6 months!!!

It's been over 6 months that I've been in this country, which means due to my early close of service date, I'm 1/4 of the way done!!Time has been flying here, and I'm back in Niamey with yet another case of amoebas and bacteria, blah. I'll be heading to Benin next week, which I'm really excited about, I need a break. I've had a few reality checks with the possible projects in my village, and have come to the realization that you can't make people do anything that don't really want to do, even if it will better their lives, and let alone if you want it to be sustainable. I'm hopefully going to start some radio work soon, and I've planted and started to cultivate my field of millet and soybeans. I've also hooked up with a gardener in my village, and have planted tomatoes, parsley, cabbage, and peppers for now. I'm also working on some diagrams for animal husbandry presentations, and maybe some other presentations to families in the community why they should send their daughters to school, but it's all in the works now for that project.

I also just had a meeting with my villagers and one of the peace corps workers to discuss the advantages to projects that don't' involve money, which they seemed to understand. Since my village is also a Fulan village they speak in Fufulde to themselves all the time, and although they understand Zarma, it's hard to learn a language when the people around you aren't speaking it. And although i am slowly picking up Fufulde, Zarma is my primary language. I've also realized that NGO's here in Niger, although some do good work, have led villagers to adopt a mentality that everything will be handed to them, and that they don't need to really work for themselves. A sort of backlash to relief work. This is not true with everyone, but enough to make a difference in village work.

Anyways, I'm going to ask my dad to put up pictures from a c.d. that i sent him, sorry it's taken so much time to see photos, I'm using the excuse that it's hard for me to get access to the Internet out here.

Hope all is well in the rest of the world, pictures will be up soon!!