"FOR THE GOOD TIME"

   During our flight from Frankfurt to Chicago , I happened to listen to Johnny Cash sing "For the Good Time", a Kris Kristopherson song and one Cash had chosen for his final American Recording album.  The opening words seem to express some of the feelings I was experiencing about Dave and my abrupt departure from Niger.
                     
                           Don't look so sad, I know it's over,
                            But life goes on, this old world will keep on turning.
                           Let's just be glad we had some time to spend together,
                           There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning! 

      We left Morocco at 2 AM. Tears were shed by many, others were quiet and contemplative. We all felt the loss and separation anxiety caused by unexpected changes in our plans. To bid us farewell, our wonderful friend and training director, Tondi, came saying that he had told many volunteers good-bye but never like this. He knew it was over.  Several people had been in their Niger village for eighteen month, others including Dave and me, for as few as 8 days. No matter which time frame, we were all processing the separation from a dream and from Niger as we boarded the bus from our hotel and took off on return  flights to the United States

        What a journey the past 3 months had been for us--first to Philadelphia to meet our fellow Peace Corps trainees, then to Niamey, Niger for training, followed by official Peace Corps swearing in at the residence of the US Ambassador to the Republic of Niger. Soon after that, we were quickly installed into our  villages only
to be swiftly removed in a perfectly executed though abrupt evacuation to safety in Morocco. As strange and naive as it sounds, most of us felt safe in our small rural villages. We knew our villagers would protect us and never anticipated any terrorist to attempt anything harmful out in the bush. We knew, though, that Niamey was unsafe, that an important election was coming up soon and there were times when Peace Corps volunteers had to enter the city for meetings and other reasons.

             Now we were flying from Casablanca, Morocco to Frankfurt, Germany and splitting up as each volunteer took different flights to their home of record. Many of the younger volunteers were enroute o their parent's home to await new assignments. While they voiced reservations about having to return home, dependent on parents again,  we felt ambivalent about being "boomerang" parents, now relying on our adult children to host us for an indefinite period of time. We are grateful to our son and daughter-in-law for putting us up and look forward to a stay with our daughter soon. We have left new found friends--Carolyn, Taj, Qamar, Daniel, Jeff, Jori, Allison (3), Shelly, Shelby, Joseph, Jacob, Ashley, Elizabeth,Katelyn, Cassie,  Isis--to name only a few. We will miss the staff with whom we worked and trained--Valerie, Janelle, Tondi, Walter, Soulemayne, Ouessini, Djibo and more. Each of these people have different dreams and perspectives on what they hope to do with the life they are living. We all move again into the unknown and unexpected. We personally believe if we can survive and pass the test of Peace Corps service in Niger, even for a short time, that  we can do anything!

                As Johnny Cash sang in the Kristopherson song,
                   "Let's just be glad we had some time to spend together,
                    There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning.
    We all now await our next opportunity. Each of us learned so much from these experiences and will hopefully use that knowledge as we seek and accept or refuse invitations to our next Peace Corps post.
Kala ton ton --Zarma for see you later....................Judy and Dave

THE CALL----A Continuing Story

Evacuation was definitely a curve in the road Dave and I had not expected, but it could have been worse. We had only been in our village one week so relationships had not been firmed up as they had with other volunteers who’d served for 6 months or 1 ½ years. These mostly young people were even more affected emotionally than we were. We were bummed by the idea of the AQIM and other unsavory types of people who perpetrate crimes toward others being able to disrupt our dream of service in the Peace Corps. We were saddened by the separation which was ahead for our Stage of fellow Peace Corps volunteers. We were concerned for the people of Niger who were losing the support of Peace Corps volunteers and other NGO workers who had a presence in their country for years. Personally, we were concerned because we were basically now “homeless”. Our plans were to finish 27 months of service with the Peace Corps and then to re-evaluate our life’s direction at that time. If our service is now interrupted for a lengthy period of time we will need to re-examine our commitment and responsibilities and figure out what to do, while we hang out somewhere. (Look out¸ Chris and Dottie and Flora!! We may be headed your way.)

During the tightly run transition conference our group had ample time to see parts of Rebat, Morocco, including a historic fort dating back to pre-Roman times. Many people got their first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean with its crashing wave, blue water and full moon overhead. The Madina Market was a shopper’s paradise and many volunteers took advantage of great buys in shoes, wood products, pashmina, and other items to take as gifts to those at home. The bottom line though is that we had all suffered a loss and were going through the steps of resolving that loss in our own way. Dave and I will be returning to the US to await a new assignment so that we can complete our commitment to Peace Corps service. Others will be leaving immediately for posts needing their technical and language skills right away. Another group of people will be taking advantage of a new Peace Corps program, expedited return to service, just created during this large evacuation of volunteers. These lucky PCV’s will be leaving for their posts in a relatively short time and were selected due to very specific country requests matched with their qualifications and interests.

So, how do we feel about this evacuation? We agree with the decision made by the Peace Corps Bureau and are grateful for their concern about volunteer safety and security. We understand the complexity of placing couples with differing skills and resumes. We can’t help but be disappointed that our volunteer service has been suspended for the time being, but we are still determined to pursue the next challenge and future assignment with the Peace Corps.

A majority of our group will leave for the Casablanca Airport tonight and will then fly to varying destinations, enroute to new challenges and opportunities in new countries. Many of us will have the time back in the US to re-group before receiving new assignments. Other brave members of our Stage will leave directly from Morocco for posts readily available. Wherever each of us chooses to go, we will be going to continue our service in the name of peace. Please stay tuned……………………………..our journey is definitely not over.

Judy and Dave

The CALL

THE CALL came in the middle of the morning while I was at my village’s Case de Sante Integree (CSI) /clinic. It was the first day I felt I could really communicate enough to fulfill my role as a Peace Corps volunteer, but the events of that day and the next ones to follow found me speechless in more ways than one. In spite of extensive language training and the addition of a residential language trainer to our first 2 weeks in our village, my Zarma language skills were less than average. I was to find out on this day that I did not have the words in ZARMA or in English to express to my villagers exactly what THE CALL meant.

It came from my APCD or program director,Soulemayne, who asked that I listen carefully to a message he felt was too long to send via texting. As I listened to the message while standing outside the clinic, all I could think or say was “WOW”! When the message was over, I was silent. My supervisor asked if I had questions. “Does Dave know about this?” He was back at our hut working on plans for his FARM project. “Yes, I’ve given him the same information,” Soulemayne responded. He then told me to go back to our hut and begin to pack, that a driver would pick us up within the next day or 2 and we’d be called with those details once arrangements were made. We’d be flying out of Niger on Friday. This was Wednesday. I could not get back to our hut fast enough to see how Dave was and what he had found out while I was at the clinic. I made an effort to explain why I was leaving to the clinic staff and mentally made a note to have our language trainer assist me with a phone call to my supervisor later in the day when we might have more clarification and information to tell her.

The CALL had caught me off guard, but what the message said was that the Peace Corps Bureau in Washington had decided to suspend service in Niger indefinitely and all 98 Peace Corps Niger volunteers would be evacuated immediately. I could not believe it. The message did not mention the kidnapping and murder of 2 French men earlier in the week, a random event which occurred in a restaurant in Niger’s capital city, Niamey. The restaurant was a popular hang-out for not only Peace Corps volunteers but also for many other ex-patriots who lived and worked in the country and enjoyed mingling with their peers from time to time. Later on it was mentioned that on the day of the kidnapping, there were no Peace Corps volunteers in the restaurant and that was a rare day. In fact, several volunteers later said they had planned to meet there that very evening. This tragic and frightening event was not the only reason Peace Corps made such a drastic decision to suspend service to Niger. Over the past few months, there had apparently been a continuous stream of erratic happenings which posed varying types of threats to non¬-Nigeriens and this most recent occurrence was too much. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and in Niger that is serious.

From that point on, Dave and my dream of serving in the Peace Corps took on new meaning and would require much decision making. Initially, we were caught up in the actuality of packing our belongings, giving away items and supplies we could not take with us and wondering what and how we could tell our villagers that we’d been in their village one week and now we were leaving forever. My command of the Zarma language did not get me through those explanations nor did Dave’s. Thank goodness we had the help of our language expert, a young Nigerien man, Djibo. He was able to help in communicating what was about to happen and to explain that it was a safety measure to protect volunteers and not something the villagers or the country had done or caused.
We were asked not to phone other volunteers, not to say anything but the minimum, until all arrangements for evacuation to the capital city Peace Corps hostel and then to an undisclosed country away from Niger were in place. What a logistical nightmare that must have been for Peace Corps Niger. Our country director was in the US, on vacation, so she was recalled to the Washington Bureau. The rest of the staff for Peace Corps Niger were put into action to make necessary evacuation arrangements. Though a template was probably in place for this type of evacuation, there were so many details for someone to handle. All we as volunteers could do was to wait for further information about when we’d be picked up and when we’d by flying out of Niamey to some safer place.

Emotions were strained, from sad to frightened, from disappointment to relief that we worked with an organization which put volunteer’s safety and security uppermost in their minds. We felt sad because we were leaving the villagers who had so little. One man remarked that first the violence caused by outsiders had ruined the tourist industry in Niger, and now Peace Corps was departing , which left another hole in the heart and lives of the people. Later on we heard that several non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) were also leaving. It was a sad time for Niger’s people and for its volunteers of all types.
The impact of our evacuation would grow and lives would change because of it. ( Please follow in the next blog entry as THE CALL is further described)…………………………………………………………………………..Judy

LEMONS to LEMONADE--Niger Style

Currently, many of our days begin with the rising sun barely visible through a dusty haze on the horizon. It is Niger’s cold, dry, dusty, windy season. BUT…………….based upon the negative tone of our last blog, this follow-up posting should be a ray of sunshine. It is a true lemons to lemonade story. Although Dave and my first few days in our new village were rough, the Nigerien proverb “kala suru” certainly paid off.

As soon as our village chief (maygari)/landlord realized that we were serious and expected an improved living environment, he jumped into action. Even though before our arrival the hut to which we were assigned was where he had been living , there must have been questions in his mind as we began to request various repairs. Crazy, demanding Anasaras! Maybe this is what he thought, but the Peace Corps had contracted with him to provide living space for us and the chief definitely was going to work with us on our issues.
What the maygari did was to enlist villagers to do the work necessary on our hut. Within a couple of days the rat holes were filled with smooth concrete, shiny black plastic was added to the inside of our thatched roof to catch falling dirt and to deter entry of bats and rodents, new screens were installed on our door and window and the latrine/shower area was cleaned. We also paid to have black plastic installed in our shade hangar since chickens roosted atop the hangar prompting regular showers of dirt and grain to fall on us. Because of the incessant dust during this time of year, we bought 10 palm mats and hung them inside the millet stalk walls of the shade hangar. We hoped to reduce dust from nature as well as from that which arose when the village women carried out their daily chore of sweeping the outside area around the hut. Just picture having to dust the pages of a book as you read it or the need to keep your clothes in large zip lock bags to keep them clean enough to wear.
While right now dust is an issue as it coats everything in sight, the rainy season will come and our roof was already reported to have a leak. Even before we asked, the maygari wanted to know when we’d be on vacation because he wanted to have the roof re-mudded before the rainy season begins in May or June. So, by the end of our first week “in vil” , as PCVs say, our little fu (home) was beginning to take shape and to become livable. After a villager wipes down the walls of the hut, we plan to paint them and that will be the final major task before we actually move in. We continue to sleep outside under the shade hangar and our gas cook stove is situated there as well. Until the rainy season we’ll live outdoors and store belongings inside the one room structure. The Peace Corps covered the cost of work which would provide safety and health while we paid for improvements in ambience and were glad to do it. The living situation of a Peace Corps volunteer is supposed to be comparable to that of the villagers and our space included only a few upgrades.
We now feel comfortable in our new African village home and are ready to begin the village assessment and project idea development. We are gradually meeting neighbors and have already been enthralled with the eleven month old little girl who lives next door. She is the daughter of the village maygari and is typically frightened by Caucasian people. She cries when she sees us and when I try to hold her, however, bringing a cookie to a recent visit made the tears disappear quite rapidly as her Mother placed the child into my arms. She is learning to wave good-bye as I tell her “kala ton-ton” in Zarma language.

As Mary Poppins once said, “a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down”. In this case, a few improvements and a bit of cooperation from our village maygar allows us to accept the “medicine” (unprepared living quarters) and encourages us in our pursuit of immersion into the African culture of our new village home. Lemons can certainly be squeezed, combined with sugar and made into lemonade. This experience definitely proves the saying to be true, and we are grateful. "Kala suru". Judy and Dave

LEMONS TO LEMONADE-----Niger Style

Currently, many of our days begin with the rising sun barely visible through a dusty haze on the horizon. It is Niger’s cold, dry, dusty, windy season. BUT…………….based upon the negative tone of our last blog, this follow-up posting should be a ray of sunshine. It is a true lemons to lemonade story. Although Dave and my first few days in our new village were rough, the Nigerien proverb “kala suru” certainly paid off.

As soon as our village chief (maygari)/landlord realized that we were serious and expected an improved living environment, he jumped into action. Even though before our arrival the hut to which we were assigned was where he had been living , there must have been questions in his mind as we began to request various repairs. Crazy, demanding Anasaras! Maybe this is what he thought, but the Peace Corps had contracted with him to provide living space for us and the chief definitely was going to work with us on our issues.
What the maygari did was to enlist villagers to do the work necessary on our hut. Within a couple of days the rat holes were filled with smooth concrete, shiny black plastic was added to the inside of our thatched roof to catch falling dirt and to deter entry of bats and rodents, new screens were installed on our door and window and the latrine/shower area was cleaned. We also paid to have black plastic installed in our shade hangar since chickens roosted atop the hangar prompting regular showers of dirt and grain to fall on us. Because of the incessant dust during this time of year, we bought 10 palm mats and hung them inside the millet stalk walls of the shade hangar. We hoped to reduce dust from nature as well as from that which arose when the village women carried out their daily chore of sweeping the outside area around the hut. Just picture having to dust the pages of a book as you read it or the need to keep your clothes in large zip lock bags to keep them clean enough to wear.
While right now dust is an issue as it coats everything in sight, the rainy season will come and our roof was already reported to have a leak. Even before we asked, the maygari wanted to know when we’d be on vacation because he wanted to have the roof re-mudded before the rainy season begins in May or June. So, by the end of our first week “in vil” , as PCVs say, our little fu (home) was beginning to take shape and to become livable. After a villager wipes down the walls of the hut, we plan to paint them and that will be the final major task before we actually move in. We continue to sleep outside under the shade hangar and our gas cook stove is situated there as well. Until the rainy season we’ll live outdoors and store belongings inside the one room structure. The Peace Corps covered the cost of work which would provide safety and health while we paid for improvements in ambience and were glad to do it. The living situation of a Peace Corps volunteer is supposed to be comparable to that of the villagers and our space included only a few upgrades.
We now feel comfortable in our new African village home and are ready to begin the village assessment and project idea development. We are gradually meeting neighbors and have already been enthralled with the eleven month old little girl who lives next door. She is the daughter of the village maygari and is typically frightened by Caucasian people. She cries when she sees us and when I try to hold her, however, bringing a cookie to a recent visit made the tears disappear quite rapidly as her Mother placed the child into my arms. She is learning to wave good-bye as I tell her “kala ton-ton” in Zarma language.

As Mary Poppins once said, “a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down”. In this case, a few improvements and a bit of cooperation from our village maygar allows us to accept the “medicine” (unprepared living quarters) and encourages us in our pursuit of immersion into the African culture of our new village home. Lemons can certainly be squeezed, combined with sugar and made into lemonade. This experience definitely proves the saying to be true, and we are grateful. Judy and Dave

"JAM"

“Jam”—Zarma language for “I’m sorry”. Today was disappointing when it should have been just the opposite. Or, did we expect too much of a day when we would actually see the hut which would be our Peace Corps home for 2 years? We were initially excited, then nervous, then plain anxious as the morning wore on and we could not get a key to the place. It seems , according to our Peace Corps representative, that the village chief (maygari) and landlord of the hut had recently returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca and was hard to reach. He would bring the key today, in true Nigerien time, en shallah. We had been assured by Peace Corps that our new site was ready for occupancy, however, while waiting for the landlord, we saw the latrine and shower area and were appalled. The small square spaces separated by a mud wall which would be used for our outdoor bathroom were filthy and appeared to have not been cleaned of debris and excrement for years.
Even with minimal standards for a pit toilet in Niger, what we viewed was unacceptable. We had made efforts prior to this day to have repairs made which the previous Peace Corps volunteer identified by talking with our program director and the volunteer involved with site development. We had been assured everything was ready. However, when the maygari finally appeared and ceremoniously opened the hut door, we were flabbergasted!! The 1 room hut was filled with personal belongings, no screens were installed (Peace Corps requirement), large holes were visible in the concrete floor around the entire room, walls were dirty and marred with insect nests, and a layer of dust covered every surface—floor to ceiling. The loosely thatched roof was laden with dust and spider webs and light from the sky could be seen. At least it was not a rainy day!
These very defects had been initially identified including the potential for bats and vermin to enter the living space. And we were brought to live here as volunteers for 2 years and told everything was fine?? The Peace Corps representatives accompanying us reacted calmly to our distress and gave varying reasons for the abominable conditions we found. And---we were supposed to spend the night in this place while they returned to hot showers and clean surroundings in Niamey! The Peace Corps representative whose language skills far surpassed ours, arranged for work to be done in a set time frame, promises were made and prices set. We thought ”what are we doing here in this horrible place?”
As the Toyota 4-wheel drive vehicle pulled away, headed towards Niamey, Dave and I were engulfed in its dust. I was in tears; he was stoic. Neither of us wanted to quit, but in concert, we were so disappointed with our situation and with Peace Corps for their audacity in placing us or ANY volunteer in a site such as this after confirming that it was acceptable for living. Even the most casual observer would see this to be untrue. It’s no wonder that there are 150 cases of diarrhea for 100 Peace Corps volunteers in Niger! When volunteers turn their lives around to serve in an organization, there should be preparation to respect that effort and to make the commitment as positive as possible. We were highly disappointed and downcast about the plight in which we found ourselves.
By late afternoon, none of the work had even been started. At near dark, our phone call to the Peace Corps representative was soon followed by the maygari sending a person to partially clean the latrine and shower areas. Promises were again made about work to be done the next day. Dave and I were willing to take this chance but if it was not done, we agreed between ourselves that we’d e.t. (early termination). In spite of our continued hope to carry out meaningful work in a needy country, we’d leave, quit, abandon our commitment as a statement about treatment of volunteers who are expected to be “at work” in their village 24/7 while paid staff are available Monday-Friday 8 am- 4:30 pm.
It had been a long day. We were both physically and mentally exhausted. That first night, the maygari’s wife quietly brought our dinner consisting of millet with onion sauce and a chicken drumstick. The maygari left his outdoor light on for us. We slept on our cots outside the hut, glad to be away from the dust, dirt and disappointment of today.
Judy and Dave
Written January 4, 2011