Ryan Forbes Morris

RPCV Mozambique '10-'11

RPCV Niger '08-'10

Wabash College '08

"For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?"

-bell hooks

My mother was made queen as I stood at the foot of the Sahel

and watched her illuminate stars from the center of the earth.

She whispers to the wind that I am worthy...

fashioning my namesake with cello beats and silken arcs of obsidian.

My spirit conforms itself to look upon that which I have been given

and I am remembered to a symphony of silence...kissed blue and then green...

birthed in the embrace of afternoon

and sketched in Tamachek across earth moments and desert sky

-Ryan Forbes Morris

She spoke beautiful words...

and for the first time I saw the sun!

Inhabiting this new position of freedom...

...awakened, vivid crimson BLUE and breathing...

I say that her heart is my own!

Remarkable-

Persevering-

Black woman!

...the righteous thinker

who dreamt beloved, abounding summer

to

the

wintry

expanse

of patriarchy.

-Ryan Forbes Morris

Take a look at all the beans and peanuts growing in my yard! The rain is coming down hard in my city!

Sorry for the silence! The last few months have been full of work, vacation, and extreme humidity. In May, I flew from Paris to Chicago, and met my mom, Aunt Cheryl, and Cousin Pat. I then took a bus to Indianapolis to see my brother, my godparents, old roommates, and all of my friends that are still in Indiana. After a week, I flew to California to spend more time with friends and relatives. Then, My family and I took a wondeful cruise to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. We relaxed on white sand beaches shaded by lush mountains, swam in gentle, pristine ocean water, and ate delicious...delicious...delicious food! Here's a pictorial representation of what I did while I was in America:

So, what have I been up to since I've been back in Niger?

1. Running...lots of Running.

2. English Club- The American Embassy was gracious enough to sponser an American Corner at my MJC (maison de la jeunesse et de la culture). So they now have internet, computers, and a brand new paint job. I have been teaching english there four times a week and I love it! The students are really motivated, and my counterparts are amazing.

3. Listening to music! I got so much new music while I was in America. My iPOD definitely needed a change-up. I've also been drinking a lot of tea with my neighbors!

4. VATing! I was a volunteer assistant trainer for two weeks in August. We received new volunteers in July and I helped the director of our education program faciliate technical sessions at our training site. It was a wonderful time, and it was really great to meet everyone, and to be on the "otherside" of volunteer training.

5. Gardening! My neighbors and I planted peanuts and beans in my concession! I'll post pictures soon to show you how much everything has grown!

Current albums on rotation:

Stevie Wonder "Talking Book"

The Foreign Exchange "Leave It All Behind"

Orchestre Baka de Gbine "Gati Bongo"

and lots of Zap Mama

Currently reading : The Autiobiography of Malcolm X (had to revist this a second time!)

Some pictures from Earth Day. The event was planned by a very dedicated volunteer, who worked with several local Nigerien NGOs. We all traveled to a quartier in the city, gave trainings on proper hand washing to young kids, and walked around distributing handwashing posters to small shops and boutiques throughout the neighborhood. Some volunteers also went door to door, giving handwashing demonstrations to families. In addition, we picked up trashing, and talked about the importance of taking care of the environment. This was a very great project!

I awoke when palm trees whispered peace of mind to the ears of earth-folk

And fuchsia hummingbirds signaled the procession of

black women

rising from the waters

worshipping the sun for the delicious ebony bestowed to their hands and chocolate arms…

drinking twice of the cool river and sprinkling the third to the hot earth

Whose vines serenaded the moon, and swayed like ocean waves in the red heat of summer.

We mediate in the desert…eyes closed but forever vigilante

Tasting sweet mango from cool tiles of alabaster

Daydreaming to the fluid sounds of shape-shifting baobabs

And the blue nile breeze carrying the fragrant serenity we all seek to trap between our fingers

and breathe

-Ryan Forbes Morris

It was the eclectic felon that kicked voltage to the walls

Burned the atmosphere and

Sliced green peaches with daylight

Spilling nectar to the chosen ones

Who sit bemused and electric

Seizing from the impulses of eccentric dreams in which they

Float beneath the sun in lotus position

Die sweet honey

Re-envision existence

Spinning cashmere from AFROS upon the rings of Jupiter.

The eclectic felon, whose funky beat cross-galactically-reveberates smoooooth to tha people!

Elevates our collective grief

Where cellos smoke themselves anew

And we sip tea in triangles beneath the shaded moons of our afternoon escapism

-Ryan Forbes Morris

Here are some pictures from the Women's Recruitment and Organizational Strenghtening Conference, a Naming Ceremony held at the home of our Program Assistant, and my trip to visit a fellow Californian and her donkey Mabel!

Tomorrow my counterpart and I are holding our very first training with COGES presidents, secretaries, and treasurers! I am scared, I am nervous, I have to speak hausa tomorrow! We have been planning this conference for a while, and I've had control over every aspect of the conference- from its beginning stages, to the proposal writing, purchasing materials, etc.! But tomorrow, I guess it's no longer in my hands! The COGES Womens Recruitment and Organizational Strengthening Conference will be the first of its kind. We are trying to encourage COGES leadership to increase their recruitment of women, but we are also going to give them instructions about how to create intimidation-free voting environments, and how to use gender-sensitive approaches when managing meetings and COGES business. We've worked hard, and we're going to conduct 4 interactive workshops. The COGES members will be split up into 8 groups and they will hold discussions and undergo training to build their capacity. I'm excited. We'll see how everything will go. Hopefully the pre-conference jitters will pass soon. Wish me luck, and wish me perfect hausa!

Another volunteer and I planned a really nice conference where International NGOs could give presentations and talk to Peace Corps volunteers about their work in the Maradi region, to open up the opportunity for future collaboration. We worked very hard, here are some pictures of the event!

My former host family from Arles, France sent me this cartoon to celebrate 2009. I lived with them for two months before my Senior year at Wabash College. They are amazing, and corrected every grammatically incorrect French phrase that came out of my mouth for an entire summer! My host dad is a cartoonist, and sketched this out for me.

Thank you so much Rémy, Farida, Thomas, and Simon.

Marketing Hot Desirability: What Pristine Sunlight Will Reveal

A cool day. I was walking around town, confirming some of the last details for an event that would take place in a few weeks. It was near noon, the sun shone bright, and as I began to walk home, I saw two other volunteers standing near a street vendor. I waved at them from a distance, and they quickly waved back, smiling and talking to me in English while trying to hand their money over to the woman meticulously frying food in her enormous tukunya at the busy street corner. As I approached, a large group of veiled girls with cinnamon colored dresses joined, pooling their money to purchase some lunch before returning back to their afternoon classes. As I continued to chat with my friends, I noticed that one of the girls was looking at me. She was a pretty girl, perhaps 18 or 19 years old, tall, with soft eyes. Her face and eyes were bright, and I realized that as I subtly looked back at her, she continued to stare at my arms and my hands. I thought nothing of it at first, but as the other volunteers and I waited patiently for the food, I realized after several minutes that she was still staring at me. I looked back at her and briefly greeted her in hausa and she responded, moving her right hands from her waist to adjust her headscarf. As she did this, I realized that there were burns, skin discoloration, and scars all over her hands, most prominently around her knuckles and wrists. This discoloration and burning was almost identical on her left hands, as was the discoloration on her neck and chin. After a few minutes, I realized that this young girl, like many of her friends standing around the street vendor, was bleaching her skin. I couldn’t believe how many scars were on this girl’s hands, and how her knuckles and wrists seemed to be almost irreparably discolored and scarred.

Later on that day, I talked to some of my neighbors about what I saw. They were not at all surprised. The men that I sit with explained to me that skin bleaching is really popular among young girls, and he said that it was the fault of men that women continue to apply skin bleach. He said that women will apply the crèmes to certain parts of their bodies, but sometime if they’re exposed to too much sun, or use the products incorrectly, the skin will burn, and become even darker than it was before. I found this to be a really interesting opinion and I asked him to elaborate. He went on to explain that many men only prefer women with lighter skin complexions, and women feel pressured to begin applying skin bleach when they feel undesirable. So I asked my neighbor, “Why would you expect women to have light colored skin, when we are living in the Sahel of Western Africa, and when there was little to no racial mixing during French colonization?” Some of the men begin to explain that there some lighter skinned women in Niger, but most of them came either from Touareg or Fulani groups. He explained that many men only want to date and/or marry women with lighter skin, but they do not want their girlfriends or their wives to use the skin bleach because of its rancid smell. So, this seems like a tough dilemma. Men want their wives with dark complexions to have light skin, but they do not want them to use skin bleach, which is the only method that people here obtain lighter skin complexions. Curious. I explained to my friends about the racial and color caste systems that used to exist in places like Mexico and former French colonies were racial mixing was more prevalent. In a place where there was little racial mixing like Niger, it is interesting that many still arrive at the same ideas about skin color and self-worth. In a separate conversation, a friend of mine, who is exactly my same age, told me that he hopes one day to have children with lighter skin. He said that would be the greatest gift that he could ever give them, because he believed that it would advance them in society. I shook my head when he said this to me, explaining to him that an education was the greatest gift he could leave them. We have had this conversation several times, but he still doesn’t agree with me. We agree to disagree. When I hear others speaking of a post-racial world, I wonder if they are having the same experiences and conversations with people in this country that I am.

Project Title: COGES Women’s Recruitment & Organizational Strengthening Conference

Volunteer: Ryan Forbes Morris, CYE ‘08

Post: ---------

Region: Maradi

Project Implementation Period: March 2009

Total Amount Requested from GAD: 48, 975 Francs CFA

I. Project Summary:

The secondary Inspection would like to conduct a one-day training with approximately twenty-one (21) COGES members from its seven (7) secondary public education establishments in order to increase the recruitment and participation of women members, specifically the recruitment of women members into elected positions of leadership. COGES members will undergo a series of tutorials concerning gender-sensitive meeting management techniques; the creation and maintenance of intimidation-free and friendly voting environments, in which both men and women members can declare candidacy for COGES-elected positions of leadership; the pragmatic uses and applications of agendas, budgets, record-keeping, and the importance of financial transparency. This project seeks not only to increase access and equity to women who wish to participate in COGES and pursue positions of leadership, but also to enhance and reinforce the administrative skills of the few women currently serving on these committees.

II. Background Information and Needs Identification:

Due to the absence of monetary resources to fully support educational institutions, the government of Niger has partially delegated the management and finance of all public schools to community-based organizations referred to as COGES (Comités de Gestion des Etablissments Scolaires). The committees are comprised of eleven (11) members, two (2) of which must be women, who assume the administrative and fiscal responsibilities of school establishments that the government of Niger can no longer provide (i.e. supplying school textbooks and funding the construction of millet-stalk classrooms in overcrowded schools). The eleven representatives include parents, school headmasters, student representatives, local, and municipal authorities. The Women’s Recruitment and Organizational Strengthening Conference will afford COGES members gender-sensitive and refined managerial and recruitment skills to assist them in their efforts to make their committees more representative of the general population and in the administration of their respective establishments. COGES groups are unlikely to bring sustainable educational access and equity to young girls and boys in their communities if they themselves do not exemplify the change they seek to affect in their school establishments. A strong organization is one of diverse membership, opinion, and experience. In order for an organization to respond to the needs of a community, composed of both men and women, gender equity in COGES committees and leadership must remain a prioritized initiative.

III. Project Objectives and Timeline:

Main Objective: Increase the number of women participants in Maradi urban region COGES groups and enhance the administrative skills of COGES members.

Goal 1: Train COGES presidents, treasurers, and secretaries, in practical methods to recruit more women into their committees.

Objective 1-1: By the end of 2010, all of the seven COGES groups will have a minimum of three (3) women members on their committees.

Goal 2: Increase the awareness of the importance of a free and democratic vote to ensure a friendly and intimidation-free voting environment in which both women and male members can declare candidacy for COGES positions of leadership.

Objective 2-1: After the one-day training, COGES members in attendance will be able to list, define, and demonstrate methods to create and maintain intimidation-free and democratic voting environments within their COGES group.

Objective 2-2: By the end of 2010, 15 % of COGES groups in Maradi urban region will have an elected woman president.

Goal 3: Enhance COGES members’ meeting management techniques and financial transparency.

Objective 3-1: After one-day training, COGES members in attendance will be able to demonstrate gender-sensitive meeting management techniques.

Objective 3-2: After the one-day training, COGES members in attendance will be able to demonstrate the formulation of trimester-based budgets.

Objective 3-3: By the end of 2010, 63% of COGES groups in Maradi urban region will employ a system of co-signed financial transactions through the use of Cash-request forms.

Timeline/Logistics:

Month (2009) Activity

February Volunteer/Counterpart meetings; goal evaluation; grant seeking.

March Send invitations to COGES members; confirm schedules/travel; purchase of food and office supplies; Conference will tentatively be held March 18, 2008.

April Initial reporting and evaluation to GAD committee and Inspector 1 month after completion of Conference; calculate increases and/or decreases in women COGES members and/or women in elected positions of leadership; identifying COGES groups employing gender-sensitivity and organizational strengthening methods presented in Conference

July Follow-up reporting and evaluation 3 months after initial report submitted to GAD committee and Inspector

October Final Reporting and evaluation 6 months after initial report submitted to GAD committee and Inspector; Analyze 6 months worth of collected data on COGES women’s recruitment, retention, and participation in COGES

IV. Roles and Responsibilities

• Ryan Morris, PCV

o Pricing and purchase of anticipated food and office supply materials

o Co-creation of session content

o Aiding in the planning and facilitation of sessions in national language

o Evaluation of COGES women’s recruitment, participation, and retention at 1, 3, and 6 months after conclusion of Conference.

o Relaying immediate results of session to GAD committee, Inspector, and Peace Corps bureau.

• Boukari Bako, Nigerien Counterpart & Inspection Employee

o Making contact with COGES members

o Co-creation of session content

o Facilitating sessions with COGES members in national language.

o Monitoring and evaluation of COGES use of organizational strengthening methods. Determination if whether these methods have been useful to COGES administration.

o Relaying immediate and long-term results to Inspector and COGES groups.

V. Gender and Development

In the Maradi urban region, there is a functioning COGES group in each of the seven public secondary schools. While these groups have made significant progress since 2005 in the management and administration of their establishments, the presence and involvement of women in these decision-making bodies is feeble and substandard. Currently, there are neither women COGES presidents nor women members holding positions of leadership in any of the Maradi urban region’s seven committees. Moreover, there are COGES groups that currently have no women in their membership. In order for these groups to aptly reflect and attend to the needs of their communities, the full participation of all of its citizens, namely women, is fundamental. Furthermore, an increased participation of women in the COGES groups will likely initiate productive rapport and collaboration between other community-based organizations such as AME (Association des Mères Éducatrices) and aid in the mobilization of parents to actively participate in the future direction and restoration of their establishments. This type of training for COGES groups at the secondary level is essential not only to the realization of Niger’s Ten-year Education Plan (Programme décennal de développement de l’education ) but also to the growth and progress of committees in secondary education establishments, who seldom receive training or programmatic support from other non-governmental organizations in Maradi that center their efforts on rural, primary schools. A well-structured, gender-equitable, empowered, and organizationally sound COGES bureau will bring sustainable change to a community, and can best advocate for the needs of its constituency.

Evaluation:

The short- and long-term effects of the Women’s Recruitment and Organizational Strengthening Conference will include both behavioral and quantifiable change. The recruitment of women into COGES membership and elected-positions of leadership can be followed over time; however each COGES groups’ use of gender-sensitive meeting management techniques will be much more difficult to monitor and evaluate. In the months following the Conference, we will assume that the increase of women in COGES membership, and elected positions of leadership will be correlated to the COGES groups’ successful application of gender-sensitive meeting management practices. At the conclusion of the one-day training, COGES members in attendance will be given questionnaires to test their knowledge of the material that has been presented, and will also be asked to demonstrate and replicate the gender-sensitive methodologies in small groups. The number of members in-attendance that can successfully complete this will be recorded in chart-format. Moreover, in April, July, and October 2009, all of the COGES groups will receive questionnaires to ascertain whether they are using the gender-sensitive methodologies in their meetings. Also, in this post-Conference period, each COGES group will be visited, and the demographics of the membership will be recorded. The results of this monitoring and evaluation from March to October 2009 will be compiled into a report that will be given to the Inspector of the Maradi Secondary Inspection, as well as to each of the COGES groups. Lastly, the immediate results after the Conference (increase and/or decrease in women members among each COGES group; use of gender-sensitive and financial transparency meeting techniques) will be reported to the GAD committee in April 2009.

Our indicators include:

• Number of women members on COGES membership

• Number of women members in elected positions of COGES leadership

• Number of COGES groups

o using gender-sensitive meeting management techniques at one, three, and six months after conclusion of Conference

o collaborating with other community based organizations, such as AME

o consistently using and formulating trimester-based budgets

o using co-signed Cash Request forms after one, three, and six months after conclusion of Conference.

Master Teachers

by Ryan Forbes Morris

(For all those that voted!)

Let me dream the dream of the master teachers

The injured physicians that must heal themselves and shed light to the unwisdom that has taken the streets.

In search of themselves, in search of you-

The spirit soldiers and lotus queens that possess the fire of the sun in their eyes

The youthful Nubian, Red, White, Yellow and Brown pharaohs and goddesses that step from Khartoum to Timbuktu to affix the galaxies and moons suspended in the gaze of pyramids to their lips

And with the most precious gifts of the universe, walk between the planets

Blue flames in hand

To paint visibility to the voiceless and vision to the forgotten

Let me dream the dream for the master teachers

Young kings and queens that climb from their thrones

And at their knees,

Kiss beauty to the wounds of those with severed wings…Young Queens. Young Kings.

…and all who confront unceasing stalemate towards the primacy of truth,

Pawn your bullets for books

And subvert the system that seeks to erase you from my dreams.

Revolving Light

By Ryan Forbes Morris

Revolving light to this dying star

Black woman

Rock my soul, and

Ascend!

To be simply what you have always been…

The Coolest

“No one day is like another, each tomorrow has its special miracle, its magic moment in which old universes are destroyed and new stars created”

-Paulo Coelho, “By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept”

The month of January zoomed by! And what an amazing month it was. All of the volunteers from my July 2008 staging group reunited for three weeks of training near the nation’s capital. It was so refreshing to see the other volunteers and training staff together again for the first time in three months, and to see how much everyone has changed! New Years was a great celebration, and we were able to spend time with the volunteers from Zinder as we all made our way west. During this early In-service training (IST) we focused on job specific language skills, cross-cultural sessions, community-content based instruction, cross-sector trainings, grant writing, funding sources, proposal writing, and project design management using logical frameworks. The education volunteers were also very lucky to meet members from Niger’s Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Vocational Training to discuss gender-sensitive teaching methods, community development through income-generating activities, classroom management, education enhancement/school-retention activities, as well as finding ways in which volunteers could work more closely with officials in local youth centers. Since our first “three months at Post” are officially finished, we are allowed to begin projects in the community. It was really helpful to have the first “three months at Post” to concentrate on learning Hausa, and becoming more familiar with the NGOs and community based organizations in my city. January is almost over, and I hear that February will be a much hotter month. Some items on my February bucket list:

1. Start a hot season garden. I think it would be very cool to begin growing a lot of my own food. I just have to actually start it! Some Chinese physicians in my city are growing bok choy, so it can’t be that hard right!?

2. Read Fareed Zakaria’s “The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad”

3. Work with my counterpart to plan/obtain funding for a training for the 7 school headmasters in my city, as well as C.O.G.E.S. (similar to the American PTA groups) presidents and treasurers. We could do some great capacity building with them, which I think will help them work more efficiently and be more transparent with their finances. 2009’s list of sensiblisations with the COGES groups include: Creating a budget, A fair and democratic vote, Funding sources, Meeting Management, Collecting Feedback, Introduction to Internet/Technology, and Record Keeping.

4. Find a way to collect used teaching methodology books in French. During IST, a lot of the other education volunteers were talking about starting small-scale Teaching Methodology resource libraries in their cities. Many of the English teachers haven’t had the opportunity to have any teacher training. This is especially important because the Nigerien government wants teachers to being using gender-sensitive teaching methods.

5. Work with local English teachers and find a way to record dialogues and passages from their textbook English For The Sahel (EFTS). During IST, we met a man from the national ministry of education. He told us that they did not have access to any of the sound recorders made by the publisher. They tried to have a project a few years ago in which English conseillers and Peace Corps volunteers were making their own recordings, but for some reason that project abruptly stopped. Many of the students learning English have never heard a native speaker of English and/or haven’t had the opportunity to hear different English accents (i.e. Nigerian English versus American English versus Australian English). I want to find a way to get funding so that each school could have a sound recorder or small CD player so they could play the recordings for their students. I think this is especially important at teacher training schools (called Ecole Normale).

6. Write my first radio show. This is a lot harder than it sounds! We had a full day’s session on Information Technology, and how to do follow up to make sure that the messages that we are broadcasting over the radio are actually being understood. I have been helping two volunteers in my city with radio shows every Saturday. All of these radio shows are done in Hausa, and the topics range from Cold Season Gardening, to HIV/AIDS prevention to Road Safety. I am going to do my best to do a February show for Black History Month and step-up to the plate while my radio partners take a much-needed vacation to South Africa.

I should also mention, that we were able to watch the inauguration of our very new president Barack Obama at the American Cultural Center in Niamey. All of the volunteers in town attended, as well as Nigerien English teachers and their students. We were jam packed into a room, watching CNN on projected on a screen. It was amazing, historical, and I was so happy that I was able to experience such a ground breaking event. My Auntie Jill and Uncle Flores sent me a box of Obama gear, so I handed out stickers, pins, and bumper stickers which can now be seen on the walls of corner stores and jacket lapels throughout my city! My Aunt and Uncle also sent me four bright blue Obama ballons which I took over to the young girls next door. They were so happy, singing “Obama! Obama,” over and over again. I think these are the first ballons that they’ve ever seen. This made me so happy, especially because unlike many girls in Niger, these girls are starting school, and will have a very bright future, so they were most deserving of this very small gift! Thanks Uncle Flores and Auntie Jill. I must also say that I felt very blessed to be in the warmth of Niger and not the 11 degrees of bitter icey cold in Washington D.C.

I also had my first international birthday. My friends took very good care of me, took me out to celebrate, and even made me a video of funny clips from our 6 months in-country. I was so surprised, I had no idea they were doing anything! Also, thank you Mom, Uncle Flores and Auntie Jill, Amina, Tia and Uncle Fred, Backs Family, and Santana Family, for all the birthday packages, books, emails, and phone calls from America!

Hey everyone,

Can you believe it!? Today, I have been in Niger for exactly 6 months! It is very hard to believe, but it has been so amazing for me to see the change and growth that has occurred not only in myself, but in the other volunteers of my group. We have reunited this week for In-Service training (IST), and it has been the first time many of us have seen each other in 3 months. Many left training speaking absolutely no Zarma or Hausa, and now they have returned to IST, having full fledged conversations in national languages! I am proud of my fellow volunteers and so excited for all of the work that we will begin at the end of this three-week training period. Thank you to everyone that has called, sent emails, letters, packages, and "bush" notes to me during this six-month period!

Happy Holidays ! December has been a month of very amazing and rewarding work. A couple volunteers and I have began to work with a local NGO in order to give trainings to Nigeriens about HIV/AIDS, early marriage and pregnancy, contraceptive use, and girls’ education via radio show broadcasts and skits. We attended a two-day training, in which we discussed the differences between Nigerien and American perceptions of heritage, gender roles, education, wealth, and contraceptive use. Each volunteer and their Nigerien counterpart received a solar radio, which can be used in surrounding villages without electricity, to receive the radio shows and conduct small trainings (called, sensibilisations in French). It was amazing! We counterpart and I drove to a local village, and did a sensibilisation on girls' education. In the radio broadcast, a father takes his young daughter out of school, even though she is doing very well. In the sketch, the father is in love with money, and wants his daughter to get married so he can pocket the dowry. The father's sister comes to the house to visit, and finds the young girl crying, and begins to yell at the her brother about how her own lack of education has made her life much more difficult. In the village that we drove to, all of the women were passionately engaged in dialogue about the importance of educating their daughters, and how the education of their daughters was essential to the future of this country. This was a great experience, and I hope to be able to attend more! The pictures above are from the sensibilisation!

Jealous Eyes: A Blues of Hope & Immensity

(For Max)

By Ryan Forbes Morris

Damn the eyes of the jealous earth serpent

Who swallowed the sun

And melted

Like oak rain to cool blue nebulous lagoon.

Forthcoming in his triumph

Born bare evergreen chartreuse-

The jealous earth serpent,

Struggling to cast form to his readily dissolving shape,

Stubborn in his inability to release the sun from the grip of his being,

Called to the moon in his desperation.

Father Moon, he said, I have stolen the sun and seek your assistance.

Foolish Earth Serpent, the moon replied, you steal the greatest star of the fourth dimension and fear not swift retribution? Be gone green serpent, for you have stolen splendid amethyst from the fabric of our world!

Damn the eyes of the jealous earth serpent

Who picked the most precious jewel from the branches of our galaxy

And in his fluid dreadfulness,

Roamed through blank forests and rivers (Devoid of evening moon or sun)

Seeking some avenue of captivity for his lone descended sky gem.

Enslaved to his self pity

And envious of the Most High [craftsman of winter, eclipse, womb, and ocean]

The foolish serpent

Decided he would cast God to the earth,

And wrap the length of his tail around the universe and claim it as his own.

The warped viscous serpent,

(Who no longer drank of reality for fear that he would drown in his melted pool of self)

Looked to the north,

And searched for a winged creature to carry him to the sky.

Father Time, sensing the imbalance of this earth creature’s intention

Whispered to his crimson finch

[Who flew aimlessly in circles, drunk with the beauty of existence]

To perch upon the forest’s most fragrant eucalyptus,

And await the imprudent green serpent.

As the clouds parted (to make way for what would have been high noon)

No sun spilled forth from between the clouds

And only shadows were cast upon the crimson feathers of the earth finch.

Tears fell from the finch’s eyes, as she grieved the failed rising of the sun.

Where is my precious sun, she called. Where is the burning star, griot of this world and the next, whose Shiva-arms painted me wrapped in pristine clarity across the heavens, the earth finch cried.

And as her tears fell to the floor of the forest, their echoes attracted the glutinous slither of the earth serpent.

Alas, a winged creature to carry me to the heavens, the serpent recited beneath his impious breath, selfishly addicted to his desire to imprison our world and call it his own.

The earth serpent continued through the forest

Quietly circling the trees

(Never venturing too close for fear of rupturing his unstable form)

And slowly moved up the giant eucalyptus, toward the weeping finch.

Once again, sensing the iniquity of the earth serpent, God dipped from the heavens and whispered to the crimson earth finch,

my child, think of my most beautiful creation. It is you who must love this world enough to save it!

And so the innocent earth finch, crimson and pure of heart, closed her eyes

And in animated suspension

Spoke that her precious sun still existed as it did in her daydreams, burning ocean blue, silver, and indigo across the horizon.

As the jealous earth serpent leaped forward, and encased his fangs around the tiny crimson earth finch,

She gently lifted her wings…

And with the strength of the trees, allowed her spirit to remember

The profound weight of sunlight, air, peace, and color against her feathers.

And as the earth finch thought of such things,

As she kissed her being to the enormity of her Creator,

It was the immense soul of a minute being

(perfect in this very moment)

Whose light burned the serpent into echoing dust

Whose hope and clemency emancipated our galaxy’s bright amethyst

Whose daydreams of being suspended in the warm exquisiteness of sky

Forever vanquished the envious, insatiable, and jealous earth serpent

And restored the sun to our universe.

Ryan Forbes Morris

12/15/2008

Speak Fela!

Across the lips

of mama AFRIKA.

where

WE

(self-descended of one)

are

radical impetus

To place profound beauty

In the helping hands

Of youth

that rise.

-Ryan Forbes Morris

R.I.P. Miriam Makeba

Monday, my entire region celebrated the holiday of Tabaski. Ramadan is known as the small holiday, and Tabaski is referred to as the big holiday. During this time, many families will purchase goats or sheep, have them butchered, and then give half of the meat to their families and the other half to those in need and less fortunate. This was an amazing show of the hospitality that I experience daily, living here in Niger. All of my neighbors invited me over to their homes, and we overindulged in grilled sheep meat, goat meat, couscous, sauce, and counou! This is also gave me an opportunity to bring out my camera, and photograph some of these families in their finest Tabaski boubous and complets. This was an amazing holiday, and everyone was telling me that it was the equivalent to our Christmas. It was an amazing day, and I am so grateful for all of my neighbors and friends that made sure I was well fed that day! We've been given a few days off from work, because different regions in Niger celebrate Tabaski at different times. The day that a village will celebrate is determined by when they first see the moon appear. In Maradi, the holiday was celebrated on Monday, but other other regions celebrated on Tuesday. The last month, my counterpart and I have been busy working with the COGES groups. For those of you that aren't familiar, in an attempt by the Nigerien government to decentralize, each school has a committee made of parents, students, school administrators, and local/traditional authorities which are responsible for finding funding for each school, and managing each school.

This is a great idea in principle, but still very new, and we're trying to help each COGES work out their respective glitches. My counterpart and I visited each of the seven public schools in our city, to introduce the groups to the program that we have planned for them this academic year. We will teach them about running a meeting, about taking a fair and democratic vote, record keeping, school equipment preservation, and how to promote girls education via radio broadcasts and skits. At the end of the month, my counterart and I are going to attend a training with a local NGO to learn how to talk about HIV/AIDS (VIH/SIDA in French) over radio broadcast in local languages. This will be amazing, because it will give us the opportunity to reach a larger portion of the population. Many of the "glitches" that I observed in each COGES were almost identical to the problems you would find in the States. Some of the leaders were disorganized; many of the members (student's parents) were absent from the meetings; and many of the positions that were supposed to be occupied by women, were occupied by men. For the most part, the COGES members that were in attendance seemed to be very motivated about getting their schools in order, and finding more funding to provide their students with school supplies and books! Next month, I leave my post to go to the training site for three weeks! It will be very nice to see all of my stage-mates, but also to learn more about fundraising and being a better volunteer. Life is good here in Maradi, and the evenings and mornings are still very cool! Hausa is still coming along slowly, but sai hankuri (have patience) right!? By the way, helping two other volunteers every saturday with a radio show. It's been great for my hausa, and really fun to reach so many people!

Desert Vibe Suffocation

by Ryan Forbes Morris

I was drowned by the Harmattan

And emptied by the hands of the Bahaushé seer

Whose arms untwisted my voice from the breath of Saharan sands

And guided my conscience to the neon complexity of day

Restoring sound to lifeless form

Where I float to the stratosphere…shining blue-green and killa peach!

Infused and then cool

Pouring blue flame as libation to afrocentric ocean

Where my body was smoked...remembered…kissed brilliant silver…and released unbound across the sky

12/03/2008

La Estrella

by Ryan Forbes Morris

la estrella-

the seamstress of progressive thought

who

baptized the ocean

with sunbeams and revolutionary vision

our Sister of TRUTH… manifestation of transformative action

Who collected the sounds of Earth

Breathing jazz, afro-beat, and sweet hibiscus to my mind’s angle of song

And with commanding presence

Painted evening clouds bright sapphire

Shaped ripe moons the song of mockingbirds

Scattering

Cool…

smooth…

self liberation

Vertically across my conscience

12/03/2008

It is Thursday November 6th, Two days after Change4th, and how incredible it has been. I have received so many emails from people back in the States describing the joy and excitement of everyone back home. I believe it! Niger caught the fever! These past two days, I've been trying to talk to people to see what this change means to them. Why is was this presidential election so important to people thousands of miles away? Many of the Nigeriens that I've talked to all agree that this election reaffirms what America is about. Everyone that I've spoken with knows that the change that Obama will bring in Niger and West Africa is mostly psychological. For the first time, people are seeing someone that looks like them, having great influence over the hearts, minds, and pride of the entire planet. Pretty incredible right? People that I've talked to know that their possibilities are endless, and they love the example that Obama has set for the children of Niger. In short, everyone here agrees that this was a revolution for beautiful change, and that politics will never ever be the same after this moment. Everytime I walk down the street, instead of being greeted with "Sannu" or "Ina kwana" or "Barka", people are raising their fists to their chests and saying "Obama! Obama! Obama!" Anyone else want to share reactions they've heard back in States or from abroad!?

"When we dream beyond ourselves"...I can't even finish my sentence. This year's presidential election was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen in my life. I feel so absolutely blessed to be alive, and to have experienced the tears of joy, hapiness, relief, progress, and faith from American citizens, and citizens of various African nations. I was able to watch the election with other American ,Nigerien, and European citizens until 6 am Wednesday morning. As our new President-elect gave his victory speech, the west african sun was literally rising above us. Ancestry in Progress. What an incredible example this has set for ourselves, and for the individuals of other countries. I am proud to call myself an American. I am proud of ALL of those who fought for the change that was realized on November 4th! Change4th! It was one of the most incredible events to witness from this mother continent. "Yes we can!" Our possibilites are limitless!

The obligatory disclaimer: The opinons/commentary expressed in this message are not the views of the United Staes Peace Corps, they are mine and mine alone.

We, as people of several lands and cultures, inhabit a planet of color. Through our cultures and our histories, we have been and are constantly bombarded with ideas and ways to think about color which we sometimes choose to adopt as our own or reject. Yesterday, while taking a walk into town to purchase some food items, I entered into a store in which an international radio broadcast, intended for Francophone West African listeners, was being played over large speakers. The broadcast began with some musical selections and several minutes later, the show’s host announced that he would be accepting calls from fans for the next ten minutes. A young man called into the station, saying that he was Franco-Togolese (A French citizen of Togolese descent) and shared that he was a recent university graduate. The young listener was abruptly cut off by the show host who quickly said in French “Hold on, hold on, what color are you? Are you black-skinned or brown-skinned?” The young listener gave an uncomfortable laugh and responded in French “I am chocolate.” The radio host then said, “Are you a brown chocolate or a black chocolate?” It seemed to me that the young listener was a little surprised by the question and stumbled and stuttered trying to give a response. The host then asked “Are you a chocolate brown with cream or are you a chocolate black? Here’s a better question! Are you an Ivorien shade of black or a Congolese shade of black?” The host continued this line of questioning for about two minutes, receiving only scatterbrained responses from the young listener. I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The color of this man’s skin, and of all the listeners calling in, was the only thing that mattered to this radio host. He didn’t ask for the man’s name, what part of France he was from, and when the listener mentioned that he had recently graduated from university, the radio host made no effort to interrogate the listener’s area of study. Instead, the radio show host tried to equate this man’s worth with the shade of his skin. No one else in the store appeared to be surprised or shocked by what they were hearing over the radio lines, which I also found to be astonishing. But then I soon realized that I was standing in the skin care section of the store which was inundated with skin bleaching lotions, crèmes, and soaps (labeled in English and French) all promising a “fair”, “beautiful”, and “desired” light skin complexion. In the West African countries that I have personally visited, as in America, the politics of skin color is HUGE.

When I first arrived in-country, we lived with host families near the training site closer to the country’s capital. When I was introduced to my host father, one of the very first things he said to me was that he was café au lait (Coffee with cream, in reference to his skin color). I was a little confused about why he had made the effort to tell me this. He told me that he was “café au lait” long before he had to told me anything else about himself or his family. I had initially thought this was weird, but gave it little attention. Weeks later, after I had questioned him about his family and siblings, he told me he had very many siblings, but he only wanted to talk about his younger brother who was apparently the sibling with the lightest skin color in the family. I have realized that the longer I have been in-country, the intricacies of its intra-racial (within the same race) skin politics and color complex have slowly began to emerge. An American friend, who has run a non-profit foundation in Niger for several years, told me that she had begun to notice the manner in which many of the members of the villages she worked with judged the worth of their children by their skin color. She is a very fluent speaker of Hausa, and shared with me how young children were often being compared to the color of tar. After she and I had talked for several minutes about intra-racial discrimination, one of her Nigerien counterparts told me of a mutual friend we shared. After he explained, in Hausa, how he and our mutual friend were acquainted he slowly said in English the word “Black.” Of course, he was referring to the deep black skin complexion of our mutual friend. He mentioned nothing else of him, except the shade of his skin.

Once my Hausa language skills improve, I do plan on further interrogating this question of intra-racial skin politics. I know the history of intra-racial color complexes in the black community in the United States, but I do not know if the kind of color complex that exists here in Niger shares exactly the same origins. Any ideas? I guess this is where my education comes handy... talking to people and critically engaging their beliefs.

So, kind of an upgrade from the hut in Hamdallaye right? All is going well, and I finally got my house weeded. This was a week of many firsts:

1. First time a group of Nigeriens and I roasted marshmallows on the side of the road! Very fun, except I couldn't really explain to them why exactly we eat marshmallows.

2. First case of intestinal bacteria! Yeah, not pretty. Put me out for four days. But I'm cured now, thanks to the healing powers of Auntie Wanda's Grapefruit Seed Extract

3. First snake sighting! The guys that I sit with, along with the entire Firefighting force, found an extremely poisonous snake and quickly chopped its head off. Yeah, I know

4. First time I shared some Obama merchandise with some of my coworkers!

Hopefully next week, America will have another historic "FIRST!" event!

Vote!

So, I have officially been at post for one month now! Woohoo! Here are some pics of my house. Everything is going fabulously. I've been doing my best to talk to my neighbors as much as possible and "integrate." I am still fortunate enough not to have been hit by amoebas, bacteria, or the other myriad sicknesses that have affected my other fellow volunteers. And for those of you still in the States, I sent in my absentee ballot last week, so you all have no excuse NOT TO VOTE! Some of the vounteers have also organized an Election Party for Nov. 4th. There are a few restaurants in town with satellites, so we'll be following as best as we can! Nigeriens are following our election as if it was their own! This week, we submitted our Annual Implementation Plan to the school Inspector in charge of all of the schools in Maradi. We've also connected with CARE international to do some good collaborations on Girl's education. I'll keep you updated. Make sure you vote!It's hot here, so enjoy that nice fall weather! Miss you all.

Current Reading Material: Richard Wright's "Black Boy"

Current iPod rotation: Jorge Ben's "A Tabua de Esmeralda" , Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool", Me'Shell Ndegeocello's "Peace Beyond Passion", and Ceu's "CÉU"

The past two weeks have been amazing! I've finally started my job at the inspection, and I've been spending a lot of time with my neighbors. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming, and I've been practicing hausa like a crazy man. This week was the end of Ramadan, so everyone was celebrating and finally, stuffing their faces and burning hot coals to make tea again. So, during the day that the fast ends, referred to as Salla, it is customary to bring your neighbors and friends food. Food huh? Well, I know that my American tastes and sensibilities are much different from those of Niger. I ended up taking some fresh grapefruit to my next door neighbors and penne pasta with tomato sauce and veggies to the guys that I sit with down the street. They were all surprised that I cooked the food myself, and they actually finished it all!

Work at the Inspection is also going well. There is another volunteer that works here in the city, and we are going to be doing a lot of collaborative work this year. We are going to run an English club on the weekends, and work with local Nigerien NGO's to provide literacy classes and computer trainings to members of the COGES (Parent Teacher organizations that are in charge of managing and administering all academic institutions). I was a little nervous at first, because I didn't quite know what projects or activities to bring. My counterpart and I are going to be focusing on these few things during this year. The promotion of girl's education--this is crucial. If Niger is going to advance, they absolutely must educate their girls and ensure their continued education through high school AND university; how to effectively run a meeting and keep records--this is needed to ensure that money is not being embezelled, but also to ensure that meetings and school administration is running as efficiently as possible; School equipment preservation--this includes books, computers (if available), copy machines, typewriters, etc.; Classes on how to look for funding--COGES gropus are responsible for finding funding for school materials and books, we want to do tranings to help them learn how to search fo funds on the internet; Literacy classes for members of the COGES that truly support the cause of education, but were unable to attend schools--there are many rural parts of the country that have very few schools. For example, in the town where our training was conducted, there was a middle school but no high school. The high school was 30 kilometers away in the nation's capital; and lastly, feedback--how can these Parent Teacher groups improve themselves, what are they doing well, what are they doing poorly, what needs to be improved? how can we help them! During these first few months, the plan is to visit all of these organizations and their respective schools to see what's going well! I love this project because we're not giving money, we're building capacity. These skills will do wonders for the administration of these schools. I'll keep you posted.

Bass Heavy Dub Beats: the cure for incurable lackluster

It’s the eighties baby…

So pick a dub.

And watch the werewolf scientist

Slowly disassemble your unmiraculous comportment to stay loose.

You instinctively pronounced that your dreary mediocrity was indestructible?

Alas,

Don’t sweat the technique…and watch Him resurrect the iLLest love to forcefully intrude your misery

Where /FLY /nineteen sixty seven[1967] neon blue rushes the tape deck-

Drips from baobab leaves

And burns chocolate AFRObeat to the concrete.

Let the DUBmaster reverberate your soul to the tipping point

engage your swift inattention…

profoundly transforming your sad sorrows

to champion’s requiem.

It’s the eighties baby…where on January 32nd you’ll no longer inhabit suspicious gravity as drifter...

or beg the skies for generous reprieve

because you will feel the ground tremble

and realize that your paradise resides with the silk city dubalicious sense of things.

-Ryan Forbes Morris

UltraLOVE

Amassing the cool of this evening’s breeze

You exist of me

Half fearful

Wholly certain

That our ultraLOVE distracts my reality

Rains sweet pepper and cinnamon from my hands to my mind’s oasis

Blurs the brown of my skin

Leaves us suspended at the edge of the earth

broke

Incredibly divine…

Wandering-forthcoming-and spent

Our world!

bewildered

selfishly content

where our thoughts beam the color of marvelous sapphire

-Ryan Forbes Morris

When deliciously cool nights hit these urban streets, the whisking motorcycles and cars pay reverence to the evening’s coal black, star studded attire. In the evening, this neighborhood lacks dimension. In its vastness, in its intangible being, soft, gentle voices move through the streets where greetings and salutations inundate this floating night world. “Salaam aleikuum” they say, swaying to the rhythm of prayer beads that swing in their hands, passionately engaging each street-side city dweller with a human warmth that sends chills down my spine. This floating world of evening blankets the moving figures of men and women that sit beneath the stars, and release the flavors of green tea leaves and sugar to adjacent city walls, where conversation is easy and endless. Two nights have passed, and I am slowly settling into my house and this community. City life is dramatically different from life at the training site, but I love it here. There is vibrant warmth in this city that is so intriguing. My neighbors are very friendly, and each night after dinner, I sit outside with them to practice speaking Hausa and French. Last night, a neighbor and I had a really interesting conversation about the mixing of culture with globalization. We talked a little bit about the idea of integration into a community but also the idea of culture. He told me that when he first learned about the United States, he thought that everyone just had one dominant over-arching culture. He didn’t know that there were myriad cultures in the United States that all contribute to the distinctness of our country. I admitted to him that before coming to Niger, I knew nothing of the different ethnic groups and national practices of Niger. He wasn’t surprised, and told me that he has to often remind people that there is a country called Niger north of Nigeria. As it became later, my neighbor began to ask me about how Africa is perceived in the world. This is probably one of the most difficult questions to answer because I could never speak for anyone but myself. I told him that countries in Africa and in other parts of the developing world are too closely linked with their statistics. For instance, when students in the developed world are asked about the continent of Africa, oftentimes they are only able to regurgitate statistics about the prevalence of certain maladies or the level of poverty. But, these statistics do not speak to the beauty of the cultures and traditions that exist in these nations. While I was in college, each student was required to take a course called “Cultures and Traditions” in which we had a module on “Africa.” Now that I’ve been living in Niger for over two months, I realize how ridiculous something like that sounds. You could spend an entire semester studying the eight ethnic groups of Niger, their traditions, their languages, and the literature of Niger. I live in Niger, and I’m still learning (and will be learning for two years) about the reality of living in a Muslim country and surrounded by cultures that are not my own. Sitting and talking with my neighbors has really expanded my perspective, and I think it has also really affected their view of the United States.

I will begin work next week. I’m going to start out working with the Parent-Student-Teacher organizations that are in charge of finding funding for school supplies and regulating the quality of teaching in the classrooms. All of my coworkers are back from vacation and they seem very ready to begin work. We’ve been instructed to not conduct any large projects for the first three months, and to try to work on our language skills and integrate into our communities. Just in case you were wondering, acquisition of local language = integration. One of the officials that works at the Bureau told us that it generally takes volunteers about 10 months to really get a good grasp of the language, so I guess I have a lot of work to do!

Training is done today! Tonight, we will be officially sworn in at the Ambassador's residence. Today is the beginning of a very excited journey in Niger. I'll be moving to my post on Sunday, and I'll have time to get my life in order and start my "integration" into the community. Wish me luck! Big UPs to the other trainees swearing-in tonight!

This morning, I experienced through dreaming eyes, the realities and barriers of education in Niger. Today, through dreaming eyes, and willing hands, I met many school administrators that were motivated about changing their schools, finding more resources for the ever growing student population, and creating more educational opportunities for their students. My inspector asked me to accompany him to four schools located near the city. Two of the schools that I visted had middle school and high school students and the other two only had middle school students. The campuses were very quiet, very modest, and a few of them were noticeably overcrowded. At one of the schools that I visited, there were not enough classrooms from all of the students, so chalk boards had been affixed to the sides of buildings. Initially, I thought I would see only a few of these wall-side classrooms, but as I continued to tour the campus with the administrators, I saw more than six. Some of the buildings had been damaged by the water and heavy winds of the rainy season. As I continued to tour with many of the administrators, they told me that most of the children were without books, and the school had no money to provide them with notebooks, paper, and pens. After talking more with my inspector, he stressed the importance of working with the COGES organizations, and trying to find funding so that the students can have supplies. I hope that with Niger’s 10-year educational reform plan, many of these issues can be resolved. I was also very fortunate today to meet many students that were attending summer school classes. In the few classes that I observed, the students were learning chemistry, English, trigonometry, and French! In the states, most of us just take one or two subjects during the summertime, but these students were each taking about five or six. Pretty impressive huh!? As I had found out a day earlier, most of the students don’t really understand French, so I took the initiative to try and do some learning today. For about two days, I’ve been eyeing the hausa-english dictionary of the volunteer that I’m replacing. Today, I finally took the dictionary and a floor mat, and walked down the street in front of the fire station to practice my conversational Hausa with a few of the firefighters and the men that sit around there and talk. So, I figured out that I have a lot to learn, and that a lot of the Hausa that I’ve been learning at site doesn’t really correspond to the regional Hausa spoken here. Aahah, it’s never ending. But I guess it’s the hard work that makes it all worth it right? On Saturday, we head back to site for two more weeks, then swear in, and then I’ll be back here permanently. I feel so much better about staying here. My coworkers are really nice, and we share so many of the same interests. My neighbors are also very friendly, and I feel that they are really looking out for me. When I left the shady tree that we were all hanging out under this afternoon, they instructed me to come back after I ate lunch so that we could practice more vocabulary. I guess it really does take a village to raise a child. Their village is one more Peace Corps Volunteer strong!

Dedicated to my grandmother, Mrs. Catherine Seymour Forbes, whose spirit continues to shed light despite her physical absence- May your soul rest in peace.

Sage Woman

by Ryan Forbes Morris

The wise sage woman sips galaxies for thought-(!)-

To displace the immensity of her perfect light to my

Left coast…west coast…fifth dimensions

Where my mind reassembles the rigid conscious centerings of my afro descended experience

Against the wrinkled hieroglyphics of the woman who thrust my spirit across the ocean

Offering her soul as my ink

And giving her body as my vessel

Wise woman-you have sketched my existence into the sun

With a beauty seldom spoken beyond the lucid domain of the planets

Where angels taste the urban warmth of the stars beneath the bitter blues of desert nights

Peace, Sage Woman. Through you I am bestowed poetic freedom.

It is finally week 7! Very hard to believe. We have all been working hard at the training site so that we can learn Hausa/Zarma/French and be as effective as possible. Last week, I was able to meet my supervisor when he came to the training site for a conference. I was really excited to meet him, and he seems very hard working, motivated, and I cannot wait to begin work with him. He wants to do a lot of work with the COGES, which are parent organizations that help regulate teaching within the schools. My supervisor really wants to do a lot of work with poorer families, which was something I felt very strongly about since the interview with Niger’s first female magistrate. Right now, I am visiting the town where I’ll be posted in about two and a half weeks. After we complete training and are sworn in, I’ll get to move here permanetnly. This visit is just to observe my future work and living conditions. I’m about 10 hours east of Niamey and about a few hours north of Nigeria. When I am permantely installed here at my post, I plan to go observe some of the classes at the local middle and high schools, and talk with members of the COGES so that I can start brainstorming some projects, see what needs exist in the community, and most importantly, INTEGRATE! This week, I’ve been able to meet the majority of my coworkers. Today, I had the opportunity to chat with a secretary who was a Geography/History teacher for twenty years. We talked Obama, politics, Latin American history, and a whole host of other things. Everyone is so nice here, and I feel very comfortable and respected here. I am in a big city, which makes “integration” a little bit more different than it was in the small town by the training site. I will not be living with a family, but I will do my best to make sure that I’m as visible as possible. Everyday I’ve been greeting all of the old men that sit together and drink tea on the side of the road, and the firemen that live fairly close to my future house. There are a whole host of development organizations in this city. I had come across some of their compounds as I had met some kids on my way home. I tried to talk to the kids but their French was about as limited as my hausa is. This made me realize, that I have to really step up my hausa skills. For those that don’t remember, when I interviewed the “successful” women of Niger, I felt like none of them could offer tips or suggestions to be people that weren’t middle class or above- the rest! In sum, their class status had a lot to do with their success. I have realized that if I really want to do goo work here, and work with as many people as possible across all class lines, it is imperative that I improve my hausa. I want to be able to work with students that cannot afford outside tutoring and that cannot afford to study abroad in neighboring countries. Next week, I return back to the training site for two more weeks, and then swear in. Everything has been moving so fast, but such is life!

As I sit fully immersed in the smoke filled atmosphere of this café, I'll take a minute for poetic mediations...

Emotional humans fully suspend blue thoughts like jazz

Amongst the candid intermissions of the cunning lyricist

Whose lips ring truth to tired fragments of existentialist lo mein

It is she… that longs to recreate peace from stereo beat knick mind states

It is she…the queen that stands…and seeks to bestow light unto her daughters that will come NEXT…

Where funk upon a time…

‘woke vigilant souls spilled tomorrow from sun spaced trajectories

and slowly moved their fingers to recreate colors in the wind.

Reach for my hand so that I can kiss yours

So that we, mutually existing as stars, can shine as TWO beyond unfathomable limit

When we speak peace, freedom, equality, and justice to the sky, when we name our pain, we can join hands and bring beauty to our wounds. It is only though radical openness, through our candid and honest process of dreaming beyond ourselves, that we can bring change. As an education volunteer, one of my greatest tasks will be to tackle the problem of girl's education in Niger. This morning, I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Madame Salifou Fatima Bazey, the first female magistrate in the HISTORY of Niger, and Madame Diroumeye Dembello, a 25-year retired sociologist of the United Nations. Both of these women were deeply profound, both growing up in environments where women's education was not valued nor promoted. However, these women persevered. These women are trailblazers. Speaking with Madame Salifou Fatima Bazey, (my translation from French) Yes, Niger is a poor country. However, if we allow everyone to go to school- girls, boys, everyone!- and we welcome the knowledge that receive, then we will truly be able to develop. Without the education of women, we cannot progress!" These women were truly an inspiration to me. In this country, these women have been referred to as "femme leaders" or women leaders, but I think this term is fundamentally flawed. We do employ the term "homme leader" or male leader. These women are leaders, and they are the trailblazers of the change that has begun in Niger. I salute the radical openness of these women- their willingness and thier courage to break glass ceilings! These women dream of solidarity for all- and for the end of patriarchy in all its forms. I hope that in the future, I can do more work with these women in the sector of female education in Niger.

Each night, we sleep beneath the stars. In Niger they are immense, brilliant, complex. It seems as if only street poetry could solve the trigonometry of the heavens...I have committed myself to these stars, that make speech vanish like vapor, these stars that bless and reaffirm the beauty of "we". After about three weeks, I am learning to call Niger home. The people here are incredibly warm and the sense of community...the sense of "we"...is very strong. Our training group has become a small family, as we work hard each week to learn the language, hausa zarma french, and learn about the culture here. My host family is amazing! I have a young sister who is two years old, and she now affectionately refers to me as "ton ton", or "uncle" in french. My host father is an english teacher at the local collège (middle school) and my host mother is a continuing her studies at the university near the capital city. We spend so much time together, which gives me a chance to practice my french and my very basic hausa. I'll update more once I get a chance. Site announcements are in three weeks! I'll find out whether I'll be en brousse (the bush) or in the city as an education volunteer! I miss everyone! Feel free to send me letters or care packages to the address on my blog website. It would be much appreciated!

So, today we finally leave for Niger, West Africa. We have to get some immunizations this afternoon (yellow fever) and then we will first fly to Paris, France and the to the capital city of Niger. We are a nice large group of 48, so I'd imagine we will be taking up the majority of the plane. Last night, we tried to take advantage of our dwindling time in the states. Some other volunteers and I strolled around Philadelphia and found an obscure Italian restaurant beneath one Philadelphia's secluded and more quiet bridges. Open windows, red woods, floating candles, and steaming hot pasta were among the many aromas and flavors suspended in this street-side shrine to Italian delicacies. We continued to walk around the city, and we ended up at Silk City Bar, and listened to the wet/sick/heavy dub beats of old school reggae mixed by the R&B/soul drummer ?uestlove from The Roots. This club was amazing! Smooth beats, humid air, afros, dashikis, dread locks, rocking hips, that pure philly love! On our last night, we could all put our hands up, raising dub beats to the ceiling, close our eyes, smile, and just jam.

As we arrive in Niger, we have to keep in mind that the Peace Corps approach to development is strength based. We will be evaluating the strengths of our villages to see what's already working, talking to people and assessing the needs of the people. I will be doing teacher training/education work while I'm there. And let me just add, that we DO NOT take jobs away from qualified Nigeriens! We will have 9 weeks of training in Hamdallaye so communication will be tough. This might be my last post for a few weeks. Once we arrive in Niamey, we will drive about an hour to the training site, and then we get to meet the Chef du village! I know...I'm gonna make sure I put my best foot forward. Can't wait to share some pictures with all of you. I'll do my best to write letters while communication is bad in Hamdallaye.

Paz e amor,

Ryan

So I have safely arrived in Philadelphia for Peace Corps Niger staging orientation. This is where I will meet all of the volunteers that will be serving in Niger and learn a little bit more about what to expect upon our arrival in Niamey, Niger. As the plane entered Philly, we landed directly into a rain storm that was headed for New Jersey! All of the volunteers that I have met seem so nice. We all got stuffed into the same shuttle from the airport. Everyone seems very motivated, and very determined to have a meaningful path and existence. We networked immediately, and walked throughout the historic district of Philadelphia. We had chicken philly cheesesteaks for dinner and then hit a few spots for drinks. Everyone is amazing, and I feel much more relieved!