Totally redemptive day! I pronounce first holiday in country success!!
Today, I have...
- woke up in infirm, felt ok, opened day with calesthenics, and got more and more dialed in over course of day. Back 100%, which I can tell because the day finished without me feeling like I accomplished all the to-do's
- read all the letters from home (fake! the letter through the Correspondence Match program was from PC not from Bella's class...jk! But I'll write you guys soon and write me a letter!)
- got a special session for CHA's about making cook stoves which required me to climb over a wall to help retrieve some waters
- tossed a football around a garden (woohoo Thanksgiving in Niger). We had retrieved football to play on Thanksgiving, then we were going to look at an automatic pump in the garden and while we waited for the guy with the key or something we tossed it around and then the guy wasn't there so basically we just played football in the garden for kicks)
- fashion show! The trainees borrowed Nigerien clothing a did a fashion show. My dad gave me a suit, which was way too big and I wore, as many Nigerien men do, without any shirt underneath....people burst out laughing looking at me. I was also the only person in more Western clothing, also hilarious. But it's true life, that's what many guys wear most of the time. Then for fashion show round two, the staff gave me the outfit of a nomadic dude from around the Adadez region (about halfway up country more in desert) and...impossible to describe in real words so get excited for the pic, but involved me wearing a goat (??) skin loancloth/ kilt thing, the craziest "sandals" I've ever seen that would not stay on my feet, a long tunic thing that revealed my obliques, forearm bands with long white feathers, beads in all sorts of random places, a crazy hat with a giant ostrich feather in it, black makeup/ marker on my face, and a sweet walking stick. I was given three poses often hit by these dudes and told they move their eyes all around. Yea, check out for the pics. At any rate, my attire showed the huge range of Niger, from some remaining stereotypic "African" images to the prolific Western influences.
- brainstormed for a frantic 30-45 min, gave a little toast, and helped lead "Lean on Me" during Thanksgiving dinner. As a friend said, singing during meals is kind of our signature thing, so we couldn't let them down.
- had some dance party with other trainees (my frist dance party on a Thanksgiving I think)
- received a very nice compliment from a friend
- felt, again, on top of the world here
I have not...
- succeeded in having a full convo with the fam (sorry guys!!! I should have bought a phone and more credit!)
- got to go down my list of items to talk about with fam
- journaled (felt bed too important)
- ran (besides jogging a few hundred meters in flip flops, which is pretty dicy)
- been 100% pumped about assigned teacher for lang immersion. I expect I will soon change my mind about this.
- found my bleach dropper
- thankfully not felt homesick on a major holiday away from fam (moving too fast, too much to do I think, which usually works for me)
- showered before bed (jam)
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