Tim and Jolene

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!  

I am here in

Niamey, Niger (the capital) for a few days so that I can get some immunization shots and I am trying to get some work done in the meantime by taking advantage of high speed internet (yea!). Tim is on the bus right now from Maradi, which ranges from a 9 to 12 hour ride, but it’s getting easier and easier. Honestly, at first I was getting major anxiety each time I rode the bus as we sped down “the road” for almost 500 kilometers, bounces on pot holes when there was a road, and virtually off roading in a bus when there wasn’t, but my nerves are calming and it’s not so bad.  

Our village has been great- we have been really busy these past three weeks getting some projects going and talking with people as we get more and more involved. Soccer is going really well and I have to say that the first time I saw these girls play definitely topped greatest moments in my life. They have so much kokari and ambition that I wanted to call Joe Stoveken and tell him about it (old soccer coach/ second dad). We are going to have our first match hopefully in March so that is in the works as well as a trip to another region for a match. Overall, the town is really supportive and involved.

 Strangely enough, I have been freezing in our village at nights even though it’s only about 10 C, so I don’t get to wash my hair as often as I like but oh well. Tim probably averages at a shower every 7 days, and I definitely beat that so I think I’m ok. This last week Tim and I got to go to one of our friends weddings which was amazing. Weddings aren’t only one day here so we went to a couple of events, and the best was last Thursday when we drove to this random bush village where his family lives and arrived to a crowd of excited Nigeriens playing drums, screaming/chanting in high pitch voices, in blackness of night since there is no electricity. We entered the concession and I wandered over to a fire that a bunch of women were around to try and get warm. Quickly though I got swept into the ceremony when Tim and I were told to sit on a mat near groom-to-be as the drumming began to escalate. Three women sat at his feet and pulled his pant legs up and shirt sleeves so that they could plop what appeared to be really oily rice onto his bare skin. People surrounding him would then grab it and eat it and then the women would rub the oil around. I was confused needless to say, but it was great. Men helped wash him afterwards and then we ate great food and headed back to our village. On the day of the actual ceremony we got to sit around and eat lots more food with our friends until the evening when we were lucky enough to be in the car that delivers the bed to the house that the newly weds will be sleeping. All of the guests go to the house and wait for the bride to come, and when she finally did she was wrapped in a blanket so that the groom could not see her face yet. They took her to the room with the bed we delivered and see remained covered in the blanket, laying on the bed. My friends were like, “Jamila you have to go greet her.” And so I did, not expecting at all that the bride would be lying there crying. I didn’t know whether to say congrats or to consul her, but later it was explained that it is tradition for her to cry, not sure why, but it’s tradition. Ultimately, it was a really fun experience and we were so happy to be able to share the day it with our friend who got married.  

The super bowl is tomorrow and I am truly hoping that the Patriots lose. In order to witness their demise, I will be watching tomorrow night, well Monday morning, at 12:20 somewhere with satellite television, hopefully.  

Also, it’s getting really really really close to my sister-in-law’s due date!!!  Cori and Nathan are expecting a little boy in less then a month on February 29^th, yep that’s leap year. He will be almost a year younger than Johanna and Ben’s son, my other nephew, Noah, who was born on April 25^th last year. I think that I read somewhere that babies don’t have much memory until they are over 6 months, but honestly I can’t remember anything before I was two years old so hopefully they won’t remember we weren’t there for the first couple years of their lives. If not though, we’ll just have to make up for it and be the most awesome Aunt and Uncle ever!  

Oh, funny little story really fast- My mom is silly and put me on the phone with channel 10 news from San Diego the other day… call her and ask her about and tell her I love her when you do J I love you family and the more I love you the more of you there seems to be! Don’t forget to click on the attachment to see a couple picks….

in-hamdallaye-playing-dres-up.doc