le 15 novembre

Yesterday

I have...

- helped other trainees organize a kind of garbage pick up in one of the smaller neighboring villages. In mostly English and broken Zarma they bribed the kids with candy to pick up some of the trash that is EVERYWHERE. The tough part was that the garbage, embedded into the ground, mixes with the broken clay, rock, sand, fallen leaves. One just wants to rake the entire pile (there are many) away and start fresh. But the whole that was dug as a mini landfill was quickly, though superficially, filled with plastic bags (leda- bag) and other stuff. I think it was a great victory. One of the best parts was using our limited Zarma and with help from our Zarma- Enlish dictionary, we told the kids they should always (watikulu) wash their hands after working or before eating or something like that and they all clapped. Maybe it stuck (probs not). Then we tried to tell them they should always put garbage (fese, rhymes with feces) into the hole (gusu maybe?), but I'm not sure if this stuck.
- had egg sandawiches for both breakfast and lunch (awesome! my first time(s) but unintentional)
- settled some of the confusion about the new baby and the holiday (Tabaski) on Wed. More on these when they happen.
- been jokingly (right?) asked to take the baby to America (I am told Nigeriens joke like this).
- considered the prospects for this new baby and all my little brothers and sisters and young friends in the neighborhood. Hopefully, they will be rich like my baba and live to be...50. Hopefully, they will get some education, maybe even go to university in Niamey. Hopefully, they will have some better sense, as we al should, of the bigger world. It is with my young siblings and friends I wish the country could do better for them and I am so grateful for the opportunities laid before us in America. I'm sure some of these kids are nine, but to say their future parallels Bella's is a gross miscalculation. Although always hesitant to make value judgements amidst cultural differences, I cannot but think, for most of these kids, their opporunties are not "quite" the same as those of my sisters and I. Aran faham?
- poss been misled (by accident) by one of my host brothers about a party at the house for a baby.
- windy windy (walked around) with some of my host brothers and their friends. Picked some flowers, threw some rocks at a birds nest. Fun time, but I was not in the language zone and was having a mad hard time getting them in either French or Zarma.
- been totally rejuvinated by some games of Set, Yuker (how do you bloody spell this card game? Euker?), and finally Bananas. Who says PCV's are not competitive? It's quite a relief and stress reducer to be able to bump brains with people...in bloody English.
- road a donkey. I think that's pretty self explanatory...the donkey was pulling a cart and a kid was steering the donkey and sat behind this kid on the donkey. Woohoo! No doubt safer than the bush taxis.
- got the baby soap and some crackers/ cookies as a gift

I have not...
- successfuly organized the kids playing frisbee (post garbage pickup activity). We tried to get them into two lines so they could alternate throwing and catching and...yea, organizing young kids in America in Enlish is hard enough. Even my substitute gym teaching skills couldn't quite get it done.
- written overdue letters home (Laura, if you're reading this, Happy Belated Birthday! This would probs get to you before my letter would anyway) (Bella, if you're reading this, I will send a letter to your class soon....meaning it will get to you maybe in a month)
- had three or four hours pass more slowly than when loitering around the house with the kids. Confusing and frustrating moments many of them.
- showered in my shower. Been showering in my concession to avoid cockroaches, since I'm always showering in the dark. Hope this is not taboo.
- slept inside since the hotel in Philly (well, or the plane over the Atlantic)
- been much hungry. Au contrare, any times been mad mad full. It's tricky with the water, sometimes I drink too much too quicly and feel bloated and since eating is such a highlight here, I don't often hold back on snacks, etc. I figure if I eat all I can now, I can endure some sickness or cooking confusion when I'm on my own.
- (at all really over the time I've been here) read any of the many many pages of background material we have been given and at the same time been sometimes frustrated I'm not learning enough about...I dunno, stuff.

Today, less eventful
- got a "legitimate set of calesthenics in without any fanfare
- showered in the real shower at the training site (woohoo!)
- completed a MIF kit (a stool sample to see what's up with me). These are mad tricky, I'll let you take my word for it.
- played with my kids (siblings, friends)
- got my laundry done at the site. What on earth are we going to do without these people doing most of our laundry once a week? It's mad time consuming to do it right (all by hand this is) and my patience with it thins quickly.
- attemped to ask a joke question during a medical session, but got the giggles and couldn't get the question out. Oh, do you want to know? The med officer said there are snakes here, like something and something and mambas, and it had been a fairly boring session and so I was going to ask if they have Mambo Number 5 (Lou Vega (sp?) anyone), but no go. Solid throw away joke. Too bad.
- got complimented on my warm up pants after I worred they were not up to Nigerien standards (too tight?). I was wearing them because all my other clothes were getting washed.
- no peanuts growing yet. Fingers crossed.


NOTE: to all you fans at home. For general hello's and stuff, until the end of the calender year when my address changes, send snail mail letters rather than emails. They are fun to receive and don't clog my inbox. Emails are fun to receive too, but right now it's easier to receive letters than emails.  (A rare edit while I post: note that letters may be real hard to receive too once I move to site, so everything changes as of Jan 1)

SECOND NOTE: my baba said people give babies soap or clothes, It would be neat to have some baby clothes from America, so if anyone feels compelled, send me clothes for a newborn baby boy and I will pass it along.