Fonda Farkaray!

So the entry I already posted was just a summary of the main things that I thought people would want to hear about right away, and I would like to make a real blog with accounts of my daily activites….unfortunately, I live in a hut…so that’s not gonna happen. So I will continue to write when I can and hopefully my thoughts and accounts are not too scattered.
So week three has now passed and I feel pretty happy to have made it this far, and without any illnesses either (knock on wood) . And for those of you who are worried about safety and security I thought I would let you know that almost all of the problems occur in the more northern parts of Niger and we are not even allowed to travel there. I feel very safe here and so far Nigeriens have been incredibly friendly and welcoming. I will also feel much happier when we receive our cell phones.
Also, to address those of you who assumed that I would come back super tan let me just say that 99% of the time I am avoiding the sun like the plague. It’s kind of hot. Also Nigerien women do not show their shoulders or knees and if we want to fully integrate and not attract too much attention we need to dress modestly. Which really sucks quite a bit because I love shorts. I really love shorts.
Food: As a Kacsandi I feel as though it is my duty to fully address the topic of food here in Niger. Lets see….the staple food here is millet which is actually a seed that people in the states put in their bird feed, but here it is pounded for hours and hours a day (by the women of course because they work their butts off) then they usually boil the pounded grain and eat it as a mush with sauce or they mix it with milk and sugar which is called doonu. This is something that they eat a lot and since it is liquidy and makes their bellies feel full a lot of people think that it’s all they need despite there is a very small amount of nutritional value. Rice is also eaten alllooooot here, sometimes with beans which I am a big fan of although it gets tiring after awhile. Wealthier families are the ones who will buy beef or goat meat sometimes chicken, and put vegetables in their sauces. I really don’t think people understand nutritional needs at all here, which is one of the main reasons 75% of the children here have the classic protruding bellies like you see on TV. My life is literally right out of National Geographic.
Today I took my first bush taxi ride. I don’t really feel like there’s a good way to explain it…you just have to experience it for yourself…but I’ll try. So a PCT (peace corps trainee) Alison and I stayed for 3 days with a girl named Sara and we got to see the life of a real live Peace Corps Volunteer who lives in a village in Dosso. This morning we stood in the back of an open back truck with about 20 people, luggage, and 3 goats with very pointy horns. This wasn’t that bad in itself it was the stopping and going and potholes that were a pain in the bootay. But we caught another taxi in a different village which was a van so that was better. However, if you’re in a bush taxi and you think there is no possible way they can fit another person into the cab, they will fit three more. It’s kind of amazing really. One row of this van that was supposed to fit 3 people MAX had 4 men and two children. Wild.
Hmm let’s see what else about my life is interesting…..Apparently there are hippos and elephants and giraffes in the region I am in. Some of the volunteers saw elephants but I wasn’t so lucky  I will soon though! There’s a Parc National Du Niger that I’ll make it to eventually. Oh, and yesterday I carried a bucket of water on my head, which is harder than it looks!
Now that we are done with Demyst we go back to the training site and continue our language and other training then the next major thing we have will be our first language interview (essentially our midterm) and then we will spend 2 weeks in a different village with our language trainer for “language immersion” which I am not looking forward to, but I’m sure we’ll survive.
I wrote this post really quickly because I wanted to get it up so I’ll probably add on and edit it later so don’t judge ;) And I will try to post pictures soon but I’m leaving to go back to site now so I won’t be able to get online for maybe a week or two.
Thanks for all the wonderful facebook posts… those and letters and packages make me so happy I can’t even explain!