Working it

Hey everybody,
I know it's been some time since I wrote a meaningful and somewhat lengthy blog post, and I can't promise anything here. Suffice it to say that Niger is not always the languishing, laggardly country were nothing gets accomplished in less than thrice the time it takes in the developed world. After a few weeks in my new village that you already heard about (please pardon those overly descriptive explanations of GI issues), I headed of to In-service training. I returned to village after a few weeks to find a newly elected chief - the previous one had died in the fall. Within seconds of first seeing him I found myself wrapped in a giant bear hug. For a country where crying or displaying affection are virtually never displayed, even in private, this signaled that something was different. Sure enough, within days the chief was organizing meetings with civil servants of the village (teachers, doctor's office director) and chiefs of surrounding villages, both unprecedented in Lido. He has been a veritable quote machine (it helps that he knows French and Zarma as my Hausa is coming along ever so slowly), telling me about the importance of documenting activity in a nealy paperless society (though the bureaucracy can't get enough of it) and of incorporating women and elderly into development work. Though he still maintains his post as a primary school director not far from Lido, while he is in town he has motivated me to plunge into the work of a PC volunteer.
In the past weeks, my counterpart (a village resident that PCVs must pick to help them carry out projects) and I have gathered artisans from around the village to organize an apprenticeship program to begin in the fall. On their behalf I traveled to Dogondoutchi, the capital of Lido's department (sub-region), over a few hours both ways to establish a budget with the Director of a vocational school there who will teach some of the artisans teaching methods. I was also able to observe a fellow volunteer's English club. Next week 14 artisans are set to go through the training session, enabling those who have attended minimal school to transfer their skills to a younger generation. I was also able to find some funding on a recent trip Niamey to minimize the cost of their attendance. While improving the content and solidifying the attendance rate (smaller yet more motivated) of Lido's English Club, a neighboring volunteer and I were able to conduct a successful letter exchange with her English Club. The third project ongoing is a sanition committee, or four of them actually, one for each neighborhood (or quartier). A week ago we had our first village clean-up day, people swept up millet chaff, manure and other waste onto carts and carted them out to fields to use as fertilizer. In one part of town a brigade of girls lined the street from wall to wall, sweeping the street in a line, bent over and hips locked in sway as they chanted in unison with the drums of the town criers. It was quite a sight. Much work was completed that morning and much is left done. But it has been a good start to real PCV life.

See you next time,
Thomas