Reading Niger Blogs

Today I dedicated my downtime at work to reading PC journals from Niger, using www.peacecorpsjournals.com, which has journals by country.

The reason I am concentrating on Niger is because I know an RPCV named Jennifer who served in Niger in the 1990's and want to compare what she says with what I read.

I read that Niger is actually the 3rd most difficult post Peace Corps has. It is beat only by Mongolia (extreme cold) and Mauritania (extreme heat...also another of the 4 I might be headed to).

It's weird because when I read these journals, the people don't seem that nervous before they go. They're just like WAHOOO I'M OFF! I mean, they're nervous in the way that ANY PCV is nervous, but not in the way I am...I am not really worried about the things most PCVs worry about before they go, like missing their friends and family, television, different foodstuffs, learning the language, fitting in, things like that. For me, I am expecting all of that and it doesn't worry me.

I'm nervous about NIGER (or whichever of the Big 4 it ends up to be). I'm nervous about not being able to do my job because of the heat and illness PCVs seem to contract (in Niger there are 334 cases of diarrhea a year for every 100 volunteers). I'm nervous about not feeling healthy because all I eat is fried meat (although I have allayed this a bit...I bet if I learned how to can fruit and veggies I could do it in the cold season and still have some in the hot season...besides that it seems like when there is meat, there really isn't that much of it and your diet really is just rice and onions).

Yeah, mostly the whole thing boils down to my fear of heat and fear of not having access to enough fruits and vegetables. That's what it boils down to. I guess with reading these blogs, I am trying to lessen those fears, and to a degree I have (one girl says her typical breakfast is bread or oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins and for lunch she has rice and beans or macaroni with veggies or tomato sauce; another blog talked about the fact there is NO humidity, so it's not like you're drenched in sweat all day - it evaporates almost instantly).

Anyway. The Big 4 are seeming nice right now, as I just started working full time again today. I am reminded of why I wanted to join the PC in the first place.