Peace Corps Hardcore

I’m writing this not knowing exactly when I’ll be able to post it online. While much has happened since I last wrote in Philadelphia, I know the biggest events of my entry into Peace Corps Niger are still to come. After a flight to Paris and from there to Niamey, we were greeted by a red land more resembling Mars than North America and a number of volunteers who will serve as ‘summer camp counselors’ for the 32 of us (my term) the next nine weeks.
The first three VATs (Volunteers at Training) escorted us in two vans about 30km from the capital to the village of Hamdallaye, where Peace Corps has been training potential PCVs for decades. A smooth transition has been put in place for us, graded gradually down from American amenities to Nigerien bare necessities. While I don’t think we will ever ‘have’ to live as stripped down as your average Nigerien, it won’t be easy. For my group, made up of MCDs (municipal) and CYE (education) volunteers, we will probably receive an upgrade when we move from training to our posts around the country.
A little a bit about those conditions, shall we? Our first step down from the Philly luxe was the training site, where we slept two nights with lukewarm showers and nicely prepared, balanced meals, sat on chairs with pads, had “flush” toilets and electrical outlets. The first Sunday we were moved down from our gated site into the community. We were split into individuals or pairs and placed in compounds shared with local families. The conditions varied from an individual with a flimsy hut and concession (wall inside compound) made completely of straw, no electricity or TV, nothing but rice or millet to eat with his hands, and no French spoken at home. On the other hand, some people got a companion, a clay hut, a family with a TV and electricity, meat and a spoon, and French spoken in the family. I’m right about in the middle. No matter what, we all take baths with buckets of water under a glorious Milky Way, go to the bathroom in a whole in the ground, have innumerable naked kids running around our compounds, and hand wash at least part of our laundry. At least we don’t do our business way out in the fields or carry enormous water buckets on our heads. And I even escaped the carb-only diet when a group of French nursing interns stayed across my compound for a few days: I not only got to practice my French, but had some mango, egg on toast, and mint water….Ahh, I could die for some mint water right now!
Today marks our first full week in family, we all agree we’ve been able to adjust to the fact that we were able to handle an entire Sunday with absolutely nothing to do (although one girl in the group was put to work hauling water and wood right off the bat!). To me, I kept feeling as if I was in a living-history museum like Greenfield Village, except the fires actually were cooking food I would eat and the blacksmith was making real tools people would really use. Sleeping through the wee hours with donkeys, roosters, goats and sheep offering a cacophony of misfiring alarms brought reality closer to home. A sudden gust of wind and dust woke us all up our first night, as we were rudely welcomed to Nigerien rainy season: where you get more dust and wind than rain. Despite our groggy sprint with mattresses and mosquito netting from our outdoor platforms to shelter, we woke to eyes, clothing, and luggage coated, or even infiltrated with dust.
In our first of many medical training sessions, our Med officer introduced us to Mr. D - Diarrhea. We soon learned one of Peace Corps Niger’s most infamous claims: the highest ratio of gastrointestinal illnesses per volunteer in all of Peace Corps. While I want to say it was 175/year (with between 90-120 volunteers serving), there are of course numbers of unreported bouts. And we’ve already had at least one. This claim to fame categorizes Niger in the Peace Corps Hard Core category with the likes of Tajikistan, as opposed to Peace Corps Soft Core (Philippines - volunteering in a resort with tourists, what!?). As you may know, Niger has been 177 and 174 out of 177 on the UN’s list of human development for the last two years. Nonetheless, we seem to be having it better than I expected. And given that I am learning Zarma, I will most likely be posted well within a day’s drive from Niamey (the capital). When I return to the training site, I marvel at how much work is done by a toilet that flushes, even if it doesn’t quite do it right, or when I want it to.
-Thomas

In and Out of Philly in 30 hours

Hi everybody,
I'm writing from my hotel room in Philadelphia in the middle of my staging process. I got in this morning and am leaving tomorrow afternoon. It's been a very busy time getting to meet everybody, learning rules and regulations...getting a crash course on loads of fun stuff like that. I won't be able to write for a while during in training, so I thought I'd write right now while I can. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, I'll be thinking of you when I have a chance to think (or breathe).

-Thomas