May Showers

Although it will not be a major part of this entry, the title of this blog refers to the two nights of rain my town received this past Thursday and Friday.  I suppose I feel as though two nights of rain in a row signifies the beginning of the end of Hot Season so it's big news.  I could be very wrong though, so I won't count too many chickens before they hatch, I'll just try to eat the eggs real quick...


The past few months have been busy.  Such an overused statement but true I guess.  The next few months should be busy as well and before I know it I will have passed my one-year mark in Niger.  Here is an insert from my school blog entry....for the full picture you can check it out (link on the right side of this webpage) and for the rosey picture just keep reading here :-)

"March started off well with a rapid-fire series of meetings to initiate my Women’s Union/Gardening project and the Library Activities Committee “project”.

In the case of the Women’s Groups of Falmey (WGsF) Two resolutions were quickly decided by the town’s top officials and relevant technical services, (1) That the land will be donated, officially, to the WGsF, and (2) that a Union of the WGsF must be created in order to accept this donation on behalf of the more than 30 groups registered for the three towns. My two counterparts for this project are, Adamou the technical agent for the Community Development Service and Hassan the technical agent for the Agricultural Service/Aide to Community Based Organizations. We immediately conducted three successful meetings: first a general call to assembly for all women’s groups of Falmey Zarma, Falmey Hausa, and Falmey Kaina to discuss our ideas and encourage the creation of a Union; Second, three candidates from each interested women’s group met to discuss the role of elected officers of the Union and to formally elect from among themselves the Union’s Bureau; Third the elected Bureau of officers met to present themselves to the Mayor’s Office of Falmey and to discuss the monetary and paper requirements of becoming a registered Union.

At the same time as the women’s groups’ project, I also approached my town Librarian about revitalizing the Library’s weekly and monthly programming. My aim was to build on this institution to (1) increase frequentation by the population, (2) utilize the space for public events, and (3) establish a strong working relationship with the local schools (Primary and Secondary). In this endeavor my counterpart is Abdul Azika, the Librarian. We met with the existing but inactive Management Committee to propose the creation of an Activities Committee made up of volunteers from the community to oversee weekly programming. This idea was universally accepted and on March 31st the first program took place, a reading of Zarma folk tales to students by the Mayor’s Office Treasurer. The Library Activities Committee is a work in progress and generally going well as we continue to learn and develop our objectives.

The two most successful programs to date are our French language game nights, and the Exposés of community issues. Four incredibly dynamic exposés have taken place to date on : The local branch of NIGELEC, Niger’s national electric company presented by the NIGELEC Agent; Malnutrition and Malaria both presented by Falmey’s head health worker; Niger’s Educational System presented by the town’s Education Councilor. The Education System exposé ran so long last Saturday that there was not enough time to hold the “question and answer” portion. All present were so engaged in the topic that they decided on the spot to continue with the discussion of the issue tomorrow, May 22, bumping the planned Environment exposé to the following Sunday slot. Attendance of all exposés to date has been at minimum 10 adult community members (educated male functionaries) and 10-15 secondary school students (male and female) as an after school assignment by the Director of the Secondary school of Falmey.

This past Tuesday, after collaborating with their teacher, I conducted an after-school English language exercise for the 3rd year middle school students. I had a great time, the kids seemed engaged and their teacher was satisfied with the whole exercise. We will be repeating the session with the second half of her class this coming Tuesday. Next school year I hope that teachers will take the opportunity to bring their classes to the Library for field-trips and/or to take advantage of our after-school programming......

There has been a recent transition within the Mayor’s office and Chief of Post office that also necessitated a break in the Union work but the gears have started spinning again however my window of opportunity might very well be closed as Niger’s food crisis takes precedence over almost all other development work at the moment. While I look into the Union project, my Library programming looks as though it will be coming to an end for the months of school vacation. In the mean time I have discussed with my General Secretary the possibility of starting a Peace Corps radio show in a neighboring village.


The idea came about as I pondered over ways to improve the Public Relations of the Mayor’s office. Since change from within by my presence is not a viable option (as far as developing a more transparent, efficient working environment) I thought one way I can help out is by inspiring the commune population to demand change from outside. What is the Mayor’s office entity? What does the Mayor’s office do for the Commune and what should the office do? What is the Mayor’s office of Falmey currently doing for me? How can the Mayor’s office do more? Sensibilizations on Niger’s decentralization structure, paying your taxes, participating in census projects and/or being vigilant about acquiring Birth and Death Acts are what I want to focus on at first. Hopefully I will be able to get this up and running (it would be a weekly program) and get enough tapes made for program slots I would be missing this summer if my current plans go through. I am hoping to be a Volunteer Assistant Trainer (VAT) for the month of July for the new group of Municipal and Community Development and Childhood and Youth Education volunteers arriving in Niger July 10th. I really want to be there to welcome my “sister stage”, help them through their first few weeks of training, and help create a stronger Peace Corps-to-Master’s International connection than currently exists. When my group came in, nobody here even acknowledged the MI program or its participants despite the fact that there are many MI programs that require some specific support from PC/Niger staffing. Wish me luck!"

That is the gist of the work I am currently doing and hoping to start up in the next few months before I come home to Northern Virginia to attend my brother Stephen's wedding in August.  An extra two weeks will be tacked on after the festivities for me to enjoy a bit of the First World without getting too attached.  My plan is to eat eat eat, get really large and feel as though I have to return to Niger, West Africa so I can lose the weight again...fool-proof I think.  Oh yeah, the "healthier" plan is to make sure my next few months are so chock full of work and socializing that I actually have a worthwhile life here in Niger to return to.

This weekend I travelled to my friend Sara's village for her 30th Birthday Bash.  She threw tons of money at her wonderful friend and food-go-to-woman to prepare massive amounts of rice, sauce, bread, ice and iced juice, mangoes, coconut, and even bought and killed a sheep.  The trends seems to be, us new volunteers decide we've just got to throw a Nigerien party while we're here, and afterwards declare that it will NEVER happen a second time!  I am so glad that Sara's party went much more smoothly than my "baby naming ceremony" for Kaydiya's first batch of kittens.  We all had a great time, and best of all, cold drinks all day long!

Tomorrow I head back to village until mid June when I will attend Peace Corps Niger's first All Volunteer Conference.  After that I hope to be chosen as a VAT, where I will spend most of July before coming home in August.  If it all goes through I will be out of village quite a while, but will make up for it when I get back!  I hope you all have a wonderful spring and early summer and I will see you in a few months!