We have now been consolidated for a week, and have a few more days left until things unwind. I have been at the training site with all the stagiares for most of that time, and the volunteers that were helping with training left this morning.

What’s new to report? I have achieved some sort of peace with the uncertain state of my service in Niger. Its not like I have too much choice. I could end my service early, but that isn’t what I want to do and it doesn’t really make sense. Instead, I just have to recognize that I am going to put the effort into learning another language and then being accepted by my village and that it could be for naught if other security incidents happen. I figure the likelyhood of another thing happening in some near time frame are fairly high, so it wouldn’t surprise me to find myself pulled out at some point in the next several months.

I am enjoying the process though, which is probably what has kept me happy to be in Niger during the uncertainty of the past couple weeks. I did have a few sudden episodes of extreme emotion though, which caught me by surprise, mostly because I wasn’t terribly distraught most of the time and nothing particularly traumatic happened to me. But perhaps it just reminded me of being evacuated from Guinea, or perhaps it is just that I had to do so much questioning to find the inner desire to be a Peace Corps volunteer that every time my future as a volunteer becomes shaky I have to revisit that process and I am tired of doing that.

I am happy being in the Peace Corps and have learned to cope with many of the challenges, so at this point I am mostly just enjoying it. Still, I am impatient to finish training and go to my village. The plain truth is that I will learn my language much quicker at my village, and the sooner I can be there and begin integrating into the community the sooner I can leave behind the cooped up feeling of training and begin to do some real work. I am getting pretty bored. But it is fun, and since I only have a week left before I head to site (inshallah), it is no big deal.

One thing I do wish was different though is that there were more male volunteers. I don’t know why Niger is so heavily female, but the lack of male energy and the opportunity for male friends can be a little frustrating. There are two other guys (I think?) on my team (a team is just a group of volunteers that have been clustered relatively close to each other), but the few guys in the new stage are all Haussa speakers, which means they will not be going to a site near me.

So that’s it. I am just waiting. I have made friends with some volunteers, who on the whole are pretty awesome and accepting. Once I can get back to actually being a volunteer I think I will be quite happy.