And of course, sticking to the way of doing normal business a month has gone by and not a single post has gone up. At least this time though I can say honestly that it's because I've been quite busy. I've gone on a week long bike ride in Benin, had our close of service conference in Niamey and spent a week in Gaya trying to get everything finished up in terms of work and the text books.
Bike Ride in Benin -
Being that I'm right on the border, my closest PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) neighbor is in Malanville just across the river from Gaya, a mere 7km away. She knows I'm into biking and invited me along on their Family Planning education bike tour from Kalele to Parakou in central Benin. Got the project and ability to travel cleared through the Bureau and was off on the bike ride from May 27th till June 2nd.
Differences between Benin and Niger Peace Corps experiences:
Food- Oh my god, what good food they have in Benin. Even the pounded stuff is better there; it's yams and rice instead of millet. They have cheese!!!! Cheese in all every sauce in fact. And there's juices, bisap, much deliciousness was to be had.
Weather- We biked 20km at 1pm, and no one died. I don't think that could be possible in Niger. It was hot in Benin, by Seattle standards, but not by Niger standards, maybe mid 80's to low 90's, nice biking weather in my opinion. Plus it rained on us once, which up to that point hadn't really happened yet. Funny story on that episode; it was our first day riding and we were on the last leg of the day. As we were getting ready to leave the village we heard our first clap of thunder and the clouds that had been slowing growning more and more ominous took on an especially dark look. We thought, "hey let's try to outrun it" and so we took off. It seemed like everything would work out fine, the road ran opposite from the approaching storm which blew at our backs a refreshing breeze. Then, in a 'turn' for the worst, the road curved so that the last 10km ran perpendicular to the storm's path and before we knew it, rain started up in big wet drops. Luckily, the lead biker saw a three room house that for some reason these two Beninois guys had built in the middle of nowhere and we (20 people) were able to take refuge inside one of the (small) rooms for an hour till the front blew past. Played the harmonica a little bit inside and, with the heat and sweat, it felt sort of like being locked away in a small prison cell. But at least we weren't rained on...Language - This is one area where PC Niger has Benin beat. We hear the local languages. Every Niger PCV is taught a local language and so we are able to be a little more connected with our communities, especially bush villages, rural places where education isn't so good and people might not understand french. In Benin, the problem is really that there are so many languages (60) that it's damn near impossible for PC to teach their volunteers the language in their village and so they stick to French. In Niger we can usually get by with teaching hausa or zarma, though other languages are around these predominate and most people can understand at least a little in either one. Volunteers in Niger have also organized trainings for themselves on other native languages like Fulan or Tamachec when they thought it would be usefull.
Clothing - It's a lot more casual in Benin. I wore SHORTS for an entire week. Wow. Plus I saw girls' knees; I had to be physically restrained.The Volunteers - Not too different. They complain about the bureau, they love and hate their experience and the country (mostly love), and they can drink a grand biere in about 5 minutes flat.
The Work - While the health and environmental sectors are basically the same, Benin has small business and english teaching volunteers that Niger doesn't. Our education volunteers, like myself don't teach.
The ride was 160k over 4 days and it was beautiful. We did around four meetings a day, one in each village we passed, talking about the why and how of family planning. Nothing funnier than asking someone to demonstrate condom use on a wooden phalis.
I really love biking and a bike will have to be the first thing I buy back state side. I don't even want a car. Spring time plan is to bike to San Fransisco. Incha Allah.
So that was my wonderful 'work' week in Benin. Couldn't have asked for more on a vacation.
Last week was our Close of Service (COS) conference. The group I came to country with got together for the last time as a whole and we had session on resume writting, readjusting to life, the administrative side of things, etc. Best part of the 'official' conference part was a trip to see the giraffes. Last time I walked, this time, air conditioned car!
We also had a big dinner together, watched a slide show of pictures of our time together and then had a party to celebrate our two years. It's sad to think of not seeing many of these people again, but I'm also ready to move on from this experience to the next, even if I'm not sure what, entirely that will be.I've been looking into law programs which are strong in international law, and thinking of matching that up with either a masters in public administration (MPA), or a legal masters (LLM) in sustainable international development (UW!) or another international emphasis. Both ideas would be four year programs, but are highly selective for the schools I'm looking at (NYU, Columbia, Duke, UW, American University) AND I'd have to do a lot of the work in applying and looking for money from here.
I might want to take a year off to organize myself and get things together. At least I'm starting to get on it now. Better late than never. T-minus 5 months till application deadlines. First thing - resume and my COS paperwork.
Anyway, some happy news is that the planning for The Trip is coming along well. So far the basic itininery includes tunisia, sicily, italy, france, spain, the UK, and either Ireland or Iceland (maybe both!). Planned out almost three months for travel with Josh and Will. Should be an amazing trip and a chance to move on from this place in style. If anyone has any travel ideas or knows anyone willing to play host to some returning volunteers let me know.
Oh, I almost forgot -
Niger Political Update:
If you haven't heard (and US news being all about presidential fly swatting and not substansive news) Tandja, the President, disolved the National Assembly a couple weeks ago after the constitutional court ruled against his bid for a third term. There was some rioting (they attacked the Governor's house in Dosso, and burned part of it down, the grand marche in Niamey caught fire, police fired tear gas into crowds, one woman died), but most of the protesting has been peaceful and there is no big threat to anyone here or a big chance that the government will fall apart. Everything done so far (even on Tandja's side) has been within the letter of the law. Tandja wants to hold a national referendum on constitutional ammendment in August which would allow him a third chance at election, but recent rumor has him planning on stepping down now that the opposition is gaining strength. Nothing official yet.
Also, I added new Pictures to Picasa in two albums: Benin Bike Ride and Giraffes!!!
