After the Village

Limbo. That's where I'm at. Though it's easily the busiest, noisiest, most frenetic limbo I've ever conceived of.

I'm out of the village. Leaving was kind of a non-event. I guess I've spent so much time preparing to leave, and with my villagers knowing it was coming, that when it happened it was like, ok bye. The morning the car was coming I just kind of sat there waiting. Everyone else had stuff to do, so there wasn't really anyone around, until the car actually showed up. Then there was lots of goodbyes with the villagers closest to me and a few gifts to hand out. Otherwise, not terribly exciting or emotionally jarring. Also we gave my school director and village chief a lift into Niamey, which made the whole thing seem that much less final.

That said, as our passengers were getting out in Niamey, Boubacar (the school director) was reluctant to shake my hand, as if that declared our parting final. There's been a few times in the last month that he seemed like he would cry when we talked about my leaving. That's a huge thing for a Nigerien. They don't do public crying. If he had cried, I would have lost it. But knowing that I'm just hanging out in Niamey for a while makes it hard to really feel the finality of it all. I suspect when I'm crossing the bridge into Benin I'll finally break down.

In the mean time, I'm here in Niamey, along with probably 80% of PC Niger. Swear-In is coming up on Friday so it's pretty much party party party until then. It's an odd situation in that there are so many demands on my attention, since I'm leaving and all, and yet I'm having a really hard time feeling keen on getting into all the large crowds and parties. I'd kinda rather just spend some quiet nights with my closer friends until it's time to leave. Unfortunately, that's hard to do when all of your possible places to go are full of PCV's in celebration mode.

Still, I've found a couple of escapes. Last week I went and visited Brittany's village. It's funny that even though I hadn't been there in a year (when I did Brittany's live-in) a large number of them remembered me. I guess they had been clamoring for me to come visit for quite some time. I'm sure visiting the village for three days means Boo and I are married now, in their eyes. Still, it was a nice last bush experience where it wasn't all overshadowed with my imminent departure. It was just a nice visit.

During that visit, I also went and saw a Xima (sorcerer) in Gotheye. Alison is pretty good friends with him apparently and so took Boo and I to see his stuff. He immediately took us into his little shrine(?) and showed us all the garments and props used in possession dances. He also had a large assortment of perfumes, animal parts, and plant powders used to make various traditional medicines. He actually showed us the preparation of a love potion which involved taking various powders (all different plants and colors) and floating them carefully on the surface of water in a calabash. He made a really beautiful pattern on the surface with the powders. Apparently you are then supposed to drink 4 times from the clear center and then bath with the water. It blows my mind that I was almost in this country for over two years and never saw that!

So yeah, I'm mostly just killing time and spending time with those dearest to me before I get to get on the bus to Benin. Also wrapping up the various bureaucratic loose ends needed to actually close my service. But come Friday, I will finally be an RPCV!