2011.01.25: January 25, 2011: Niger Peace Corps Volunteer "zot in Niger" writes: I'm sorry for my sudden partings. So much of my work was undone so quickly in those moments. How do you still welcome us when we only ever leave you to your fate or make a bad mess worse with our meddling?
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Niger:
Peace Corps Niger :
Peace Corps Niger: Newest Stories:
2011.01.17: January 17, 2011: Peace Corps Suspends Program in Niger; All Volunteers Evacuated Safely :
2011.01.17: January 17, 2011: Niger Peace Corps Volunteer "This Anasara Life" writes: This morning, at 5:30 a.m., I boarded a plane to Morocco and say goodbye to Niger, potentially for forever :
2011.01.25: January 25, 2011: Niger Peace Corps Volunteer "zot in Niger" writes: I'm sorry for my sudden partings. So much of my work was undone so quickly in those moments. How do you still welcome us when we only ever leave you to your fate or make a bad mess worse with our meddling?
Niger Peace Corps Volunteer "zot in Niger" writes: I'm sorry for my sudden partings. So much of my work was undone so quickly in those moments. How do you still welcome us when we only ever leave you to your fate or make a bad mess worse with our meddling?
You broke me, my dear Africa. You broke the careful consructions and left me only with a handful of heat-softened pieces. Now I have to rebuild, and I find the dust of your desert ground into me, inseparable. My wounds bleed and my triumphs are lined red with your soil. I carry away from you new weaknesses and new strengths. So this is goodbye, dear Africa, but this is not goodbye forever.
Niger Peace Corps Volunteer "zot in Niger" writes: I'm sorry for my sudden partings. So much of my work was undone so quickly in those moments. How do you still welcome us when we only ever leave you to your fate or make a bad mess worse with our meddling?
Farewell to Arms
January 25th, 2011 @ 8:38 pm
Caption: Two French citizens who died after being kidnapped from this restaurant in Niamey, the capital of Niger, on Janaury 9, 2011 were probably killed by their captors. French troops were attempting to rescue them when they found the bodies.
Goodbye Africa. Here's to the sweat-soaked hankerchiefs and straw hats, the unending heat, the ubiquitous dirt. Here's to mud brick houses and tea over coals. Here's to hours spent sitting and saying almost nothing. Here's to simplicity. Here's to laughter and abandon.
With you I learned to cut a chicken's throat and cook it. With you I lay under the divinest of rains. Enclosed by your heat and wrapped in my isolation, I spilled a lifetime of tears on your soil. You taught me patience, though I was an unwilling pupil. You stripped me bare, though I always sought thick skin. With you I found poetry in life.
I went to find poverty and pain, and you showed me community and laughter. I went to pay hommage, and you showed me my narcissism. I went to learn, and you showed me how to love.
Oh how I hated you, when everywhere I walked the color of my skin made me different, when the heat bade insanity to creep slowly up my spine, when I felt my wasted life ticking by in innumerable seconds.
And oh how I loved you, when you let me harvest rice, when children actually came to class, when at last you told me I understood.
I'm sorry for my sudden partings. So much of my work was undone so quickly in those moments. How do you still welcome us when we only ever leave you to your fate or make a bad mess worse with our meddling?
You broke me, my dear Africa. You broke the careful consructions and left me only with a handful of heat-softened pieces.
Now I have to rebuild, and I find the dust of your desert ground into me, inseparable. My wounds bleed and my triumphs are lined red with your soil. I carry away from you new weaknesses and new strengths.
So this is goodbye, dear Africa, but this is not goodbye forever.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: January, 2011; Peace Corps Niger; Directory of Niger RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Niger RPCVs; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Evacuation; Blogs - Niger
When this story was posted in January 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
| Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all. |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: Personal Web Site
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Niger; Safety; Evacuation; Blogs - Niger
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