le 17 decembre

This is one of those days that we can never have back. Site announcements.

I took the days off of running and cals to maximize sleep. Decided to go with a tie. Same white pants with same blue shirt (good buy Cassie and Kay), but with the Italy tie (good buy Laura and Eddie!). I felt guilty about using resources (wearing the tie, using my rain jacket for the first time in the cool morning), but I think it's about seizing each day, not indefinitely saving random resources. It's a big day, and I wanted to feel larger than life to borrow our phrase from the Jman's visit...or at least like a rock star.

Got more and more exctited as the morning went along. We did site announcements like 1030 or something like that. Real excitement, too, not like terror or dread. I would have done the site announcements, like my friend joked, as like a draft. I would make it a fancy dinner or something, dress up, and make a big spectacle. I mean, it is a big deal. It's decided, with minimal if any imput from us, where we will leave for two years. Instead, they gave us an envelope with all the letters of our town and we had to put it together. We, of course, know none of the small villages in Niger, so a teacher helped us. Then a teacher had our info packet, since we also don't know what region the town is in, anything about the post, etc. I jumped up and down with excitment many times. It was not quite how I would have done it, but a sure spectacle none the less.

Here are some stats on my new home:
Village name: Kohan Garantchi (I have been careful to avoid giving names of towns or people, but since this only affects me, I will risk it)
Population: ~2500
Geographic info: in the southern part of the Tillabery region, south of Niamey. Located, supposedly, on a mesa over looking the Niger River. Since I may be far (??) from a road, my favorite line of my small info packet reads "you will probably find it easier to boat across to Kollo or N'Dounga to catch a ride to Niamey".
Living arrangements: a 1-2 room apartment. A real kinda house, not a hut. I share the building (all one floor obviously) with another family, but will have my own latrine and shower space. No electricity.
Village activity: CSI (a bigger health center), a school, and some gardens or other farming activity

Things I'm excited about: being removed from a road, being by the river, no electricity, I will be the first PCV in the village,
Things I'm not excited about: sharing a concession with a family (very not excited about this), the larger size of the town, the proximity to Niamey, fairly far from other volunteers (maybe 20k?)

Also, one Zarma got assigned to a Fulani village. I'm kinda jealous. I wondered if I was better at Zarma, if it could have been me (they took the top Zarma student), or if I specified I wanted a Fulan kwaara, if I would have gotten it, but our training director said there were no CHA Fulani sites, so nothing I could have done mattered. Would have been very interesting. This is good because we can always second guess ourselves, and it's even more difficult when I'm never sure exactly what I would like.

New major concern: can I kayak/ canoe on the river or do hippo's pose too great a threat?

It's interesting to me that the things I'm not excited about are things that kinda go against my "idea" of Africa: a larger village, close to the city, being in more of a house than a hut, etc., etc. Funny, my expectations are broken when Africa turns out to be more developed than I envison in my head (e.g. cell phone towers everywhere) I had a great convo with a friend on the ride back about Mountain Beyond Mountains and I was again reminded I'm here to do a job first. It's cool if I get to experience Africa. If I get to fulfull some of my sophmoric curiosity and fantasies about Africa then that's cool too, but being near a larger CSI with more resources, I will, hopefully be able to do some legit work. I also sat down to talk to a member of our training class who already did PC in Latin America, and he provided some legit wisdom. I expressed my concern that living with more resources (a house, electricity, bigger town) makes me feel wussy, like less of an PC experience or that living with more resources raises the expectations and puts more pressure on me to have a dynamite project or any project at all. He said it's not about competition (who can do more, who has the craziest post, who can suffer more), it's about collaboration with each other, our senior staff, and our villages to create helpful projects, and it's about synergy, an old favorite of mine (it's not about the individual parts, but what the whole can accomplish...the whole is greater than the sum of the parts). These are hard lessons for me to let sink in, with my always competitive attitude and tendency to want to work alone many times.

So, that's the deal. I am excited more than nervous I think. Need to mentally get past the not having own concession and being in a larger town. Will feel all is redeemed if I can kayak up and down the river at will.

Received a fun reception from my fam. When I came home, only the nya kayne (the younger of the two wives) was home, so I went in to see her and the baby. I gave the kids the watermelon I got for the fam. We excitedly talked about my site. I waited a while for baba to come home, but he finally did and we ate, and talked excitedly about my site again. He said it's not dangerous to be in a small boat along the river, that people do it all the time. He said it's sweet to be by the river because one can get fish. I think he said he wants to visit a lot. This is really cool. It's really fun to be able to come home and be able to share in the excitment...in Zarma. Every time, or virtually every time, someone spoke directly to me, I understood (even if it took a few times or a back and forth between FR (which I can still understand ok but can't really speak effectively any more) and Zarma) and could reply coherently. We joked that I'm going to get strong from canoeing along the river. Chimi no.

Have I described what happens when I bring home a treat (habize)? Tonight: baba, cuts a few sizable pieces of the watermelon. Four I think. These are for he and I. Then he gives the rest of the watermelon to one of the girls who cuts up the watermelon for the rest of the kids. They do this away from the table, our eating area. We give the remains of our pieces to the kids (I was proud that I cleaned my down to the edge better than my baba...but maybe he was purposefully saving some?). Sometimes, if the habize is cookies, which I most often bring back, he will hand out one to each kid. There is always a clear order. I want to say a combination of age and gender, with older males going first. There is one boy who seems to be below the others in the hierachy...disproportionate to his age. I wonder if he is one of the not nuclear family members, maybe a cousin, newphew, etc. I am too lazy right now to refer to my family tree of this large family.

Now, some PCV have complained (not my in stage I don't think, but I've heard it), that families will expect a present whenever you go on a trip, even if it's just a day trip to Niamey like today. I kinda set up this expectation, and whether it exists or not, I try to bring something back every time I'm gone. I actually like it. To me, I figure, it's a dollar or two (500-1000 CFA), a pittance really, and I get to make them happy and make them like me. It's the same logic I use when pretending it's someone's birthday or doing some other gift giving shenanigan...so little an investment for so great a reward, that is the person being happy and building good will (they like you since you did something for them, you like them because you did something for them (cognative dissonance reduction anyone?)).

Other notes:
- yesterday PC staff swept the inside of my booca, sweeping (again) dust off the floor...and onto my books, clothes, bags, pill storage bottles. Jam
- enjoyed ice cream and pizza and grape juice for lunch. Ah, city life.
- somehow caught a cold during lunch
- had only minutes to check my email, but did post the blogs
- went with the healthy option for a gift for my fam (I set the precedent of getting somethign every time I travel) and got them a watermelon instead of biscui (sp? cookies)
- everyone was pretty tired after site announcements and lunch. We got up early and with all the excitment settling down and a big meal...just a energy lull. I felt that nice tired like you've accomplished something. Sneezed many times, and also found myself sucking my tongue or playing with the seatbelt in the car, just like old times
- the convo with my friend about CHA stuff got me so excited, but also nervous. I have no shortage of ideas, but feel not qualified for most. I always fear I will forget a seemingly important process idea I had at this stage when I really need it later on. This fuels my impatience of wanting to take care of things when the idea hits me. Also, thinking now, I think it will be hard to stay creative, stay fresh, stay sharp without people to bounce ideas off of. Having a cell phone (and maybe broadband internet? serious? have to check this out...) will be crucial for dialoguing with my stage, with friends and fam at home, and the internet would let me research stuff. People say site yields so much free time; I cannot imagine it.

So...canoe shopping!!!