Happy Holidays!

It hardly feels like the Christmas season here, although I was reminded by a Nigerien Santa who accosted me on the street to come into his store. The mornings and evenings requiring sweatshirts and sweaters are slowly falling behind me, and I can feel the heat starting to arrive. I tried listening to Christmas carols on my iPod but that seemed even more depressing than anticipating the heat wave. There is a Tuareg Music Festival this weekend over the holiday and plenty of parties to go to with other Americans and Europeans. I even found grapefruit in the market, a personal marker of the holiday season since our house is always full of grapefruit for Christmas sent by grandma.

This New Years will arrive finding me in my new home here (Inshallah)- a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house in a neighborhood called Recasement in the north of the city. It seems that Fulbright is all too happy to give you your check, but when it comes to support and housing in country, they are also happy to tell you that you are on your own. Complaining to family at home about the housing situation, I was reminded of my first introduction to village life seven years ago- those lonely days after my heart sank watching the Peace Corps vehicle drive away. I thought the entire thing a bit cruel. Those first few days I pantomimed my way through life not understanding a damn thing and sharing a room with my 3 teenage host brothers. I would wake up on the floor mattress, looking up at them while they stared down at me from folding chairs. At least someone was making sure that I was breathing. I bumbled through this until I realized that I was experiencing my first bout with amoebas. Not knowing where a toilet was or how to ask for it, I was forced to mime to my host family that I had just puked all over their room.

So getting settled in Niamey should have been a piece of cake. I have money to do things, I have knowledge of a language and a culture, and after all, I am not sick. Think again. Housing is neither easy to find nor cheap in Niamey and although I will have a nice home for the 6 months I am here, it will more than likely only ever be furnished with some mats and a couple beds. My new house faces onto a school courtyard and the little huts that serve as classrooms. Around the corner is a small market and little shops. I am also not that far away from Dimol where (eventually) I will be working. So although this landing has been better than the village one years ago, it has also been marked by vomiting in other people’s houses. In an effort to save money, I chose the cheaper option for malaria prophylaxis and supplied myself with 6 months worth of doxycycline. In just 2 weeks, the doxy has wreaked havoc on my digestive tact. If anything, this bout has solved the mystery of the bidet for me, although proper usage of which continues to escape me. I mean, exactly how are you supposed to mount that thing?

Until the house is ready I am staying with a third year Peace Corps volunteer in her house and entertaining the other volunteers who are passing through for the holiday. A visit to a French doctor has me back in working order although he confirmed for me yet again that I speak French with not only an African accent, but a very Fulani one. Jennifer, the other Fulbright, has taken to identifying Fulani in town by the same accent, since she says that they speak like I do- “ a very bizarre, but understandable patois.”

I am afraid that my adventures this time have consisted mostly of house hunting and bathroom humor, although I am sure that there will be more to come. I wish you all a very happy and healthy holiday season.