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.... :)

Ghana, do i have to leave?

So it's my last day in Ghana and I must say it is going to be very hard to leave this place. So far this has been the little america of west africa. It is so developed here and I didn't realize how much I missed that. Things are good, and I have met some locals who have been incredibly nice...not to mention people speak english here rather than french and that has been so much easier. I don't actually have to translate in my head what i want to say before i say it. Ghana won their match against Nigeria so the streets were crazy that night. Think mardis gras but without girls flashing. Anyhow, I leave tomorrow and have a long bus ride ahead of me, but I feel refreshed and definitely miss things about village life. Will write when I get back to Niger...

Lome aka Paradise

Hey everyone! Well just came from Benin where we lived it up high balling Benin style going to the classiest clubs and resorts there...no joke, we got taken around by some extremely nice locals and some Lebanese car dealers (yeah I know that sounds shady, but what are you gonna do?). Now I am in Lome, Togo and its absolutely breathtaking. We've met up with some PCV's here and they are going to give us a proper tour of the place. This trip has been amazing so far and I couldn't have picked a better group to go with. There has been non-stop laughing the whole time. Well, I will try to keep everyone updated throughout the trip and maybe download some pics if I can find a decent internet cafe. Until then...I'm gonna hit the beach!

Soms

Leaving for Ghana!

Holy crap! I leave for Ghana tonight, and just in the nick of time. Finished writing my quarterly report and grant proposal for the project in my village. Feels so good to get that done and now I get to go on vacation! First we will be going through Benin and Togo, and in Togo we must wait for a Visa for Ghana. So I'll be getting in Ghana around the 2nd or 3rd or February. All very exciting. I will try to keep the blog updated on my travels. African Cup here I come!

Soms

It's been a while....

Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay between posts. With the holidays and everything I've been keeping pretty busy. First of all, for those who have been reading up on Niger or stay in tune to the BBC, there have recently been some landmines throughout the southern part of Niger, where PCV's are posted. We were put on something called "standfast" for a while....right before Christmas and for about a week, but now we are off of it. Don't be alarmed, things have calmed down a bit, but we are all trying to stay alert and be cautious. I feel safe and Peace Corps has done a decent job of keeping us informed. Just wanted to let people know and clear the air that things are good. Another bizarre things happened yesterday. A couple of NGO volunteers were at a restaraunt near the Zinder hostel when their car got hijacked. The mom and one of her kids were thrown out their car and the carjackers drove off. However, a four month year old baby was still inside. So a bunch of NGO's and some PCV's (me included) did a massive search last night and this morning. Luckily the baby was found and is safe and sound. In fact, we were told he was smiling when they picked him up! It ended well, but it's been a bit crazy what with landmine scares and this bizarre carjacking. Not to worry though, I still feel safer walking down the street here than I did in downtown dallas!

On other news....I go to my village tomorrow and will be happy to get back. I've worked on a few proposals and just wrote a grant for a well/garden project that will happen (if funds get granted) at the end of this year. I held my first meeting with the heads of my village to talk abou the proposal. It was interesting trying to get everyone to meet at a certain time and place...they really have no concern with punctuality here :). Regardless they sounded excited about it.

I leave for Ghana very soon and am super pumped. It will be good to see some pretty beachscape and get a vacation. Hopefully I will be able to see one of the African Nations Cup Games live. Very exciting.

Hope all is well in teh states. I love hearing from all of you. Till next time!

Soms

Pictures!

Back to Niamey for In-Service training. Thanksgiving went well. We had to kill our own turkey, but I would expect nothing less here :) Enjoy the pics!













My crazy village kids. The little girl in the middle has dinner with me every night.

A PCV known as "Cewbaca" (yes, that's right) in Niger had a wedding ceremony in his village which is near mine... his gf from the states came up for it. This is me and steph and some other PCV's at the wedding.

Um... how do I explain this one? After my month live-in (which I got through without getting sick thank you very much), Team Z threw all of us newbies an 80's party. The tackiness ensued! So much fun!

Me and Steph at one of our language instructor's wedding in the Zinder region. Like my outfit? You know you do.

This little boy kept coming up to me at the wedding. He was so cute! But it's funny, he was wearing more American looking clothes than me!




Another PCV's girls' soccer team. Go team and coach Danel! Me and Kellie went to watch the girls' soccer tournament which is held every year. Playing soccer seems to really give the girls a lot of empowerment.

A visit to G-side and Jen's Village which is an Oasis tucked away in Zinder. They have palm trees! Here we are wading through the "Hanya Ruwa."

Thanksgiving feasting and cooking! We had SO MUCH food, I think I gained about 20 pounds that day. Oh and I got suckered into helping someone (ahem, Danel and Noah) make empanadas...it took forever!!

Me and Steph on the 17 hour bus ride to IST. We go a little crazy after so many hours, but can you blame us?

Hanging with the Village people (Sulan's title; not Sommer's ... she is not that lame)

Well I'm back in Zinder after one month in my village, and I have been here for about a week. I go back tomorrow, and I am actually more excited than nervous which I take as a good sign. My village was wonderful. The first two weeks were pretty challenging, but after many rounds of greeting everyone and finding a friend or two, everyone warmed up. Much of my time was spent trying to establish some sort of routine. It's a chore just to put away my bed in the mornings, get dressed, cook breakfast, go for a run, visit people, etc. It's great though because it all fills up my day nicely and gives me something to do while I'm struggling to learn the language. Everyone I've talked to in the states has asked me what kind of work I've been doing, so I'm just going to say to all of you that the first 6 months are pretty much dedicated to getting to know my community and learning the language. I can't really get anything done until I can communicate and know what it is they need help with. But let me tell you, the learning the language part is definitely work! Anyhow, I will keep everyone updated on work stuff when I actually start a project. Also, people have also been asking what my village is like and what the culture is like. It's kind of hard to explain but I will try my best. Islam plays a really big role in the country so it kind of mandates that people (mostly just the men as the women are constantly working at home) pray five times a day (which is announced by a town caller) and that they dress modestly...so sleeves and long skirts for the women, as well as covering their heads, and then pants and sleeves for the men as well. The men keep there hair short too. I am really luck in that, as a foreigner, I can get away with not covering my head adn wearing pants as a woman. However, I do try to dress modestly out of respect. Also, I do not cover my head which is okay with them as well. With that said, the people are incredibly nice and always smiling. It's actually quite suprising seeing as how they are constantly struggling for food and health. But virtually no one complains about the work. One thing I was really surprised about was that I got asked for gifts constantly. This is actually a part of the culture and people ask eachother for gifts all the time (but they especially ask me because they think since I am from America, I am automatically rich). However, I've gotten used to it, and now I simply turn the tables and ask them for gifts..which they usually get a good laugh out of. Also, I have a family that cooks me dinner every night which is nice...and I'll usually bring them back something from market. Anyhow, it has been good to have a break, but I'm ready to go back. I will be coming back to Zinder for Thanksgiving and will have cell service then. If anyone wants to call around that time, I would love to hear from you. Hope all is well in the states and shoot me an email if you have questions or if you simply want to tell me what's going on in the states adn with you. Take care all!