One week left of training

The Hausa love their proverbs. One of my favorites is “Little by little, the bird builds its nest.” Slowly but surely we fledgling Nigerien birdies have been building a community, learning to chirp in Hausa and/or Zarma (with some French thrown in for good measure), and preparing for time in our own nests. Pre-Service Training ends in five or six days, and we will swear-in as Peace Corps Volunteers on Thursday morning (at 10am Nigerien time)! It’s amazing to think how far we have come as a group. The moment we stepped off the plane in Niamey in July, a tall dude named Tondi said, “Come with me right now,” and we did, partially given his stature and partially because he was instantly trustworthy. In a country like Niger, I think we all realized extraordinarily quickly we would need to trust each other and trust our training staff. We’ve had our moments of frustration (particularly with the “just-in-time” method of conveying necessary information), but it’s incredible how much each of us have grown and changed for the better (well, not nutritionally, but whatever) over the past 11 weeks. And really, the “just in time” method and presenting us with incremental challenges/hurdles worked pretty well for most of us. Gradually our “Nigerien Dad” and his crew let us step further and further away from our protective training nest, trusting always that we would learn from our missteps.

We move out to our sites next Saturday. Honestly, it’s a terrifying prospect, but it’s time to try life in Niger on our own. We now have to place trust in our communities, that they will befriend us, help keep us safe, and help us help them.

In grand Sellards style, we created paper bags for each person in our stage to fill with comments/compliments written by our fellow stagieres. We will read them in times of trial, when we remember that crying alone in our huts/houses will get us nowhere. We’re in for a challenging first month in our new homes, but really, we’ll be fine. We have each other, we have our staff, we have those who will become great friends in our villages, and we have all of you at home. Thanks for being there.

PS - My address is now:
Erin Lockley, PCV
Corps de la Paix
BP 641
Zinder, Niger
West Africa

Oh, also, please consider sending news and/or fitness related articles with your letters. I hope to get a radio soon, so that I can at least listen to the BBC and have a clue about what’s going on in the world.