I do solemnly swear,,,,

Well its official.... I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer. The swear-in ceremony was great. The ambassadors residence was wonderful. The speeches were great. Our clothes were quite frankly... amazing! The PCV's were out in full force. The past few days have been a whirlwind... we had the GAD (Gender and Development) Auction on Wed. where I purchased a few things... namely a $100 sleeping bag for about $8, a bracelet and another nalgene... and all in the name of gender equality. Then the PCV's hosted a BBQ at the Niamey hostel on Thursday. The food was amazing... I had pork and it was GRAND!!! Then yesterday was the ceremony. Its been really nice to meet the other volunteers but we're still the "newbies". The next stage lands Jan. 7 (AG & NRM) but they won't swear-in until March... and so it goes!

Henry McCoy, the Africa Regional Director, was in west africa and it was quite the treat. David Liner had introduced me to him about a month before I left. I had been looking forward to his visit plus the whole country was a buzz with getting ready for him. He was the first face I had seen from home and he had nothing but encouraging words for me and my fellow stage mates. He also said he'll be back in a year to check our progress... exciting times. Plus he gives a great hug... and on top of all of this he's a North Carolinian... does it get better... I think not!

It's bitter sweet that stage is over. I'm sad to leave my friends and the petit america that we have in Hamdy... I can't wear shorts really anywhere else. But i'm also anxious to start the work I came here to do. I will no doubt cry when I say good-bye to Suzannah, Texas, Germany.... and many others that I won't see for 2 months but its time. It time to give back to the people that have given me so much. I'm ready as I'll ever be so now its sink or swim... and I fully intend to be doing laps.

Well I miss you all and wish you well. I will be back in the capital in Dec. sometime. But for the entire month of Oct. I'll be in Doundibi.

So....
Happy Birthday Mom... Oct. 12 I miss you so much thanks for being my biggest cheerleader
Happy Birthday Brittney... Oct. 2 GO DAWGS!!! So here's the thing you need to come visit me.
Happy Birthday Karen.... Oct. 10 Oh wow... if I was there I'd totally take you on TCBY date!!! WHOOP!!!
Happy Birthday Ashley Shaw... Oct. 14 My 5489... um I'm going to have to ask you to come to Africa.!!!
Congrats... Sarah & Robin on the new baby that will no doubt arrive while I'm out in the bush.
(If I forogt you its because I have lost my address book... and don't remember your b-day off the top of my head.)

Kala Kayan.... Until I return.

That's right I passed!!!!

You're now reading the blog of a very soon to be Nigerien Peace Corps Volunteer.... I have passed my medical exam, passed my zarma (Praise Irkoy) exam.... so now if I can just make sure I don't get medicallly seperated in the next 72 hours I will take my oath and become a volunteer. I'm so excited I'm about to burst. The 2 months (exactly tomorrow) have been a rollercoaster that I am more than ready to get off of.

The past week has been all together joyous and down right awful. We had 3 people leave in 2 days....and not that I was particulary close to any of them but when you know someone with only a plane ride away from seeing their family, friends and boyfriends its easy to get homesick. There were several factors and a lot of us were feeling the same things which made it a lot easier. I didn't want to et but I did want to be home for a like a day or two and then come back. But this has passed. Today I got a huge package and a letter from my grandparents and that took away any lingering homesickness that was still there. I will head out to post on Oct. 2 and will stay there for a complete month. My IST (In-service training) is the first 2 weeks of Dec. then we'll spend X-mas in Zinder and New Years in Maradi as a stage.

I think that is the key to my success as a volunteer looking forward to the chances when we'll all get together as stage. Or when new stage's come... visitors come (hint hint)...because when I start thinking about it as 2 years I sorta get dizzy. The other PCV's in country have been more than welcoming. Tonight is the GAD (Gender & Development) dinner/auction. Tomorrow they are throwing a BIG BBQ for us at the Niamey hostel, Friday afternoon we'll swear-in, there's a big party that night back up on site, we have sat to relax and then I'll leave Sunday morning to head off to Dosso.

So in a nutshell.... my life is grand!!! I love Niger. I love most of my stage. I love my village...no complaints.... talk to you all soon. Take care !!!

The picture is me with The Niger River behind.

Sorry its short

So long time no post.

Doundibi (dun-deebee) was amazing! My village is about 600-1000 people. My maygery(chief) is awesome. He's a 70 yr. old, man with lots of gray hair and one leg. Whenever he saw me he would get this big smile on his face and start to clap... saying we we're going to talk lots and lots of Zarma... then we pretty much sat silent. My hut is a good size. It's pretty much a 10 by 10 box. Most impressive is my drum roll please... CEMENT FLOOR. I'm fairly excited about that. My closest neighbor is a traditional singer. I'm not even 30 yards from get this... A FOOT PUMP! Woohoo! I was able to watch a women read Zarma for the first time... which was so awesome!

We lost 3 more people all girls... for various reasons. We also have another person being medavaced to DC the day after swear-in. Chances of him returning are slim. But officially only 5 have dropped out.

My birthday was grand. I was wished many happy birthday's at around mid-night. Carrie gave me a card. Then she & I traveled back to the training site. Where at dinner I was greeted with cake. I got to see all my friends and talk to my mom, grandma & papa and Adam... it was a great day I rather like being 22... if not for the fact that iwey cindi hinka sounds better than iwey cindi fo... 22 and 21 in zarma... oh I almost forgot I got a cat for my birthday. Our driver at the Dosso hostel gave me his cat which I'm thrilled about. Bitik which translates as very black is just that... with some white. He looks alot like Scrub and i'm excited about that.

I started reading and have almost finished Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller... definetly a good read and I highly recommend it.

Well i'm going to go because quite frankly I'm tired of typing. I miss you all terribly and can't wait to hear from you... through letters (and packages).

Miss you all more than you'll ever know... come visit me!

Doundibi... home sweet home

So I am soon to be a volunteer in the Dosso region of Niger. My village is called Doundibi and is right next to Birni N'Gourne. I will be on a paved road and will have cell phone coverage. I will get a cell phone around Christmas once I have given myself some time to really intergrate into my community without distractions. My village is about 600 people and I'm the first volunteer there. They have been asking for a volunteer for over 6 years so I hoped they aren't expecting too much from me. All the health needs are met by the hospital (term used loosely) that is less than 1k away in Birni. I hope to get to work at this hospital alot... its the same place where I saw the malnourished child. I am also right next to a friend... her name is Ginger and she was my roomate in Philly. She's a CYE in Birni and has said I can use her electricity.... I'm rather exciteded about that prospect. I will be about 30k (18 miles) from Dosso and the hostel there.

As such my address is now changing:
Sarah Pharr, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 144
Dosso, Niger, West Africa
The large print in not by accident. I have determinded that I have the best support from home and I have received the most packages... so much so that there seems to be some slight envy brewing... I have coined a term "Bitter and packageless"....So thanks mom, grandma & Papa, Adam... and I just got you letter Ashley... yay! FYI... I have lost my address book so if you want a letter send me one with your address on it!

My sister had a baby. On the bush taxi (10 people in a station wagon) ride back last week a friend leaned over to tell me that Isa, my sister who is 17 gave birth to a healthy little girl. This is her first child with her husband that she married when she was 15. Anyways in niger they don't name the baby until a week later so she was name this past sunday. They killed a goat, and named her Mofidatou. We had a lovely feat of goat sauce over rice that night. Sounds not so great but I promise you this was a good day. Oh and our gift... in niger yolu take soap and money. Soap because the new mom stays inside her hut (fu) for 40 days after the birth... this is called the washing period and we (Carrie & I) each gave 500 cfa's which is $1 here. She was overjoyed.

Oh and probably one of the greatest things... we had a thief! For some reason our older brother thought it would be a good idea to steal a tv from a cook that works at the training site for PC. Well.... not so much a good idea. There was a lot of noise in my concession so I went out to see what was going on and there were literallaly 100s of people trying to get into our house, plus lots of people peering over the high walls. Come to find out that all the villagers including the cheif had come to my house with spears and machetees... it was awesome. He stayed there that night... yes I slept in the same concession and a thief (zayo in zarma) and then the next day while we were at the training site he was taken in the caital by the police in handcuffs. My family was so pissed... with good reason he damaged their name. Anyways... just a day in the life of a Peace Corps trainee.... soon to be volunteer!

Zarma... has without a doubt been my biggest frustration. We took out 2nd LPI (language profiency exam) and I still have not moved from Novice Mid... I have to get Intermediate Low to be installed in my village. So at seeing my score I lost it. The only times I have cried here have been over the first few letters I received and Zarma class. Tondi our site manager found me... he's so much like our dad its crazy. He has been a very important part in our transition here and if there was an award for best training site manager in PC he would surely get it. He gave me a pep talk and then knew that I just needed to cry it out. When I sat down to talk to him this morning he said he though about me all night. I told him that the though of et'ing (early terminating) had not even crossed my mind and simply explained to him my frustrations. After talking with him, suzannah, a good hug from texas, some other zarma cha's. Then I found a magazine that is directed towards possible applicants and it helped so much... it reminded me of why I joined PC in the first place. Yes I will have days when I just need to cry for hours... but at the end of the day I'm still happy with my choice to be here. Afterwards I went down to my hut, read a "emergency" letter from mom, ate some junk food and then listened to music.... now I'm fine and ready to tackle this zarma. But as we discovered none of the zarma cha's advanced and after we each met with Tondi he determined that a different tester my be more appropriate... even everyone else said they had seen improvement since the last LPI.

So I'm off I will try to update this hopefully on my birthday.... talk to you later! Love you guys!

Wish list

Flags: Baylor and NC are on top of the list. I've already got a peace and yes a texas flag has made its way into my life here.... I just can't escape... miss you girls!
Letters, Packages & Pictures... these mean the most
CD's & DVD's... you know what I like
Jesus stuff... any message or conference on cd or dvd. Examples/suggestions like Rob Bell, Louio G, and Passion 06. Just imagine me in Africa with a church, or anyone to talk to about Jesus, and a group of friends who would like to forget that I'm a christian.
Anything else that you think my enhance my new home... just think of it as my first house warming party except I'll be the only one at the party.



Thanks so much for the emails and letters. Letters are still the best way to communicate with me. I'll be at post for all of Oct. and won't have access to the internet.

Well I must return back to headquaters... can't wait to fill you all in about my new home!

Lovts of love from Niger!!!

Girraffes, ameobas & badmitten

This is a post from a week ago that never actually posted for some reason:

Wow... so let me first start off by dedicating this post and every one thereafter to my mother for her being just awesome. More on why she's awesome later.

Niger never ceases to amaze me. Since my last posting I have had a case of ameobic dysentary but that was cured with a 54 pill treatment in 10 days....I just finished that Monday. But now my toe is infected so I'm on another 40 pill treatment over the next 10 days (I started on Thursday)... but depsite this minor setbacks I'm GREAT.

The CHA's (Community Health Agents) went on a little field trip to Dosso this past Fri & Sat. Which had it's ups and downs. I was able to see some hospitla sof varying sizes and levels of resources. But I also so a severly malnourished child that is not likley to make it thorugh the next week. It something that I will never forget as long as I live. Also something I struggle with not feeling guilty for having already eaten twice that day and knowing that I have some of the best medical care in country simply because of where I have citizenship. I have a hard time seeing justice in all of this.

But on a lighter note we met the shiek (sp?) who is a fairly big deal in Niger and really all of west africa. During Muhammad's b-day people come from all over west africa to receive his blessing. He blessed us.... hoping for long lives full of money and for us not to forget Niger once we returned back home... I can assure you that will never happen.

Late on Friday night the driver at the Dosso hostel hosted a party at his house... which was so big it had to moved onto the street. there were about 250-300 people there easy lots of dancing... which I loved. There were only a handful of stagiers dancing but the girls seemed to like me. Everytime I sat down to rest one of them came over to snatch me out of my seat again... surely memories that will last a lifetime.

As to why my mother is AWESOME! About 2 weeks ago she sent me a badmitten set... that's right a BADMITTEN SET!!! You see here in Africa they really only play one sport and that is soccer... no offense but its not my thing. So a few friend and I were sitting around chatting and this man walks by with a package and in my mind I thought "wow that looks like the shape of a badmitten set"... of course not saying these things out loud so people didn't think I was absolutely crazy. But then a friend (Ginger) comes and sits down next to me... to let me know a package has arrived for me. So then I frantically hunt the package down to see that indeed my mother has not only sent me and package but she DLH'd that madness to me! So I finally broke out the badmitten the other day and let me tell you my heart was at ease. I won the first 3 games but by game 4 my toes was causing my too much grief to really be an affective team player. So in conclusion all the Nigerien are wickedly confused by this crazy sport that I'm smitten with... i'm teaching them slowly but surely. Everyone in stage think i'm weird... and that my mom loves me a lot! ( I got the first DHL package.... woohoo!)

We find out our posts on the 8th.... so Friday I'll learn my new village for the next 2 years of my life... wow I can't wait. Then live-in is Sept. 13-19 which is where we go to post for a few days to just check it out and plan for what we'll need to buy. Sept 19... yours truly celebrates her first birthday in Africa. Then we swear-in Sept 29 that's when I officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer and am rather excited about that. Then I spend an entire month at post and can't leave... wow that will be tough but an exciting experience.

I almost forgot... giraffes. So yesterday on out way back from Dosso we were just driving along as normal... ya know 20 white people in a bus in Niger... we tend to stick out. And all of the sudden Katie (a precious southenr girls from GA) yells giraffs.... so the bus comes to a screaching halt on the side of the rode we all run out and slowly wak towards the last wild giraffes on the planet. There were about 30 of them (There official estimate is about 50 that live in the reserve that sets in Niger & Togo) and I was maybe 20 feet away from these creatures. The pictures are amazing and the memories even more amazing.... I love my life!

Until next time... Kala Tonton!