Like we're being dragged in. Now it seems like Niger will be our destiny for 2 years. But wait! Perhaps not. There are 5 new posts coming up that require medical providers. Where? We don't know. But Stefan told Tyotya (aunt) Nina on the phone that when we move to Africa, he will live closer to her. She lives in Juneau, Alaska!
Dina and I are excited to be at this junction. We are figuring out where I stay in DC for 3 weeks for the FS orientation (indoctrination). And then afterwards when we all go in July. Most days and nights are preoccupied with thoughts of what it might be like and how will we fit into the theater and culture of the FS, Africa, and eventually Asia, the far east, or Europe. Do we take a car from here or buy one there? Should we ship our piano? Once we are there, liquid items are difficult to come by in Niger and you cannot order it by mail in your pouch. So how much shampoo and dish soap do we take with us? And how will we survive the heat there?
But besides the anxiety, there is an excitement which makes it obsessive. How will it be? I envision myself seeing patients in a small clinic. The streets are a wild mix of Africans wrapped in brightly colored print linen dresses and wraps around their heads which balances a jug of water. And camels and donkey carts in the streets amongst diesel cars and the lazy Niger river providing a bath for its people. The displaced medical provider arrives with his family and settles into the elite quarters of the embassy housing. And I will walk to work just as my grandfather did in Peking China. And I fantasize about volunteering at the World Health Organization or Doctor's Without Borders clinic. And my children will learn that we are privileged and be humbled. And every 3 months I will drive the boulderous route to Burkina Faso to deliver my care to the embassy there. And things will drive us crazy. And we will miss the weather and people who we care so much about.
All this and so much more.