I have started at PLAN Niger now. It took several days to get a computer up and running, but now I have one and I have hope that things will speed up at work. The project that I am working on is called Youth Economic Empowerment, and I am in charge of the Life Skills component. Life Skills is a set of trainings put together by Peace Corps several years ago aimed at equipping youth with skills to make good decisions about their lives. En fait, it includes sessions on communication, decision-making skills, relationship and gender issues, and HIV/AIDS. My job now is to plan and administer a training of trainers in these subjects, as well as create a program of sessions that the trainers will give to the groups of youth with which they are working. The life skills portion of the project is essentially mine to design as I see fit, so I get to decide which sessions we have time for, how the sessions should be modified to fit Niger, what order they should be taught in, etc…
Its an exciting post and I am looking forward to the next several months. I expect they will pass rather more quickly than I might like.

On the other hand, I still don’t have my own house. I am rooming with another volunteer, which is fine, but I have been there two weeks now and we both need out space. Progress on the housing seems particularly slow, which is frustrating because in the chaos of the summer I have not had my own house to myself for at least two months. I have generally been fine, but it is good to have your own space too and I am starting to get ancy.

I think that I will have skype on this computer, which should mean free talking with those of you who have skype in the evenings after work.

I also got Giardia from something in Niamey, or at leat I think it was Niamey. It is easily fixed, but I shouldn’t have waited two weeks to see if my body would exercise the demons on their own. Niamey itself is a big change. There are fruits and veggies and meat. There is in general electricity. I ride my bike, which in the insanity of the roads is a little crazy, but I am getting used to it. I am trying my best to save money so that I can go on some vacations, but it can be hard with volunteers coming in from their sites and wanting to go out to eat. I have had to limit myself on my purchases of sodas and fan milks (which are like an ice cream).

So things are going well and work is, as of today, exciting and fun. I hope everyone is doing well back in the US.