Inter-Service-Training and I Move in Monday!

In front of the refact.



Bawa, my new APCD. Tondi, the wonderful training manager. Sangare, my old APCD. Hauoa Grande, the wonderful PTA. And Mani, our language coordinator!



Today is Wednesday, March 25th. Yesterday was my mom’s birthday, and in two weeks we will have been in Niger for six months. Tomorrow is our last night here at Hamdallaye where we’ve been for our three-week IST (inter-service-training). By the time I post this online IST will be over and I will be packing for my installation in Kiota on Monday.

It’s good to be back together with the group I came here with in October. We were all apart for three months and have had surprisingly different experiences out in the bush. After this weekend it may be quite a while (maybe January ’10!) before we’re all together again. We are spread from Gotheye to Gaya and from Gaya to Zinder. That means within our group of 25 volunteers we are close to four of Niger’s seven bordering countries: Mali, Burkina-Faso, Benin and Nigeria. Algeria, Libya and Chad are the only three a little further away, and harder to get to.

Emily, Scott and Will (the other volunteers in my stage relocated because of the kidnappings) are now (mostly) happily settled into their new villages, all in the Dosso region. On Monday, when I join them, it means this whole nightmare of readjustment will finally be nearing its end and we will be looking forward to productivity again instead of just catching up to everyone else. By that I mean it hasn’t been easy living in limbo while our stage-mates have been integrating more and more into their first villages. IST has been largely a brainstorm for actual, do-able, mappable, PDM-able, fund-able project ideas. This is what is exciting about having spent three months at post: now you get to do stuff. But for the four of us that haven’t had that privilege, it is hard to watch everyone else here start planning what they can start right away. I’m sure in a few months, or less, I will also feel ready to start beginning projects in my new sector.

* * * * * * * * *

It’s Friday now, the 27th, and all the girls just packed up our room here at Tondo-bon (the top of the rock) listening to the Dixie Chicks, Frank Sinatra and, ladies and gentlemen, the Notorious B.I.G. My friend Jessie says it feels a little like high school graduation. We watch this room, filled with backpacks, strewn with clothing, piles of seeds for planting, books, dictionaries, project planning sheets and empty glass coca-cola bottles, begin to slowly be packed back into an empty white room with four bare mattresses and a sink. Outside we have taken down most of our mosquito nets, and the village of Hamdallaye is spread below us baking in the sun. Goats linger by the metal wire fence surrounding the training site, chewing any leaves left on the trees. To look around this same place I arrived on October 9th, (10th?) of last year—to look at the scattered outdoor showers, and small circular classroom huts with straw roofs, the refactoire with its wooden benches, hangar and metal chairs—all these things which felt so foreign not long ago; now they feel like some definition of comfort. This is our home away from post, a little slice of America. We had pizza for lunch today! (Albeit, there still managed to be chunks of bone in the ground beef that substituted pepperoni). The point is, it’s hard for this to be the end of us being the new kids. Unless the budget really changes with Obama, we won’t be together again back on this training site. We’re on our own. And we feel capable.

I would like to interject a special congratulations here to my sister Kate who has been ACCEPTED TO THE BU PROGRAM IN NIAMEY FOR THE FALL SEMESTER! Insha’allah (god willing) I will get to have her in this country for four months! Congrats, My love!

So without further ado, as I should probably hurry up and get back to the class I’m missing (even though it’s for Ag/NRMs and I’m a CYE) I would like to send my love to all of you! Wish me luck in my second first month at post! I won’t have internet for another month after Monday (but write to me at the Niamey address!) And please call! I hope you’re all doing well and know that I’m missing you everyday (but not too badly). I cannot wait to hear from you. I hope it smells like spring there. Much love, Annette.