so sorry about the snafu with the recent blog post. who knew that internet connections in the sahel would be unreliable?
i'm gonna keep this blog post short. not because i don't have anything to say but because there's way too much of it to lay down. tomorrow is the swearing-in ceremony for the newest stage in peace corps niger (that's me). it's a big deal. four to five hundred people show up including nearly all of the hundred and twenty volunteers currently in country. it's a mess. it's overwhelming. it's exciting. it's, well, you get the idea.
last night was the start of the festivities surrounding swear-in week. the american embassy has a large rec center and the peace corps rented it out for the bi-annual 'gender and development' auction - an internal fundraising event to raise money for peace corps projects having to deal with, you guessed it, gender and development. it's a huge event with most of the volunteers coming in for silent and live auctions. it's a big party but it raises a lot of money.
normally the day between the gad auction and swear-in (which is tomorrow) wouldn't be a big thing. this year's different. with this year being rammadan concessions have had to be made. it's a 99% muslim country after all. normally the official ceremony with all the national big wigs and oath taking and such would be followed by a huge dinner and massive party with every volunteer in country. since it would be slightly inappropriate to drink beer and eat pork in front of people observing one of the pillars of islam we're ... havin' a bar-be-que! the current volunteers pooled money, bought a ton of meat including beef, chicken and (rumored) camel and are throwing us newbies a party at the peace corps hostel in niamey.
then tomorrow is the actual ceremony. we'll take the oath any state department employee takes, hop on a bus back to the training site and enjoy the last day our stage will have to be all together. it's exciting.
so that's what i've been up to. y'know. nothing too major.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
there is a road that meets the road that leads to my house
[editor's note]
this post was originally supposed to appear last friday but the information super highway opted to bite me in the butt. much apologies for leavin' y'all hanging
you'll have to forgive me for the superficiality of this post. but what're you supposed to say when the life you've known for 23 years is flipped utterly topsy turvy, thrown into an off balance washing machine and set to spin?
last week i spent my first nights in the village i will be calling home for the next two years. i got back into niamey on tuesday, and have even had interweb access since then, but haven't known where to start. here it is, friday, and i still don't know where to start.
but start i will with some fun details:
1. my village is among the most beautiful places i have ever been. it's five k off the main road. yep. five k. that means that the ways to get to my village are: ox cart, donkey cart, bush taxi, or, my favorite, foot. it's a beautiful walk through bright white sand over small, rolling hills. right know the millet (a grain that kinda grows like corn) is super tall which makes everything very green and as you walk along you can see the dry river bed and mesas off in the distance. my village is situated on similar hills and is picture perfect. i have trees too. tons of them. all decades old, too, which means a lot of shade (a premium here in niger).
2. my house is just as perfect as my village. my concession, a word used here to mean house/compound.yard/basically whatever you call home, is a good size, not too big, not too small. my latrine (read, private hole in the ground) is spacious and has really tall walls (another luxury). i have an enormous tree that shades the majority of my yard for the entire day. again, another bush premium.
3. my closest neighbor kelly is great. my neighbor in the market town is also very cool. he has an electric fan. in a word: glorious.
4. my team mates in konni are great. it's a smaller team which is going to be a perfect fit for me. they're very driven volunteers but also know how to have fun and laugh at some of the absurdities that come with life here. one volunteer even went to k-state and studied photojournalism. the other night she and i hung out after dinner and geeked out on phototalk for a while. life is sweet.
5. pre-service training is almost over. this is huge. after spending two months atop a hill with the same people for most of the day, you start to fiend for a little me-time. this isn't to say it hasn't been great. i said at the start of this whole shebang how excited i was to meet the crazy folk who'd be willing to give themselves over for two years. i've made some great friends out here and i'm gonna miss seeing them, but it's time to have my village with my house and my villagers. it's that whole american individualism thing.
like i said, sorry if this post is so superficial. suffice it to say this has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life filled with a million and half new experiences.
man alive i wish this post wasn't so over the top, but hey, i'm still in the idealistic-everything's new-holy crap-my life rules-stage. dispatches to follow. much love to those of you homeside. i'll hollah at you in a couple days if i can hopefully.
p.s. i'll officially be a peace corps volunteer in just under a week.
this post was originally supposed to appear last friday but the information super highway opted to bite me in the butt. much apologies for leavin' y'all hanging
you'll have to forgive me for the superficiality of this post. but what're you supposed to say when the life you've known for 23 years is flipped utterly topsy turvy, thrown into an off balance washing machine and set to spin?
last week i spent my first nights in the village i will be calling home for the next two years. i got back into niamey on tuesday, and have even had interweb access since then, but haven't known where to start. here it is, friday, and i still don't know where to start.
but start i will with some fun details:
1. my village is among the most beautiful places i have ever been. it's five k off the main road. yep. five k. that means that the ways to get to my village are: ox cart, donkey cart, bush taxi, or, my favorite, foot. it's a beautiful walk through bright white sand over small, rolling hills. right know the millet (a grain that kinda grows like corn) is super tall which makes everything very green and as you walk along you can see the dry river bed and mesas off in the distance. my village is situated on similar hills and is picture perfect. i have trees too. tons of them. all decades old, too, which means a lot of shade (a premium here in niger).
2. my house is just as perfect as my village. my concession, a word used here to mean house/compound.yard/basically whatever you call home, is a good size, not too big, not too small. my latrine (read, private hole in the ground) is spacious and has really tall walls (another luxury). i have an enormous tree that shades the majority of my yard for the entire day. again, another bush premium.
3. my closest neighbor kelly is great. my neighbor in the market town is also very cool. he has an electric fan. in a word: glorious.
4. my team mates in konni are great. it's a smaller team which is going to be a perfect fit for me. they're very driven volunteers but also know how to have fun and laugh at some of the absurdities that come with life here. one volunteer even went to k-state and studied photojournalism. the other night she and i hung out after dinner and geeked out on phototalk for a while. life is sweet.
5. pre-service training is almost over. this is huge. after spending two months atop a hill with the same people for most of the day, you start to fiend for a little me-time. this isn't to say it hasn't been great. i said at the start of this whole shebang how excited i was to meet the crazy folk who'd be willing to give themselves over for two years. i've made some great friends out here and i'm gonna miss seeing them, but it's time to have my village with my house and my villagers. it's that whole american individualism thing.
like i said, sorry if this post is so superficial. suffice it to say this has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life filled with a million and half new experiences.
man alive i wish this post wasn't so over the top, but hey, i'm still in the idealistic-everything's new-holy crap-my life rules-stage. dispatches to follow. much love to those of you homeside. i'll hollah at you in a couple days if i can hopefully.
p.s. i'll officially be a peace corps volunteer in just under a week.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
where the hell ya goin at a thousand feet per second
at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning i'll be hopping a charter bus to konni. i've spent the last few weeks in a very temporary home and now it's time to move on to a slightly less temporary home. i'm excited. really excited. i've been excited about this whole peace corps thing for years and now it's finally here.
this week'll be a series of firsts. my first bus trip from niamey to konni. my first party with my new team mates. my first bush taxi ride from konni to my market town. my first hour-long trek from the road to my village. my first round of greetings with my new neighbors. my first night under the stars in my home. my first night alone surrounded by no one who speaks my native language. it's scary. awesomelly scary. scarily awesome? something like that.
it's not like i don't have any experience bouncin' around. you grow up in the air force you get used to pulling up roots. once, when i was working on a family tree project in middle school, my mom and i counted thirteen houses we'd received mail at. this was when i was twelve. i've never really known the idea of home the way most people do. sure, i spent a lot of time in nebraska but it was still never home. there was always something on the horizon that kept it from being too permanent. and now here i am in west africa about to move into a mud hut. in some strange way it all seems to make sense.
reminds of the story about my last night in nebraska. my folks and i went out to dinner at a steak house in lincoln. towards the end of dinner when we were all full up on red meat and vanilla porter my mom asked me a strange question.
'is it weird that i'm not freaked out about you moving to africa?'
'no mom,' i said, 'in fact it's awesome. you have no idea how easy this is knowing you're cool with it.
then she said perhaps the coolest thing any mom could say to her son on the eve of him galavanting off to the developing world for two years. 'maybe i should be freaked out, but, y'know, this really just seems like a logical step for you. it's just not that strange.'
my mom rocks.
so that's what's been on my mind the last couple days. that and i'm thinking about buying a camel. updates on the dromedary to follow.
also. getting letters and packages is six kinds of awesome when you're on the other side of the planet, so if you feel so inclined send any and all love (or freezedried fruit and velveeta) to my new address at:
Kris Kolden, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 89
Konni, Niger
West Africa
with much love to all my homies in the land of milk and honey with special congrats to Jillian on her nuptials, Alyssa on getting out of Nebraska, my brother on his first apartment, my sister on her flying skills, Andrew on drinking beer in Wisconsin (and helping people while he's at it). also mad props to everyone else keepin' it real.
i'll have a post for y'all in a couple days. 'til then, stay cool.
this week'll be a series of firsts. my first bus trip from niamey to konni. my first party with my new team mates. my first bush taxi ride from konni to my market town. my first hour-long trek from the road to my village. my first round of greetings with my new neighbors. my first night under the stars in my home. my first night alone surrounded by no one who speaks my native language. it's scary. awesomelly scary. scarily awesome? something like that.
it's not like i don't have any experience bouncin' around. you grow up in the air force you get used to pulling up roots. once, when i was working on a family tree project in middle school, my mom and i counted thirteen houses we'd received mail at. this was when i was twelve. i've never really known the idea of home the way most people do. sure, i spent a lot of time in nebraska but it was still never home. there was always something on the horizon that kept it from being too permanent. and now here i am in west africa about to move into a mud hut. in some strange way it all seems to make sense.
reminds of the story about my last night in nebraska. my folks and i went out to dinner at a steak house in lincoln. towards the end of dinner when we were all full up on red meat and vanilla porter my mom asked me a strange question.
'is it weird that i'm not freaked out about you moving to africa?'
'no mom,' i said, 'in fact it's awesome. you have no idea how easy this is knowing you're cool with it.
then she said perhaps the coolest thing any mom could say to her son on the eve of him galavanting off to the developing world for two years. 'maybe i should be freaked out, but, y'know, this really just seems like a logical step for you. it's just not that strange.'
my mom rocks.
so that's what's been on my mind the last couple days. that and i'm thinking about buying a camel. updates on the dromedary to follow.
also. getting letters and packages is six kinds of awesome when you're on the other side of the planet, so if you feel so inclined send any and all love (or freezedried fruit and velveeta) to my new address at:
Kris Kolden, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 89
Konni, Niger
West Africa
with much love to all my homies in the land of milk and honey with special congrats to Jillian on her nuptials, Alyssa on getting out of Nebraska, my brother on his first apartment, my sister on her flying skills, Andrew on drinking beer in Wisconsin (and helping people while he's at it). also mad props to everyone else keepin' it real.
i'll have a post for y'all in a couple days. 'til then, stay cool.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
i was on the highway.
| know something!
After a month and a half of being in the peace corps purgatory of preservice preparation i've got my site announcement! I know where I'll be spending the next two years of my life and good lord, lemme tell you, it feels awesome. friday was a mighty long day. we had language class in the morning, which is becoming ever tedious, and then spent the rest of the day sitting around waiting for the powers that be to decide our fate.
the peeps in charge of the 6 or so regions here in niger all got together in front of the waiting horde of trainees. ive never seen a more anxious group of people in my life. hell, ill admit, i was a wreck. you gotta understand, weve been living in someone elses household and training with the same group of people all day every day. dammit, were ready to go! to get our announcements this guy mike would play a snippit of song on his ipod and we had to play name that tune. a handful of songs went by: a little macy gray, some gNr, led zeppelin. i knew most of 'em but it took the super funk of james brown's 'get on up' for me to snag my announcement. i couldn't have asked for a more fitting tune.
so details details details.
everyone grab your google maps cuz here we go. im being posted in the Konni region about an hour and a half east of the city of Konni. the most exciting thing about the whole situation is that ill be opening a new village. the peace corps typically does three rounds of volunteers per village so a lot of times new volunteers are placed where someone has already been. a lot of times this means that the village will expect you to be just like the volunteer before you. i get to start completely fresh with no preconceptions. it's awesome.
my village has about 4000 people in it, mostly of Hausa speakers (the language im learning). i'm gonna be off the beaten path a fair amount, at least an hour's walk away from the nearest gravel road. but hey, i didn't join the peace corps to be coddled, right. from what i'm told the village is reall cool with a lot of large, old trees. it sounds super photogenic. my nearest neighbor is a girl from my training class. she's super cool, totally laid back, everything you'd want in a neighbor.
my regional team seems really cool. it's a team of about 20, so it's not too big. everyone i've met seems very relaxed and friendly. i'm told that the team is very tight knit and that they all work really well together which is great for group projects and such. when all's said and done i couldn't possibly be more excited. i've also heard rumors that there is a missionary family from nebraska near where i'm posted. i've also heard rumors that the family has high speed internet access. even more rumored is the family's affinity for nebraska football. needless to say i'm stoked.
so yeah, nothing too deep or introspective this time around. i'll be going out to my village later this week to kinda introduce myself and hang out for a couple days. i'll get a chance to meet the head honchos in the village as well as spend some time in Konni getting to know my team mates. After that it's two weeks of training and then the official swear-in ceremony at the US ambassador's house. pretty exciting stuff.
even more exciting than that? before coming to this here interweb cafe i was custom fitted for my bou bou. yep. a bou bou. it's royal blue and freakin' awesome.
i pretty much have the sweetest life ever.
i love you all and i'll be in touch when i get back from my site visit.
After a month and a half of being in the peace corps purgatory of preservice preparation i've got my site announcement! I know where I'll be spending the next two years of my life and good lord, lemme tell you, it feels awesome. friday was a mighty long day. we had language class in the morning, which is becoming ever tedious, and then spent the rest of the day sitting around waiting for the powers that be to decide our fate.
the peeps in charge of the 6 or so regions here in niger all got together in front of the waiting horde of trainees. ive never seen a more anxious group of people in my life. hell, ill admit, i was a wreck. you gotta understand, weve been living in someone elses household and training with the same group of people all day every day. dammit, were ready to go! to get our announcements this guy mike would play a snippit of song on his ipod and we had to play name that tune. a handful of songs went by: a little macy gray, some gNr, led zeppelin. i knew most of 'em but it took the super funk of james brown's 'get on up' for me to snag my announcement. i couldn't have asked for a more fitting tune.
so details details details.
everyone grab your google maps cuz here we go. im being posted in the Konni region about an hour and a half east of the city of Konni. the most exciting thing about the whole situation is that ill be opening a new village. the peace corps typically does three rounds of volunteers per village so a lot of times new volunteers are placed where someone has already been. a lot of times this means that the village will expect you to be just like the volunteer before you. i get to start completely fresh with no preconceptions. it's awesome.
my village has about 4000 people in it, mostly of Hausa speakers (the language im learning). i'm gonna be off the beaten path a fair amount, at least an hour's walk away from the nearest gravel road. but hey, i didn't join the peace corps to be coddled, right. from what i'm told the village is reall cool with a lot of large, old trees. it sounds super photogenic. my nearest neighbor is a girl from my training class. she's super cool, totally laid back, everything you'd want in a neighbor.
my regional team seems really cool. it's a team of about 20, so it's not too big. everyone i've met seems very relaxed and friendly. i'm told that the team is very tight knit and that they all work really well together which is great for group projects and such. when all's said and done i couldn't possibly be more excited. i've also heard rumors that there is a missionary family from nebraska near where i'm posted. i've also heard rumors that the family has high speed internet access. even more rumored is the family's affinity for nebraska football. needless to say i'm stoked.
so yeah, nothing too deep or introspective this time around. i'll be going out to my village later this week to kinda introduce myself and hang out for a couple days. i'll get a chance to meet the head honchos in the village as well as spend some time in Konni getting to know my team mates. After that it's two weeks of training and then the official swear-in ceremony at the US ambassador's house. pretty exciting stuff.
even more exciting than that? before coming to this here interweb cafe i was custom fitted for my bou bou. yep. a bou bou. it's royal blue and freakin' awesome.
i pretty much have the sweetest life ever.
i love you all and i'll be in touch when i get back from my site visit.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
like a runningback; get it man i'm straight off the block
yesterday morning nearly 80 thousand people from across nebraska and the midwest converged on the sleepier of the two big cities in nebraska to worship at the field built by Bob, Tom, Tommy, Brook, Ahman and countless other household names, in nebrska at least. Memorial stadium was packed full of optimistic fans spurred on by last season's definitive wins against Colorado and michigan. is this the year that'll put nebraska back into prominence? is a preseason ranking of 20 under or over rating the 'skers? what about that USC game in a few weeks? will they be able to take care of business and win the Big 12 North? God I hope so!
For those of you who don't geek out on football i apologize, because thats all we here in niger have had on our minds the last two or three days. it's hard to describe exactly how it did; but even in the middle of the heat and mud walls here in niger yesterday felt like game day. the other volunteers and i woke up and it was all we could talk about. we went on a trip to tour some local and regional hospitals for our tech training but rather than listen to some bureaucrat blither on health infrastructure we were fixated on notre dame's highly touted QB, USCs rebuilding year and, of course, NU's prospect to be one of the top Ds in the country. it was a blast. an absolute and complete blast.
we counted back the hours trying to figure out exactly when the kickoffs were and talked about where our friends would be pregaming. one of the other volunteer's got a text message from, her dad at 1 this morning. it was short and simple: "14 to 10. Go Irish."
So the point of all this ruminating about a low ranked football team beating a lackluster football team? I dunno. It's something to get excited about. It's something that we recent college grads can bond around. it's fun, and it's american. After 5 or - weeks feeling drowned in a completely different culture i feel like i've finally come up for air. In the second day of our pre-departure orientqtion seminar thingamajig they talked about the importance of holding onto your americanism. at the time it sounded silly. im going to niger to get away from all this american crap. now i see what they mean.
Im definitely here in Niger to appreciate what life is like without all the american stuff. but im surpsied to find im going to grow to love america all the more being away from it.
Anyway, its been a good week here in Niger. we went on a bit of a field trip this weekend and i got to walk around with a wild giraffe herd (pics to follow asap). on friday im getting my site placement so ill know which village i'll be placed in for the rest of my service. needless to say its a pretty big deal. and im super super stoked.
My time at the 'ol interweb cafe is running short but i want to say an enormous congratulations to one of my absolute best and oldest friends Jillian on her upcoming wedding. I would give three lots of camels and a goat to be there with you. I love you to death, kid, and ill see you when i get back.
hollah!
For those of you who don't geek out on football i apologize, because thats all we here in niger have had on our minds the last two or three days. it's hard to describe exactly how it did; but even in the middle of the heat and mud walls here in niger yesterday felt like game day. the other volunteers and i woke up and it was all we could talk about. we went on a trip to tour some local and regional hospitals for our tech training but rather than listen to some bureaucrat blither on health infrastructure we were fixated on notre dame's highly touted QB, USCs rebuilding year and, of course, NU's prospect to be one of the top Ds in the country. it was a blast. an absolute and complete blast.
we counted back the hours trying to figure out exactly when the kickoffs were and talked about where our friends would be pregaming. one of the other volunteer's got a text message from, her dad at 1 this morning. it was short and simple: "14 to 10. Go Irish."
So the point of all this ruminating about a low ranked football team beating a lackluster football team? I dunno. It's something to get excited about. It's something that we recent college grads can bond around. it's fun, and it's american. After 5 or - weeks feeling drowned in a completely different culture i feel like i've finally come up for air. In the second day of our pre-departure orientqtion seminar thingamajig they talked about the importance of holding onto your americanism. at the time it sounded silly. im going to niger to get away from all this american crap. now i see what they mean.
Im definitely here in Niger to appreciate what life is like without all the american stuff. but im surpsied to find im going to grow to love america all the more being away from it.
Anyway, its been a good week here in Niger. we went on a bit of a field trip this weekend and i got to walk around with a wild giraffe herd (pics to follow asap). on friday im getting my site placement so ill know which village i'll be placed in for the rest of my service. needless to say its a pretty big deal. and im super super stoked.
My time at the 'ol interweb cafe is running short but i want to say an enormous congratulations to one of my absolute best and oldest friends Jillian on her upcoming wedding. I would give three lots of camels and a goat to be there with you. I love you to death, kid, and ill see you when i get back.
hollah!
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