Wallahi! It's been a long time since I've posted. It's taken me a lot longer to readjust to Niger since returning from my trip to Paris and I've neglected my blog. It was amazing to see my family and go an entire week without breaking a sweat. Although I was sad to leave them again, I was excited about getting back to work on some of the projects I'd started.

One of the ones I was most anxious to get finished was the World Map project I'd started in April, mostly because the rains were starting and I didn't want the paint to wash off the wall before it had a chance to dry! As you can probably tell from the picture, we had some difficulties working on a stucco wall, but the completed map looks much better now. Unfortunately, my camera died while I was out in the bush before I could get a chance to take a picture of the finished map, but I'll try to get that posted as soon as possible. I'm very proud of the work I did with the help of my villagers and a neighboring volunteer and am confident it will help educate people about the world.


(World Map in Progress)

In addition to finishing my World Map Project, I've also continued to work at the local radio station with other Dosso volunteers. The volunteer who pioneered Peace Corps involvement at the Birni radio station moved to Niamey to work with an NGO for her third year extension so it's been challenging to work without her experienced hand to guide us. Fortunately, all the volunteers who come to work on the radio shows have a lot of effort and the Nigerien staff at the radio station are incredibly supportive of our work.


(Radio booth at the Birni station)

Right now, I'm trying to create more radio scripts involving the role of decentralization in the country, but it's proving difficult to translate a lot of the ideas involved into national language (Zarma). The Secretary General of my mayor's office is being very helpful with this and I'm planning on broadcasting a recorded interview with him discussing how decentralization works and what role it can play in the lives of Nigerien citizens.

Next week, I'm planning on heading to Maradi for a women's tofu-making workshop. As of now, cooking and selling tofu is practiced more in the Eastern (ethnically Hausa) region of the country. I'm very excited at having the opportunity to learn more about the process and share that with my village women. Besides being a good source of protein (in a land where meat is difficult and expensive to get) it's also a really good way for women to generate more household revenue.

Even though I'll be traveling a lot in the next month, I promise to try and get another post up sometime in July. A new Internet cafe has opened in Dosso and all the volunteers in the region have high hopes that it stays open, but as always, this is Africa, so "Hin suruu!" (Be patient!) if it takes awhile.