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 :)

