i was sitting with my friend mark the other night just keepin' cool late in the evening drinking tea and having a good 'ol fashioned sing a long. we were teaching some of the neighborhood kids some americana tunes like "this little light of mine" and "you are my sunshine." there's something really endearing about hearing a west african 12-year-old mumble, "i'ma leddit shahn," in response. it was a pretty cool night as west africa goes, a storm was about to roll in and turn the normally dusty streets into rivers of mud, water and refuse. but then it was windy and refreshing. we'd been watching some of the other kids playing hand clap games and got to talking about some of the games we'd played when we were kids: red rover, ring around the rosie and duck duck goose. we were having a blast reminiscing.
"wanna teach 'em how to play duck duck goose?" mark asked me after a pregnant pause.
"yeah. yeah i do."
we gathered the 5 or 6 of them up, we sat cross legged in a circle and mark translated the rules into french. somewhere along the way the translation got muddled into "goose goose duck." it didn't seem to matter. mark and i played goose goose duck with the neighborhood kids in the dust of the street. we would sit, crouched over our feet until we got ducked and then spring up and tear around the circle, falling over our big kid legs and generally having a blast.
a half hour later, covered in dust, sweat and whatever else was in the street that day i brushed the dirt off my pants and sat down. it was the most fun i've had since i've been in the country and it was right then that i knew what I'd suspected through bouts of homesickness and gi issues: peace corps niger is freakin' sweet.
my time is running short here at the cyber cafe in the capital city of niamey so I hope that little vignette of life here can stave off the worryings of my mom, dad and all you other faithful readers. the letters i've gotten have really been cool. keep 'em coming. even if you don't have anything to say it's still fun to have news from the other side of the world.
apologies for not being able to update this here blog as much as i'd like. the peace corps has made a point of limiting our contact with the states in an effort to fight homesickness. it's obnoxious but necessary i suppose. i'll be able to come into the capitol city once a week so expect updates when i do. but i make no guarantees. if there's one thing i've learned and learned quickly it's that you can't expect anything in Niger to happen according to plan. just gotta go with the flow as it were.
for those of you in the mood to send stuff to a kid cut off from all those american goodies, here's a wish list:
-Music CDs. i gotta keep my hipster cred up, y'know. mix cds are sweet, but any mp3 cd'd be sweet. the more the merrier.
-dried fruit
-candy
-coffee (anything better than nescafe would be welcome!)
-pictures of stuff goin' on back home
-non sequiturs (i love a good laugh, y'know)
-anything else you can fathom
i gotta cut this post short. much love from here in NIger and i'll be in touch as soon as i can.
kris
Friday, August 25, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
is it different where you are, a xanadu or shang ri la
i'm alive!
yes, believe it or not this scrawny, white bred kid from the middle of the country has managed to survive more than two weeks in the poorest, hottest country in the world. high five. needless to say it has been a sincerely mind-blowing experience over the last few weeks and no blog post, I fear, could sum it all up in a few concise paragraphs. i'm gonna do my best to paint a picture of what life is like here but suffice it to say i'll only be shaving the tip of the ice berg.
we landed in niamey, niger's capitol city, after a long flight from jfk international east to charles de gaul in paris and finally south to niamey. the air france stewardesses were bitter, cold and rude as would be expected but it's hard to be annoyed since they're so darn cute. the trip was full of most of the obnoxiousness of long flights: cramped seating, lackluster food and a big dude who farts a lot, but it could have been worse. we did get to watch v for vendetta which was six kinds of cool. we were driven from the airport to the peace corps training site in a village a half-hour away. the training compound is really pretty nice by nigeriens standards: electricity by generator, indoor plumbing in the latrines and showers, security lights and a large chain link fence protected by barbed wire and a few guards. in my more cynical moods it conjures up images of a "gitmo" for liberal, college educated hippies. the training compound is where myself and the 41 other volunteers in training will be spending the next two months in language training, cultural sensitivity education, safety and security issues and medical info training. it's a lot like an adult summer camp in some respects. it's just that instead of making dream catchers with popsicle sticks and colored yarn we're learning how to avoid cerebral malaria. fun stuff
After a few days of jetlagged hell spent staying up at the peace corps training compound in a town just outside Niamey they moved us down into the village paired up with host country national host families. it's there that life started to get interesting. in the host families we've really become aware of just what we 42 volunteers have gotten ourselves into. life in niger is different. very different. duh. it's a third world country in western africa. we're paired up with another volunteer and our host family where we'll stay for the majority of our training. david and I arrived in our compound the first day and actually felt very at home. our host brother is super chill and is all about helping us learn hausa, the local language. the living arrangements are primitive but more than doable. within our family's compound the peace corps has built a mud hut with a thatched roof. attached is a sort of yard surrounded by a mud wall that houses our beds. the heat in niger pretty much requires us to sleep outside with a mosquito net except when it rains. this is fine by me as the the starscape out here is unlike any i've ever seen. truly incredible.
the food is often times like i expected, rice and vegetable sauce. it's not the most appetizing stuff in the world, but it's filling. we've eaten pretty well over the last few weeks since the villagers have been rolling out the red carpet for the anasaras (white people). In the last few days we've been treated to egg salad and mutton, a helluva treat. the custom here is to eat communally around a large plate ... using your hands. it's like being in preschool again. thankfully it's also a custom for people sharing a plate to wash their hands in front of one another.
as for bathing, also not a big deal. with no running water we bathe with a bucket, a cup and a bar of soap. it's a refreshing way to start the day, but i've taken to taking mine in the afternoons after the water's warmed up in the sun. standards of cleanliness, though, have been quickly going out the window. deodorant is already a thing of the past and i've taken to avoiding underwear when possible. the logic of this was explained to me by another volunteer. "Underwear is only making a part of your body that's inherently hot and sweaty even more hot and sweaty." the man has a point. and that's probably more information than y'all wanted to know.
like i said, it's impossible to sum up everything that has gone on the last few weeks in the half-hour or so i have to write this. hopefully my pictures, which are coming soon, will be able to paint a better picture. just know that i'm doing fine and having a blast. i won't say i'm not homesick for you all, because i am. but the people of the peace corps training staff and the nigeriens nationwide have been nothing but open and generous since the second we stepped off the plane. i'm asking myself daily if i'm cut out for this whole shebang and then i look around our training classes and realize there are 41 other people asking themselves the same question. i can take solace in that. i hope to be in touch in another two weeks or so when i have the chance to get into niamey and use an internet cafe but until then, please, write me letters and/or send care packages. any little piece of home helps. i love you all and i'll see you when i get back.
holla.
yes, believe it or not this scrawny, white bred kid from the middle of the country has managed to survive more than two weeks in the poorest, hottest country in the world. high five. needless to say it has been a sincerely mind-blowing experience over the last few weeks and no blog post, I fear, could sum it all up in a few concise paragraphs. i'm gonna do my best to paint a picture of what life is like here but suffice it to say i'll only be shaving the tip of the ice berg.
we landed in niamey, niger's capitol city, after a long flight from jfk international east to charles de gaul in paris and finally south to niamey. the air france stewardesses were bitter, cold and rude as would be expected but it's hard to be annoyed since they're so darn cute. the trip was full of most of the obnoxiousness of long flights: cramped seating, lackluster food and a big dude who farts a lot, but it could have been worse. we did get to watch v for vendetta which was six kinds of cool. we were driven from the airport to the peace corps training site in a village a half-hour away. the training compound is really pretty nice by nigeriens standards: electricity by generator, indoor plumbing in the latrines and showers, security lights and a large chain link fence protected by barbed wire and a few guards. in my more cynical moods it conjures up images of a "gitmo" for liberal, college educated hippies. the training compound is where myself and the 41 other volunteers in training will be spending the next two months in language training, cultural sensitivity education, safety and security issues and medical info training. it's a lot like an adult summer camp in some respects. it's just that instead of making dream catchers with popsicle sticks and colored yarn we're learning how to avoid cerebral malaria. fun stuff
After a few days of jetlagged hell spent staying up at the peace corps training compound in a town just outside Niamey they moved us down into the village paired up with host country national host families. it's there that life started to get interesting. in the host families we've really become aware of just what we 42 volunteers have gotten ourselves into. life in niger is different. very different. duh. it's a third world country in western africa. we're paired up with another volunteer and our host family where we'll stay for the majority of our training. david and I arrived in our compound the first day and actually felt very at home. our host brother is super chill and is all about helping us learn hausa, the local language. the living arrangements are primitive but more than doable. within our family's compound the peace corps has built a mud hut with a thatched roof. attached is a sort of yard surrounded by a mud wall that houses our beds. the heat in niger pretty much requires us to sleep outside with a mosquito net except when it rains. this is fine by me as the the starscape out here is unlike any i've ever seen. truly incredible.
the food is often times like i expected, rice and vegetable sauce. it's not the most appetizing stuff in the world, but it's filling. we've eaten pretty well over the last few weeks since the villagers have been rolling out the red carpet for the anasaras (white people). In the last few days we've been treated to egg salad and mutton, a helluva treat. the custom here is to eat communally around a large plate ... using your hands. it's like being in preschool again. thankfully it's also a custom for people sharing a plate to wash their hands in front of one another.
as for bathing, also not a big deal. with no running water we bathe with a bucket, a cup and a bar of soap. it's a refreshing way to start the day, but i've taken to taking mine in the afternoons after the water's warmed up in the sun. standards of cleanliness, though, have been quickly going out the window. deodorant is already a thing of the past and i've taken to avoiding underwear when possible. the logic of this was explained to me by another volunteer. "Underwear is only making a part of your body that's inherently hot and sweaty even more hot and sweaty." the man has a point. and that's probably more information than y'all wanted to know.
like i said, it's impossible to sum up everything that has gone on the last few weeks in the half-hour or so i have to write this. hopefully my pictures, which are coming soon, will be able to paint a better picture. just know that i'm doing fine and having a blast. i won't say i'm not homesick for you all, because i am. but the people of the peace corps training staff and the nigeriens nationwide have been nothing but open and generous since the second we stepped off the plane. i'm asking myself daily if i'm cut out for this whole shebang and then i look around our training classes and realize there are 41 other people asking themselves the same question. i can take solace in that. i hope to be in touch in another two weeks or so when i have the chance to get into niamey and use an internet cafe but until then, please, write me letters and/or send care packages. any little piece of home helps. i love you all and i'll see you when i get back.
holla.
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