Summer Lov'n

Dear Friends and Family,
I hope all is going well at home and that your summer has started off with a bang! It's hard to believe we are already half way through 2010!  Just a quick update on my comings and goings, since it has been a while for sure!

April saw the beginning of my library programming in Falmey, as well as my first "project" for which I secured about $20 USD funding....yay me!  It was a very small project to clean up the Falmey library and it went down (almost) without a hitch!  The idea was to recruit eight (8) Third Year students from the middle school to help myself, the Librarian and one other member of the Library's Activities Committee clean the building from top to bottom!  Only one student was absent that day and the rest of us got the work done in short order.  The money I secured bought cleaning supplies and lunch and we were done around 1pm before the heat of the day really hit.  At the end of the clean up I asked the students and teacher to put together a "Student of the Month" poster which we will use to display a picture of the student (middle school or primary school) who frequents the library the most during a given month.  I hope to use the display as encouragement for the kids to spend some time with the books!  Watching my villagers cut out pre-traced letters and stars and glue them onto a posterboard was both amusing and charming and I think they really got a kick out of the creative-artsy project.  Nigeriens really do not get much of that in school or in life really so I thought it would be fun to work with colored construction paper for a few minutes!

May saw the second month of library activities, including 5 exposes!  I am the most proud of these presentations because of the significant numbers of both students AND adult attendees.  So far the Library activities committee members in charge of the exposes have brought in Falmey's experts to discuss: Malnutrition (head doctor of the doc's office), Malaria (ditto), Education system in Niger (Education Councelor with the Inspection), Education system in Falmey (ditto), "Park W": Importance to Falmey's riverain communities (Forestry Agent).  Every expose had *at least* 20 attendees comprised of male and female third year middle schoolers, and various male functionnaires from the town of Falmey.  The reason we had two presentations on the Educational system was because the Councelor ran way over his presentation time and the audience was so engaged in the topic, they voted then and there to continue with the question and answer portion the following Saturday!
We may not be able to draw the crowds for game night, but the exposes are engaging the community in a way I only dreamed was possible.  These past few months have given me an idea of what works, what doesn't, and what we can do better when the next school year comes around.  The activities committee is taking a break during the summer vacation months.

June came quickly and the most anticipated activity was Peace Corps Niger's first ever All Volunteer Conference.  Created, planned, run, and partied by Volunteers!  Teams Maradi and Zinder along with select Tillaberi and Dosso reps did *an amazing job* planning this thing and despite being rather sick and working through a painful infection in my leg, I had a wonderful time! I got to see Maradi and Zinder, which are Hausa lands and my Zarma is of little value to me.  The sessions at the conference were all run by Volunteers based on projects they have successfully completed in their villages over the past two years.  Even if I'm not going to work on some of those ideas myself, it was fun and impressive listening to my friend's service stories!  Some ideas I am interested in are: Goat Loans; small scale irrigation systems; English letter exchanges with an American classroom; Basic health care advice for villagers; and Population education sensibilizations.  There really is SO much, so we'll see what I can do!  I also engaged in whirlwind shopping trips for the amazing artisanal goodies that can be found out East!

The rest of this month and into July will also be busy.  I will be starting a Peace Corps sponsored radio show in a town about an hour away from me.  My main focus for the show will be on Mayor's Office, Commune, and Decentralization related material, but I am sure I'll get some Environment, Health, and America related topics in there too.  Early July will see me back around Niamey and Hamdallye for "TOT".  The Training of Trainers session will lead up to the arrival of the new group of Education and Community Development volunteers in Niger. I will be a Volunteer Assistant Trainer (VAT) for their final weeks of training in September before the new volunteers head out into the big wide world of Niger.  I am super excited to help the newbies integrate into Nigerien culture and to answer any last minute questions they might have before being thrown out into their sites!  I remember my own arrival and training like it was yesterday and not almost a whole year in the past! This is a really exciting time for me.
August, as most of you know is my vacation to the United States.  Some people leave Niger to travel around West Africa....well I'll do that next year!  This year my younger brother is getting married and I am so lucky that I will be able to come home to see it happen!!!  I am a bridesmaid and will be home just 20 short hours before the Bridal shower and other activities!  The next weekend will be the wedding itself and after all the drama and activities and photos are done, I will be able to relax for the next two weeks and do nothing but EAT!  I hope I will see many if not all of you around that time (July 30 - Aug 21) but if not, we will be in touch!
Here ends this "short" look into my life for the past few months!