You woke me therefore I will kill you.

Hello family and friends! Life still keeps moving along at an almost too fast pace over in my little space of the globe. Heat season is all together debilitating. It's amazing a) how much one human can sweat [eeww] b) how doing in the smallest tasks like writing a letter will leave me exhausted. Other PCVs warned of this but being well me I assumed I would be above all this hot season madness. I mean hello I'm from eastern NC I know a thing or two about heat but dry heat and this much is crazy different. Ok enough complaining.

My work with the babies is coming along nicely. I convinced another woman to take her son to the local hospital and he is on his way to a "healthy" (by Nigerien standards) weight. My biggest projects will have to wait until the arrival of rainy season when I can actually function.

I had the opportunity to go to Moloud which is the celebration of Mohammed's' birthday. Kiota is like the Mecca is West Africa so for every Muslim holiday my world sorta gets invaded but especially on this holiday. My village is on the road that leads to Kiota, about 30 k (18 miles) south. So for about 3 weeks prior somewhere near 20,000 extra people from Niger, Burkina, Senegal, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria flooded the small city where Michelle (fellow stagemate) is posted as an education volunteer. So me and 10 other white folks all headed up to check it out. It was quite a site to see. Nobody goes to sleep. Everyone prays or reads the Koran through the entire night. I fell asleep to literally 1,ooo's of people chanting and beating to their chests. Thanking their god and asking him to bring them through the next year.

Ok and now for a story. So there I was in my peaceful slumber in my little "petit america" wearing shorts- my usual sleeping attire. But on this Passover morning I was being yelled at. Ok I can't really speak English when I wake up out of a deep sleep, much less french and definitely NOT zarma. So I walk over toward Amina and I keep telling her to repeat whatever she's saying cause I don't understand. Our concessions are next to each other and just a millet stalk fence separates us. So I walk towards our common fence and she gets more hysterical. The problem here is that the word for snake is really similar to the word for stomach. So she would yell "Sarah don't come snake!" and in my groggy states I would yell back "No my stomach is ok now I took medicine". I had just started meds the day before for bacteria. She then uses the word for snake in french, serpent, hoping maybe the other language would help me to realize what she was talking about. Finally as I get closer to the fence I see that in fact there is a snake coming through pretty much right at my foot. I have this light bulb in my head moment and then run. Well you know me... I'm a fan of killing things. Especially things that wake me up. So I put on a skirt and by this time my older brothers had been called. Ya know to come rescue Amina & I the poor single girls (22 and no husbands yet what ever will we do?) So Alpha asks me if I want to kill it. Really is this even a question... the other men protested saying is wasn't a girls place. But after said snake lunged at me twice I was determined to end it's life myself. And so I did at 6 am while screaming in zarma "You woke me up therefore I will kill you". My brothers got a good laugh out of all of it. Only many hours later did I find out said snake was poisonous, it's ok I'm a PCV I can do anything! News spread like wildfire and by the end of the day I was being greeted on my effort for killing the snake, and even brought food as a blessing. My dad was rather impressed and some of my friends didn't believe me until they saw pictures (photos to come soon). So there is one africa-tastic story for the books.

Without a doubt the least exciting news since my last post is the departure of Amina. She's a teacher and in Niger you get placed in villages, and you really have no say over where you do. Well for some unknown reason the director of schools in my region decided to move her with only 2 more months left in the school year. For the 2 weeks leading up to her departure me, my villagers and nearly every useful person tried to stop the move but out efforts failed at last. She took over to her new village this past Thursday. I left in the morning because I had cried a lot already and I knew her send off would be full of my villagers who don't understand nor accept when an adult cries in public. She's only 12k away but she was easily one of my closest friends in Niger. She helped me in SO many ways with language, understanding Nigerien culture, listening to my boy problems or my homesick ramblings. I will still see her but it won't be the same. With patience all things will pan out I guess.

~Kala Hanfo~Until another day~