Thursday, February 5, 2009

2009 AIDS Boat Tour!

So it's 2009 and I just finished up a year and half here in Niger! Can't believe that I've been here for that long! The holidays went off with a bang- there were actually a few fireworks down in Gaya- and cold season was glorious, although it was extremely short this year. It's now back in the 100s and getting hotter. Cold season is officially over- sad to say.

On the good side, I just finished up the first ever AIDS boat tour in Niger, organized by a couple of PCVs along with some animators working with an AIDS NGO. Our 3-day tour began just south of the border with Mali and ended about 30km south of Niamey, a total of about 250km!

Our mode of transportation was a motorized pirogue (wooden boat with a small Yamaha engine), about 25 ft long and 4 ft wide, with a nice canopy built for shade. We had a bunch of life jackets so we used all of the extras for seat cushions and back rests- made for quite a comfortable ride! The boat had a few leaks so every so often- about every 15 minutes- someone had to bail the water out- it kept us busy though!

The boat ride began about 25km north of the city of Ayorou and worked its way south. The water was smooth as glass in most parts although we did see a few ripples and white water- nothing to be worried about though. I brought along an inflatable alligator and floated down the river a bit in the places we stopped to cool off as the days were really hot and the water was very cool.

The landscape was amazing, nothing like anywhere else that I've been in Niger. We saw so many species of birds and quite a few hippos as well! There were many villages along the river and even some villages on islands in the river. The sunsets were indescribable although early mornings on the water were just as tranquil and amazing.

We hit 3 villages per day but had to do a lot of guessing concerning the time as it was hard to judge distances on the river. The animators that came along with us rode in a truck and met us up at each village where we were to do the educational talks.

At each village we would begin our session by playing some loud music and dancing in order to draw a crowd- who wouldn't want to come and see a group of crazy foreigners dancing around?! From there we would either break into focus groups- men, women and children- then discuss AIDS, or we would perform a skit about AIDS. In the skit I played the guy who slept around without protection and contracted an STD. It was a fun role to play, especially since I got to show so much emotion, the crowd really got a kick out of the skits. We used the skit as an introduction to actually talking to them about modes of transmission as well as prevention methods.

The volunteers riding in the boat usually had to haul out after each skit and hop in the boat and keep cruising in order to make the last village by night fall. In the boat, we just hung out and relaxed, taking in the view and napping, as sometimes it could be over 5 hours in the boat in between villages.

The boat tour went finished without a single hitch and was an amazing journey. Not only were we able to travel down the Niger River, something only a few foreigners are ever able to experience, but we educated 9 villages and countless villagers about AIDS.