GLOBE

So this week I'm in town for GLOBE. GLOBE is in 109 different countries and focuses in environmental education. Since Niger didn't have the funding for GLOBE they asked 2 peace corps volunteers to take it over. So this week they've put on a conference for about 10 PCV's and their Nigerien counterpart. It's been really interesting to see how educated Nigeriens learn, which is a lot different then Americans. They are constantly getting in fights over the smallest things. For example, we tried to play a game of jeopardy and their were constant fights over every single answer. They had to get every answer word for word. So it's been kind of a long week but interesting to see the Americans versus the Nigeriens.

It's not very often that my school teacher from my village gets to come to Niamey, much less I don't think he's ever eaten in a restaurant. We thought we would take them out for some American food: hamburgers and fries. By American standards they might be the most disgusting hamburgers but by ours they are delicious! Each of our teachers seemed to enjoy the food however they saw pool tables and kept asking about them. Barbara and I were a little bit exhausted and kept saying that we didn't know how to play and its very difficult. However they were so curious we figured we would play the game. As they watched the 500 CFA go into the game, they both nearly fell over in shock knowing that the money could probably feed their families for a week. But they were so excited about the game, but struggled with the concepts of hitting the ball. Both teachers were poking it like a stick as Barbara and I both tried to explain and had a good laugh. By the end I think they had figured out that you need to support your stick with a bridge made by your hand and probably got more balls in than both Barbara and I combined! It was fun as I feel like I'm always learning their culture and nearly explaining a small piece of American culture that they could finally see the types of games Americans play.

So, on another note, for some reason my blog doesn't have my Gotheye address posted, so here it is:
Lulu McCourt, PCV
Corps de la Paix
Gotheye, Niger
West Africa

Also I changed where my pictures are being posted as I've had some trouble:
http://www.flickr.com/lulum1032
And I finally got some pictures up of Niamey, the city of....sand. Keep in mind, however, its difficult to take pictueres in teh cities and Nigeriens were yelling at me when i took these. "Bring money" is all I kept hearing. So they were more me just snapping my camera. If I get more opportunities I'll take some again....