It’s still kind of hard to believe, but I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer Thursday morning. The ceremony took place at the Ambassador’s residence–which has grass growing on the ground and a pool! We listened to speeches from our peers in French, Hausa and Zarma, as well as the Peace Corps Country Director, [...]

Another month nearly done. Ramadan is ending next Thursday or Friday. We’re still not sure when because it’s based on the lunar calendar. You’d think even where people didn’t have access to the internet, someone could still rustle up an almanac to find out when the new moon will start, but that’s not how it [...]

As you may have gathered (since I am on the internet), I am not currently at my site. Friday afternoon, the day before we were all supposed to begin travelling to our sites, a “standfast” order was called for the provinces of Maradi and Zinder, due to some Al-Qaida kidnapping threats against Medicins Sans Frontières, [...]

Note: I technically wrote this on Tuesday, but the power went out right before I could post this…so, welcome to life in Niger. To, I am officially one month into Peace Corps Training. I’m currently in Niamey for the day, to get our site announcements–the place where we’ll be living for the next two years. [...]

Well, I guess this is it. I’m at the Philadelphia airport enjoying my last American beer, watching the Germany v. Spain game. I don’t know when I’ll next have access to teh Internets, but probably not for at least these first 9 weeks while I’m in training. I’m kind of excited about training because (and [...]