Saying Goodbye to Hamdallaye

After nine weeks of culture, language and medical training, I, along with my 35 colleagues are on our way to our new villages and homes where we'll spend the first few months utlizing and learning even more Hausa and French, and getting to know our posts. The goal for these next nine weeks is to become more integrated into the culture and to gain some mastery of the languages in order to lay the ground work for our project work to come.

I am definitely a bit nervous about moving into my post, but also very excited and somewhat sad to leave the trainers, my friends going to other parts of the country, and my host family in Hamdallaye that I have come to really like and care about.

I felt very lucky for my roommate Claudia and I to move in with the Sarah family as part of our first introduction to Niger. Issaca, the father, is an administrator at the local secondary school and is serious about his children's education. Unlike many of the other village children who don't go to school, or spend their nights playing ball in the streets, Abdul Keder (15), Rahina (14), and Ibrahim spend their evenings studying, even after we have gone to bed. Issaca and Mariama have opened their home to a nephew, Abdul Razak (16) and family friend, Jemilla (14) so they can both attend school. Everyone is so polite and respectful to us and any small problem causes them worry for our happiness and health here.

Mariama is a fantastic cook and as the cultural traditions dictate that the children eat separately and the men and women eat separately, we were able to spend the evenings chatting with Mariama as we dove into the delicious Nigerien food with our hands (well, only the right hand!) I was very sad to say goodbye to them, but look forward to visiting later on when my language skills are much better and I can have a more in depth conversation beyond "how's the weather, how's the heat, how's the tiredness, how's the family, what did you do today,"...etc.

(Photo index: Ibrahim on the right, and his friend; Mariama, Claudia (Binta), and I (Sahiya) inside their house; Issaka coming home from evening prayer; family picture Jemilla, Rahina, Keder and Razak; the older kids on their way to school)