were safely installed in Morocco, we took part in a week long transition conference in which we went through the process of officially COSing (Closing of Service). This means that as of yesterday, we are all now returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Unfortunately, for me and all of the other newbies, this doesn’t really give us many perks. Since there were so many of us the Peace Corps had a hard time placing us in other countries and there just weren’t enough spots available. Some people were able to directly transfer to other countries but most people are going back to the states to re-enroll. Re-enrollment is not the same as reapplying in that it’s quicker and this time we actually get some say in where we go and what we want to do. I have been told that most of the spots will be opening up between March and June so again, I really don’t know what is happening with my life. I have a few places in mind that I am interested in…the difficult part will be waiting around for an indefinite amount of time.

It’s really hard leaving the Peace Corps Niger friends that I have made. We’ve become like a family and it’s daunting to think that I will have to start all over again in a few months without them. I also learned Zarma and will never use that again haha. Stupid al-Qaida. Ay si ba gumo gumo. I ma koy nda si ka koyne.

My plan now is to fly out of Casablanca to Barcelona for a few days on Sunday and then I’m headed to Madrid for a few days after which I will be flying back to Ohio. I am excited to be going back to the states and will be so happy to see my family and friends, however, this is not what I had planned and I was just beginning to come to terms with the fact that I would be living in Niger for 2 years. Things were finally beginning to be set into motion. Oh well, kala suru.

So that is the gist of things…and the good news is that I’ve now been to Morocco and will be in Spain for awhile, and when I come back to Ohio I’m going to go snowboarding for the rest of the winter! (Maybe…we’ll see if I can handle the cold…I’m going to freeze!!!)

Once again...new phone number. Don't kill me.

Hey everyone! So the Peace Corps did something very smart and bought every peace corps volunteer and staff member in Niger a phone and we can all call and text each other for free! (Too bad I can't call home for free) So I now have another number which is a pain. Here is my new (and final?) number!

227 98 70 00 79

I just swore in today! We had our ceremony at the US ambassadors house which was on the Niger river and her yard had grass! I wanted to run around in it and then play baseball.

So I am now an official Peace Corps volunteer. Monday morning I am moving to my village. So, if anyone wants to call me, Monday night might be a good time to do it (I'll be all alone!) Ok I love you all Happy New Years!

P.S. Yesterday morning I received a package from my family and my best pal Mo and some letters :) Thank you everyone for your continuing support! God Bless.

Merry Christmas

Merry Belated Christmas! I hope everyone got what they wanted :)
All of us trainees spent Christmas eve on site which was nice because we were able to be together for the night. We ate a fabulous dinner of chicken, potatoes, sautéed vegetables, fruit and bread, and Phil was nice enough to share chocolate and Oreos with everyone. Christmas day we did a secret santa gift exchange between us 41 trainees. It was really fun and kind of made it feel a little more like Christmas. I got cookies, orange juice and some phone credit. I also taught some cool kids how to play Euchre so we have been killing time that way.

Unfortunately, despite some Christmas hope, none of us have received letters or packages for the last few weeks. This has been a pretty big bummer, but maybe we will get them soon. If you did send them, thank you so much and don’t worry, I will get them. Things here just run on Nigerien time. This is like my mom’s time, except 5,000 times worse Hahaha.

Site Placements

We found out where our villages are today! And for security reasons I am not allowed to post the name of it online but I am super excited! My permanent address is now officially the same as the one I have posted on this blog and on Facebook under my picture. So that should make it easy for everyone.
I do know that I am in a small village, kind of like the one I am in now. I have a one room hut with a newly built millet stalk concession and a new latrine. And my village has a health hut and a primary school.

I am also pretty pumped because our second LPI (Language placement interview) was last Monday and I managed to jump up two levels to Intermediate Mid which is where I need to be to swear in on the 30th. So I essentially already passed my final with over two weeks left. That is a huge load off my back and now I can just look forward to getting installed in my village and the swear- in ceremony at the embassy. I do have the final LPI but that is just to see how much I’ve Improved since the last one.

The first couple of weeks seemed like a lifetime, but since we left for language immersion time has flown by! (Sometimes though, the days are sooo slow) One of the things I’m looking forward to the most is getting my freedom back. It’s been kind of difficult not having control of what I eat and when I eat and having to tell my family where I’m going and if I’ll be back for lunch (and if I say I won’t they are not happy at all). I imagine it will be kind of lonely at first being the only American in my village and living all by myself, but I know I’ll make friends with the villagers… hopefully it won’t take too long.

Once I’m installed in my village I am not allowed to go anywhere for a month, after that I am allowed to to go into the regional capitol to do banking and shopping and such. We are allowed 4 days a month to travel and other than that if we want to go anywhere we either have to have some sort of work reason or take our vacation days (24 per year). After 3 months in village we are allowed to start using our vacation days to travel in or out of country or travel for work if we have permission.

So if anyone wants to visit me you can officially come beginning in March. However, that is when hot season begins and I’m pretty sure no one wants to be in this country between march and may (even the Nigeriens) It is like up to 140 degrees and it doesn’t cool off during the night. I am really not looking forward to that. But anyways, June-Oct would be a great time to have visitors. (I’m not saying Nov-Jan because I’m coming home for about 3 weeks next December for Christmas) So come on over. We can go see giraffes and hippos and ill teach you Zarma. So much fun!

I hate cockroaches.

So the other day when we got back from language immersion I was feeling pretty sweet because I passed my LPI and I was starting to feel like I was really getting the hang of the whole “living in Africa” thing. So I decided to use the latrine after dark, which I normally don’t do because of cockroaches. When I got inside there was only one cockroach so I decided to man up and pee anyway, keeping an eye on the little demon the whole time. He was only like a foot or two away from me and of course mid-pee he decides to charge at me. I of course screamed, jumped up, and tried to kill him, but he got away and I was left a mess and not at all pleased! Why did God invent cockroaches anyways?

Language Immersion

So this is just a quick note about language immersion. It was a long two weeks but it went pretty well No sickness at all, so our group was happy about that. Our days went like this: wake up, make tea and eat anasara nwari (white people food; we bought cornflakes and powdered milk) 2 hours of class under our shade hangar, break, 2 more hours of language, lunch, then our daily activities where we had to go into the village and do health and farm demonstrations and speak to people in Zarma. We pulled our own water from the well most days, and then we cooked our own dinner which was really nice. It was the first thing we’ve had control over since we got here. We made a lot of pasta and managed to make some great sauces. Some of the few things you can find in almost all the markets are little cans of tomato paste, garlic, oil, onions and peppers. We also made pancakes (more like tortillas) with cinnamon and sugar. They were delicious! I can honestly say that most of my idle thoughts are about food. Wendy’s, arbys, ice cream, meat without flies all over it, chicken salad. Basically I just dream about anything that isn’t rice, maca or millet.

Village life is wild. Most mornings we woke up to chickens, goats or sheep that somehow snuck into our concession and we’d have to make Abdul Razak chase them away. There was one momma chicken and her baby chicks that would always walk around like they owned the place. I really wanted to eat them.

Our language instructor thought we were speaking too much English with eachother so every night we had to sit with all the village men and farkaray (Converse). One of them asked if I was married and when I said no, he said I could take my pick of all the Tchede men. I respectfully declined, saying that I would be too expensive. Kim is apparently getting married to some 60 year old man but he is supposed to be bringing back 500 camels for her...but we have yet to see them, so I guess the wedding is off.

Also, we hit a cow on the way in. He veered in front of the truck and the car jerked foreword and then made this final lurch and I thought for sure we killed him but he ended up limping away. It was CRAZY.

So that’s all I have time for now…check back next week, I may have a chance to get online Sunday. Friday is site announcement too so I should know where my village is going to be for the next 2 years!!! So excited! xoxoxoxoxoxox

I have a phone. This is the bee's knees.

Good news!!! I finally got a cell phone so if anyone wants to call me I would be absolutely thrilled to receive some calls! The easiest/cheapest way I’ve heard is to buy either a phone card or but some minutes on Skype and call from your computer.

This is exactly what you have to dial from the states 011 227 98 700 079
*Some people say that whether or not you have to press 011 depends on if you call from skype or a phone and I don't know which is which so try them both)

***This is the updated phone number as of 12/30/2010