Visiting the old "vill"

During the first week of September, I visited my old village. From December 17, 2008 to January 26, 2009 I lived in a village called Faria Beri, located about 120 km north of Niamey. After a kidnapping in January of European tourists on the Mali-Niger border, all the new volunteers on the roads north of Niamey were required to relocate. The Peace Corps director of Niger promised to let me visit Faria Beri after six months if no new kidnappings or terrorist activities occurred in Niger. Things have been quiet here (in relation to Al-Qaeda at least) and so I was granted permission to visit.

I wasn't sure if I could actually spend the night in my village. Apparently my counterpart (the guy I worked with in the community garden) moved closer to the road and my old hut is now the exoders' bachelor pad. For the first day I stayed with another volunteer who lives 5 km from Faria. We walked over to my village for the day. My counterpart asked me to come back and spend the night. So I roomed with his second wife for the next two days and hung out with my old friends. Most of Niger is fasting for Ramadan but despite this my counterpart and I took a walk to his farm and went to say hi to some people in a neighboring village. The millet in this area is much smaller than in my new area at the very southern tip of Niger because of drought and pest problems. Much of the millet I saw here had been ruined completely by caterpillars that eat the seeds in spirals up the millet head. When we went to the neighboring village, we happened to see the Agriculture Agent for the area and spent a long time talking to him.

It was overall a great trip and I was extremely thankful to my Peace Corps director for allowing me to visit (the only slight obstacle during the trip was that my old latrine had half collapsed and at times I was nervous it would collapse). When I left on January 26 for a doctor's appointment in Niamey, I thought I would be coming back the next day. Instead I was missing for a month and then the Peace Corps director of Agriculture came to my village without me to pack all my things. It was a miserable and traumatic time for the villagers and for me both. We were all extremely happy to see each other again.

My plan is to visit again in February at the end of Cold Season to help out with the garden harvest. When I lived there I spent hours every day in the community garden with the women's group and my counterpart and learned all kinds of things about gardening. But I left before any of the vegetables were ready to harvest. If I go back at the harvest, not only can I observe the harvest for the first time, I can eat tons of salads!