News from Jody

I received a letter from Jody today written Jan 12 & 13. She says:
“I have moved in with my host family and will be learning to speak Hausa. I’m living in a village with Mamane Issa’s family. One other volunteer, Scott, also lives in the family group but he lives on the other side of the concession with the other half of the family. My family named me Barkatou Grand. One of the babies is named Barkatou Petit. They named Scott, Mamane Sanie. We spent some time while dinner was being cooked to learn some language from the kids, drawing pictures asking what things were and trying to get the kids to draw. We found out 5 of the kids in our gida (family) attend one of the three schools in the village. Our gida has a bull, some sheep and chickens. We spent Sunday in the village with our families. Mamane (Scott) and I spent a lot of time learning words from the kids. One of the first things we did was walk through the village with the women. We think to pay our respects to the family of someone who died or is dying. We came back and played with the kids and went to buy some ingredients for lunch. Some of our neighboring PCTs (Peace Corps trainees) came to visit and we played Frisbee with the kids and wrote numbers in Hausa on UNO cards. We went down out of the village with the kids to a water hole where a man was making bricks and helped the kids pick some fruit/bean things off some trees. The food is good but rich, lots of rice with veggie sauces and fried pastries for breakfast. Monday we go back to the training site for more lessons then back to the host family for dinner.”

Demyst

Hey guys I "snuck" on the computers at the PC Bural for a few mins! Just got back from Demyst where they set us in a PCV's village for a few days! Fun times! Rode back to the Hostal in Gothaye in teh back of a Police truck because they offerd a ride and we hadnt found a bush taxi yet! Rode back from there this morning on a bush taxi...4 to a seat and at one point some chickens in the front!! I'll have to get a picture of a bush taxi with cattle on top and post it! But thats it for now I'll post more when i have permisson to be online! Change in what ive told everyone..yall can send me packages in boxes and stuff it dosent cost much for us to get it...only a 1000cfa or 2 at most! (440cfa/$).

Hope yall are havnig fun with out me!! Its into the 50s in the mornings now!

Safe Arrival

SAFE ARRIVAL

34 new Peace Corps Niger trainees arrived safely on 10 Jan 2008 in Niamey, Niger. Upon arrival they were taken out to the Peace Corps training center in Hamdallaye and were settled in for the evening. The next morning they all looked quite good, curious, a bit tired, and definitely excited about their new adventure. In the next 9 weeks they will not have access to internet or (for the most part) phones

Jen and I dropped Jody off at the Corpus Christi Airport on Monday Jan 7th for her 6 AM flight to Philadelphia where she joined 34 other Peace Corps Volunteers for registration at 1:30 pm. They spent the afternoon in training . They completed the staging process the afternoon of Tuesday Jan 8th. Wednesday morning they reported to the clinic , checked out of the hotel and boarded buses for the airport for their 7 pm departure to Charles De Gaulle airport, Paris, where they boarded a connecting flight to Niamey, Niger on Jan 10th. This group of 34 volunteers will then complete a 3 month in country training.

We wish you safe travels and good luck on this Great Adventure.
Love ya. Mom