So in Niger they do a five day thing called demyst where new stagaires go to stay with volunteers and see what its like. It happens two weeks in and it is probably somewhat of an eye opener for stagaires. Because I am the honored guest transferee, I got to do demyst as well, but I went by myself to another Municipal and Community Development (MCD) volunteer’s site. MCD is my new program, whereas before I was Small Business Development. MCD means I work directly with the mayor and elected local government to help them become more effecient and productive and also to help people understand the role of their local government. It sounds pretty exciting and given what I saw during demyst, I am looking forward to starting.
So demyst. I met the mayor of the volunteer’s commune, which is sort of like a county. We also talked to the administrative staff and a whole bunch of the community. We took a walk along the Niger River, went to two weddings, discussed Peace Corps and all things related, and generally had a good time. It was nice for me to get out of the bureaucracy of Peace Corps and into a village again.
Niger has more electricity than Guinea, of which the biggest result for me personally so far has been that there is cold yogurt in many villages. Cold yogurt! Its awesome.
I also heard some rumors about my site: (1) it is in a mango grove, (2) the short road to it is often flooded, so I have to take the long way around or walk through the water (hello schisto!), (3) it is on the Niger River, (4) the last volunteer had internet on her iphone there and (5) it is in the Tillaberry region of Niger. There are probably others but I don’t remember. I won’t probably give everyone the actual name because they actually are more concerned about people looking for Americans in Niger, whereas in Guinea it was more of a joke. Anyway, it sounds awesome, and during demyst I heard rumors that hippos make their annual migration through the Niger River and I should be able to see them.
If all of that makes it sound like I am loving Niger, then my writing is conveying my general feeling. My biggest struggle is just missing my old fellow volunteers, but not being near the people close to me is something I should have gotten used to by now (do you ever get used to it?) and so I am trying to put that on the shelf.
Niger has a reputation for being a really hard country, but it has better roads than Guinea, it has less of an aid culture, and my site will go from being a 40,000 city to a village of less than 10,000. Plus it is dry. Some of my feeling of liking Niger might just be because I am a little adjusted to life in West Africa and so what would have bothered me before is not as big a deal. Oh yeah, and the taxis here are innumerably better, not in terms of the quality of the car, but just in terms of what they try to put in them and how nice the drivers are.
