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

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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."

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PCV Murder Investigated ABC News has investigated the murder of Benin PCV Kate Puzey. Read our original coverage of the crime, comments on Peace Corps actions, the email Puzey sent her country director about sexual incidents with Puzey's students and with another PCV, the backstory on how RPCVs helped the Puzey family, and Peace Corps' official statement. PCOL Editorial: One major shortcoming that the Puzey murder highlights is that Peace Corps does not have a good procedure in place for death notifications.

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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.

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Jan 9, 2011: Push for the Peace Corps Rajeev Goyal Pushes for the Peace Corps 20 Dec Denis Dutton founded Arts & Letters Daily 2 Jan Jim Carter promotes organ exchange 29 Dec Bob Hollinger embraced the Toyama-ryu style of karate 27 Dec Anthony Siracusa is Riding a bike around world 27 Dec Marianne Combs writes: Another Upheaval in Ivory Coast 25 Dec Kathy Rousso documents weaving methods in Guatemala 24 Dec Ramsey Nix writes: Christmas in Mongolia 23 Dec Leanne Moore writes: Coming Back to America 23 Dec Cancer Victim Linda Lahme dreams of Africa 23 Dec The RPCV Who Changed American Parenting 22 Dec Dick Holbrooke at the Peace Corps 22 Dec Mahlon Barash publishes "Imágenes del Perú" 20 Dec Susan Luz writes "The Nightingale of Mosul" 18 Dec RPCV arrested in alleged Sandinista 'Land Grab' 17 Dec Peter DiCampo captures village life in Ghana 16 Dec John Coyne writes: Peace Corps Prose 16 Dec Kathleen Stephens presses China to rein in North Korea 15 Dec Greg Parsley writes: PC taught me to bypass bureaucrats 14 Dec Pat Waak writes: Peace Corps Pays Off 8 Dec David Matthews wins NATO medal for work in Afghanistan 7 Dec Ralph Bolton wins award in Anthropology 9 Nov

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Nov 8, 2010: The 50th Begins University of Michigan commemorates 50th 16 Oct Wittenberg University also has claim on 50th 31 Oct Historical Marker Unveiled to Celebrate 50th 15 Oct Directors Discuss Impact of Service 13 Oct Mary Morgan writes: Some thoughts on the 50th 16 Oct Colombia I Holds Reunion at Rutgers 31 Oct Remembering the Early Program in Ghana 23 Oct George Packer writes: Meaning of the Mid-Terms 2 Nov Steve Driehaus Defeated for re-election 2 Nov Michelle Obama's Uncle was PCV in India 1 Nov Chic Dambach writes "Exhaust the Limits" 31 Oct Alrick Brown Directs Documentary on Rwanda 31 Oct Rajeev Goyal writes: Obama Does Nothing for Peace Corps 31 Oct Dr. Paul Frommer Created Language for 'Avatar' 20 Oct Cy Kukenbaker Directs Movie about Soccer in Malawi 15 Oct Peace Corps has no Institutional Memory 14 Oct Kristof and Stacia Nordin demonstrate permaculture in Malawi 9 Oct Volunteer Stephanie Chance dies in Niger 8 Oct Peace Corps volunteer Census hits 40-year high 4 Oct Malaysia PM wants Peace Corps to Return 25 Sep Volunteer Thomas Maresco Murdered in Lesotho 4 Sep Johnathan Miller launchs Airborne Lifeline 26 Aug

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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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Join Us Mr. President! "We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .

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