le 9 decembre

Today

I have...
- felt some better
- thought that perhaps some of my homesickness in the past few days when not feeling great comes from the fact that I think about returning "home", but that means just back to the training site and so I realize that I'm not going back home to my family and my friends and I realize I don't have any of my best friends here (yet). In a few more months, I'm sure I'll be a lot closer to be some people, but for now, it's not exactly the same as home.
- wanted my USPS cycling jersey. It's cool in the mornings. I never got to wear this jersey while on the bike. This made me sad because it reminded me of fitness past. I miss having daily practices with a team, having fun, feeling good. Good practices can always be a boost. I also miss little things like my USPS cycling jersey or watching the Tour de France every summer that make me feel cool and that I look forward to at home that I will not have here and will not  have for a long time. I always feel better here when I put on my USAT hat, especially when it wear it lopsided (like when I got silly puddy stuck in my hair) or backwards or otherwise crooked
- (over the past two weeks) developed the desire to be called by my name. Kids here haven't learned my Nigerien name (Abdul Magid to remind you less careful readers) and the teachers have been calling my Daniel (in French of course, so Danielle), and I dunno, I kinda like it. One of those things that connects the me of before to the me of now. I heard that one PCV insisted on his village calling him by his real name. I dunno, I thought the Nigerien names were real cool. Now mine doesn't excite me as much. Maybe I'll pick a new one; or take a friends.
- (again) eaten plain pasta...with some spices...for breakfast (and loved it)
- (again) laughed so hard my (bloated) stomach hurt during class (learning inuendos and swear words is going well)
- had my appetite return sorta for lunch
- thought again that my perception of how my days go really has more to do with how I feel, how much I feel I accomplished, how well I did stuff, etc. than on any more "objective" take on how the day went

I have not...
- lasted the whole day without getting tired
- lasted a whole day without craving some food that is not in this village...or Niger (e.g. eggo waffles, cheese plate, etc, etc)

Mini anecdote:
For a TDA (Training Directed Activity) today, we were to go talk to a mom for 45 minutes and observe her work and ask her a bunch of questions about her zari goyo (daily work). For the first time these two weeks (not counting me doing most of the CHA presentation solo), we were to do the TDA individually, we were all to be in different families. So the teachers goes to bring me to a fam, and we walk into one concession and kids are peeking through the millet stalk fence because this one girl is yelling. So this is fantastic. We go in, and my teacher I guess asks if they can talk with me and they say yea, so they pull out a stool and I sit down, but we're basically just watching this girl (young teens) flip out. She yelling at I'm not sure who. At one point she gets too close to a mom or something and the mom hits her with a stick and then the girl is crying and yelling. Soon after, my teacher says let's go, explaining the girl is fighting with her older sister. A si boori. (Not good). I'm glad she didn't just leave me. We go to another concession, but the woman says she speaks only a little Zarma (funny story, me too); she is a Hausa-phone. Finally, the third house we go to is a success and I talk with the woman for a bit. As usual, doing pretty well to read off the questions and even make up my own and say stuff, but strugging to get a lot of what she says when she talks fast and deviates from the topic of my questions.