To sleep or not to sleep. That is the question, it is nearly 11 pm and I still need to pack and get ready for the shuttle that will arrive at 3 am to take me to the bus station for the 12 hour ride back to Maradi. It would be an easier decision if I knew whether or not I would actually be able to sleep on the bus. However, since I am generally holding on to my dear life - my heart racing the entire time - I would have to be pretty dead tired in order to actually even imagine that I might sleep on the trip. But, this is my last chance to put a blog up for a while so I thought I would write a little bit and postpone the sleep till tomorrow night.

This last week was relatively production. I attended a radio workshop with a woman from the radio station that we do a show on every Saturday. We got some good ideas for shows in the future and how to make them more effective so overall it was beneficial. After that I stuck around to work with some other MCD folk on compiling our manual in order to have it prepared for our sister stage who will arrive in the beginning of July. It is just a reminder of how quickly time is flying by. But it was actually really nice to pretend like I was back at a 9 to 5 job. I also felt a little slow since typing in English seems to slowly get harder and harder. Another reason I should write more blogs…. I’ll try to add that to the to-do list, but to all you all who have not received a thank you card for the wedding yet… those are number 1 on the list so don’t you worry. They are on their way, in sha allah, well by June…

Tim has been at post this last week doing work cuz he’s awesome and I can’t wait to get back to see him. We bought an oven a few weeks ago which is absolutely amazing! We baked a cake one night and made chocolate frosting and ate just it all for dinner- and just that. My old Jolene-like habits. And then we made over 80 cookies another day and gave away about 20 and continued to finish them off over the next two days. I love baking. Well, I guess I love the final product.

We are currently trying to plan a vacation to Greece this summer and will hopefully be able to meet up with my sisters-by-fate, Deanna and Rachel who are living in Spain encore. Hopefully the dates will all work out, but I am super excited about baklava and Greek salads, yum. But in the mean time, Tim and I are keeping ourselves busy between soccer tournaments, newspaper club, young women’s fair, Nigerien Women’s Day event, first aid kits, and kindergarten fun, and probably something else I forgot.

The heat has arrived, cuz hey- it’s the time. But with the heat has also come mangos and they are delicious, especially with solani (yogurt in a bag). I predict I will be spending more time at the pool in Maradi in between everything else and eating more mangoes than I could have ever wanted. Oh yes, and I’ll be wearing lots and lots of sunscreen. Well, it’s time to pack the backpack and get ready to sleep for a couple hours I guess. Miss everyone. So who wants to come visit? We’ve got lots of sun and for the time being lots of rice and beans- hopefully the rice and beans will stay true through hunger season. But we’ve got an extra mat and mosquito net really… just give us a heads up?

Hmmm… I can’t figure out why it says the author is Tim, so my best solution is going to be to call it a liar and tell you all that is not Tim but rather, Jolene. Hey there :) 

Tim decided that we should really get some goats. He wants two little baby goats so that they can grow up to be friends and then maybe someday more than friends so we can have more baby goats. I explained to Tim that this means we wouldn’t be able to have tomato plants because they would eat them, yet he then reminded me that even though our tomato plants grew quite large, the plants did not in fact produce any tomatoes. Like I told him, that’s a pretty good point. One afternoon I was walking back from the college with some boys that go to Kristy’s school (la maison de l’espoir). I told them about Tim’s hopes of owning two baby goats. They seemed to think that it was a splendid idea as well and they decided to start looking for goats around the village for Tim as we walked around. Each time we happened upon a goat, which was about every five seconds, they would ask, “like that one?” Yet at first all of them seemed too large. Nonetheless, a baby goat eventually wondered out of a concession and I quickly said, “There! Like that one!” Before I knew it, the boys were running after this baby goat as the young girl who the goat must have belonged to yelled with an element of confusion and despair in her voice. Old men sitting on mats, sipping tea laughed and greeted the boys on their effort. I didn’t realize how much more difficult it is to scream “uh uh!” (“no” in Hausa) than it is to just shout “No!” until that momet. The poor goat seemed a bit bewildered as it finally escaped back into the concession. I know Tim would have been very pleased to have started his little collection of goats, however I was quite relieved that the goat had at least an ounce of cleverness to flee the hysterical scene. God must not have willed it… be patient.

Jolene and I (and many more) went to swear-in  this past week to witness the addition of lots of sweet new volunteers (agriculture and natural resource management). It was good times, and only 3 people tried to rob me, yay! I had good intentions of taking lots of pictures and putting recent things up on this site, but unfortuneatly I only managed to take a few pictures while we were driving in, and then some on the actual swear-in day and none of them are of these infamous new volunteers.  Well, actually I think in the last photo some of the shirts behind Ally might belong to them, so you could probably just imagine up some heads for the tops of those bodies and get the general idea.  Anyways without further ado…. pictures:

will jones and me riding to niamey... weeeee!

so we made a video when we were at IST due to a general lack of other things to do, but jolene was senegal-ing at the time, so she’s 1 of 3 or so people from our stage that doesn’t make an appearance in it. due to problems that this connection-web thingy is presenting me at this time you may have to copy and paste the link below…. i appologize ahead of time for my poor acting.

http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=2105044312606183766&hl=fr

ps CHA = coordinated husbandry androids

OK, so I’ll start this right now and see how far I get.  It has been a long few days especially today, but it is time for me to up date this thing, so here it goes (in bite size form)

bite 1:

I just got into Niamey from Maradi.  I’m in for a ToT (Training of Trainers) on Gender Awareness/Sensitivity for school teachers.  I only found out that I was actually going to go at the last second, so I didn’t have a chance to get any clothes or anything.  I resorted to pulling things from my trunk that have all been worn multiple times this morning at 4am.  I performed a courtesy “smell check” on each item of clothing and determined that the best smelling thing I had smelled like dirt (several steps above b.o., the ranking of all other items of clothing… get it ranking).  Then armed with rocks and a flashlight-cellphone I made the journey from hostel to bus station, and was fortunately only the victim of one half hearted chase down a dirt road.  The dog just didn’t really want it. I then hung out at the bus station for an hour till I heard them call my name to get on.  Unfortunately the name just before “Aboubacar” was “Malam I carry too much hura in my hands and like dropping it on people right behind me as I get on busses.” Then, millet porridge pants and all i settled into my seat for a nice little napsy-poo.  Around 8 or so, said napsy-poo was terminated when vomit suddenly started hitting the floor next to me… fortunately there was a limited amount of spray-back received, which was generally foot and sandal oriented (only one unfortunate hand chunk).  I sat for several minutes in a feet raised position until I could get to another seat a row back.  FYI, method for dealing with vomit on this bus is as follows:

1. spray water on vomit out of plastic bag
2. hit as many bumps as possible with aim to bounce people hi in the air (thus moving them away from the vomit)
3. cover in dirt

It actually kind of made me feel like I was at a fair on one of those spinny rides.  When moving a row back I had the following conversation with my new neighbour

“Can I sit here?”

“Yes… Is he sick?”

“Yes, I think he’s sick”

“Yes, he’s sick”

“Bummer”

I can’t really complain much about the rest of the ride though.  I read half of some CS Lewis Book that’s pretty good about Psyche and Cupid.  I bought some pineapple, oh, and an orangina (sometimes you just have to treat yourself when you have a vomity day), I think I ate some other stuff too…. but I think I’m so tired right now that nothing I’m saying could possibly be interesting.  Wow, i think bite 1 was too big. anyways I got back to the hostel at like 5:15 in the pm and wandered over here and started doing internet things.

bite 2

Did Jolene or I mention we got a new cat?  If not, we did?  Well I guess it’s not really conditional so …. we did, regardless of whether or not we mentioned it.  His name was “Caulfield”, and sometimes “Holden”, but then when I told Ben about him he thought I said “Paul Field” my ex-college roommate, which is a much better (and weirder) name to give a cat.  So jolene and I have made the transition.  In fact he’s sort of like Paul Field.  He has a little black goatee, he is really affectionate and likes hanging out with people, and he’s good at catching mice.

bite 3

We have a girls soccer team that is awesome!  It’s the first girls soccer team that our town has ever had that we started with the help of the Scouts about a month ago.  The Scouts are affiliated with the Boy Scouts and are generally really helpful.  Ours in particular are high-school students.  Anyways, our team is 13-16 year olds who are all playing soccer for the first time ever.  When we tried to start it most of the people in our village were somewhat skeptical as to the abilities of girls on the soccer field, but on Sunday we had our first match against a team who’s been playing for almost a year, and we won in a shoot-out 1-0.  There were tons and tons of people crowding the side-line trying to see, and towards the end during the shoot out we had to have one of our friends from the MJC brandishing his whipping stick fight them off because they were crowding in too much and getting in the way of the final shots.  When we won everyone from our town who was there was running around and celebrating and saying “They can Play”  It was really awesome.  We have another game on Saturday where we’ll travel and play for first place in our 4 team little tournament that we’re doing. 

bite 4

We have new Maradi volunteers.  They are nice.  One of them, Zach, kind of looks like my brother Ben in his picture.  When I told Zach that, he said he thought he looked fat in that picture… sorry Ben.

bite 5

Elizabeth’s parents are awesome.  They sent us a valentines day package, with super delicious hearts and chocolates and slim-jims.  Jolene even made a sandwich out of a slim jim for me for breakfast.  It was weird, but I think I liked it.

bite 6

CHAs are awesome, they came and visited us a week or so ago in Maradi.  We had a small get together on their last day to celebrate their visit.  It was themed “Hollywood Meltdowns.” I was a suicidal owen wilson who had attempted to slit his wrists, I guess I really looked more like Luke Wilson in the Royal Tenebaums during that scene with the Elliot Smith song, but whatever.  Elizabeth was Amy Winehouse which was a pretty sweet costume, and Frease was Flav-a-Flave.  Everyone elses’ costumes were pretty lame, so on second thought Frease and Elizabeth are awesome CHAs… shape up everyone else.

bite 7

I have a new nephew.  He is really cute!!! there are a million pictures of him at my brothers website which is letterstooptimus.blogspot.com.  I can’t wait till I get to see him and do uncle-y things with him.

bite 8

I don’t think I have anymore to add, so this mostly should make up for my lagging in posting stuff.  But just to make sure, here’s a list of random work stuff:

• Went to the bush for a couple days for some teacher trainings
• Did radio for the first time live, we told people not to smoke and then did the story of pus and boots in Hausa.
• Finished the $20,000 proposal to bring first-aid kits to 75 schools that don’t have medical facilities near them (just need to magically find the funding for it now)
• Working on the Maradi region pen-pal project between villages (hopefully kids will write their first letters to each other this month)
• Trying to help Annie do a Science Camp in her village that would happen in the summer
• Getting all the balls for the boys and girls soccer tournaments next Monday, and hoping to have both of the 7-school tournaments during the month of April.
• Sifting through a whole pile of math tests / games that I got courtesy of my parents (and Bryan Hopp at GSHS), hoping that at some point I’ll be able to try and organize Fun Math Games somewhere with somebody.

Hello World!  

Ok, so today’s the 17^{th of January, and I know it’s been a heck of a long time since the last time either one of us put any sort of post up here on the site. But don’t worry… unless, that is, you really enjoy worrying. On the American side, exciting things include: Jolene’s mom’s (Donna) got proposed to on Christmas Eve (which was really exciting news, because that dude (Stewart) is pretty awesome but then so is she), and me being a month away from turning into a double uncle, with little Optimus VanderBeek due on Leap Day (check out letterstooptimus.blogspot.com if you want to see what babies look like… or what good blogs look like). On the Nigerien side, exciting things that have happened lately include: our friend Lachlan’s birthday in Maradi, our friends Rachel and Elizabeth celebrating their co-birthday, and other things that I can’t remember right now. On Lachlan’s birthday we made a list and made him do lots of embarrassing things which generally resulted in good times had by all. We didn’t actually do anything but call Rachel and Elizabeth on their birthdays, but they’re cool enough to warrant mention anyways. Also, Elizabeth told me that allegedly the moms looks at our blog sometimes, and she’d be excited if she saw her daughter’s name, so there you go, if you’re out there anywhere Elizabeth’s mom, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth.I started playing soccer at the mission school in town on Saturdays and Sundays, which has been pretty fun. Before I had been playing soccer on week nights with some of the guys at around 5 or so, but sometimes that was overlapping with work things, so I’m thinking the weekend option will probably work well. My neighbor the mai aski gave me a trim and a shave today, and when I went to see the director of one of the schools he said that I looked like I was 16. I think he meant that in a good way, but I’m not really sure. Which reminds me… A few days ago that same director came to the inspection from the mosque after the afternoon prayer and saw that I wasn’t praying. When he saw me, he started joking with me and asking how it was possible for me to not go to the mosque and pray when I’ve got a good Muslim name like Aboubacar. When I told him that my name in the states was a good Christian name and that it’s the title of two books in the bible, he decided that he would call me Timothy from then on, that is, until I start acting like a good Muslim and go to the mosque. I thought it was pretty funny.As we probably alluded to in the last few blogs, we were gone a long time out of our town due to the training, mines, and holidays, so it was good to see that everyone still remembers Djamila here (everyone seemed to have renewed vigor in calling me Achirou, the volunteer before me). Work-wise Jolene and I are keeping fairly busy. Some things we’re trying to do right now include: start a girls soccer team at the college (college = junior high… sort of), start a school newspaper at the lycee (lycee = highschool … sort of), help to get funding for first aid kits throughout the area covered by the inspection (inspection = school district … sort of), help to get funding for gas to go out in a car and do sensibilisations about the importance of girls education throughout the inspection (sensibilisation = not an English word, but whatever), observe classes and give feedback if possible (feedback = an important thing if you’re designing a control system), start interschool sports activities for boys and girls at the primary school level between the seven primary schools in town (parentheses after every item in this list = annoying), and start pen pals between schools in our town and those throughout the region (this = the last time I’ll use parentheses or an equals sign in this blog). Assuming that we don’t spread ourselves to thin I’m thinking that things should go swimmingly.I think that’s all I have for right now, as I should probably get some rest. En principe, we’re going to a friend’s village tomorrow to check out his school and watch his English class, and so we have to leave early in the morning. Hopefully, the next blog entry will follow with less delay than the last.}

Streaming through the wedge shaped gaps in the stale flower curtains, the sunlight ornaments the walls with a sense of amusement. It is almost as if it is taunting me until I get out of bed. But, I guess it is about that time to pack my stuff and get ready to head back to Niger. Today is Tabaski and I am a little fearful to step outside since John has convinced me that “sheep’s blood will fill the streets.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Adha). I tried to warn all of the sheep we encountered last night and into the wee hours of the morning that the end was coming yet their only response was a dull “baahhh.” I tried…. Tabaski already happened in Niger, so I am kinda missing out on the festivities by traveling today. Yet at the same time we wouldn’t have been able to be in our village since we are/were (?) on stand fast and there is always next year.

This whole week was overall, quite exciting and yet not too overwhelming. On Saturday night as I slept soundly in my air-conditioned (AMAZING!) hotel room the phone rang and I lethargically to answer it. Unsurprisingly, the man on the other end mumbled something in French and I responded by hanging up the phone… I don’t know- 4 in the morning, random phone call, still dreaming in English… But then, there was the knock at the door so I irritably respond, “Who is it and what do you want?” And in response was a gentle female voice, yes in English, “It’s your roommate…” John, my friend who got his wisdom  teeth out this week, mentioned that we might have roommates but I didn’t know that they arrived at 4 in the morning. So Stephanie from Downy, crazy enough, was my roommate this last week and she is a volunteer in Burkina. Together we tackled Dakar, wondering up and down every street in search of cute clothes, delicious ice cream, to die for pasteries, and diet coke. Our mission was simple but we gave it 110 percent.

We ended the week by taking a short boat ride out to Goree Island, about 1k off of the coast of Dakar. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor%C3%A9e). It was absolutely gorgeous and only 3 dollars round trip since we were considered African residence. The island is so petite but a man that sat in front of me on the ferry sad that 1200 people live on it. Because tourism is their main source of income the island is filled with art and jewelry made locally by the residence. While we were on the island we ran into some other volunteers from Cameroon who were on their COS trip and we made plans with them to meet up later and go out.

So after grabbing some delicious hummus and baklava (yes it was amazing), we headed out to Dakar’s hot spots. We jumped around a few times, but to sum things up we thoroughly enjoyed Dakar and ourselves. Thank you Rihanna! Well, time to pack things up. It feels great to be headed back “home” with repaired teeth to see Tim and make plans for Christmas!