Morocco is a-MAZE-ing!

Hey all! It feels like a lifetime, but only a week ago, I arrived in Morocco from Niamey, Niger. Last week was a very emotional time known as the Transition Conference. Many volunteers closed their service (COS) and a few people made decisions to continue volunteering elsewhere. A few people from my stage that had just begun service in Niger decided to ERS (expedited return to service), which means they all gone home and begin their service all over again in Philly with a new stage to a new place. Volunteers who chose this option are going to Costa Rica, Namibia or Malawi. Ellie boo is going to Malawi, a fellow Maradi volunteer that I know is going to Costa Rica. Best of luck to those ERS peeps. The volunteers that are still here in Morocco will be continuing in one of the following countries: Senegal, South Africa, Guinea, Rwanda, Malawi and...CAMEROON which is where I am going! People going to these countries will be leaving right from Casablanca, Morocco in the near future. When we get to our country, we will have a specialized training (language, culture, technical skills) and be placed at our site. It is going to be a challenging transition to start over again, but I knew that I wanted to continue servin' in Africa!

Morocco is pretty sweet! Yesterday, I took a train to Fez with some friends. Three of them were going to stay there so we went to a youth hostel and dropped their stuff off. Then we walked around the Medina, or huge old market, that is the heart of Fez. The streets are tiny and we got lost several times, but it was fun because we weren't really looking for anything. So we're walking around the MAZE of stores and people are trying to sell us stuff and this one guy is like would you like to go to a restaurant and brings us into this side street? We're like ok, this is sketchy, but we have two guys in our group walking around so we're ike what's the worst that can happen? So this dude ends up bringing us into this huge back area where they're selling rugs. We buy yummy sandwiches from him and he tells us the history of rugs in Morocco and Fez. We go upstairs for a demonstration of women making the rugs. The rugs were gorgeous and the guy was really nice and wanted to sell them to us but we were like sorry man we are poor college graduates who are traveling there's no way we can haul these things around the African continent. No it was cool though. Then he had one of his friends bring us to a tannery. So we walked through the labyrinth to this huge leather store that looked down into where they do all the dyeing. It was super cool!

 Looking down on all the beautiful rooms in the sketchy rug store

 Leather tannery, vats used to dye the leather

Entrance to the Medina (only one entrance/exit, fire hazard anyone?)

I tentatively leave for Cameroon February 6th. So, in the mean time, I may head back to Fez and do a desert tour through Morocco. Stay tuned!

BES Note:
Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of Flat Stanley in Niger, but yesterday in Fez, Morocco I took pictures of him in the market.

Mr. Stanley on a Moroccan rug

Flat Stanley will be coming with me to Cameroon and then I will send him back to Vermont!

Sad News...I'm in Morocco

18 January 2011
      Sooooo change in life plans. I am currently in Morocco. Due to safety reasons, all Peace Corps volunteers were evacuted from Niger. Here is the safety reason:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/09/niger.abduction/index.html?iref=allsearch
        
    I was in my wonderful village for 8 days. I said goodbye to everyone in one day, packed up all my stuff, gave away all my food and home supplies to friends and mayor in my village, and traveled to my regional capital. From the regional capital, we traveled to Niamey and flew out early Monday morning. We are currently undergoing a Transition Conference in Morocco which is similar to a conference volunteers would have AFTER their two years of service are complete. It is really sad for us and for our villages and Niger as a whole, but I am grateful that we are all safe. We are completing a lot of paperwork, medical evaluations, and most importantly, discussing options for the future. There are quite a few options available.

    Thank you all for your support and love through this difficult and emotional transition time. I will keep ya'll posted as I determine what the next step in this journey will be.

First post in village

11 Janvier 2011

        Hello all! Greetings from my site in the desert! I arrived here on Tuesday, January 4th. When our group of Maradi volunteers first arrived in the region, we did a lot of shopping. We needed to buy everything for our sites; from trunks to dishes to food for a month to soap and more. We spent the morning of Monday, January 3rd going around the city and introducing ourselves to important people such as the Governor, National Guard, Gendarmes/Police, Chief of Maradi and others. We traveled around with three Peace Corps Staff who live in this area and are responsible for us while we live close to Maradi. They did most of the talking; which was good because all the people we met spoke Hausa/French fluently, and we're not up to par yet on language. The meet-and-greet is a respectful formality but also a way of letting influential people know that we are here so they can keep an eye out for us. On Tuesday morning, we met with the same types of governmental figures, but in an area more specific to my site. For security purposes, I cannot give the name of my specific region or town over the worldwideweb :). On Tuesday afternoon, they dropped me and all my stuff off at my site. We were greeted by a lot of people in the town and one of the Peace Corps Staff held a brief meeting outside of my home to tell people who I was, what I would be doing here, so on and so forth. My home is located inside of the town mayor's (called magori in Hausa) concession. There are many relatives that live in our concession so there is always someone around and always kids playing. Three weeks ago, a previous Peace Corps volunteer moved out of the house. I am grateful to her for leaving dishes, a wonderful bookshelf and two tables great for cooking and putting my water filter/dishes on. I had debated about buying these things before coming out but am glad now that I didn't. I spent the first afternoon unpacking and getting settled into my home. I also visited the magori and the health clinic to see my supervisor. Here are photos of my new home sweet home:

kitchen and back room

When I walk into my house, where I set up my bed outside

   I go to the health clinic Monday-Friday from 8:00am-12:00pm and then again from 3:30pm-6:00pm. The health clinic is called the CSE and is staffed and funded entirely by the Nigerien government. This past week and a half I have been observing what happens there. The mornings are the most busy thus far. When I arrive in the morning, there are many people waiting outside, mostly women and their babies. There is one area of the hospital for general illness consultations. These involve mothers bringing in their ill children to be seen and get medication. When a mother brings in her child, she has to bring the child's Carnet which is the form of ID. The Carnets are given to women when they have a child. However, if a child was born at home and thus did not receive a Carnet, they can be purchased for 100CFA at any time. For the majority of consultations that I have observed, the illness has been malaria. The clinic has rapid-malaria blood tests for adults, but for children the most common symptom is a fever. If a child has a fever, then it is most probably malaria and they are given medicine (magani) for it. If the fever is 40 degrees Celsius or greater (which is 104 degrees farenheit) they are given medicine but also a shot (allura) because their fever is so high.       

       Another area of the clinic is reserved for prenatal consultations and pregancy care. In Hausa, pregnancy is called haihuwa (pronounced hi-hoo-wa). In one room, the sage femme gives consultations to pregnant women. These consultations involve weighing the mother, measuring her stomach for the size of the baby and listening to the baby's heart. If there are no other problems, then the mother is given iron tablets and prophylaxis medicine so that she will not develop malaria while pregnant. There is a birthing room as well and an observation room for women who stay overnight at the CSE after they give birth.

     One room of the clinic is the pharmacy where people pick up medicine after their consultation. I have been impressed at how quickly the turn-around is. During the mornings, there are a lot of people around and waiting in line for a consoltation may take some time, but today for instance, there weren't many people around and I watched a woman walk right into the CSE into the consulltation room and then into the pharmacy to get the medicine and leave again. The whole process didn't take more than 10 minutes. There is also a room called "epicentre" which is a mini laboratory/immunization area. Someone from the city comes up on weekdays to work there. I have also seen the head doctor/my supervisor conduct wound cleanings and dressings in that room.
     
       Saturday and Sunday are my days off. Last Saturday, I cleaned my home with the help of some boys in town. We moved all the stuff from one room into the other and cleaned the ceiling and walls free of cobwebs, dust and bugs. Thankfullly, there are not too many creatures around the homestead. My favorite thus far has been a spider as large as my hand (don't worry, I had some boys kill it) and cockroaches in my latrine. I bought some insect powder to kill them but I'm pretty sure they're immune to the stuff. The bugs still freak me out at night in my house but I'll have to get used to it. This is the winter season after all. Just wait until the summer for the big creatures to come out of hibernation EEK what am I doing in Africa? I detest buggies. Oh well.

         On Sunday, I went to the market. I took one of the magori's sons with me to bargain and make sure I knew where the heck I was going. We took a bush-taxi from this village to the market town. We met up with Carolyn, a volunteer in a close-by village. It was nice to see her and to speak some English :). We got egg sandwiches (such a treat) and shopped around. I mostly bought spices and fresh vegetables (both of which I can't get at my site) as well as a big tabarma mat for the floor, flipflops (I need to start going easy on Birkies, they're too loved) and a little lantern to put by my stove at night when I'm cooking. All in all, it was a very successful day. It was just Carolyn and I this time, but I think we're going to make it a Sunday tradition for everyone in this area of Maradi to go into market. It will be nice to catch up after a week, eat some sandwich koys (egg), and buy fresh vegetables.

Hausa Vocabulary for BES kiddos
town mayor/leader: magori
medicine: magani
fever: allura
pregnancy: haihuwa
mat: tabarma
egg: koy (prounced qu-why)

Swear-In

       Hey all! Happy almost New Years! So today was the swearing-in ceremony; the time when Peace Corps trainees become official Peace Corps volunteers. We headed into Niamey this morning and drove to the home of the US Ambassador in Niger, Bisa Williams. It was very generous of her to open her home to us for the ceremony. We had a "cocktail" of sodas and snacks before the ceremony. The ceremony consisted of speeches by the following people: Tondi, our program director/Nigerien dad; Myself, Dan and Alma who talked about volunteers in Niger and thanking our host families in Hamdallye, the Peace Corps Niger country director Valerie Staats, the deputy officer of the US Embassy and a Nigerien government official. Giving the speech was great. It was funny because Tondi finished up his speech (which was in both French and English, he's kindof a big deal) in which he talked about the highlights of our stage and PST: singing for Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays, the impressive results from our final LPI Language Proficiency Interivew, losing packages and letters, and the comrodery of our group.Then he called me up to give the speech. I wasn't up there for five seconds before every radio and tv station personnel who came to the event swarmed around me to tape the speech. It caught me off guard and I must have made a funny face cause all my fellow volunteers started laughing. I guess it was a good icebreaker :) No it was fine though. I wasn't even a little nervous, I think public speaking is growing on me. After all the speeches, the volunteers stood up. We all held up our right-hands and said the Peace Corps Volunteer Oath in both English and French. Then, shikena (all finished/complete/done), we were volunteers YAA It feels great! We all came out to lunch after at Almadines, our fave restaurant in Niamey. Tonight we will have a special going-away dinner. I anticipate a lot of singing and a lot of tears. Tears of happiness that we made it through training and grew close as a stage but also tears of sadness because we are all going to our own regions and villages and will not see each other on a daily basis. Thank goodness for the float plan on our phones so that we will be able to stay in touch for free. Tomorrow, the volunteers going to Zinder/Maradi will leave at 4am to catch the 10-hour bus ride out east. Holler holler. Plenty of time for me to ponder about my new years resolution(s) and world peace. And sleep. And read (thank heavens I don't get car sick). And listen to my ipod (thanks again Sharah).

 

Ali, Ellie and Alison Gr in Hamdallye before leaving for Niamey

 Alison & Tondi after ceremony

Peace Corps Niger Country Director, Valerie Staats, giving speech during swear-in ceremony

Ambassador Williams' backyard, where ceremony happened

End Note: I've tried to upload the speech videos, but they are too long and the bandwidth in this country is unable to support it. Sorry :( Love ya'll, talk to ya soon

P.S. Here is my speech in Hausa, and then English:
Mai girma ma taimakiyar jakadiyar kasar Amerika a Niger, Mai girma wakilin gwamnatin Niger, Mai girma darektan Peace Corps Niger, Mai martaba sarkin Hamdallye, Abokaina volontaire, Jama'a mata da maza.
Salamu Aleykum, sannunku da zuwa!
Sunana Alison cikin Amerika amma sunana Zara cikin Niger. Daga Vermont nike, karamar jaha kusa da New York. Barka mu da sallar swear-in. Cikin volontaires da suka zo Niger mune na karshen shekara hamsin. Yau, muna da sati goma a Niger. Mun zamna cikin Hamdallye da iyalanmu na Niger. Mun yi sallar Layya da iyalanmu kuma mun koyi yadda ake dafa abincin Niger. Hausawa suka ce: shinhudar huska ta hi shinhudar tabarma.Iyalina, sun bamu sunan Niger, Zara da Leya. Lokacin abinci, mun zamna bisan tabarma taray. Da farko, ba mu magana dayawa. Amma, kadan kadan mun koyi Hausa. Sun tamakay mu cikin koyon kalmomin Hausa hada karin magana, kamar "dumiya takashi kaza, yau koy, gobe tutu". Mun da yara, mun yi wasan kos kuma mun d'auki ruwan pumpo. Na d'auki bido babba. Yanzu, muna magana dayawa lokacin da mu kay ci abinci bisa tabarma. Mun gode ma iyalanmu don alherinsu kuma da hankurinsu.
Cikin wadanga sati goma mun koyi hausa da zarbarmanci, al'adun mutanen Niger kuma harakar aiki. Mun ga yadda ake bikin salla kuma mun koyi yanayin cikin Niger. Zamu bada taimako afannin kiwon lahiya ko aikin garka. Zamu yi aiki tare da al'uma; don haka, muna bukata goyon bayan su. Muna son koyon abubuwa bisa Niger, mutanenta kuma da al'adunta. Muna jin dadin zama sosai cikin Niger saboda kasa ce mai mutane masu halin kiriki kuma da abukantaka. Hannu da hannu, muna iya kawo gudunmowar mu a Niger. 'Yan magana suka ce: Babu bako cikin duniya, sai wanda ba ka sani ba. Muna jin daddi sosai da ganinku. Mun gode.

US Deputy embassy officer in Niger, Niger Peace Corps director, Chief of Hamdallye, my fellow volunteers, ladies and gentlemen,
Greetings, thank you for coming!
My name is Alison in America but in Niger, my name is Zara. I am from Vermont, a small state near New York. Greetings on swear-in. Our group marks 50 years of volunteers coming to Niger. Today, we have been in Niger for ten weeks. We have been living in Hamdallye with host families. We celebrated Tabaski and learned how to cook Nigerien food. As the Hausa people say: to share your sell is better than sharing your stuff. My host family gave us Nigerien names, Zara and Leya. When we ate, we sat on the mat together. At the beginning, we didn't talk very much. But we slowly learned Hausa. They taught us Hausa vocabulary and proverbs, such as: Life is like a chicken. Today you get eggs, tomorrow you get poo. The children and us played games and fetched water from the well. I carried a large container. Now, we can talk a lot when we sit on the mat to eat together. We thank our families very much for their generosity and patience.
In ten weeks we have learned Hausa or Zarma, Nigerien culture and work-related information. We learned about celebrations and daily life in Niger. We will help in the sectors of health and agriculture. We will work together, so, we need your help. We want to learned things about Niger, her people and her customs. We are so happy to be in Niger for it is the land of kind people and friendship. Hand in hand, we will work to bring a change for Niger. One who speaks well says: There are no strangers in this world, just those you have not met. We are happy to meet all of you. Thank you.

Good News

Hello everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the winter weather! I have two exciting bits of news:
1. I have a phone. YAAAA all of the staff and volunteers are now on a float plan so that we can all text and call each other. Great for security purposes and to provide support to each other. Calling from the US, my number is: 227-987-000-71. Try calling me on Skype or GoogleVoice. I heard that GoogleVoice is a bit cheaper per minute but I'm not sure what service is better. We'll have to test it out.
2. This Thursday, we have a large ceremony called Swear-In where we become official Peace Corps Niger volunteers. At the ceremony, a lot of people talk, including three people from our stage. One to give a speech in French, one in Hausa and one in Zarma. Guess who was voted to be the Hausa speaker? THIS GAL! Ya I'm pumped. It'll be interesting. I've written most of it but it will be interesting to address people when I'm still working on pronouncing most of the words :) Ya I'm pumped though!
So ya I'm going to charge my phoney phone and will be waiting for all of your calls! Heart, Alison

 Christmas tree with secret santa presents under it. Please note the drawn tree + ornaments, Charlie Brown tree and recycled package boxes used to wrap the gifts. :)

"The Joys of Christmas" blackboard

Dec. 26. Host family fete, last night in Hamdallye before moving back to the training site.

Dec. 26. Host family after we gave them presents.

Dec. 26. Petite Razaac with soccer ball we gave him for the salla=celebration.

I will really miss that little guy.

Merry Christmas

26 Decembre 2010
Hello everyone! Merry belated Christmas! I hope you all are doing well and that the snow storm heading for New England doesn't hit too hard :) Here is what I've been up to for the holidays:
-Christmas Eve: I was part of the Christmas committee, so all afternoon a group of us worked in the kitchen on the training site in Hamdallye. With a lot of assistance from the cooks on site, we put together a feast of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, cooked potatoes, green beans & carrots, zuccini & eggplant, bread with garlic & butter sauce, cake and orange 'n apple 'n watermelon salad. One of the Peace Corps staff generously made us Christmas cookies and the trainees shared treats and candies that were sent from home. Post din, we sang carols and watched Love Actually. Ate a whole huge bag of twizzlers with the assistance of some friends :) thanks mama for the care package. Ellie and I slept up at the training site so we would be there for the morning festivities.
-Christmas: Ran early in the morn, it felt great to get up when it was still cool. Had pancakes and eggs for brunch, watched movies, and then had pizza for lunch. Didn't really feel like Christmas. It was about 90 degrees, lots of sand and no snow. Sad to not be home but nice to have company of my fellow trainees that I've grown close with over the past two months. We did secret santa for a gift exchange. I had Carolyn and I bought her a budda filled with candies and a Cliff bar. Andrew gave me a zani (fabric that's been tailored into a skirt). We decorated the blackboards around the training site with holiday notes and we had a little Charlie Brown tree that Dan received in a care package.
-Upcoming events: We have a biiiiiiig week. Tonight we have the family fete/festival. We are making food with our host families and having a final celebration of living with them for the past two months. Ellie and I bought the kids a soccer ball, Hinda and Zanabu earrings, and a flashlight for Loyola. It will be sad to leave them (especially petite Razaac) but I think Ellie and I are both ready for the next step in our journey in Niger. Tomorrow, we have our final language assessment ahh nerve-racking but it will be fine, insha allah. Then we spend a couple of days in Niamey discussing logistics about our sites and banking while at post. We swear-in as volunteers on the 30th (YAAAAA almost made it) and then take the bus out to Maradi on the 31st to begin the Installation to Site process. A lot is going on this week but when I get to Maradi, I anticipate that I will have internet access for a few days before I move out to my site.
I hope everyone is doing well and eating tons of great food! I've been dreaming about Christmas food lately and decided to make a dream wishlist of the desserts I miss the most this season:
5. Peanut brittle crunchy, full of protein, sweet deliciousness
4. Chocolate oranges. Do ya'll know what I'm talking about? Chocolate ball, you crack it and it's slices of orangechocolate goodness. Thank the Lord, on Christmas Eve I have an orangechocolate slice from a very-generous trainee who was sharing treats.
3. Poppyseed bread = my existence
2. chocolate + sprinkle-covered pretzels . We always made these growing up around Christmastime. Salty and sweet = yum
1. Cheesecake with strawberries on top. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Hello calcium deficiency!

Enjoy the video of Christmas caroling. Ignore Dan on the left who clearly doesn't love Silent Night as much as I do!

`Site Announcement

Hey ya'll! Hope everyone is doing well and on holiday break (or close to it!) Us trainees are in Niamey today for Site Announcement. It has been a very exciting day. I AM GOING TO MARADI! Ya this is where I wanted to be. I love the city of Maradi and all the volunteers there that I've met so far. I am in a town that has both a health center and a primary school; all the things I asked for. My village has approximately 5,000 people. More details to come!! For now, safe travels homeeeee for the holidays everyone! Check out this awesome blog from a fellow trainee in the meantime:
http://jacobmbarela.wordpress.com/