Preparing to leave... only to come back... then leave again

First of all, I think it's time to openly acknowledge here what most of you already know.... I'm leaving Niger in just under a month. I'll be leaving Peace Corps Niger to go live with my lovely fiance Kelsey in Kuwait. After much soul searching and rough spots over the last couple months (including watching someone die and thinking 'that could have been me'), I've come to understand that life is short and you have to spend it with the ones you love. Of course, being the obsesive type I am about finsihing something (ever see me play a video game for HOURS until I've beat it? Or write a paper in the same manner?), I've struggled much with leaving here and still not feeling like I'm quitting and leaving without accomplishing anything. Tough couple months of mental tug-a-war.

But in the end, Kelsey means more to me than single handedly developing the educational system of Niger and so I will be bowing out of here all too soon. I did however, plan this all in the mind set that by this time I would have all my projects nicely tied up and all my ducks in a row. Being Niger, I should have know this was a little over-optimistic, even with my original December schedule and its one month grace period:

Projects done end of Jan.
Wrap up Nigerien life (including project over-runs) in Feb.
Off to Kuwait beginging of March.

Then we had the revised schedule after christmas:
Finsih projects by middle of Feb;
Wrap up Nigerien life by mid-March
Kuwait on March 18th

Now I'm glad I pushed back my original departure from March 4th cause my schedule now looks like:

FINISH projects sometime(?)
Get the hell out of Africa on March 18th!

It's been a trying couple of months waiting for people around here to realise as I did that time was quickly slipping away from us. Even telling everyone in December that I would be leaving in March, West African International Time (or WAIT, cute accronym eh?), dictates that people take their time until I bang their head on a table and yell "I'm leaving next week! Are we doing this or not?!?" In which case they say "Of course, it's all going to happen, Incha Allah" Translation: It MAY happen if God deems it should. Translation: No promises. A little frustrating a times if you're trying to work with deadlines. Which, by the way, is rule number one working in Africa - don't expect deadlines to be meet. 2010 World Cup anyone?

But I digress into a rant that I will save for another post about the generalities of Africa and development.... something I've already started writting but am not ready to internet-publish. -Instead I ad-lib at the Cyber Cafe in Gaya; blog improvosation-

So everyone here knows I'm leaving, including Peace Corps staff. Also, everyone is supporting the decision, including Peace Corps staff. Mary, our country director, who has had a mixed bag on volunteer relationships was great; friendly, caring, and helpful when I told her. Thanks Mary! (if you ever read our posts)

Anyway, it's not like this is a surprise around here and so I started trying to wrap this stuff up months ago to differing results. MY student government has gone off extremely well. Last week we had elections in one of the two schools and this week we have them in the other. It's great to see the kids so exctied about something like that. I'll post pictures and video when I run across a better internet connection. So THAT has been great and provided good end of service uplifting moments.

However, these books.... where to begin?

The community contribution part, which is to represent 25% of the total budget, has NOT been met. In planning with people here we put that down as to be met by students at the two targeted schools, each one bringing about a dollar. This didn't happen. Only about a third of the students provided their money. It's a sad statement on where people's priorities lie here that they are unwilling to provide a dollar to improve their child's educational opportunities. I also blame the directors for not making a bigger deal of it. But, beyond the depressingness of that thought, I've found a way to raise the money by taking the books not yet payed for in community funds and offering them to CEGs in the entire commune of Gaya, that's 14 more schools that will recieve an average of 44 books per school, so in the end I'm happier with that utcome than just giving the advantage to two already pretty well funded schools; well funded compared to bush schools around here that is.

The problem has been organizing this, where having my inspector (superintendent) come down with Malaria among the time factor of Niger (WAIT) has taken a couple of precious weeks. The books are ready. They're at my house getting dusty and waiting for money to come in for them. So things should finish up fine, though my schedule now looks like:

Feb 28th leave Gaya for Burkina Film festival, this was my original never to come back to gaya date but....
Mar 12th - 14th back in Gaya cause you have to hold someone's hand to get them to do something and I have to have receipts for the book money
Mar 18th fly out of Niamey.

Kala suru. Have Patience.

Just ranting this all out, mostly so that y'all who were gracious enough to donate know what's going on: It's frustratingly slow, but the books will find their way into needy hands.

So now a note on a practical issue: Don't send any more letters or packages! I won't be here when they arrive. You can get me in Kuwait and I'll get the address for that later.

Here at the internet with one of my buddies. Sad to be wrapping everything up, saying goodbye to people. A couple of times I've started to get really sad. This would've happened eventually, but leaving six months early, while not a LOT of time, means I'm leaving alone while my friends continue on until September. That makes it hard, sying goodbye here in Gaya AND to my American Peace Corps friends, some who I won't see in person again. But all life requires sacrifices and for Kelsey I can gladly miss a couple goodbyes.

Now if I can just get things wrapped up with work.

Sorry Mo about this being another work post, but it has some other stuff in it as well.

Next time: Philosophic wanderings on Africa, the Big Man complex, and Development.

Incha Allah