The rain has returned and so has the green. I didn't realize how much I missed the color of life. I was riding into Niamey this morning and I couldn't believe how different the landscape looked. I was last in the city two weeks ago and the whole route looks different. Not to mention the amount of dead frogs in the road. I don't mind it though ... it's one less croaking in the middle of the night. I had recently taken to sleeping outside again. I finally found a way of attaching my mosquito net ... this process is actually performed by my friend, Hayatou since he is tall enough to attach the rope to the nail on my wall.
Rainy season also has marked the return of the creepy crawlers. Speaking of insects, I HATE crickets and ciccadas. They are magnets to hair! Sadly, this means that as soon as night falls and I hear the ending theme to Au Coeur du Peche I head inside. I can't even stay long enough to eat dinner. I have to come back for it or the kids bring it to my window. Well, that was until I saw my first snake and now Henett refuses to set foot near my house in the dark.
One night I heard my dog, Leila, barking (sidenote – it takes me much longer to write blogs now as all my words want to exit my mouth in French first ... grr!) I opened the door to see what was wrong. Usually her barking means someone is at my door or she's just crazy. I noticed there was something skinny and black coiled into the nook of my front door. I slammed it shut as quick as I could. Not too eventful thankfully.
With the coming rainy season is also the coming of a new group of people to Niger. I can hardly believe I've been here a year already. It's been full of ups and downs but I'm making it. Sometimes I feel like I'll live with nothing to show (physically) of the work I've done. I haven't had much luck or patience with the avenues for funding. My counterpart is also not very receptive to projects that don't require funding. Luckily I have a great group of friends and neighbors who are always willing to go along for the ride and to take in what I have to offer. Informal activities are my saving grace in this country.
I still go to my inspection (almost) every day but I spend less time there. I go to the middle/high school and make an effort to talk with the professors. I am hoping to start an English club next school year. I have started another project. I'm afraid to even start looking for funding ... this is always the hardest step. The project is a micro-finance group for women in a village called Seikoukou. They organized themselves and have already pulled together enough money to begin constructing a little store. Hopefully, I will be able to help them find funding for a roof. I'll get more information out as soon as I get it translated. I am most likely going to do a Peace Corps partnership fund which means my fellow Americans will be able to help me out.
It is almost vacation time and I absolutely cannot wait to eat myself into a coma as soon as I get back to America, hello Chipotle! But I am more excited for the arrival of my dad and brother to Niger. They will spend a week with me eating, sleeping, and hanging out like I do. It's one thing to see pictures and hear stories but it is quite another to actually get to experience it firsthand. I can't wait for the day they get here. We're going to have a big lunch of fari masa with chicken and sauce. Then I'm taking them to the river to go on a perogue (fishing canoe).
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