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Michael's Project
Visiting Niger
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More information on
Peace Corps and Niger
Peace Corps Information
For more information specifically
on my
project, follow the link to Michael's
project.
Training
Pre-service training is an intensive 9-week program at the
Peace Corps training center at Hamdallaye (roughly 30 km northeast
of Niamey, the nation's capital). To quote the country welcome book, "Pre-service
training will include French, one of the national languages
(depending on where you are assigner), cross-cultural adaptation,
guidelines for personal health and hygiene, development issues,
safety and security issues, community entry skills, nonformal
education techniques, and a variety of technical skills related to
your particular project. In addition to language classes, there will
be hands-on activities, field trips, readings, seminars, and
self-directed learning." Whew, sounds like a lot to cram into 9
weeks! During training, I stay with a host family which speaks
the local language.
After training, we swear in and
become full-fledged "Peace Corps Volunteers," and then
head off to our assigned sites, which are based both on the
country's need and my aptitudes and preferences (when I find out
more about my project, my dad should write in here what it is).
Volunteer Living Conditions
While in Niger, I will be paid enough by the Peace Corps to live at
a comfortable level in my village. Additionally, I accrue travel
money (woo!) as well as two days a month to travel (though I can't
take vacation time in the first six months or last three months at
site). I obviously can leave the site if work or training requires
it.
Though I do not know the exact
location of my site, I know a bit about the general set-up. I will
be in a village of between 200 and 1500 people within 50 kilometers
of other volunteers (Peace Corps likes to "cluster"
volunteers for security and socializing reasons) and a larger town,
which will be anywhere from 100 to 1200 kilometers from the capital.
In my village, I will be one of maybe a handful
of people with a sixth-grade or higher equivalent education. Housing "will consist of a traditional African one- or two-room
house of adobe (earthen) brick with an adobe or thatch roof. Most
Volunteer houses have a small yard surrounded by an adobe or thatch
enclosure.... Most of the year you will sleep outside, with only
your mosquito net between you and the stars." (3)
There will be no electricity, and
I will draw my water from an open well or hand pump. This water will
come in handy when I take my bucket baths (no high- and
low-intensity shower heads for me). Rather than the glow of a
television showing re-runs and sweeps-week spectacles, kerosene
lamps will provide my evening light.
Communication
Mail service is, compared to other African countries, relatively
good. It is of course nowhere near the level enjoyed in the US.
Letters supposedly take about two to four weeks by air mail to
arrive from the US, and the same to return via air mail. Just be
sure to mark the letters "Air Mail" or "Par Avion"
on the envelopes (I even got some "Air Mail" stickers from
the post office when I bought some air mail stamps), and number
letters so we can tell if one is missing. Packages by surface will
take typically six months to arrive. Time sensitive or valuable
materials should be sent by DHL, as this is fairly reliable.
Telephone service is rarely
available in Volunteer villages, so they travel to larger cities
once every few months to make and receive phone calls.
Emailing will also be difficult.
Internet cafés exist in the capital of Niamey, but outside of that,
they are few and far between.
Niger Information
What and where the heck is
Niger?
Niger is a land-locked nation in French-speaking West
Africa. It is at the far Western edge of France's former
colonial possessions in West Africa, extending west from
Dakar, Senegal, inland through Niger. See the map to the
right. For scale, Niger is about twice the size of Texas.
If you are looking at that map and
simultaneously pondering where lies that vast desert called
Sahara, wonder no more: it covers the northern 2/3rds of the
country. It is only tropical along the most southwestern
corner, near the border with Burkina Faso.
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Climate
As a landlocked country partly within the bounds of the Sahara
Desert, it should not come as any surprise that it can be deadly hot
in Niger. The hot season (over 120° and rarely below 90°) is from
April to May. "The rainy season, from June through late
September, is characterized by periods of increasing heat and
humidity punctuated by violent, brief downpours,"(1)
October through March are dry and cool, even down to 40° at night,
cool enough to require a blanket! Needless to say, it will be a
bit of a shift from Minnesota or even Walla Walla weather. To see
how hot it is in Niger, I've put a thermometer with Niamey's (the
capital's) temperature on the sidebar to the left (If another
location is closer to where I end up, I hope my dad will make the
appropriate change).
Cultural Info
Though Niger is a predominantly Muslim country (over 90%
of the population; the remainder is Christianity and other
indigenous beliefs), it has no history of religious extremism or
violence (This information is located within the first two
paragraphs of the Peace Corps/Niger welcome book, so I figured it
must be something people want to know about). The major
ethnic groups are Hausa (56%), Djerma (22%), Fulani, Taureg, and
others (see map for
distribution). Thus,
while French is the official language, "learning one or more of
the national languages... is a must for living in rural areas and
becoming integrated into the community." (1) As an agroforestry
volunteer, I will obviously be living in a rural area, so I will
have to learn one (or more) of these languages. (Currently, I don't
know where I will be living, so I don't know which of these
languages I will be learning). To
quote the handbook: "Nigeriens are very social people, and
individuals who are not social may be viewed suspiciously. Hanging
out, talking, and laughing are desirable. Even if you do not talk a
lot, hanging out quietly with Nigeriens is viewed as being
social....[Y]our friends and neighbors will attempt to ensure that
you are never alone... [i]n many cases this is because they have
never encountered someone of such a different background - they are
only trying to be good hosts and friends." Being
well-dressed is important, as Nigeriens take a lot of pride in
personal appearance, despite the poverty of their country. Though
Niger is officially secular, it is an Islamic country and most
people are devout and conservative in dress and behavior. That means
collared shirts and casual slacks or jeans for men (Yes, so this
means when it's 130° and the sun is baking me, I will be wearing
long sleeves and pants). More revealing, torn, or dirty clothes are
only acceptable, even around people one knows well, in one's house
or while performing hard physical labor. Food
Millet, a type of grain somewhat similar to corn, is the staple of much of the
country and that region of Africa (click
for gallery).
To be eaten, it is pounded into a sort of flour, which is cooked and
eaten with a sauce of vegetables or, occasionally, meat. Sorghum is
prepared similarly. Rice and other irrigated crops are grown along
the Niger River in the southwestern corner of the country, so rice
is common in urban areas.
Problems:
Economic and Environment
Niger is one of the world's poorest countries, due to its harsh
climate, geographic isolation, lack of natural resources,
environmental degradation, and rapid population growth. Here's a
look at some of the numbers:
-
176: Rank, of 177, on
the United Nations Human Development Index for 2004 (2)
-
800: Per capita GDP,
in dollars, for 2004 (2)
-
280: Children's
deaths, per 1,000 born, before their fifth birthday (a.k.a. 28%)
-
50: Percent of
children under 5 who are below normal weight
-
30: Percent of
school-age children who attend primary school (of this number,
only 25% are female)
-
20: Percent of the
population over 15 that is literate
-
43: Percent of
households that have access to potable drinking water
Thus, the majority of people I
will be working with will be primarily concerned with meeting basic
needs that much of the rest of the world takes for granted.
A prolonged dry cycle and
increasing population pressures have resulted in the loss of
vegetative cover, and thus a subsequent decline in soil fertility.
Desertification brought on by the southward creep of the Sahara
continues unabated. Because of the mounting pressures brought on by
all of these problems, Niger is rarely self-sufficient in food
production even in relatively good years. Thus, according to my
Peace Corps/Niger welcome booklet, "the average Nigerien is
worse off today than three decades ago." Why,
with all of this discouraging information about Niger's development, and
with the assurance of security afforded by staying home around
family and friends, would anyone in their right mind want to go into
the Peace Corps in general, and Niger in particular? I am not so
naïve to think I can change the whole world (and no one ever said I
was in my right mind). But if I learned
anything from the movie What About Bob?, it's that you've got
to take baby steps in fixing a problem. Joining the Peace Corps is a
way of doing that. I am going out and, at the grassroots level,
helping people with the most important (and most basic) thing of
all: putting food on the table, by developing and implementing
sustainable programs that (I hope - maybe here is some of my
youthful naïveté shining through) will improve and enrich the
lives of the people in my village long after I am gone. Besides,
I am young, don't have familial or major economic responsibilities
to tie me back, and am a recent college graduate. Now is the best
time in my life to do this, and I believe the hype that the Peace
Corps is "the toughest job you'll ever love." If I didn't
take this chance now and instead took on the responsibilities and
expectations of a young adult in this country (job, marriage, car-
and home-ownership, etc...), I would probably live to regret not
going now. And REGRET in my Anti-Drug! (Oh man, how lame is that
joke going to be in 2007? It's already bad in 2004!) |
