dun dun dunnnnnn

It's here! Time to finish packing, try to snag a few hours sleep and trek over to Philadelphia for Tuesday's training.

I can't help but laugh every time I remember talking to my friend Laura and her husband Mark at the NOLS sale last spring. At the time, I thought that I was headed to South America for the Peace Corps, and Mark made the comment "As long as you don't end up in the middle of the desert somewhere, like Chad." We all chuckled and I tucked that moment away in my memory, not to be remembered until several months later when I tore open my Peace Corps invite and saw "Niger" on the cover. For those of you (like me) who are not too familiar with Western African geography... Niger borders Chad. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you irony.

I started to come down with a case of the nerves this afternoon - what if I can't learn the languages?? What if I forget how to grow things?? What if Air France loses all of my luggage?? Luckily, my friend Ahnie called to save the day. Ahnie and her husband Jeff were Peace Corps volunteers in South Africa a few years back, and she had an answer for every worry. To top it off, she told me that she and Jeff have been researching plane tickets and are planning to come visit next summer; I'm looking forward to it already.

Well, off to pack. I won't have internet access for at least a couple of months, so I wish you all a Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthday, and whatever else is coming up - oh let's say in the next year. Don't blame me, blame the African postal system.

hugs, chan

p.s. one last photo from Hatcher Pass this morning - some crazy looking ice crystals!

time to start packing, starting tomorrow

Two weeks left in Alaska! The snow is slowly creeping down the mountains and I'm hoping to get out on skis or my snowboard before I leave... because I'm pretty sure I won't be using either in Africa.

To update those whom I haven't been in touch with lately (sorry!) I'm headed to Niger, Western Africa for the next couple of years to do agriculture programs with the Peace Corps. In a nutshell, the Sahara Desert has been creeping outward for the last 5000 years and farmers in the surrounding areas are having problems with raising their crops in the ensuing droughts. On top of that add in a lack of roads and transportation, the wrong kinds of foreign aid (donations from overseas that crash the local markets), and subsidies to western farmers that prevent African farmers from competing internationally, and you can imagine the struggles that these farmers face daily. Our job will be to do whatever we can to work on maximizing rainfall (storage) and to find new crops and/or strains of current crops that produce higher yields. I'll be in a small village somewhere (200-1000 people) and all I know is that I won't have electricity or running water but on the plus side I do get my own mosquito net, so I've got that going for me.. which is nice.

So, I know that you're all dying to know where you can send me awesome packages full of photos and soccer updates and non-meltey candies. My address will be:

Chantel Welch

Corps de la Paix

B.P. 10537

Niamey, Niger

Africa

hugs, chan