bon fete!

It's a Muslim holiday here today, Tabaski, celebrated 70 days after the end of Ramadan, so everyone is off of work and being festive. From what I hear, it involves a lot of sheep death...promise not to post those kinds of pics.

I'm at the office with mom, who of course, stops for no holidays =) She's such a workaholic, but she's good at it, and it seems to keep her out of trouble. We stopped at the bakery on the way here, which is amazing, and picked up some pan au chocolate. I'm trying to plan a trip out of the capital and into the bush for next week. One of the peace corps staffers is going out to Konni next monday, so i could go there with him, check out konni, and then take a bus from there to Maradi, where megan (one of the PCVs) has a nice unicef house. I could stay there for a night (its about a 9-hr drive up there, so you better make the most of it!) and then take a bus or a bush taxi north to dokoro, where the PCVs i met brian and emily are posted. apparently there's an extra mud hut i can stay in there. So all in all, it would prolly be about a 4-day trip. Sounds fun! (altho i'm a little scared if bush taxis, but i guess if i wanna have a REAL nigerian experience...)I have to try to strike a balance between seeing the country and seeing my mom; she's really busy during the weekdays enyway, tho, so I think next week would be good. So look for some fun pics after that!

My Zarma is coming along ok but its hard to know when to pull it out - I've got the hi's and bye's and greetings down, but it seems silly to use it at the market, because if they start trying to give me numbers and prices in Zarma i wont have a clue!...i can barely get them right in french.

i also started learning a little bit of Hausa as of yesterday, because that's what they mostly speak where i'm trying to go next week (norhteast of here) and i'd like to be able to meet and greet and be nice. a lot of hausa is a lot like arabic, but some of it sounds like hawaiian to me....hello is Sannu, to which you respond yawa sannu, and the most typical greeting goes...
Kuna Lahia, to with you respond Lahia Lau....it's really pretty, actually. don't know how well that come accross on a blog!

So many thoughts and sensations here but few words for them...in any language.

Humbling sums it up pretty well...to be laughed at; to not be able to understand what the fuck is going on. It can be strange, but overall its a great feeling, because i feel like so often americans don't get to feel that...and having things easy all the time, I feel, makes you just a little less human somehow.

I'll just say that the weather is beautiful and i wont say it again, because the weather doesnt change much here..its the cold season, so itll stay clear skies and sunny (highs around 95, lows around 65) until around may/june, when itll be the rainy season. It's crazy to think that its just not going to rain for months. really no need for a weather channel!

I can't believe how many people here in Niamey have cellphones, and how well they work. I mean, they dont work everywhere out in the bush but, seriously, my phone didn't even get reception at my grandparents house in N. Wisco..so! Yesterday one of the volunteers told me a story about a town that got a new cellphone tower a couple weeks back, and so a bunch of the villagers ran out and got cellphones...and they worked real great except...they forgot about the fact that the town has no electricity yet so once they ran out of power they couldn't charge their cellphones to use them...OOPS! Sometimes technology moves too fast

Anyhow, I don't have any cool pics to post right now, so i'll end this and not make it a big ugly block of text (which it prolly already is) And Robbie...don't expect me to come back quite so tan as you were hoping..it really is muslim and conservative here, and so pants/skirts above the ankle and tank tops are not really kosher...i might have a good farmer tan tho!

Much love to everyone; hope 2006 is treating you all well so far xoxoxoxoxoxkatya