Crystal's letter 3/13/08

Hi everyone!

I'm alive... and finally can access the internet!

I won't have internet access within 400 km of my post, so don't count on me sending you too many emails from this address. However, my Peace Corps email address is konnipcv@intnet.ne just make sure to put my name in the subject line so it will go to me. I can check mail from the peace corps address in Konni, which is 12 km from my village, it's just that it's a dial-up situation and the computer doesn't always have electricity and I can't accept huge videos or photos. But I'll be able to check that email pretty often; it's just that I can't surf the net.

I have a cell phone. I've tried texting all of you but haven't received a response, and that could be caused by a myriad of things - the shady cell provider here that doesn't always work, or you may have to check with your cell provider to see if you're able to receive international text messages. My cell # is 011.227.95824898 It's free for me to receive calls and messages, so contact away! Mom and dad, could you give my # to Djam if you talk to him soon?

Mom, I got Aunt Sue's package yesterday and it was AWESOME! It was a rough day because we had our final language proficiency exam (LPI) and I'm also suffering from a cold (stupid wind kicking up dust everywhere) so I did a lot of sleeping and then struggled through my exam. But Aunt Sue's package made me smile and I loved the candy and my host family was really impressed with the bracelet she gave me. Today we got the results of our LPI and I passed! I'm surprised because 8 people out of 33 didn't pass, and I thought they would just go easy on everyone and let us all pass no matter what, but they didn't. So I'm lucky to have passed my exam. :) Now I speak Hausa at an intermediate-mid level. Ya yi kyau!

Okay, so I'm wondering if you could grant me a huge favor. When I send you letters or emails, could you copy/paste or type them into my blog? I'm going to give you all access to it. I want to keep my friends and family updated but it's really hard when I never have access to the internet.

As for life here... it's great! We're almost done with training and I'll be swearing in tomorrow, friday, night. I love Niger. The people are wonderful and the food is somewhat good depending on who's cooking it and you definitely get used to a different way of life. I wish I could give you tons of details but I really need to update my blog now! Mom, I'm hoping my camera is on its way here. :) My new address is:

Crystal Pilon, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 89
Konni, Niger
West Africa

Love,
Crystal

Alive and kicking!

Hi everyone, I'm back. For a few minutes. I had to wait three hours to use a computer with internet access, so here I am! Hopefully I can finagle a way to keep in contact more often, but it's not easy.

Niger is great. It's hot, it's sunny, and I've had some good adventures so far - riding a camel, seeing giraffes in the bush, riding a bush taxi (imagine 30 people crammed in the back of a small-size pickup truck), eating Nigerien food (rice and sauce, gristly meat, tuwo), learning Hausa, climbing mesas... it's been fun. Tomorrow I'm getting sworn in as a PC volunteer (yay!) so training will finally be over. Then I'm moving to my village, which has about 600 people in it and is 12 km from the nearest market. Good times!

I can't stay long, but I thought I'd drop a line. Hope everyone's doing well! I would love to get some mail from you all!