How to get from Holland to Niamey

Authored by Michael on October 23, 2009--two days after departure from Michigan
Dad & I left Holland at 4:15 a.m. EST. I slept maybe 2 hours that night, mostly as a result of nerves. Mom cried when I left which was sweet of her. Everything went smoothly at the airport; I made it through in plenty of time. I went to my gate, sat down next to some guy with ripped jeans and tried unsuccessfully to pass out. I did catch about 30 minutes of sleep waiting for my connection in Milwaukee, WI. When I got to Philadelphia and claimed my luggage, I saw the guy in the ripped jeans near baggage claim. Turns out his name is Aaron; he is a volunteer from Portage, MI! Together we caught the shuttle to the Radisson. By the time we made it to the hotel we were almost late for our meeting so we quick checked in and went to conference room 8.
These are some of the more interesting things I learned at staging in Philly:
1. Camel spiders, native to Niger, are the size of frisbees
2. We were expected to eat lunch before our 6 hour meeting so the 2 egg McMuffins dad bought me in Hudsonville at 4:30 am were clutch
3. You aren't supposed to touch anyone with your left hand
4. All 39 people in my Peace Corps group are super awesome and 5 of them are from MICHIGAN!
5. I am the only male volunteer assigned to agriculture; there are only 6 other guys--and all the girls are very pretty :>)
6. You will get sick in Niger
Once we were finally released from staging at 7pm, we decided to spoil ourselves with one last luxury. Fourteen of us decided on a nearby steakhouse. We all spent an obscene amount of money on an amazing steak filet and glass of red wine. We were all excited and shared lots of rumors about what we might find in the country.
On Thursday we were up and checked out early. We got on some tour buses for a trip to Philly. They parked us at the US Constitution Center, right next to the Mint, Liberty Bell, and Independence Hall. We were marched into a drab government building where we were each given a WHO card, a necessary travel document that makes me feel like I am being featured in a Dr. Seuss novel. We all got yellow fever shots and were led back to our bus. At this point we were abandoned by our training coordinators who bid us good lunch on their way back to D.C. We proceeded to JFK and boarded the 7pm flight to Paris.
I planned on sleeping for most of my trans-Atlantic flight as the in-flight movies were all bad. In addition, a fellow volunteer game me a Dramamine to put me down. My body and the infant of a hasidic Jewish couple had other plans. The Jewish child was screaming for most of the night and the Dramamine was not kicking in. I tried to help it along by drinking 2 things of wine and some liquor but by the time we landed in Paris I was wide awake. After a 2 hour layover, we boarded a flight to Niamey continuing to Ouadougov. O found it somewhat ironic that 80% of the 1st class passengers were Nigerien in fancy suits and the economy class was all Caucasian. After that I began a very strange sleep/consciousness cycle. I don't remember taking off from Paris only suddenly realizing that we were airborne. I chatted occasionally with the 81-year-old missionary on her way to a med clinic (nudge to Grandma). Air France installed a camera under the plane and broadcasted an image of the ground to the video screens of all the passengers. From this I learned that the Sahara desert is very big and dead. Arizona deserts have ground cover and cactus; the Sahara is all nothing, just sand. The screen constantly showed a big collage of neutral colors with no green in sight. The desert continued until the plane was putting down the landing gear and bushes appeared on the sand. The 81-year-old looked down and said, "Wow, look how green it is; you'd better look now because this is the most green you will see here."
We landed at Niamey "Airport" and stopped on the tarmac. Our Airbus 330 was certainly the biggest plane at the place, and I only saw one other plane with a jet engine. We were unloaded onto the tarmac and loaded into buses for the 100 meter trip to the "terminal". I made a quick stop at the men's room only to discover 1 working toilet with no seat, cover, lid or flushing device. Welcome to Africa. We were warmly greeted by Peace Corps staff in the dirt parking lot. All of our luggage was heaped on the back of a pick up truck, and we were smashed into 2 vans for a trip out to our training cite. Even though I was prepared to see rural poverty, I was blown away by what I saw just on the ride out to the training village. I am going to end my post now, but I already have a whole book's worth of stories and experiences to write about, and I have been here just 24 hours. You will have some good reading in the coming weeks and months.