le 23 decembre

Today

I have...
- wished I got to post all these bloody posts BEFORE I talk to everyone on Christmas
- was enthused to greet people on the way home from site. It's fun to be able to greet people and make basic conversation with people...in Zarma. I do (most of the time) think it's fun the way Nigeriens greet each other so profusely. I guess this is kinda the equivilant of "small talk", which is sometimes laborious in America, but here it seems the lines are more scripted, so it makes us, with our little knowledge of Zarma or Hausa feel like real champs for being able to do the greetings properly, although limited. Similarly, had quick fun convo with mama berre and baba, joking that I would return home to America with three wives, and mama saying that that's not allowed in America, so I said I would take one home, leave the other two here, and then every year they would switch. Joking around in another lang is fun, no doubt. 
- had a conversation about psych today with my friend. He has a stellar health background: an EMT and microbiology major who spent the year after graduating working for NIH. I am again reminded how weak my background is for the work I have the opportunity to perform here. He, like many (stereotypically anyway) "hard" science people, find psych very soft. I tried to talk about how psych is much farther behind sciences like biology and that we know less therby making it inherently (at least for now) more fuzzy, that some of psych is very much like the biological sciences while other aspects fall under the social sciences, that we can learn things from social sciences research even if it is not as reductionist as biological science research, how people do good and bad research in all fields, how there are good and bad psychological interventions. But in the end, I again wished I had a better natural sciences background and felt like a goof for my "soft" background in health.
- helped pull off the most shenanigans we have pulled off in one day (I think). We were celebrating a couples 46 yr anniversary (could you all imagine being in the PC in Niger on your 46th wedding anniversary?). We did the usual song, and I got them to dance. Someone presented them with a card we all signed. We made a mock session, during which we each presented some facts about them that someone had put together. Then, they had ordered a huge cake from a restaurant in Niamey, so we feasted on some sweet cake. Besides the fact that a cake WOULD come (they were misled even about what time), the couple had no idea any of this was coming, and we split up the shenanigans, so I'm sure that after lunch they thought it was done...NOPE! I'm embarrassed to say, I was actually feeling some stress about pulling all this off, in addition to preparations for Christmas and moving to site, etc. etc. Importantly, I have to say, it is so awesome to have people around that will get this stuff done, and get it done well, many times better than I could have done it myself. One friend got the couples headshots, another friend drew up a bride and groom and affixed the drawings and headshots to carboard and to tongue depressors to stick in the cake. Another friend took the lead on the song. Another friend put together all the trivia. I brainstormed with many people about the learning objectives (something they do before EVERY session) for our mock session. It doesn't get much better than that. Though I did botch the cake entry a bit; I announced the cake was coming instead of taking questions and letting my friend walk in with the (truly massive) cake and suprise everyone. Overall, a really well pulled off day of shenanigans.
- had so many good laughs, like many days (and all the good days).
- succeeding in procuring a chair as a gift for my family. I will give them several for Christmas/ thank you for hosting me. I leave my host family and move back to site on Monday. Then Thurs or something we leave this town for the regional capitals. Then starting Jan 1st, we move to our sites.
- been very thankful that the staff is so accomodative of all our requests and shenanigans. Sometimes I feel in the states people don't want to take that extra step...that is really not much of an extra step. Today for example, the staff got me the chair from Niamey (I paid for it, but they brought it to me) and the massive cake from the restaurant in Niamey (again, the couple paid for it, but the staff handled all the logistics of getting it here). With both the trainees and the staff, the general attitude is, You want something done? We will get it done. And I appreciate that very much.

I have not...
- gotten over the juxtapostion of Christmas with the semi-arid climate, hot weather, lack of total hullabullo for Christmas (this will change some tomorrow). Today, a few girls were practicing Christmas carols, and they sang so beautifully. And I was walking past the dining hall where they were singing, and I looked around and the scenery was, well, the desert and the bright sun, and I was in my "Niger clothes" and probs a little dirty. And their singing filled me with some peace, but....I can't say it exactly feels like Christmas.
- overlooked the fact that, due to the generosity of everyone at home, this Chrismas will be the biggest, in terms of me receiving physical gifts or even any gifts, maybe ever or at least since I was a little kid (proportionally of course). And the flip side of that, I'm just realizing, this may be one of the weakest years in terms of my gift GIVING....at least in terms of my family and friends at home.
- (similarly) found reason to change my mind in thinking that (sorry, verbose lead in) many times, my family and closest friends don't get to see the very best of me. Home is where I am, many times, in between stuff, relaxing, tired, in a real grind (e.g. with training and work or studying...or like in high school when I would stay at Nunnie's to save me the hour of travel so I could study more efficiently, get to bed earlier....by grind I mean trying to really stick to a schedule of getting lots of the same daily activities done...like working out, studying, work), frustrated for various reasons, feel I have very little time. And this is not really fair. I can only hope that somehow, sometimes, my greatest exploits make it home so that at least my fam can be proud of me, even if they don't understand EXACTLY how it is I roll when I am really rolling.