Surprise

I woke up at 645am in Seattle and uttered mean words at the noise coming from my phone. This was the first morning of a long-overdue vacation yet I had set an alarm to be on a conference call for work.

The call went differently than I expected. Thirty minutes in, I found myself saying: "I'll go back." I later specified that before returning to Nigeria I would greatly appreciate finishing the holiday that had just started - which was visiting RPCV friends along the west coast, from Seattle to LA, for the next week. Everyone had planned on the project in Zamfara continuing and a return trip was expected, just not so soon or suddenly.

The road trip was wonderful and I tried very hard not to think too much about Zamfara. I talked about it a lot, which says a lot about my traveling companion's good nature. As my roommate, she hears enough about Nigeria at home. She probably doesn't feel like she actually took a vacation after 3000 miles in a Subaru with me.

This is our third trip to Zamfara State, Nigeria, to work on a lead poisoning emergency remediation project at the edge of the Sahara desert. What started as a 10 day assessment trip in May, 2010  grew exponentially into a 'remediation triage' project that lasted 9 months - and counting. People ask if it's like Peace Corps and maybe you have to be a Lesotho RPCV or have worked in Zamfara to understand why the answer is a resounding 'No.' The countries, cultures, and work are nothing alike. Still, one prepared me for the other in small, important ways. And both are experiences I wouldn't dream of taking back.

So it's back to Zamfara in a week's time. The original estimate is that it's a four week trip. Knowing that it's impossible for us to accomplish everything in four weeks, I'm planning on six instead. The problem with planning in Nigeria is that whatever you plan for, big or small, it never, ever happens.

After two trips to Zamfara and dozens of mass emails home, it seems appropriate to start up the blog again and stop filling in-boxes with lengthy stories about camel parking lots and toads that live in our toilets. Check in now and then and keep in touch when you can.