Hello everyone. It's been a long time since my last post. I guess I should pick up where I left off... in Ghana. Well, it was amazing. Got to see the Nigeria vs. Ghana game, which Ghana won. I was literally picked up and twirled around by a complete stranger when Ghana scored their last goal. It was all very exciting. Also, I ate a LOT of good food including sushi, indian cuisine, and I even had a smoothie! Considering you can't get any o fthat in Niger, that is huge. I also found time to go to the artesan center and picked up some souveneirs for my villagers and myself... it's funny, the bracelettes I got some of the women in my village are said to have healing powers by my villagers. They put some of the stones around the ankles of their children to help them heal from cuts/scrapes or sickness. I didn't have the heart to tell them that the stones weren't going to help their child get better but instead tried to give them alternative methods as well...like washing the cut with soap and water, haha, seems simple enough right? Well you'd be surprised. So Ghana was very refreshing, but the long trip back to Niger snapped me back into reality. Since I've been back a number of things have happened:

1. I attended a health training with a counterpart from my village (a woman who is in charge of some village affairs named Hawahu) who is also my good friend in the village. Although some of the training was frustrating (ie we did it in abou tthree different languages so had to sit through three different translations, exhausting) we did get some good techniques on preventing malnutrition, such as enhancing food recipes in villages, organizing monthly baby weighings, etc.

2. Participated in a girls' conference in Zinder put on by some older PCV's. Girls chosen from the "bush" or rural areas of Zinder region were transported out to Zinder city for a fair on education to try to encourage them to go onto higher education. They got to shadow successful career women in the city, hear a career forum, and do fun things like yoga classes and bobbing for apples. At the end we made them school gift bags and had a danceand photo slideshow of all they had accomplished over the few days of the fair. It was amazing to see how excited the girls were about it all. This had to be the best thing I've helped out with thus far in Niger.

3. Helped paint a health mural in my friend's village in the Maradi region.

4. Started working on radio shows and will be co-coordinating radio in Zinder with another PCV. We have a 30 minute slot every friday morning that all of Zinder region has access to listen to. The first time my villagers heard me on air, they were very excited. Come to think of it, I was too! Radio is pretty big here since that is their biggest means of finding out news...none of this TV set in every house nonsense, haha.

So now I have a few things I'm working on. I just bought paint supplies to do my own health mural project in my village. I plan on having three different ones...one on the outside of my clinic that will be big enough for cars passing by to see. One on the inside (as per request of my nurse) that includes food groups, and one painted by a girl in my village after a drawing contest in the school. This should be happening in about three weeks. Also, there is an event called Pangea in Niamey which is a weeklong event that consistst of teaching young nigerien girls about the arts... I'll be helping out with a voice class. This will be at the end of may.

That's all the exciting news I have so far. On a personal level, I'm doing alright. I think I'm getting a little burnt out and the newness is starting to wear off. I'm beginning to realize that this is going to be a constant uphill battle, especially where language is concerned. Not to mention that I miss home a LOT. A lot more than I thought I would too. Also, the pace here is a lot different than what we are used to in the States. No one meets at the ttime they say they will and not very many villagers have a lot of effort in general. It's just a different mentality. Anyhow, I hope with a few projects under my belt I'll have a little more sense of accomplishment. Until then, I'm trying to maintain a good sense of humor about things. But know I miss everyone and love hearing from you all. Hope all is well! Oh and I'll try to update more.... :)