Christmas Eve (Part 1 of 3)

Been since Halloween since I’ve written in this thing. Sorry about that, but it’s been a pretty hectic last month and a half for me. I haven’t been back to Gaya since before Thanksgiving (Aside from a short stay over right before the bike ride, characterized by being sick, see below). One week of Thanksgiving, one week of bike ride, three weeks of in service training (originally scheduled as two, again, see below) and now about a week for Christmas. All told SIX weeks away from home. I miss it and my friends a lot, but it has been nice to see all my American friends, especially for our holidays.Below I have posts for Thanksgiving and the bike ride, but the reason our training was ‘extended’ deserves its own post, and it’s news not being reported anywhere else in the media world (I’ve looked).



On December 10, a landmine exploded under a bush taxi in the city of Maradi, killing the driver. Later that night, another landmine exploded under a car at the traditional wrestling arena in Tahaoua, again killing the driver. Both cities are in the center of the country, not very close to my home town, but I do know PCVs out that way. The government was quick to blame the MNJ rebels from the North of the country, while the MNJ would deny involvement. The MNJ, consisting of mostly, but not exclusively, ethnic Tuaregs has been plaguing the government for the last six months or so, demanding that resources be equally shared with the Northern regions, not necessarily financially, but with more influential political and military positions for those from the area (One would imagine that the MNJ wants their own in these positions).The hightened tensions started the day before when military aircraft spotted a convoy of vehicles in the desert steps around Agadez. It fired on the convoy, killing six. Turns out later, that they were regular old Tuaregs from Agadez. Actually, not any old regular Tuaregs, but the richest man in Agadez, owner of a big bottled water company and his entourage. Needless to say that accusations were quick to start flying about.



The scariest part about all this was that it happened right before Niger’s independence day and the start of Tabaski, a major Muslim celebration. And of all places, this year’s Independence celebration was to be held in Tahaoua, the site of one of the bombings… coincidence? No one really knows. However, on the MNJ website (http://m-n-j.blogspot.com/), they warned all Nigeriens to stay away from the celebration or be considered human shields for the president and his cronies. This right after denying, in the same paragraph, the landmine attacks and stating that they don’t target civilians (which has been true up till now).


So, who’s to blame? No answers. But the heightened tensions from the last couple weeks have begun to cool down. After the initial explosions, the Peace Corps went on to Stand Fast alert and volunteers were told to stay where they were, avoid crowds, etc. Since we were up at the training site in Hamdalye, we were stuck there. Not a very exciting time, but gave us a chance to make a movie, which will hopefully be posted on YouTube soon, I’ll let y’all now. Now, the stand fast is removed, but we were told to remain “vigilante” and be aware of our surroundings. To me, that’s just good advice to do always.I don’t feel threatened and I don’t think that this is going to escalate into any more widespread violence. But it is a little disconcerting that the problems which had been localized in the North have reared their ugly heads closer to home.


As for joyous events: Today is Christmas eve and I’m spending it and Christmas Day here in Niamey with friends. I did some Christmas shopping for the family yesterday, but they’ll be late arriving in the states. Sorry, but the heightened security tensions kind of threw off everyone’s plans. My current plans are to head to one of our program director's houses tomorrow for some food, caroling, hopefully watch a Christmas Story. I want to wish all my friends and family a merry Christmas, hope it is cold and white, very much the opposite of ours here.






Oh and this little guy says Merry Christmas also... He's not nearly as mean as his big brother who harrased me a couple weeks ago...

Bike Ride (Part 2 of 3)

As I was getting ready to leave Niamey the day after Thanksgiving I got a phone call from one of our program directors asking if I could fill in on the AIDS awareness bike ride they were planning from Gaya to Dosso; they had a volunteer drop out at the last minute. So onto the bike ride I went, though I hadn’t ridden a bike in, oh, six years or so.
Too bad the day before we were to start I came down with a bad case of something. Bacteria, Amoebas, Flu, not sure, but I took some meds slept all day and was ready to go by the next morning.

The bike ride is one of the biggest events the Peace Corps here puts on each year. This year we traveled from Gaya to Dosso, 150km, on bike over the course of a week. It really wasn’t very grueling, the most we traveled each day was around 30km and only 15km in the longest single stretch. We stopped at almost every village along the way to put on a show and educate the people about AIDS. It was a great time and I was lucky to even go since first year volunteers aren’t usually invited. Since my language skills weren't quite up to par to act in the skit or conduct meetings I was usually relegated to kid duty, which proved to be quite a handfull. I also became somewhat of the photographer for the ride, taking 500 pictures in a little over a week.

The bike ride was my first real chance to experience “the bush.” Gaya is definitely not what one imagines a Peace Corps experience. Electricity and running water (at least from a pump in the yard) are luxuries here more than the standard living. Part of my journal entry from the time (I’m about as good with my journal as I am with this blog):

“They have a thatch wall/roof school, one room, almost tall enough to stand up in. Not quite. It’s flat here. Much flatter than Gaya and from what I’ve heard this is like the rest of Niger. The village is spread out in clusters of huts here and there. Two wells. Ok, let me talk about the wells for a moment. They’re deep, very deep. Around 75-100 meters deep. Very rocky ground apparently is to blame (or so the villagers say). To draw, a black rubber bucket thing is dropped down on many ropes tied together. The other end, through a pulley, is hooked a couple of tired looking donkeys who seem to pull these buckets all day long. A bushless track runs out in a fan from the well, showing where the ground has been worn bare by the constant tread of hoofs. Women take turns tunning this system. One at the lip of the well, one with the donkey, one to move around buckets of water. Takes a good four minutes to draw a single bucket of 4-5 gallons. Seems like a process that goes on constantly. There’s a pump here, but it’s been broken for years. Same as in the last two villages we passed. Seems up keep here is lacking. No surprise. Like everything in this place, it’s a factor of money. NGOs come in and pay for a pump to be installed, but the long term idea of upkeep, repairs…. That’s lost in the feeling of accomplishment the first buckets cause. Then the NGO is gone, thinking everything is solved. Sustainability is a buzz word around PC and NGOs but the actual sustainability of projects involves more infrastructure and economic building than a single pump, or even a thousand pumps, can provide.”

Think that about sums up the problems we see here; self-sustainable progress is the key. It requires an educated population, if not university smarts, at least educated on what the government needs to do to get them there. And it requires money and investment from outside sources, or a new source of income for Niger. (Pray for an increase in the price of Uranium) Our work here isn't going to change the country, but it can start to help educate the people on what they can do to start that process.

Thanksgiving (Part 3 of 3)

Arrived in Dosso the Monday before Thanksgiving. Spent the week hanging out and buying the things necessary to make our feast that Thursday. And boy what a feast we had. Definitely not lacking on any of the traditional dishes one would get in the states. Pumpkin pie, corn bread, cranberries…. No chutney though…. We even bought a Turkey a couple months ago and left it with the neighbors to keep and fatten. It’s interesting to watch the whole process of cooking the

turkey, from killing to gutting to cooking. I think it even made it taste better. Who knew turkeys didn’t come from the freezer in Safeway?

The only thing I missed was falling asleep watching football after the meal. Well, actually we watched game four of the last world series that night. Hard to get into the game when you know that the Red Socks are going to win.