11/26/2009

The past week has been rough. There were some recent attempted kidnappings of foreigners near the Niger-Mali border. Because of the security concerns, we were first put on consolidation for a little over a week, which meant that we were not able to stay with our host families. A few days before Thanksgiving the consolidation was lifted but Peace Corps decided to send our training group to Madagascar since there had been another attempted kidnapping over the weekend. Even though I’m really sad to leave Niger I can understand that it would probably be more manageable to monitor a smaller number of volunteers in country given the heightened security and travel restrictions. It’s too bad that we’ll have to start a whole new training program and probably won’t get to swear in as volunteers until late January or February. Not only that, but we have to learn a whole new language, and just when I was starting to get the hang of Hausa. I am very happy that I will still be working in the health sector, and I’m looking forward to island life for the next two years. I’m anxious to leave and start my new training program, but I am also sad to leave Niger. I feel bad for our language trainers and for the Nigerien villages that were expecting volunteers in January. In order to pass the time and stay productive at the training site we are learning French now instead of Zarma and Hausa. Today we had off because of Thanksgiving, so we hung out and worked on preparing for the meal. The dinner went really well. All the language trainers joined us, and as we shared our meal together we went around and said what we were thankful for. Many people expressed their gratitude for the training staff here and the opportunity to have learned about and experienced the people, the language and beautiful culture of Niger. This weekend we get to go back to our homestays to visit our families and experience Tabaski, one of the biggest Muslim holidays here in Niger.