On the Eve of the Referendum

While I should be able to write you a more up-to-date blog post in a few days when we should be able to use the internet for the first time, I thought that it would be best recount the past couple weeks and spend the next post only on the goings-on of the referendum vote which is scheduled for tomorrow. In case you haven’t read much about it, I will do my best to fill you in on some details, especially the perspective you can’t get from the news website.
The last weekend of July we had our first chance to leave Hamdallaye, or Hamdy, to see a bit of Niger and real Peace Corps life. Like everything in Peace Corps, this weekend has a name and its abbreviation: Demystification and Demyst. We are called Demysters for the weekend. All thirty-two of us set out in groups of one, two or three to stay with PCV hosts serving in the two regions nearest Niamey - Dosso and Tillaberi. Since access to much of Tillaberi’s territory has been restricted for US citizens as a precautionary measures (you can read up on that at the State Dept.’s website) only seven of us ‘demisted’ in Tillaberi. I and two others ended up in Torodi with PCV who had been serving. Torodi is one of the few notable towns on the road from Niamey to Burkina Faso (or Burkina, as the locals say) and was a prime location to chill out by the vernal river, sample the delicious meat and honey. Our demystifier cooked us scrambled guinea fowl eggs for breakfast - may I say that guinea fowl meat and eggs beat out chicken any day - with cereal and powdered milk. After beans and rice for oh so many days, ‘twas like manna to our bellies. We spent much of our time reading, journaling, chatting and playing cards. We also were able to meet many of our demystifier’s friends in town, including the smith, who created personalized silver rings for all three of us. The R and R was well-timed as well, as we were becoming overwhelmed by the repetitive language lessons and endless medical, technical and cross-cultural sessions. More than anything, it made me truly begin to anticipate my arrival at site, and my life thereafter.
Something that our demystifier mentioned in passing stuck with me in the following form: “In Niger, nothing ever works like new.” He was talking about a flashlight, but he could have meant many other things, including human bodies. As we were told, a number of us fell sick after Demyst. While I had Mr. D before and after demyst for about six days or so, it was fairly controllable. For others though, medications had caused up to two weeks of constipation. Still others had to swallow a cornucopia of pills for amoebas and bacteria having the opposite effect on the bowels. While this may not seem the most appropriate topic for the blog, you have to understand it has been my primary topic of conversation for the past few days as seven or eight of us spent quality time at the infirmary this weekend.
My lot was different in that I experienced fevers every afternoon and early morning from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning. Combined with continued stomach problems, everything seemed manageable but uncomfortable. At rock bottom I was left on Saturday afternoon with 102.9 temperature that had risen a degree and a half in just under an hour without a clear idea of what I had or even what medicine I should be taking. After an appraisal of the symptoms it was clear a malaria test was more than due. Fortunately, the fever broke yesterday and I feel much better. At the same time, the malaria slide completed under much supervision couldn’t be read. I doubt many of us could imagine what beatings our bodies would take before Niger, but camaraderie has its benefits…including those who can make light out of any situation.
- Thomas