Ups and Downs

Back from Live-In with extremely mixed feelings. The upside is that I know that there are plenty of things to do in Sagafondo once I gain the trust of people. The one day Amadou Boreima (the mayor) came from Niamey, a million things happened and that was great. On that one day, I was officially introduced to all the various groups in the village; 5 women’s groups, various artisan groups and a youth group that are all potential work partners. They seemed excited to see me even after I explained that I’m not there to do work FOR them but rather WITH them. The mayor also made sure that the worker that was building my latrine knew what he was doing and getting properly paid. I know that the people I will be working with are all competent and motivated and I am really optimistic about the work.

The downside, since there always is one, is going to be the time between me moving to the village and actually becoming a part of the village. These past two months have been all about getting used to Niger in terms of people language and culture. The next three months will be all about getting to know individual Nigeriens and making personal connections. I knew that my impatience would come back and bite me by joining Peace Corps and every day I am tested to keep my mouth shut not to ask a logistical question and instead trust that things will come together in due time. Once permanently installed in my village I know the challenge will be even greater since I will want to start to fix what I see as problems right away and only by using cold reason will I hold myself back since I know that if I push myself on people, whatever I do will not be sustainable and at worst; rejected by the community.

The Peace Corps Bureau in Niamey


Oh Patience. Tested every day. Like last Friday when I came back from Live-In and was told that my petition to go on vacation over Christmas was rejected because of a Peace Corps Niger Policy not to grant out of country vacation for the first six months of service. Be patient with the administration Maria, just like you have to be patient with host country nationals. Too bad that this rejection is my first real encounter with the people that are supposed to be on my side. In their defense, their first encounter with me was a request to leave Niger after only a month in country and that must come across as a little like lack of commitment. I hope things work out between me and the administration because God knows I’ll have a lot more to do with them over the next two years. Luckily, I am beginning my patience therapy early and am already getting myself re-psyched for going on vacation in March instead.

Finally I want to end with a story from last night. After dinner, I was planning to go to bed early as usual and watch the Bourne Ultimatum but my host sisters begged me to dance with them and I couldn’t refuse. They asked me to sing a song that I apparently had sung before going to live-in but it took me a while to figure out what they were humming. When it finally clicked what they were referring to, I burst out laughing; they wanted me to sing and dance “London Bridge” by Black Eyed Peas because even though I only know the 10 word chorus, of “how come every time you come around the London, Bridge wanna go down” they wanted me to repeat that over and over again. The night ended with us all lying on top of each other on the mat laughing and I had instant flashbacks to a time not long ago when I played human sandwich with my biological siblings in the farm house in Sweden.

My hostbrother; Abdou Karim