A Month in Brief

This time in Niamey I thought I'd give a quick brief of random stories of the last month. Here goes:

~Rainy season is in full swing and its sweet. Its cooled down drastically and once or twice I've even felt "cold". I even had this convo with my dad:
Father: It's real hot here in Seattle today, it's about 90 degrees
Me : Yea, it's really cold here in Niger today, it's about 90 degrees.

~I've washed my hair 3 times since the last post. What else? Last market day i showed up in my shark pants, tie dyed shirt, a white bandana and le sports sac purse. I looked normal by Nigerien clothes standards and the other 2 PCVs didn't' even say anything about how ridiculous i looked. Normal.

~I waited 4 1/2 hours for a bush taxi on Saturday. When it finally came, I had a chicken running all over my feet. It was comfortable, only about 15 people in the car.

~My villagers keep patting my butt telling me how great it is that it's getting so big and I'm getting fatter. They're so excited for me to go back to Amerik fat to tell people how much I ate because Niger has so much food. I've been on a diet ever since.

~Hard to diet though, my vegetable intake of the last month has consisted of 3 cans of vegetables. Fruits? A couple mangoes each market day (1x/week) and a little dried fruit. That leaves just carbs and protein that I eat. Keeping in mind my protein is peanut butter/milk powder....yummmmmm

~Over 20 women were doing work on my house. Since when the men did repairs I cooked they were all asking if I'd cook again. I decided not to since their were way too many people and i didn't have enough food stashed up. They did however, keep working. So the women's work was putting sand in my concession, and their method was dancing around. I figured it was a good time to hand out the candy I picked up at market. So I came out of my house with the bag as soon as they saw it every single person stopped dancing and threw their hands up in the air while cheering . Who would have thought all it takes is 1 bag of candy to make over 20 women that happy after working for over 2 hours?!

~I've been peed on twice by babies.

So there it is, highlights of my month. I said random. As for work? Ive done meetings with the men/women of Babagade, however its like a ghost village right now as every one's out planting tehir fields. So much that they bring temporary houses to live in till the millet/crops grow. I guess on the plus side theirs a lot fewer babies crying in the middle of the night. But the goats, cows, sheep, chickens, and guinea fowl are still here, (and don't shut up)....

So its back to the bush for a week, then I'll be in Niamey for about a week in training for the GLOBE project...more details to come.