I am granted Volunteer status

Today is Swear-in In day. I will take an oath (in French) swearing to serve for two years in the Peace Corps, using y skills to work with Nigeriens in furthering the country’s development. I also just signed a written contract promising to serve on behalf of the United State Government “discharging my duties as a Peace Corps volunteer”. Quite official indeed. Over 400 people have been invited to the ceremony this afternoon and I encourage you to google “Peace Corps Niger” and I bet there will be some news hits since it’s apparently a pretty big deal for the Nigerien media whenever a new set of volunteers get sworn in. Yay for finally earning the prestigious title of “volunteer” after nine weeks of slaving away as a mere “trainee”.


Swearing in also means that we get access to money and even though are pay only amount to a couple hundred dollars a month, it seems like a fortune in the local currency. We are all heading to the bank first thing tomorrow and I am excited to do some serious shopping for my house, that finally is done and waiting for me! Because of a long list of protocol visits to various officials, I won’t actually go to my village until Thursday.

I will miss ‘tondobon’ which is the name of our training site, literally translating to ‘the top of the hill’. It has been an excellent place to slowly integrate to Nigerien life and even though it’s been tiring having classes from morning to night, it makes me long for the time when I can set my own schedule of daily activities and mealtimes. And I do look forward to coign for myself even though the food has been alright. In fact, I am superthrilled at the prospect of finally making use of the powered sauce bags that Mom brought from Sweden to the US this summer so that I could turn around and bring to Africa. It’ll be the most well-traveled brown gravy in the world by the time I consume it!

Time to head off to Niamey and actually pick up the outfit I will be wearing since I haven’t had a chance to go to the tailor yet. I hope it fits because if it doesn’t I’m a tad bit screwed.



Posting this blog retroactively, I know that I got my clothes. Above you see a line-up of the New PVC's in Niger.
I also happen to know that google does not produce any results when you search for nes stories. Oh well. Guess it's not worthy of international recognition.