A couple of days ago I taught a session on business clubs to the trainees, and the men showed up and said a casual “Hey” before sitting down on the mats. I was thinking to myself “What the heck? You can’t be bothered to greet me properly?” Of course in America that is a proper greeting, so there you go.

More interesting was when my great friend came to visit. I met him at the airport after waiting through rain and sandstorm. It was a very public place, and since it was three or so in the morning tempers were short. Eric came out of the gate looking rather sleepy, and we did a classic ‘I try to shake his hand while he tries to hug me’ dance. In the states of course, we would have given each other a big hug, but here in Niger? Different cultures call for different actions. Here a handshake is standard and holding hands is a gesture of friendship. You don’t see hugs often. In the middle of our hug, our joyful reunion after almost two years apart, I was thinking “This is really awkward, I bet people think we are weird.” I keep forgetting to ask, but I wonder what he thought about it. If I saw a friend after a long time apart I’d be sort of put off by his trying to give me a handshake instead of a hug.

So there you go. Some cultural things, like greeting many people, I want to take back with me. Others I hope I can leave here. In the mixing of behaviors that happens inside of us who knows what will be eventually left behind and what will stay with us forever?

What vaccines did you have to get before and while volunteering?

I don’t remember exactly. I had to have several in order to even apply, most significantly polio. Yellow fever is necessary. You also get Hepatitis B, MMR, Diphtheria-Typhus, etc… In country I was required to get a flu shot and an H1N1 (yes, they are big on giving you completely unnecessary shots). The general approach seems to be “fill them full of everything possible because if someone dies as a result of not having one we will be in deep ****.”

What diseases and/or general illnesses are common in your country?

Malaria is the worst, and we generally take mefloquine weekly. We are also trained on how to poke our fingers and do a blood smear to be examined for malaria parasites. TB is a problem in West Africa, especially as multi-drug resistant strains evolve. Cholera outbreaks are occasional. But the most common issues are simply bacteria, amoebas and giardia.

Have you been sick at all?

Niger is supposedly worse than average in terms of all those GI infections. Personally I have had all three once since I arrived in Niger (10 months ago). Some volunteers have it much more often and some less. Much has to do with how clean you are, but your site can also make a big difference.

The other big issues is staph infections. I had a rather bad one on my lip, and some volunteers have had several. Again, how clean you are makes a big difference.

What different creatures, animals, insects, etc. do you encounter (or not want to encounter) during your volunteering?

I see donkeys, cows, chickens, goats, and sheep everywhere, even in the capital city. There are also dogs, cats, pidgins, and the usual assortment of domestic animals. Camels are common. I’ve seen giraffes once on the road. A few wealthier traditional families have horses.

Perhaps you are referring to the scarier animals. I have found a (drowned) scorpion in my water jug, a live one next to a mat at a friend’s house, and a small snake curled up under my mat at my house. I’ve seen people dropping rocks on a half-dead snake as well. During my stay in Guinea and Niger, I’ve also seen bats, rats, mice, and many spiders. Most of these are not a common part of your life as a volunteer and I don’t really think of it as that different from a rural setting in America.

Also, if there is anything else you could share about the environment you live in, that would be great. For instance, is it stifling hot? Or too rainy?

At the moment it is ridiculously rainy. This is the height of the rainy season, but even so we are having more rain that usual, and you’ve probably read the news reports about all the flooding. This makes things (even the sand) moldy, and it can be hard to get clothes to dry. It still sort of mystifies me that I can’t get clothes dry in the middle of Niger. My thermometer regularly shows at least 100 degrees. During hot season (March – June), it was almost always above 115 in the daytime (and in the shade). At night it gets to high 70s or low 80s, except during hot season where it can be 90 outside in the middle of the night. Cold season is very cold, with highs in the 80s and 90s and lows at night perhaps in the 50s or 60s (one volunteer swears it can get to the 40s, but I think he’s wrong).

All of that seems very hot, and it is when you first arrive. You adjust some. But the heat itself isn’t as bad as not having access to something cold to drink or a fan to blow air around (my village didn’t have electricity). I have a game with my roommate in which we guess the temperature, and we have consistently guessed five or ten degrees under. I don’t think of it as terribly hot anymore, but I also have a house with electricity and even a fridge now. It is cooler now than it was as well.

I hope that helps. Good luck on your aspirations to Peace Corps.