Arrival in Niger!

On October 22^nd I arrived in Niger along with 42 other Peace Corps Trainees. The trip was pretty long. We left Philadelphia on October 21^st en route to JFK (why our bus driver decided to go through Manhattan via 39^th St. on a Thursday afternoon is beyond me). Both flights (JFK-Paris; Paris-Niamey) were pretty uneventful, and I slept through almost everything… surprise, surprise!

This is the ground about a block from my house.

My initial impressions of Niger as a country were formed while still on the plane. I was not lucky enough to get a window seat, but the personal TVs were showing live images of the ground from the camera on the plane’s tail. Mini, the fellow trainee sitting next to me, accurately remarked:  “It looks like Mars!” 

Niger is very rural, and most of the country is desert. I saw this from the plane, and have continued to observe since. The ground here resembles the images of dry skin in a Neutrogena commercial: very dry and cracked.

My first thoughts as I stepped off the plane: HOT, HOT, HOT. In case you were wondering, it’s really hot in Niger. October and November are mini-hot season, so the days get as hot as 119ºF!

Our group got through baggage and security smoothly. Outside the airport we were met by Peace Corps Niger staff and taken in PC vans to the training site a little bit outside Niamey, the capital. Had I not been sitting next to a current PCV in the van I would have never known it was Niamey we were driving through. I saw mostly thatch huts, dirt roads, goats, and lots of trash.

It's quite overwhelming to see the poverty that exists in Niger. I'm here as a Community Health volunteer but when I walk through the streets I wonder, is it useful to stock up the medicine cabinet of a health hut when the roads that lead you to the hut are all dirt and filled with trash? Should a mother's first priority be buying her children bednets or breakfast? There is certainly a lot of work and learning for me to do here...