It’s still kind of hard to believe, but I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer Thursday morning. The ceremony took place at the Ambassador’s residence–which has grass growing on the ground and a pool! We listened to speeches from our peers in French, Hausa and Zarma, as well as the Peace Corps Country Director, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy. (We were just crashing at the Ambassador’s pad–she’s not actually in Niger yet.) After the ceremony, we went out for lunch and I ATE A CHEESEBURGER. This was the first one I’ve had in 14 years, so it’s hard to compare it to what an American burger is like, but it was definitely better than sheep.
But let me rewind a bit first, since a lot has happened in the past few weeks. Ramadan (finally) ended and there was a huge party in the village. (Interesting side note: in Zarma the word for fasting is “me haw,” literally “tied mouth.” Also, my first mom described an owl to me as “an animal who fasts all the time,” since they only eat at night, which I thought was pretty cute.) The night before the fete, my host dad slaughtered five chickens in our concession. My host moms and sister plucked them, but wouldn’t let me help (“You have no need of dirtiness.”), so instead I ended up peeling potatoes with them until nearly midnight. This is really late for Niger since it gets dark around 7:30, but these women kept working–after fasting all day, cooking that night’s dinner, pounding the millet for dad’s evening doonu (millet drink with sugar, yogurt, and, if you can get it, ice), carving up unidentifiable parts of the cow that the village had collectively slaughtered, and were out preparing long after I went to bed.
The next day, we had something akin to brunch where we ate rice and couscous with the chicken and cow (I’m hesitant to call it beef, since I know part of it was definitely stomach) sauce and actual vegetables! Carrots, potatoes, eggplant, and fresh tomatoes. This was definitely the most food groups I’ve ever gotten in my family, where rice mixed with macaroni is considered a balanced meal.
Ack, so running out of time, but I’m not quite caught up to the present. But for those of you who keep up on West African politics, you may have heard about this:
I’m not supposed to comment on security issues, but we’re all safe and this happened far, far away in the desert where Americans are forbidden from going. We’re still going to be installed and start our service as planned.
I’ll try to add a quick update tomorrow before I leave, but if I don’t I should have loads of stuff to write about in a month!
