News from mid-February

Well, IST(In-Service Training) is now over. Late January, my entire stage came into Niamey for a three-week training designed to give us more practical knowledge after our first few months of life in ville. We all enjoyed seeing each other, hanging out with people we haven’t seen for four months, enjoying the pause snacks at the training site, playing volleyball after classes until dark, and (only three days late) watching the Superbowl together (GO SAINTS!).
Week one was devoted to sharing our experiences, telling what we have already done, and sitting in on some sessions to further our knowledge in our respective sectors (CYE or MCD). Week two was the Language week, a very helpful time that gave a base of learning for speaking either a local language or French, depending upon what the individual wanted. Personally, I was in the lowest of the low Hausa course, a very good thing considering I currently don’t speak it. At the end of the week, we had been given a basic grammar/sentence structure and had learned the three tense conjugations. So after that crash course, I have at least the basics and, with the help of villagers, can learn verbs and vocabulary to be able to speak the language. Week two also had some tech sessions and guest speakers, so time was split (unfortunately for me, as I was wanting nigh on every class to be a language). Week three kicked off the Homologue Conference, a two-day event in which we reviewed with our chosen counterpart how to assess community needs as well as some basic project designs. Also, we created a rough timeline for the upcoming months, stating the goals and objectives we all expect to meet over the next bit of time. My counterpart couldn’t come, unfortunately, so I wasn’t able to do all that everyone else was able to do (re: collaboration with HCN). IST ended this last Friday, and we were then given some time to talk with our APCDs and any other admin staff that we needed in order to be prepared for our next stretch of service.
I will soon be heading back out to Zinder, and as a little schedule for you guys, my next few months in ville will consist of continuing to learn Hausa, implementing some small projects (i.e.- English clubs, maybe eventually a radio show, etc.), and talking with villagers and determining the level of support the community shows towards some certain ideas and larger projects. As Peace Corps volunteers, we’ve heard and been taught on maintaining sustainability when it comes to project ideas as we will soon enough be leaving the community which will then have to take complete control over the project (unless we are replaced) and who must therefore have a vested interest in its success, a desire to keep it going, and (whenever possible) the means to keep it going. And let’s not forget the Girls’ Soccer Tournament that we are having for eight middle schools in Zinder region that will cover the weekend of the 28th and March 7th. All this is to say that it looks like I have a fair few things to do over the coming months.
I’m now going to jump back to what happened before I left ville, because we had some entertaining stuff roll through just as I left, namely la lutte traditionnelle, the traditional wrestling that they practice as (or so it seems) the dominant sport in this country. My ville was hosting the event for the department this year, and so I got to see lots of wrestling. And, whether because of my anasara status, or that I’ve made friends with the important people in my ville, I was given a good seat from which I was able to take lots of video on my camera. My current small project is joining them all together to make a video to give to the mairie. It was a really fun event to watch, including the music entertainment (though that did become annoying and loud rather quickly). The rules of lutte are varied from the free-style we have back in the States. All it takes to lose is to have either an elbow or knee touch the ground, so the rounds had the potential to be over in just 10 seconds (though there were times where the participants were trying to bore us all by taking 3+ minutes to do nothing). My ville was hosting the departmental lutte competition to choose the competitors who would go on to represent the department in the national competition (which, incidentally, started just yesterday in Zinder and will be going for about another week).
Well, we are now mostly splitting up to go our separate ways, which not many are terribly happy about as we have all grown fond of each other over PST and IST (being the Americans that we all started this crazy adventure with, from Philly to now). On the other hand, I know I’m not the only one wanting to get back to my village. Three weeks out from my home life is a lot, and I’m ready to get back into the cycle of things.