zot in Niger bush camels

Much has happened since my last post. Eric came to visit, and we spent several days in various Nigerien villages, seeing the life of Peace Corps volunteers and, too a lesser extent, of Nigeriens. Then we headed to Benin for a week of cheap millet beer, cheaper sodabi (distilled palm wine, which tastes like death and will in fact kill you) and a few days at the beach. The undertow was fear instilling, and we got up to our waistes before we decided we liked life more than being stupid.

Benin is full of crazy stories, like villages held at gunpoint by mercenaires from Nigeria, men dressed in haystacks that run around killing people in the night, stolen penises, and burnings as a punishment for theivery. Then there’s all those Peace Corps related issues, which if you don’t know about I’m not going to tell you here. I wonder if the biggest trait shared by Peace Corps volunteers is the ability to stick through adversity? Anyway, fortunately we avoided all of those things and were able to visit museums, python temples and sacred forests without any trouble (none of which were particularly awe inspiring). Did you know that Voodoo started in Benin? And there was huge slave trade as well. We did buy fresh pineapples and avacodoes and dried coconut, all of which was delicious. Benin is very green and lovely. We also benefited from the help of some awesome Benin volunteers (thanks guys!). But then we ran out of money and energy and decided to come back home.

I probably wasn’t the best host, dealing with some other things that are happening and just generally feeling kind of low, but in an soft undefined way. I don’t really know what is going on, but as usual things will cycle back one way or another.

Okay, next up, I have bed bugs. I spent two nights in my village and am covered in giant red itchy bites that I only get at night. I am glad I am moving, but first I have to show three new volunteers my village without getting them bit, and I have to warn the new volunteer so s/he doesn’t get them too quickly. When I move I am going to hang everything in the sun and hopefully not bring any bugs with me, but of course they will probably follow. They are nefarious.

Also, I start work for PLAN tomorrow. I will only work a couple of days before returning to my site for demyst (in which I show new volunteers my life and ‘demystify’ them). Then when I get back next week the real work begins. They haven’t found a house for me yet so I will be living with a fellow volunteer who also works there for a few weeks. Things promise to be good. Then there is the possibility that I will be going to Senegal in August for a week long conference, which would be awesome but I am trying not to hope too much for because it isn’t set yet.

That’ll do for now. I also highlighted my hair in a fit of ridiculousness, so now I resemble some unknown amalgamation of The Backstreet Boys and NSync. I will upload a picture at some point.

My site got hacked and so things were down for a while, but hopefully we’re back up and running. I haven’t written anything because, truly, the month of June is insane. I finished up my youth conferences in early June, and since then have been to a four-day conference for all volunteers in Niger and met my friend Eric who is visiting from the states. We have been wandering around Niger for a bit, but in a few days will take off for Benin and other countries for a couple of weeks. Its great to have him here seeing things (and just cause I miss him), but I hope it has been as interesting and exciting for him as for me. Unfortunately, security issues have closed two countries to Peace Corps volunteer travel and significantly restricted parts of others, and so we don’t have a lot of choice in where to go and what to do. We are investigating other options.

I am starting work with PLAN in about a month, and am very excited and in the process of moving into the capital (well, once they find a house for me). Everything is going really well, and I haven’t had much of a chance to write posts, but I should be able to again in the next few days and then more regularly after that.

Kalla Tonton (Until next time)