Tim and Jolene

Today is Tim’s 25th birthday. A quarter of a century ago, little Timotae was born late at night which actually means that his birthday isn’t until the 27th here in Niger if we want to get technical… and for all of you who know us well- Tim was the one who figured that one out. But a birthday is a birthday regardless of time or space, so celebration was a must. After recognizing Tim’s anniversary of birth at midnight underneath a beautiful full moon, Tim got to open all of the wonderful birthday presents I was able to “gather” in Niger- including a can of sardines and microwavable rice and a Ziggy Marley tape- pretty awesome.  Also on the birthdayish note, a shout out is due to William the Jones, today being his due date, so there’s that.  We all went out to eat today for my birthday (and sort of for William’s due date), and our friend Vicky made the best birthday cake to blow out ever, which involved a french (freedom?) fry with katsup on the tip, wedged between two pieces of steak, which as the close of the standard birthday song was blown over by the birthday boy… here’s to peace corps volunteer ingenuity.

 Yesterday was our swear in where we finally became voluneers (from PCTs to PCVs), which also coincided with the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps in Niger - there was a huge celebration that was televised throughout Niger - a lot of hard work was put into the celebration and it was great to watch the volunteers work together. Additionally, 45 consecutive years is an incredible representation of the relationship the US has with Niger and it feels great to be apart of it all.

Check it out:  http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1250

We even had a guy say he saw us on tv last night when we were in Niamey today, so that was cool.  Tomorrow is the Gender and Development  (GAD) Auction, where various things are auctioned off (mostly from Peace Corps Volunteers who are returning home).  The money is then used to fund any Peace Corps projects that relate Gender Awareness type sensibilizations and the like.  Previous items that have been auctioned off include things like guitars, M&Ms horses, other livestock (camels?).  It should be a good time.  Hopefully we’ll get something good.

Thats all for now, we’ll be in our new home within the week…. yay!

Tim and Jolene 

Wednesday morning I discovered how vital it is to make certain that I am drinking enough liquids. After waking up to the morning prayer call that is now beginning at 4:30 in the morning due to Ramadam, I was pleasantly greeted by some awesome back pain. After my normal struggle to sleep a little bit longer and to ignore the vibrant sound of the town praying at the mosque that shares a wall with our consession, I walked up to the training site to drink some powdered milk and eat some dry bread and peanut butter. The pain pursisted and by the time class was going to begin I was certain that my kidneys were going to fall out of my body. The long truck ride to Niamey to the bureau was excruciating, but luckily after a urine test that and ultra sound, I discovered that I am not having kidney failure, but rather I simply have a litter of kidney stones that ready to be birthed… Tim blames it on how I have gotten into the habit of not drinking after 4 in the afternoon to avoid waking up in the middle of the night to wander into the latrene that consists of a hole in the ground covered by a slab of mud/concrete infested by cocroaches and occassionally rats. Really though- it’s not that bad, its just nice to be when there is light outside.

Nonetheless, I LOVE Niger. I really do… I love bucket baths, I love the people, I love the giraffes, I love the country. Oh yes…. and I love TIM and I love that we are here together.

Lastly, it is Tim’s birthdy on the 26th, the day after we swear in as official volunteers. It is his special quarter of a century birthday too. So send him some love, either through energy waves, prayer, with the moon, in a letter, phone call, email, myspace… the options are limitless! And he is great, he really is… you can’t deny it:) and besides being great, he is also quite hairy- and who can resist a great hairy man? I sure cant

 Lots of LOVE to you all! Pictures are coming soon…..

today we’re in Niamey for internet cafe-ing and going to the rec center to swim, which sounds like pretty much the best thing ever right about now.  we might even get ourselves some nachos… in order to get here 25 of us fit in a taxi about the size of a vw bus which involved much lap sitting. i think it was a new personal best for anasara in a bush taxi.  Last week we had our live-in where we got to go spend the week in our soon to be new home for the next two years. it was really nice compared to what we were expecting, and had running water and electricity to boot. it’s in the maradi region, and our new address, if anyone feels like sending things our way, is:

Tim and Jolene PCV 

BP 114

Maradi, Niger

West Africa

that’s all for now, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to write again soon. oh, we saw more girraffes on our way out to maradi, and i saw the niners are undefeated at 1-0, so i’m pretty sure they’re going all the way this year if someone wants to go to vegas and put a bet down for me… ok for reals thiat’s all this time

Hey you all!

We got our post on Friday and we will be living in the Maradi region of Niger for the next two years! We are both really excited and happy and there are internet cafes in the region so we will have access sometimes. However, it is a pretty long bus ride to the capital so we won’t be doing that too often. But I wanted to give everyone our new address, but we won’t be living there until after September 25th.

 Corps de la Paix

BP 114

Maradi, Niger

We are going to have more time to write letters after training but right now we are so busy trying to learn two languages and all the cultural and technical stuff we can absorb in 8 weeks. I know, no excuses. But really.

Besides being really sick of rice and sauce everything is grand!