The holidays

Hi everyone! I hope that the holidays went well for each of you, wherever you might have been. They went well here- let me tell you a bit about them. In early December I and the other people from my training group went from our villages to Hamdallaye, where our summer training took place, to have two weeks of additional training. The sessions were on things that are better to talk about after you have on-the-ground experience living in your village and most of them were really informative and will be helpful in the future. The period between being sworn in as a volunteer and IST is meant to be spent integrating into your community and working on your language- it’s only after IST that real work starts.

Seeing friends from other regions that I hadn’t seen since September was great, and being in Niamey, the capital, on the weekends, was a lot of fun. (Mostly because of the availability of things like Chinese restaurants, cheese and icecream). At the same time however, I was ready to come back east when our time in Niamey was done…Niamey moves at a much faster pace than the other cities in country and it can be a bit overwhelming at times. To everything there is a season I suppose- a time for spending time with friends you’ve missed, a time for enjoying the amenities a big city offers, but also a time to return to a slower-paced, simpler life.

I spent Christmas and New Year’s in Maradi with friends and had a really good time- lots of good food, good company, fun music and dance parties. There are so many times here when I think about how lucky I am to have the friends around me here that I have- I’ve made some really good friends and feel lucky to be experiencing all of these new, sometimes scary, sometimes frustrating, sometimes beautiful things with them next to me. Don't worry though, I haven't forgotten friends back in the States (you, reading this!). I really think about you often.

On Christmas Day a friend and I went to mass at the Catholic church in Maradi. It was a Catholic mission with a priest from Spain who said he had been in Maradi for over twenty years. We thought there would be lots of ex-pats- people working for various international aid organizations, etc. but my friend Erin and I were the only two white people in the entire church. It was an interesting mix to me of home, of things really familiar, things I’ve heard and done and seen since I was little, and of things distinctly African, new, different. They had drums in the church and played them to the songs that were sung and that I think is a memory I’ll have for years to come, or at least I hope so… The church had pretty light blue walls with brightly colored tiles on the ground, the sun was coming in through the back of the church, along with a slightly cool breeze on our backs and the music was really simple and beautiful.

Thanks to everyone who sent candycanes, M&M’s and other lovely food items that remind me of Christmas at home- it was all really great!