Q AND A

so, with the questions i seem to get, i figured id take a little time to do a quick q & a section, here goes

Q:What is a 'bush taxi'?
A: Well, take a van, maybe even the old McCourt Van, put in 4 benches, put 4 adults, minimum, on each bench. Put a few babies on a few of the laps. make sure your luggage is piled on top of your lap. throw a few goats under the seats, chickens in the back, pile enough stuff on top of the van so its at least the height of the van...and voila! you have a bush taxi, which transports us from village to village. wait, did i forget to mention the string on the sides holding the car together? the constant swaying that i sometimes wonder if it will actually make it? the completely cracked out windshield? hopefully this helps, but pictures to come....

Q. What kinds of things do i wear in Niger?
A. skirts down to my ankles, t-shirts, and occasionally head wraps/veils. what do the skirts consist of? fabric i buy at market that i tie around my body. normal.

Q. what do i eat?
A. Rice, beans, millet, tuo(slime sauce,tastes like vomit), rice, pasta(although its "expensive"),peanut butter(excessive amounts), rice, sauce(vegetables cooked so long they have no nutrients, and are just mush),rice, and potatoes. Weirdly enough, my tastebuds are starting to adjust, and i eat anything that comes near me like its normal. Thereare americanish grocery stores here, so it is possible to get luxeries.....at a high price...

and then to round this out, i have a quick story.....Kim, a fellow trainee, decided to take a picture of her latrine, to show her fam back home how small the hole is. so, after the picture was taken, it appeared that there was a man in the latrine, kind of creepy/funny. So she was showing the picture to everyone, including the teachers.We all got a good laugh out of it. The teachers however, did not. Instead, just a few hours after seeing the picture, they made a trip out to her concession, to see the man. They came back, assured her that it wasn't a man, yet just the way the toilet lined up teh toilet paper roles. So they poured gasoline down the hole, just for final verification that a man was not living in the latrine. To top it off, Kim never had a cockroach problem before. but now with the gas in the latrine, they live in the walls.....lost in translation?

okay, im going to try to get pictures up somewhere soon, i keep forgetting to bring my jumpdrive into niamey....one week of training left, and swearin is on friday! this means that in roughly a week im moving out to my village....okay, now im off to the pool for the day....