This will be the brief Parisian memo. :)
As we flew from Niger to Madagascar we sadly had to spend 28 hrs in the infamous city. I of course am not one to miss such a cultural opportunity and thus a day pass for the metro was purchased and a day (and night) in the city of lights was had. Did I do everything I wanted to? No. Did I have a kick booty time? Yes. I could go into details, but I'll save those for when I have more time and less tiredness.
I also strongly enjoyed a "real" bed, a "real" shower, and a indoor toilet sans lizards and chickens.
Currently I lay in bed getting ready to repack my bag and head to meet up with everyone and reboard the plane for a joyous 10-11hr flight down to our new home. That is our second new home in the past couple of months... odd!
So alas my lovely readers, until we shall meet again.
Matt aka Ali
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Memo 1
I would love to say that I have written epic long blog post for this rare moment where I find myself about to have internet access… I would love to say I have been keeping an in-depth and moving account of my experiences this far while in the Peace Corps in Niger. However, truth be told I find myself frantically typing this post on my computer the night before I head into Niamey. That is right, I have been here in Niger well over a month, and I am just now starting to chronicle my trip. (Well unless my family and Cole have been chronicling it for me on this blog, which as I type this I am unsure if they have been.)
So why have I waited? Why have I not been keeping a copious journal of all the sights and wonders? Well simply put I don’t know where to start… how does one describe a day in Niger in a way that a reader back home could even begin to describe… If I were to say I have seen +120 degree days… cockroaches that are huge… eat things you don’t even want to think about and use a squat toilet one might think I am in hell… If I were to say I sleep under the stars every night, see amazing sites daily, and am around the most amazingly nice people every day one might think I am in Heaven. In other words there is no way I can adequately put into words what I have experienced in the last month, however I shall try so bear with me!
Big News
For those of you who have not been in contact with my family and Cole I have some sad, but exciting news. On the 6th of December I will be leaving Niger and flying to Madagascar… and not for a vacation. It seems that although the people of Niger are amazingly nice, there are those who are not and due to repeated kidnapping incidents(or attempts) in the region Peace Corps has opted to send out stage to Madagascar to serve while the reassess the program in Niger. That is right everyone, I will not be a PC volunteer in Niger… so I guess this one entry will have to suffice as a explanation of my experience I had during my short time here!
Staging
My time in Philly was short, but sweet. On a funny note as I headed to Philly I was worried about my carry on being too big and that although I got it through this one time it might be an issue on the way home… then I realized that would be around 2 years from then so… yeah (comically I fly out this weekend sooo yeah…).
Staging was a lot of info coverage etc etc… myself and about 8 others hit up downtown Philly for… you guess it! Philly Cheesesteaks.. OMG I would kill for one right now btw… it was outstandingly amazing and quite huge! From there we spent the night adventuring at various bars.. it is very important for one to explore all venues available when visiting a new place. Needless to say we had good times and got back to the hotel very late. The next day was a day of shots and a bus ride to New York where we spent the day sitting in the Airport and flew out that night!
Flights
We flew from NYC to Paris and then from Paris to Niamey…. Yeah.. let me sum this part of the experience up briefly…. “AHHHHHH!!!! I HATE PLANES.” In all honesty it was not terrible, but I do dislike planes and this is not an experience I really want to revisit at an point in time.. oh wait…. Here soon I will fly from Niger to Paris to Madagascar.. more about this later!
Niger
This will be the deep and moving part of the blog. Prior to coming on this trip I spent a summer in Botswana working at a food project and a school. Prior to coming on this trip I thought I understood what poverty looks like. Prior to coming on this trip I was so beyond wrong it is not even funny. Niger has opened my eyes to a lot and as previously stated I can not really describe everything I have seen and done here. This country is not heaven, it is not overly pretty, it does not have the flora and fauna that other parts of Africa can claim.. it does not have gorgeous natural wonders like Victoria Falls or herds of elephants like Chobe. However, as I am forced to face the fact that very soon I will be saying goodbye to this place I can not help but fight tears.
When I first heard I was getting Niger as a post, I was nonplussed… where the hell was Niger? Then I did some reading and began to think Niger was hell… the Sahara Desert, lowest ranking on the U.N. list…. One of the 3 “hard corps” Peace Corps spots…. What was I getting myself into? However, I decided to stick it out.. to see it through.. I mean really, if my placement officer thought I had what it took then I had what it took right? Now, a month in I can say it is hot here, it is harsh, and it is home… in a few short days I will be boarding a plane and saying goodbye to Niger and that for a lack of better words, really really bites L. I do pray that some day I will find myself back in the Sahel. Inshallah
.
In retrospect that was neither overly deep or moving… told you I can’t put this all into words!
The Training Site
We spent the first couple of days at the Hamdy training center (fenced in area on a mesa outside of Hamdallye). We actually have spent a long time here, more on that later. It used to be all training was done at this site, however they now do CBT which is community based training. The training center is nice for a couple reasons: 1)flushing toilets and real showers 2)diverse food 3)lets us escape for awhile and feel a little less far from America.
My Host Family
Myself and another trainee, Mike, lived with a nice family on the outskirts of Hamdallye. Our hut, which I will get a picture of up on here at some point hopefully, was made of millet stalks with a millet stalk fenced in concession. This whole millet mansion sat in our family’s concession. We also had a separate bucket bath/squat toilet set up in a separate area of the concession. Our family was super nice and spoke both Hausa (the lang. we were learning) and Zharma… which at times did cause confusion as they would teach us both. As far as I can tell we had a mother and father and then 4 very interesting kids. I love kids, however I never had that many little kids in constant company and it was def. a patience learning activity.
Food
So what have I been eating? I can sum it up in afew words… rice, pasta, millet, sauce, beans, sweet potatoes… that pretty much sums it up…. I’m not kidding! For breakfast we had an allowance to buy food, I usually had Solani(sp?) which is a bag of yogurt.. so good! And Fari Masa which is white flour fried bread with sugar (also great with this spicey red sauce). For lunch it was usually rice and beans with lots of tonka (hot pepper.. ours was usually mixed with Maggi aka pure msgs! Yum!).. for supper it was either rice and sauce, pasta and sauce, tuwo (pate made of either corn, millet or rice) and sauce, or on one occasion sweet potatoes. Meat consisted of sheep or goat meat… I’ll leave it at that! All in all the food actually was not gross or hard to eat, it just was a tid bit redundant for someone who is used to being spoiled by the variety of foods found in the U.S.A.
Hamdallye
This is where most of our training took place and became home. It is a small village/city/place found about 40k outside of the capital (Niamey). I really do not know how to describe it. By American standards it was small, dirty, cramped and smelled odd. However, after living there and meeting the people and just taking it all in the village seemed “normal” (as long as one could avoid walking through fresh droppings or burning trash piles). Outside the village (right by my gida.. aka house) was a seasonal watery lake thingy where us trainees would often meet up and chill.. we also did a Halloween party there.. tres fun!
Demyst
Demyst is a time where trainees get to leave Hamdy and spend time with actual volunteers out in the field. Myself and Tom (another health volunteer) were slated to head to Sai (or Sia… hmm can’t remember how it is spelt).. but yes it is waaaaay down in the Gaya sub-region of Niger… let me explain how Niger looks again.. sand… sand… sand… thorny bush… sand.. flat… now let me explain the Gaya region… sand, palm tree, mango plantation, river….. you see the difference? AKA Gaya was gorgeous! We spent 2 days in Sai with a current volunteer and got to explore the town and see his work. From here we met up with two other trainees and headed down to Gaya city (right on the border with Benin) where we got to explore the city, see the river, and meet some volunteers from other countries.. there was a spot not far from Gaya opening up.. needless to say I wanted it super bad.. alas I won’t have it now.. buuuuuut it would have rocked! From Gaya we headed to Dosso (the regional capital) and had a Demyst party with all the other Dosso region trainees and some of the current volunteers at the Peace Corps hostels… overall demyst was awesome
Holidays
Halloween: We had a get together by the water, danced, played games, had an egg toss, and watched “Hocus Pocus.”
Thanksgiving: We had a huge meal lovingly made by fellow trainees… very yummy and made us miss home a little less. Sadly, we had just found out about leaving Niger so it was bitter sweet for us as we were very thankful for coming to Niger and knew we would be saying goodbye soon!
Tabaski: (Islamic holiday.. look it up) We spent the day visiting other families, seeing goats get sacrificed, eating a lot of innards and questionable meat. Overall it was cool it see another cultures big holiday!
Everything Changes
I have mentioned this a lot, but I will try to put this in perspective. I believe it was around the 15th of Nov. a group of individuals tried to kidnap American’s from a hotel in Niger… we were placed in stage 1: Steadfast.. aka don’t leave the village… then stage 2: Consolidation:all volunteers headed to their regional hostels.. we headed to the training site… we believed just for a short amount of time.. then other incidents occurred… things were going to have to change but we were staying.. then right before Thanksgiving the decision was reached that our stage will be going to Madagascar.. I’ve kind of covered my feelings on this already.. sadness but excitement!
Now What?!
So yes, my next update (lord knows when I will:P) will be from Madagascar where I will be a health trainee soon. We fly out Sunday night, have 28 hrs in Paris SCORE!, then head off! So wish me luck, ask my parents or Cole how I’m doing (or for my cell number if you want to call and say hi!) and write me letters once my new address is up!
Peace, Love, and Goats!
Matthew AKA Ali (oot I forgot to mention that is my name here!)
So why have I waited? Why have I not been keeping a copious journal of all the sights and wonders? Well simply put I don’t know where to start… how does one describe a day in Niger in a way that a reader back home could even begin to describe… If I were to say I have seen +120 degree days… cockroaches that are huge… eat things you don’t even want to think about and use a squat toilet one might think I am in hell… If I were to say I sleep under the stars every night, see amazing sites daily, and am around the most amazingly nice people every day one might think I am in Heaven. In other words there is no way I can adequately put into words what I have experienced in the last month, however I shall try so bear with me!
Big News
For those of you who have not been in contact with my family and Cole I have some sad, but exciting news. On the 6th of December I will be leaving Niger and flying to Madagascar… and not for a vacation. It seems that although the people of Niger are amazingly nice, there are those who are not and due to repeated kidnapping incidents(or attempts) in the region Peace Corps has opted to send out stage to Madagascar to serve while the reassess the program in Niger. That is right everyone, I will not be a PC volunteer in Niger… so I guess this one entry will have to suffice as a explanation of my experience I had during my short time here!
Staging
My time in Philly was short, but sweet. On a funny note as I headed to Philly I was worried about my carry on being too big and that although I got it through this one time it might be an issue on the way home… then I realized that would be around 2 years from then so… yeah (comically I fly out this weekend sooo yeah…).
Staging was a lot of info coverage etc etc… myself and about 8 others hit up downtown Philly for… you guess it! Philly Cheesesteaks.. OMG I would kill for one right now btw… it was outstandingly amazing and quite huge! From there we spent the night adventuring at various bars.. it is very important for one to explore all venues available when visiting a new place. Needless to say we had good times and got back to the hotel very late. The next day was a day of shots and a bus ride to New York where we spent the day sitting in the Airport and flew out that night!
Flights
We flew from NYC to Paris and then from Paris to Niamey…. Yeah.. let me sum this part of the experience up briefly…. “AHHHHHH!!!! I HATE PLANES.” In all honesty it was not terrible, but I do dislike planes and this is not an experience I really want to revisit at an point in time.. oh wait…. Here soon I will fly from Niger to Paris to Madagascar.. more about this later!
Niger
This will be the deep and moving part of the blog. Prior to coming on this trip I spent a summer in Botswana working at a food project and a school. Prior to coming on this trip I thought I understood what poverty looks like. Prior to coming on this trip I was so beyond wrong it is not even funny. Niger has opened my eyes to a lot and as previously stated I can not really describe everything I have seen and done here. This country is not heaven, it is not overly pretty, it does not have the flora and fauna that other parts of Africa can claim.. it does not have gorgeous natural wonders like Victoria Falls or herds of elephants like Chobe. However, as I am forced to face the fact that very soon I will be saying goodbye to this place I can not help but fight tears.
When I first heard I was getting Niger as a post, I was nonplussed… where the hell was Niger? Then I did some reading and began to think Niger was hell… the Sahara Desert, lowest ranking on the U.N. list…. One of the 3 “hard corps” Peace Corps spots…. What was I getting myself into? However, I decided to stick it out.. to see it through.. I mean really, if my placement officer thought I had what it took then I had what it took right? Now, a month in I can say it is hot here, it is harsh, and it is home… in a few short days I will be boarding a plane and saying goodbye to Niger and that for a lack of better words, really really bites L. I do pray that some day I will find myself back in the Sahel. Inshallah
.
In retrospect that was neither overly deep or moving… told you I can’t put this all into words!
The Training Site
We spent the first couple of days at the Hamdy training center (fenced in area on a mesa outside of Hamdallye). We actually have spent a long time here, more on that later. It used to be all training was done at this site, however they now do CBT which is community based training. The training center is nice for a couple reasons: 1)flushing toilets and real showers 2)diverse food 3)lets us escape for awhile and feel a little less far from America.
My Host Family
Myself and another trainee, Mike, lived with a nice family on the outskirts of Hamdallye. Our hut, which I will get a picture of up on here at some point hopefully, was made of millet stalks with a millet stalk fenced in concession. This whole millet mansion sat in our family’s concession. We also had a separate bucket bath/squat toilet set up in a separate area of the concession. Our family was super nice and spoke both Hausa (the lang. we were learning) and Zharma… which at times did cause confusion as they would teach us both. As far as I can tell we had a mother and father and then 4 very interesting kids. I love kids, however I never had that many little kids in constant company and it was def. a patience learning activity.
Food
So what have I been eating? I can sum it up in afew words… rice, pasta, millet, sauce, beans, sweet potatoes… that pretty much sums it up…. I’m not kidding! For breakfast we had an allowance to buy food, I usually had Solani(sp?) which is a bag of yogurt.. so good! And Fari Masa which is white flour fried bread with sugar (also great with this spicey red sauce). For lunch it was usually rice and beans with lots of tonka (hot pepper.. ours was usually mixed with Maggi aka pure msgs! Yum!).. for supper it was either rice and sauce, pasta and sauce, tuwo (pate made of either corn, millet or rice) and sauce, or on one occasion sweet potatoes. Meat consisted of sheep or goat meat… I’ll leave it at that! All in all the food actually was not gross or hard to eat, it just was a tid bit redundant for someone who is used to being spoiled by the variety of foods found in the U.S.A.
Hamdallye
This is where most of our training took place and became home. It is a small village/city/place found about 40k outside of the capital (Niamey). I really do not know how to describe it. By American standards it was small, dirty, cramped and smelled odd. However, after living there and meeting the people and just taking it all in the village seemed “normal” (as long as one could avoid walking through fresh droppings or burning trash piles). Outside the village (right by my gida.. aka house) was a seasonal watery lake thingy where us trainees would often meet up and chill.. we also did a Halloween party there.. tres fun!
Demyst
Demyst is a time where trainees get to leave Hamdy and spend time with actual volunteers out in the field. Myself and Tom (another health volunteer) were slated to head to Sai (or Sia… hmm can’t remember how it is spelt).. but yes it is waaaaay down in the Gaya sub-region of Niger… let me explain how Niger looks again.. sand… sand… sand… thorny bush… sand.. flat… now let me explain the Gaya region… sand, palm tree, mango plantation, river….. you see the difference? AKA Gaya was gorgeous! We spent 2 days in Sai with a current volunteer and got to explore the town and see his work. From here we met up with two other trainees and headed down to Gaya city (right on the border with Benin) where we got to explore the city, see the river, and meet some volunteers from other countries.. there was a spot not far from Gaya opening up.. needless to say I wanted it super bad.. alas I won’t have it now.. buuuuuut it would have rocked! From Gaya we headed to Dosso (the regional capital) and had a Demyst party with all the other Dosso region trainees and some of the current volunteers at the Peace Corps hostels… overall demyst was awesome
Holidays
Halloween: We had a get together by the water, danced, played games, had an egg toss, and watched “Hocus Pocus.”
Thanksgiving: We had a huge meal lovingly made by fellow trainees… very yummy and made us miss home a little less. Sadly, we had just found out about leaving Niger so it was bitter sweet for us as we were very thankful for coming to Niger and knew we would be saying goodbye soon!
Tabaski: (Islamic holiday.. look it up) We spent the day visiting other families, seeing goats get sacrificed, eating a lot of innards and questionable meat. Overall it was cool it see another cultures big holiday!
Everything Changes
I have mentioned this a lot, but I will try to put this in perspective. I believe it was around the 15th of Nov. a group of individuals tried to kidnap American’s from a hotel in Niger… we were placed in stage 1: Steadfast.. aka don’t leave the village… then stage 2: Consolidation:all volunteers headed to their regional hostels.. we headed to the training site… we believed just for a short amount of time.. then other incidents occurred… things were going to have to change but we were staying.. then right before Thanksgiving the decision was reached that our stage will be going to Madagascar.. I’ve kind of covered my feelings on this already.. sadness but excitement!
Now What?!
So yes, my next update (lord knows when I will:P) will be from Madagascar where I will be a health trainee soon. We fly out Sunday night, have 28 hrs in Paris SCORE!, then head off! So wish me luck, ask my parents or Cole how I’m doing (or for my cell number if you want to call and say hi!) and write me letters once my new address is up!
Peace, Love, and Goats!
Matthew AKA Ali (oot I forgot to mention that is my name here!)
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