Orientation

Philadelphia, Pensylvania July 23-26

The city of brotherly love and all that. Came in on Monday, the 23rd, around 10 --- My plane was late cause, get this, they had a leaky coffee pot. No kidding.

The last couple days have been very busy between our orientation activities and last minute runs to get sun block and passport photos (CVS has a great deal of 16 pictures for $7.99 if your looking). Sorry Mehran no pictures of that wall. Our orientation was mostly about team building -- for those of you who know Preston Howard, we actually built a machine. Can you believe that?!?! Someone else out there does that kind of stuff!

Didn't actually learn anything about Niger or what I would be doing, but I do know that I should be aware of my surroundings and what the Peace Corps three goals are:

* Provide trained men and women to those countries needing and requesting them
* Promote a better understanding of Americans in foreign countries
* Promote a better understaing of those in foreign cultures in Americans

I must say that those goals match pretty well with the goals that brought me to the Peace Corps in the first place.

And if you're wondering, I am doing this so that I can help people out (of course), so that I can do something to repair what I feel is a tarnished image that much of the world now holds for Americans after our recent "endevours" around the world, and so that I may do something that I feel will help me grow into the person I am meant to become.

We all need a little adversity in our lives, and this is a way I can add that while at the same time doing some good. I think it is important to understand how the other half of the world experiences life so that I can have a much broader world view.

Funny anecdote from training:
An optimist views the glass as half full, a pessimist views it as half empty, and a Peace Corps volunteer sees that he can take a bath in that water.

This will be the last post for a couple weeks. I am told there is no internet access at our training site so until I get some time in Niamey I will not have a chance to write or read any electronic mail.

BUT! I now have a physical mail address (see sidebar). Feel free to write!!!

Sannu!

Welcome! to my first attempt at a blog. I'll be posting here about the experiences I will be having in Niger over the coming two years of work with the Peace Corps. I'm not extremely internet friendly but I do have a myspace page ( http://www.myspace.com/jjkelley83) and a facebook page if you're so inclined, though I probably won't be checking them all that often.

Let's start off with some brief facts about Niger:

It's about 3 times the size of California, consisting of roughly 4/5 desert or semi-desert land in the North and 1/5 of arable land in the South of the Country.

Niger is a stable and mostly safe place to live, though very poor. Average yearly income is only $200 US.

They speak French in Niger among the local languages, of which Huasa and Zarma are the two most dominant (Sannu is Hello in Hausa).

Check out the wikipedia site on Niger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger
The CIA world fact book: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ng.html

I'm flying out of Seattle on July 23, 2007 so expect more updates once I reach the country.

Wish me luck, stay in touch.