Third Year in PC!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
I had meant December to be a month in which projects would be finalized and my life would equal village, such had previous months and ones to come been filled with travelling, I had said to myself that if my projects were to succeed they could have to show signs of success before year’s end. Not surprisingly, my will was not paramount – some marvels have occurred and some disasters befallen me without as much as a warning bell. They say that Africa teaches you patience – you might also say it teaches you to roll with the punches or to let go and let God. Whatever axiom is chosen one is for sure - you have to live day by day or will end up bursting a blood vessel like I nearly did last month.

Since Thanksgiving I have been to Niamey twice – both times for medical reasons and both trips decided upon the morning of the trip. For the span of two weeks or so I spent more time out of village than in it. While Niamey is a wondrous land of running water, ceiling fans and occasional a/c, restaurants and the like, the jarring effect of going in straight from the bush in 4 to 7 hour shot is quite undesirable, especially when repeated in quick succession. On my count, which I have spent far too long try to nail down, I have been medicated for GI (gastro-intestinal) issues 17 or 18 times since entering Niger. The last few times have been particularly problematic in that each time I have been treated, the symptoms have continued on – or returned in quick fashion after the treatment. Therein lies the crux of the issue – how to tell if I have been continually infected, especially due to a weak immune system following an antibiotic treatment OR have I not been fully cured by the meds, leaving me dependent on them or resistant to them. How long can I maintain what sometimes feels like a perpetual state of infection or treatment? My fellow villagers are blessed with youths in which their bodies grow to withstand bacteria and parasites, at least to a large extent. I am not so luckily but I do feel that my body has adapted to its environment despite all its issues – I react with much greater resilience than when I first arrived in country. I have worked weeks while symptomatic and have not shown symptoms at some times when faced with infection. While on meds I feel none such strength.

I believe I mentioned before that I would talk a bit about the upcoming elections. As PCVs we are not to choose sides, and I don’t think I would want to – after seeing the first couple days of the campaigning season in Niamey I was so confused by all the banners and posters, cars and t-shirts. Little did I realize the situation in Ivory Coast would highlight the issues of African politics so soon before Niger’s own fragile attempts to establish stable democracy. The biggest difference between the two countries seems in their functionality. Ivory Coast has substantial mining and oil sectors and is the world’s biggest cocoa exporter; they have the means to fund their own government much beyond what Niger is capable of doing. Their coastline also helps fund their economy through trade and transport. Niger has uranium and little else. At the same time the factionalizing of countries based on religion and ethnicity added to the quick recourse to force is lethal concoction that plagues the whole region from time to time, even if Niger is less affected than others.

Across Francophone Africa, not just in Niger, the size and reach of state bureaucracies boggles the mind. While efforts of decentralization have been made, trying to make politics more real to the people, they have also layered more opaque reams of paperwork to a culture that has a very small written tradition. But one need not look just to the government; a recent visit to the bank highlighted the extensive reaches of bureaucracy. Upon receiving a transfer of money for a project I was told to ensure that the money had indeed arrived. The normal guy I would have talked to was not there and the person at the desk said to go up to the 1st floor. I went up one only to find out it was the mezzanine. On the next floor up I was directed to the end of the hall where I met a man who escorted me down to the office I had just come from. He was told that this was indeed his affair and we thus returned back to his windowless, fluorescent-lit whitewashed office, where he sat in a few dozen square feet space with another man. Stacked high on bureaus were register books and loose paper. The desks were equally cluttered where the two men fluttered back and forth between pages of handwritten notes. In barely legible chicken scratch were the money transfers of the French mining giant AREVA, among others. After a conversation with a friend on the phone and the DHL guy who passed by, my nerves were rubbing sideways – I was required to get out of town before sunset and time was flying by. After pleading with him he said he knew someone who could help – we went down to the main floor to watch a man chew out a colleague for a few minutes before telling us that my transfer must be international since I’m in an American organization and directed us up a floor. There the man said it was moved in from another local bank and therefore it was actually a domestic transfer. With some pity I was allowed to wait for him while he dealt with another client. I sat outside, watched him come in and out a few times while I watched well-dressed individuals pace down the hall every few minutes – sometimes in the same direction! Other people stared into space; a couple women dozed at their desks. I felt trapped in an Orwellian mind-game. I quickly dashed downstairs hoping and praying that money indeed had come – it had…but I had spent an hour gaining nothing but knowledge about how to avoid going to these efforts again. The extent of the banking bureaucracy is mirrored elsewhere in Niamey, but abroad as well - the US included. What is truly marvelous is how people can work through bureaucracy, although in village it feels people can easily avoid it altogether. Somehow, in order to progress, my villagers will have to learn the illogical ins and outs of Niamey. There are those who do know how to already, but they live in larger cities or in other regions. I can only hope that they are able to add a little dose of their own small town common sense to the whole system.