Will has been "at home" - 1 Week

Good Evening
Will got up this morning and walked to the road, waited 3 hours for the bush taxi and rode to Mayhai(our spelling is not right) where he could share the day with his friend Anna and have good phone reception. He sounds very well, but very aware that the days ahead of him hold totally new adventures. This is what he shared.

He is living on a big rectangle of land. On one side of the rectangle lives the landowner, the middle part is for the goats and he lives on the other third. He reports his house is in direct sun and he goes back and forth about windows or simply adding another door. His project this week was to construct a shade structure. He reports he enlisted two of the villagers to help him. The structure is of cement bags, poles and cloth. Evidently the villagers are proud of the addition to the house, Will reports it still needs some adjustments. His big purchase this week is a "jar or pot" that holds his water and keeps it cool for the day. He reports this is a huge improvement from the warm water that he imagined. He reports his day runs like this. He wakes up and visits the "man on the street" for a bean or yogurt breakfast and then from 9-12 he plans on being with the mayor of the village and will take many of his assignments from him. Then from 12:00 until 2:00 everyone has lunch and naps. Then at 4:00 he reports all of the men of the village gather to chat it up, discussing the issues of the day. Dinner follows and he reports he has started jogging and then at 8:30 he freaks a bit as there is not a whole lot more to do other than to go to bed. Stupid us we thought about reading or writing or teaching games to the villagers but the bugs come out with the lights, so the evenings are pretty quiet for the big guy. His mission for the next 3 months at least is to simply integrate himself into the village and to determine the needs of the villagers. He was adamant today that electricity was the answer and he had the plan to bring it forward tomorrow, however reality struck and he knows that change will be slow and that he must be patient.

He speaks strongly of the community of Peace Corp Volunteers that journeyed with him to Niger, but requests that we send his best, and his love and his laugh to each of you.

The Parents



PS: The pictures are not here yet. We will post them as soon as they arrive.