i leave Benin in 20 hours...depending of course on when the taxi to Togo wants to take off. I've been in Cotonou for over a week as I came down early for the newbies' swear-in ceremony and joint Peace Corps Benin 40th anniversary celebration. Had a lovely dress made and things went off without a hitch. Watching them take the oath (which is eerily similar to the military oath to serve and defend the USA), I flashed back two years ago in Natitingou when we were doing the same thing, having the same feelings of trepidation, excitement, and clueless-ness. What a wild ride they're in for! My replacement Christine got to post a few days after and David climbed the reception tree to tell me she was already doing amazing and I have nothing to worry about. One more thing to check off the list. I've been doing medical tests and having meetings with supervisors and basically getting the check sheet filled out for Peace Corps admin that says I am actually allowed to leave the Peace Corps. This involves running around the three floor bureau all day in sweaty, humid Cotonou, trying to figure out who needs to do what; all while attempting to stay fresh for meetings with the bosses...riiiiiight, i'm just a big daisy. my project reports are finished, i hate budgets, thank god for our fabulous staff who have really worked with me to make sure I can catch my flight. each volunteer is required to write a DOS (description of service), mine ended up being 6 pages, describing what i've accomplished or at least attempted during my service. looking at the final product, i have an immense feeling of gratification. it was especially nice to meet with the country director and hear her positive feedback and appreciation of my contribution to Benin. Every now and then, that kind of thing is really great to hear, particularly at a tumultuous time like this. All that is left to do is wait for the staff to come back from afternoon siesta time (i will NOT miss that, it screws up the whole day!) and give my last "sample" to the doctors to make sure I still have all of my intestines. got a little freaked out this morning as my body wasn't cooperating and they said "no sample, no check" referring the the readjustment allowance we get and incidentally, what i'm traveling around the world with....after copious amounts of coffee, papaya, and spicy spaghetti, we're a go for check signing. ohhh peace corps.

pretty sure my last post said it all but i needed to write one more sign off blurp. I leave tomorrow for Accra,Ghana where I catch a plane saturday night to Egypt. I meet my partner in crime Annie at the Cairo airport at 6am and we hit the ground running. the new blog to follow is www.boozerswithoutborders.blogspot.com it's Ramadan in the Islamic world right now so i don't know how much boozing we'll be doing but we'll have plenty to say anyways.

cheers to all, i'll be back in the states on christmas day, who knows after that....

well, i did it. i left Guinagourou and wow, can we say whirlwind? i still have no idea exactly how i feel as i've been going nonstop since i left on the 31st. the night before, david, taylor, and our friend saka (my very own boys club) sat around until 10:30 just chatting and eating some amazing pounded yams (yam pilee) david's wife made. we also had a whole chicken to consume, my scholarship girl/best friend in village, Catharine, had given me her prize rooster the day before and absolutely refused money or even to come eat with us. at first she just opened my door and threw it in, so it crowed for a solid hour...inside my house. after my neighbor helped me chase it down i took it over to david's to prepare it. i'm a little worried that the catch and release concept has forever been removed from my reality.

they told me a bunch of old Bariba folk stories and we said good night but agreed to meet the next morning for the grande farewell. thank god i'd been packing in advance as this was the first time, i think in the history of Guinagourou that a taxi has been ready before 9am. the driver came and picked up all my peace corps stuff to be returned and i headed over to drag david out of church. waited around until the singing and drumming was done, soaked up all the sounds and sights i wanted to burn directly into my memory as i know those things fade, even if they seem incredibly intense at the moment.

david, saka, and catharine cut out early (those sinners) and my taxi rolled down the road to get me at the stop (a big mango tree) about the same time. we made the car wait a few extra minutes so we could take photos by the library. the roof is on, the doors and windows went in the day after i left and i have been replaced by a total rockstar who is super excited to manage this project. mailed the film rolls home to mom a bit ago so they should be circulating soon.

deep breath in, let it out, walk to the car. david had said he really didn't want to see me cry and i'd been feeling pretty solid about my decision to leave. of course that all went out the window when Catharine lost it, hugged me and took off down the road. david got all weepy but that smile never left his face. he gets that i'm excited to move on and is happy for me. suffice to say, i kept my sunglasses firmly on until we got to parakou, by which time i was totally distracted by the pain in my body. the rains have destroyed the road and my head slammed into the roof no less than 7 times. i kept trying to appreciate it as it was my last real bush taxi ride but i think i'm good for awhile on those. some friends were in parakou so we went out for celebratory drinks and it turned into a tour of the city, saying the big au revoir to the hot spots that have grown near and dear to me. went to lunch the next day and said goodbye to a really great volunteer friend who supported me a lot this last year. saying goodbye is hard! i know i'll foever be in contact with my group of folks here but this, what we're doing here, will never happen again. and i'm totally ok with that part. things end for a reason and life goes on, i feel extremely privileged to have been allowed this experience. Benin is a fantastic country, charming in its own right, equally as frustrating but i did it. i LIVED two years of this life and it wasn't always easy but that made it better. the people here have opened my mind and have earned a place in my heart that will be there forever. this is my home, i have real family here and real investments. discussing poetry with Catharine for the first time in her life (at the age of 25), watching david's baby girl Terese take her first steps, and then run to me, heckling the other women at the water pump, being the most ill i have ever been or hope to be, working a field all day with david and simultaneously solving all the problems of the world; this has been my peace corps. call us hippies is you want but we do make a difference. in our own lives even more than others. i am forever changed, who knows how much or in what ways just yet but i know whatever happened to me here made me better, stronger,and much more humble.

big thanks to everyone who has taken this journey with me, it's been nothing if not real.

so, here's what's been going on since porkfest. first of all, had to detox all the protein out of my system. overload! good thing there isn't much back in Guinagourou so fasting was super easy. some of you may be aware that there is a global food crisis happening. well, it's definitely here. everything has gone up and i'm actually seeing changes in the way people are eating. there's not much i can do except stand by and observe, not the best way to feel empowered. also, felt incredibly guilty about porkfest but hey, every now and then is ok...right? i headed back to post and since then we've been working to get these walls up for the library. rains are here!!!!!!!!! good god, i've never been so terrified of storms before. it's not because of the noise but of what it will do to freshly cemented bricks that need to stay put. we have had to patch some holes up but honestly, we're making way more progress than i had anticipated. time here is flying, every week when i take my mefloquine (anti-malaria) i realize it's one more week that i don't get back. i'm starting to take notice of things that have become so normal in my life but were once odd or different, right when i got here. trying to lock up the moments in my memory but am really afraid of loosing them too quickly. i'm on my 6th journal so i'm documented but i don't think there's anything that can replace the actual taste of street food, the smell of my neighbor's dinner cooking, or the sound of yams being pounded from sun up to sun down and after.

i just came from Porto Novo, the actual capital of Benin. the newbies are there and i met my replacement. she is a total rockstar and is psyched to get moving. we have post visit next week so it should be full of meet and greets with me loosing my mind trying to make sure i give her enough info and introduce absolutely everyone. how do i wrap two years up a few days to pass on?! to each is own and she will for sure find her own way as we all do. i must release my post, i must release my post. david is excited and really this will be a new page in his life as well. i'm in cotonou now for a med checkup to make sure i'm just as clean as when i came in...take that as you will. tomorrow i head to a town called savalou for the big yam fete that celebrates the new yam harvest every year. it's supposed to be a big deal and i love me some yams! i'm out of here in 3 weeks or so, around the world tickets are bought and secured! excited to have something to look forward to, to make this transition a little easier, if not a bit drawn out. www.boozerswithoutborders.blogspot.com is where we'll be at, don't take it at face value, there will be more said than just beer reviews ( but oh so many of those!) hope all is well with everyone and the school year kicks off well. abby goes to kent in a few days and i can't believe i'm not there to help move her in...though it may be better that we don't hit the town at once...

what else would 15 pcvs do at the end of an extremely exhausting week-long girls camp? Of COURSE we would buy two whole pigs and eat for three solid days. this idea was the brainchild of a pcv talking about rendering lard and as we talked the idea just got out of control and turned into near protein poisoning...but in a good way. the deliciousness that happened was the best i've had in years (apart from the stint at home in which i gained a solid pound a day) so, this is how it went down. 15 pcvs, 2 pigs, totaling 70.000 cfa (about $150) of our pooled money. we got the hook-up from our friend the beverage distributer with factory prices and were able to use our workstation to make it happen. the first pig came in on the shoulders of chris, and was immediately dismantled to pieces and parts, some for grinding, some for grilling. our first meal was ribs, slaw, and cornbread. the ribs weren't huge like back in the states but they sure did the job. the whole next day was eating and preparing. there was no shortage of breakfast sausage, eggs, gravy, and biscuits. on to the brat making. we'd ground the meat the night before and washed the small intestines out. i'm amazed at the things intestines can do! we stuffed those puppies full and left them under a mosquito net to dry. after boiling and grilling them we ate whole trays of 'em with green salad and german potato salad. throughout the day, there'd been a pit crew, in charge of pit roasting the second pig we'd ordered. the boys had a good time spitting it and throwing together the roaster which is roofing metal and borrowed iron bars. in exchange for the bars we bartered with the welder for some pig meat and he was delighted! dinner was around 10pm but oh worth the wait. if you've never had pit roasted pig, you need to go out immediately and find out the quickest way to consume it. it is amazing! i loved pig roasts in the states but this was so gratifying. we kept saying how COOL we were to be doing this ourselves. hey, a little pat on the back never hurt anyone. this was a great end to a great project. also nice because a bunch of us are COS-ing (close of service) from now until october so to have this last hurray was awesome. also on the list of activities was frying porkrinds, making pies (french silk, key lime, and apple) african yam pancakes with homemade applesauce, and paté making from the liver. i learned a lot as when a group of pcvs gets together it's all about food all the time and there were a lot of recipes to try out. hope you like the pictures, sorry they're not in order, i was in a hurry. off to hunt down the last ton of cement in the morning.

MY NEW EMAIL IS rmiller100@gmail.com it is not @google like i said before, sorry!

I think I explained in my post last year but for a refresher, Camp GLOW (girls leading our world) is an annual, week-long camp Peace Corps and certain partner organizations puts on. The volunteers choose up to 4 girls from village, preferably those who have demonstrated leadership, dedication to school work, and high spirits. Throughout the week, we have sessions on health, environment, women’s rights, goals and motivations, and take a few field trips as well.

This year rocked! This year I was the director, or “directrice” in French. We’d been writing project proposals since December and finally USAID had a chunk of money set aside for HIV/AIDS education. The three Camp GLOWs that take place in Benin were totally funded by this, coming to a total of over $20,000. The Borgou region (that’s ours) is the longest running and we worked some kinks out from last year. Things were set in motion before I went on vacation but as future planning isn’t a big thing here, most things had to wait until the day I came back. Walked into the workstation at 11pm to a letter saying the University shuttle bus they’d scheduled for us was no longer available. See what I mean about planning? Another volunteer, Sandy, in the training class after mine helped out a ton so she could take the reins next year. We signed the food contracts, verified the lodging reservations, sent out speaker invitations, and solidified the schedule. Sunday the 22, volunteers started rolling in from villages with their girls and someone we call a “tutrice”, or the chaperone woman responsible for the girls. Dinner was great and afterwards we had a dance party. Some of the tutrices were literally tearing girls who were too cool, out of their chairs to get down. It was hilarious and everyone was wiped out by 9:30. Our three field trips went extremely well. A trip to Songhai agricultural farming center, the local University, and the government radio station, ORTB all showed the girls options for later on down the road after school. The radio even sent someone over afterwards to record the girls singing their GLOW song and it will be transmitted this week. One of the highlights for me and I think the girls also, was a 2 hour session with two medical students from the University. These 2 ladies were finishing their 7th year in a PhD program and continuing on for another 4 years in their specialties, one in pediatrics, one in psychology. They gave the girls a presentation on sexual health and wow, it blew some minds. Once they drew the ovary/uterus diagram that we’ve all been seeing since the 4th grade, it was game time. The girls never stopped asking questions and the students had a great answer every time. The session even ran a half hour into lunch because we wanted them to get as much information as possible. I’m pretty sure this was the first time the girls have had this information presented to them and been given the opportunity to discuss rather than just memorize. Among the sessions we also had sports in which the girls had stations of yoga, aerobic dance, dizzy bat races, untying human knots, and them teaching us a few games from village. Red Rover got a little extreme when a girl tried to hurdle the arms of her opponents and as they raised the bar she got hooked up and slammed into the ground. No pain no gain though and she made a quick recovery. We showed a film, the new Willy Wonka, on Wednesday and whether they followed or not, the movie was cool. Though the things that were most interesting were seeing things like great dane dogs and snow falling from the sky. Friday, the girls each went out with a “mama model”, a working professional in the community in a certain network. The get the girls for a whole day and it’s basically like take your daughter to work day, just with someone else’s daughter. We took group photos that day too, we even found a woman photographer! Saturday was the closing ceremony in which we gave each girl and tutrice a certificate of completion and also introduced the spirit stick award, one for a tutrice and one for a girl. We had a little trouble explaining it and the girl we called up was SO embarrassed but the tutrice hugged Sandy and I and sang and danced a little. That afternoon was crafts so we did friendship bracelets, tye-dye, plastic bag crocheting, and making change purses out of ice cream packets. We tried to put an emphasis on recycling and reusing materials. Sunday, everyone got in their taxi and went home. Over all, this was a fantastic camp! I got really positive feedback from the girls, volunteers, and tutrices. Hopefully next year will be even better. Unfortunately, there was one sore spot in the whole week. At some point Saturday night, while we were having a candle light wish ceremony and of course, a dance party, someone came into the locked volunteer room and stole 40.000 from a pcv and took my brand new, totally amazing camera. It was quite the bummer and a slight kick in the teeth. All proper parties were alerted but I don’t think I’ll ever see that camera again. Really disappointing end to a stellar week but at least the university projector didn’t get snagged, or anything from the girls or tutrices. I’m headed back to village today to see how the library is moving along. Now that the bike tour and Camp GLOW have successfully ended, I can really enjoy my last few months at post.

Cement: necessary, heavy, and super rare here in Benin. On the scale of commodities, it’s right up there with rice as all buildings here are made inside and out with it. The Guinagourou library is being constructed with 4 tons of cement. That’s 20 packets per ton, 80.000 cfa per ton, that’s about $175. It was 70.000 but the price went up last week, no one can seem to tell me why. I tried a supplier in Cotonou but they only dealt with people buying 40 tons or more…I think I’ll hold back until my next project to go that big. The chief of something or other wrote me a letter explaining the situation to the person in charge in Parakou. Oddly, though this was the most sure looking contact, they have provided nothing and actually pointed me towards another supplier. The cement shortage has been around for at least a decade or at least that’s what the people tell me who are also waiting in line. They reminisce about the good ol’ days when there was such a surplus they couldn’t give it away. David and I found our first ton through a friend who inflated the price to 90.000 and on top of that we have to pay another 10.000/ton to transport the stuff by taxi the 50 kilometers to village. At this point I was leaving for the states and all money I had to front for the project was gone. I told David to just do what he can and we’ll have to see what happens when I get back. If there was ever someone who could manage and just get by, it’s David. That man knows how to call in favors like no one else I know. Once I got back from the states, I had all of 10 hours to go to my village, give out gifts, and get myself back in to Parakou for Camp GLOW (more to come on that). Didn’t even get to see David because he was in Burkina Faso at a Moringa conference so he actually got back a few days later than me. I gave him the biggest hug ever when he finally showed up at the workstation, I really missed that guy! He let me know the foundation was all set and we just need more cement; like every single other person in my village hadn’t let me know already. It’s cool to see people psyched, though I don’t know if it’s because I’m just building a building or because of what it will be. Throughout the Camp GLOW, (june 22-29) I made runs to the cement depot. The first time was quite the experience. Got there at 7am ready to throw elbows to get a place in line. Turns out that’s exactly what happens. Word got around that the white girl was buying not just one packet but 4 tons and I was sent around back to talk to the head honcho to see what we could do about it. I got sent back and forth about 5 times and finally they just said we’d wait until the truck comes. The semi truck schedules are never certain so it’s a constant waiting game. I headed to the front of the building and sat down. The truck rolled up and people literally flew into spots in lines, one for women, one for men. Apparently they sell 1 packet at a time at the front of the store so I was at a loss. One of the packet movers let me know I should just stay around back with the other people buying bulk and wait there. To be honest, I was staring in amazement at the madness ensuing due to the truck’s arrival. It seemed people were so terrified to loss their spot in line that they were smashing themselves up against one another and jockeying for the best position, even though that’s not really how a line works… Other onlookers were impressed by the show too. One guy (who is Beninese) said with a snicker “africans man, they will never change” and promptly threw himself into the mayhem. In my experience, this is how the bank works, the market, any store, the taxi stations, and apparently cement depots. The truck needed to be unloaded so the lines dispersed and we waited in the baking sun for a few more hours. I took a nap leaning against the building and was awoken by another stampede. Not needing a second viewing, I strolled around back to see what wee were doing about the bulk buyers. The people who’d been there at 7am and properly greeted the head guy, each got tickets saying how much we were allotted. 1 ton was the most anyone was allowed so I took my ticket and emerged to the front pay window feeling triumphant. By now everyone knew what I was doing because that’s what you talk about standing in line, how much cement and what you’ll do with it. I even got a couple high fives. I paid, and considerably less than the man in front of me buying the exact same amount…not sure what that was all about. David had called one of our taxi guys and they came and picked it up no problems. This whole ordeal took about 5 hours. Now I had 2 tons and we need 4. They took my phone number and later in the week, after yet another fruitless trip there and back, seeing no semi-truck, they called me. This time was much smoother; I walked up to the back door and paid. The boss also asked me for some American whiskey so we joked about it but I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to bring home a bottle of Johnny Walker the next time I go. That leaves us with 1 ton to find and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I go back today and pay the people who’ve worked for us on credit and we’ll keep looking for that last ton. So, that’s where we are with the library. Rain is here in full force so I’m curious to see how we’ll proceed, but we WILL proceed.

Back in Parakou! After falling asleep on the NYC subway and practically falling into a coma on the way to Morocco, I can’t describe the relief I felt stepping off the plane at 4 in the morning on Sunday. After the initial wave of humidity slapped me in the face like a wet blanket, I slid right back in to the groove and all was well. Waited around to go to my office until 6 and just chatted with some taxi drivers. Carrying back cameras and computers, I didn’t really feel like braving the streets of Cotonou in the wee hours, though there’s really not much difference between 4 and 6 except in my head. Rolled into my office and took the biggest cat nap in history. Got the chance to catch up with some friends and ate the food I’d actually been craving. I felt like the kids in “Hook” when they play the Neverland foods game. They eat by playing pretend b/c there is actually nothing on the table, but the kids are so excited! Given the nutritional content of most of the food here, I might as well eat “neverfood” but it’s so damn tasty! Spent Monday in Cotonou banking but the good news…the library money is in my possession! We’re a go! Spent some time hunting down a legal cement distributor and pretty sure I’ve got one so full steam ahead. My work partner, David is in Burkina at a Moringa conference so, come Thursday, we’re moving mountains (of sand) and building buildings, yahoo! I am going to village today for about 12 hours then coming right back (biking to try and work off the freshman 15 I put on at home!) as Camp GLOW starts Sunday and we just received the fund money today so there’s much to do! Other than that, all is well and we’re moving along full steam ahead. Onward and Upward!

There and back already. Seems like just a few days ago I was to the point of vomiting I was so nervous about touching down in the mother country after 22 solid months in West Africa. Dressed in my uber-hippie style Benin fabric skirt and an already dirty shirt, I left our Close of Service conference that was winding down to catch a 3am flight to Morocco then JFK. Not only does it take forever to get anywhere IN Benin, but it takes forever to get anywhere OUT of Benin. I had to show up around 7pm because I snagged a free ride there and it’s not smart to moto-taxi around at 2am with a couple hundred dollars and your computer…just for future reference. Don’t worry about me being bored though! I brought 3 types of reading material and had an arsenal of friends to text message….so of course I just took a nap. Right there on my pack, on the floor of the Cotonou airport, mosquitoes eating me alive but refusing to go sit in the air conditioned lounge as a 90 year old priest was doing calisthenics…preventing the clot?...and I would have frozen to death, they really crank it up for the ex-pats. Good thing it started pouring AFTER I got there. The only bad part was that it cut the power at least 3 times so the fans stopped working and then we just sweat all over the floor. About this time, after the lights came back for a bit, a nice enough guy walked over and after he proposed and I refused by saying men are expensive and liars (calm down folks, was just trying to head him off at the pass). After a few more blatant refusals, he left with his friends and I continued my nap, mosquitoes and all. I passed out almost as soon as I sat down on the plane. Royal Air Maroc is a great airline to fly. Even if you need some bells and whistles, from what I glimpsed, first class was doing all right. They even give you these little socks as they understand we’re coming off the equator, are freezing, and most likely not wearing appropriate foot attire. Good thing I didn’t realize I was in possession of socks until after I got off the flight  They keep those planes cold! We touched down in Accra to pick up a load of people, just like a bush taxi! I woke up terrified because it’s only a half hour flight and I had no idea why we were landing so early. It was dark so I scrunched my face up in preparation of a crash landing; thinking “ I better get at least one more piece of cheesecake before I die!” All was well and we got to Morocco by 8am or so. We had to change planes but were directed better than a herd of cattle so it worked out. There was a couple (who turned out to be really nice) who were driving me nuts. They had to figure out why their friends got bumped out of first class as the girl was the only one who spoke spotty French and once I heard her say “honey, get the dictionary!” I asked if they needed some help and we got it regulated. Was actually a good thing that happened b/c it got me comfortable talking to people, up until then I just hadn’t had a desire to be chatty. Once it came out that I was in Peace Corps, one of the other girls on the flight said she’d just signed her closing papers in Togo – we’re NEIGHBORS! The switch flipped on and it was full franglais and government acronyms for the rest of the conversation. She even gave me the book she finished on the plane, in true volunteer form, pcvs are always starving for more reading material. We got to JFK but they wouldn’t let us de-board (that’s a word right?) due to a few problems which the captain just rattled off to the zillions of standing, cranky people in his craft. After we sat down and stood up a few more times and taxi-ed around the tarmac, just for fun I think, they freed us and I blew through the customs. I grabbed my singular, overstuffed backpack and took off. My debit card still worked in the ATM so I got some cash and rather than take the expensive direct shuttle to Penn Station, I said nah, I’ll suck it up and figure the subway out from JFK to the Amtrak place. Liking NYC more and more. It worked perfectly! The problem was that Toot (who picked me up in Philly) and I didn’t factor in wait time so she ended up hanging around the Philadelphia train stop for 4 hours. That’s ok, don’t feel bad at all because I seem to remember a time, not too long ago when she didn’t arrive in Benin for DAYS, so it worked out. We got right in the car and drove straight home to Painesville. She even let me take the reigns for awhile and it was awesome, forgot how great driving yourself is! Rolled into my actual driveway at 4am, exhausted, kooky, and ready for a big sleep. No such luck as Mr. Miller was up and ready. Big hugs were had by all and the whole family decided to wake up. I think that means it’s time to eat cheesecake! We all had a fat piece and tucked ourselves back into bed. Poor toot, I was back up at 8am b/c the time change just screwed me up. No one else was up yet so we went downstairs to make coffee and toast. The damn coffee pot ran everywhere as I forgot to put about half the pieces and parts in it before the brew so Toot about died laughing while I raced around my totally new kitchen that is totally unfamiliar and tried not to ruin it before my mom got up. All went well and so began the vacation of gluttony. We must have consumed a whole pig worth of bacon that morning alone. I’m pretty sure that during my entire time home, my mouth was only empty when I was talking about getting more. The weight gain feels good though, comfortable, back in freshman year at Kent all over again. A few months ago, I sent my mom a list of things I NEEDEED to eat. We covered all those bases, a few times. I don’t need a beer for at least, well, a week or so. I made the library thank you rounds and updated people on what’s going on now. The check is waiting in Cotonou to cash and we should be standing in an actual room some time soon. This post would be too large to post if I went into detail about the madness that was my visit. All I need to say is that I saw my rugby ladies, saw my high school homies, and watched my sister walk across the stage at Harvey High with the biggest smile on her face that she’s ever made. That was really the whole reason I came home so glad it was a success! Also had the opportunity to talk to a friend who is just starting her Peace Corps journey this month, what a great feeling that is! I’m glad I’m winding down though, it’s time. I have no idea what filled up all our time but mom and I didn’t get one free second to touch the yard but we did manage to spend an entire weekend at dad’s new boat club. We accidentally spent 4 and a half hours out until right after sunset so I think I’ve racked up enough credit to be gone for a little bit longer. I’d list all the fabulous foods I ate but most of you readers live in the States all the time and butter on toast just doesn’t turn you all on like it does me. All in all, mom was a rockstar and had running water in the kitchen in time for me, cooked and cleaned the whole time too. Dad, well, we all know Mr. Butch is well, Mr. Butch, ‘nuff said. And my sister is going to Kent in the fall, life’s pretty posh right now. I’m in NYC sitting at a starbucks, sipping a vat of coffee after a full day at the Natural History museum. Air Maroc bumped my flight up a day so I fly out tonight and they are paying for me to have a night in Casablanca…..I keep saying life is so hard right?

So, thanks to everyone who dug into this library, NORVA (northern ohio returned volunteer assoc.), Painesville City Police Department, Ashley Kaufman and her crew at Seton Hill, Friends of Morely Library, Sandy the News Herald writer who did the article, countless more friends and family, Sandy Miller became a full fledged volunteer for a few months, and all the other people who made things a little smoother or just listened when I needed to scream. It’s been worth it! I’ll keep updating. In case anyone doesn’t know, I am done with my service in early September, so we’ve got a few months to wrap up. Hope all is well, oh and a new email- rmiller100@google.com but if it doesn’t work, just use the old one. Cheers all!

The second annual Borgou AIDS education bike tour 2008 rolled to a finish last Monday. This year went extremely well and left next years group with a lot of good ideas to pursue to make it even better! Everyone arrived on Thursday so we could have a short meeting on what exactly this trip would entail and practice with our groups. After a small logistics intro about the route and most importantly – what we’d be eating. We were a group of 20 volunteers and 6 Beninese educators. This year worked a little differently as last year we were obliged to find Bariba translators in each village which slowed the process down considerably and between French and local language there are some things that just don’t translate. Working with an educator who is already familiar with the cultural group makes a HUGE difference and we could see the women’s comprehension and involvement shoot up. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Parakou now has the first Beninese volunteer club, NGO certified. The president, Ibrahim, worked closely with us this year to try and smooth out some kinks. I asked if there were volunteers who spoke Bariba and had done AIDS education; and he said there wouldn’t be a problem. As this is the blanket answer, I was slightly concerned but things worked out great. Ibrahim has a habit of keeping his word so things actually get done! A team of 4 Beninese volunteers in their last few years of school came, along with my homologue David as well as Saka, a guy from my village who helped with a leg of the trip last year. He came to my house and asked if he could come along this time. I wasn’t sure if he was in it for the free tshirts or actually got what we wanted to accomplish. After prying a little deeper, he said that AIDS education is something that is important to communicate effectively to people in villages as they don’t always have the chance to get the public service announcements in the cities. One of the student volunteers didn’t speak Bariba so we brought Saka along to translate for the kids’ group. He was so animated! After a few villages, people settled into a routine and we were on our way, eventually touching 13 communities.

Every village we arrived in, we broke the group down into 5 sections, old men, old women, young men, young women, and kids. I chose to be with the old women again this year. I loved them last year and really feel there is a lot to be communicated and exchanged with them. David was with the old men again. He loves talking with them on the topics of community responsibility and the honor that comes along with having a healthy village. Even though about a week before we did this, another volunteer James and I rode the route and tried to get the villages prepared, along with ordering food, things didn’t always start right away. What usually happened was, we’d roll in, people would see a huge sea of foreigners and start gathering. Then we’d have the public crier go out and beat his drum along with the message that everyone should go to the public meeting place. This worked great everywhere as it’s the accepted method of communication. Once we’d gotten enough people together we’d split up and talk for 40 minutes or so on the paths of transmission, how to prevent contraction, and what to do if someone does have AIDS. There was also time for questions and by far the largest piece of misinformation was that people could get AIDS from mosquito bites. Hopefully at least a few people believed us that that was just malaria and you should still in fact use a mosquito net!

PSI, (population services international) in Cotonou donated a huge packing container of condoms so we distributed those as well. Not sure how effective that is as at my school the professors took all the boxes and said they would give them out in a more orderly manner…though the general consensus was that the professors would just keep them for themselves. There is only so much control we can have and at least someone is being protected. A local water filter-er donated 4 huge bags of individual water sachets so we didn’t have to worry about boiling and filtering for 20 volunteers. This helped immensely as we didn’t have anything more than a chase moto this year because the fire fighters’ ambulance was in repair. The moto was driven by Saka and carried our spare parts and all the condoms.

Speculation for next year is that we’ll change the topic to malaria or awareness or nutrition…something along those lines.

Incidents were kept to a minimum. Last year, due to the terrain of the backroads, there were at least 13 flat tires. This time around, we stuck to the standard red dirt road and only had 2 or 3 flats but two major wipe-out pile-ups but they were only surface wounds and people picked themselves up nicely. In all we talked with around 2,500 men, women, and children. Two of the towns, Guinagourou and Péréré, we only talked to the CEGs (secondary schools). Once we’d wrangled the kids into quasi-groups, they calmed down enough to listen and participate. This was one of the cooler aspects of the ride. These kids are at the age of discovery and have the chance to be pro-active about their lives. We are also seeing the emergence of the women’s equality movement here and it was really encouraging to see teenage girls explain how to use a condom and say she would refuse a relationship with someone who refused to use one. Who can say the reality of those situations but at least the seed is planted. A really awesome project has stemmed out of the Peace Corps bike tour. The Corps des Volontaires Beninoise has decided to tackle a tour of their own. This August, they are planning on biking from Parakou to Cotonou, a 7 hour drive in a taxi (on a good day) over a span of two weeks. The best part about this is they will roll in to Cotonou (hopefully) the same day the new trainees swear-in AND Peace Corps Benin is celebrating its 40th anniversary in country. This is a great representation of the impact we’ve made on the communities here and the passing of the torch to the people who will actually make a difference in Benin - the Beninese!

Hey all,

things are moving along, washington has cleared the paperwork and the library project is online to donate to! it's tax-deductable and user-friendly! Please pass the word along as we're trying to get this funded asap. the rains are coming and here in the developing world, that means no contruction.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=680-161

if you've already given to mugs for rachael or donated in another way, thanks so much and stay tuned for updates!

as of lately, I've been at post recovering from the trip south for All-Vol conference. Last sunday I was helping my friend shell cashews and found out I'm wildley allergic. It is worse than the mango reaction and even worse than poison ivy I got back in the States. Quasi-Moto has got NOTHIN' on me! It did make market day fun though...

I'm in Cotonou right now for my second and final All-Vol conference. Lots of things swimming around in my head, none made clearer by the soggy air and big city grit I tend to pick up when I'm down here. I can't believe things are winding down as far as my service timeline is concerned. In reality, I've really hit my stride and will certainly be sprinting at the end, probably signing project papers the same day I leave Benin. I'll spare you all my touchy feely thoughts about the country I've come to know in the best way a foreigner can, for now.

Among other projects, I think it's safe to say, this library is the most taxing but by far the most rewarding for all parties involved. When this animal of an idea began to grow, I realized this could really happen...but I couldn't do it alone. People in Guinagourou could not keep their mouths shut, least of all my work partner David; and now the pressure is on. Even though the money is still in the process of coming, he can't help but go clear a little piece of the land every now and then. My friend, Tailor (because he's a tailor)has put his army of kids on it and we've got the space almost ready. This man gets it! He just bought a bike for his boy Gros, who is one of the most intelligent kids I have encountered, not just in Benin. This man sometimes has to borrow $10 to start a soy crop but he saved enough money so his son can bike the 2k to 7th grade everyday. One of the most frightening things I've seen in this country is the man who chainsaw-ed the big trees in flip flops and had to repeatedly have his apprentice jump on the trunk to unstick the blade. But we all got new yam-pounding mortars and pestles from the wood so it paid off!

I could not possibly begin to quantify the amount of support we have received from across the big pond in the states. My mom has evolved into a 100% full time volunteer and deserves all the perks we get...apart from the parasites. The Mugs for Rachael project has raised over $2,000 to date, and still counting. It has also prompted very generous donations of clay and a list of book donors have come out of the woodwork. Cheers to librarians and school teachers! On a more personal level, this project has brought people back into our lives who were never forgotten but hey, life kind of passes by when you're living it. The News Herald just ran an article by a journalist who really heard what my mom and I are saying. Had it been culturally appropriate for me to cry I would have...but it's not. Here's the link but apparently the actual paper has some great photos.

http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19427775&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6

So finally, thanks to all who are making this happen. What more can I say than that? "Thanks" can only be typed in so large a font and in so many colors. The people who are truly thankful can say it in a million languages, but I only understand 2. I feel the true sign of appreciation and accomplishment will show in time with the dedication of the student librarian staff and upkeep by the community. Sustainable projects do not happen in a week, month, or even the length of a Peace Corps volunteer's service. I feel incredibly lucky to have been placed at a post where communication can and will continue after I leave.

I'm coming home to see my sister graduate from Harvey High in May and hope to share many cups of coffee with anyone interested. Today I'm off to sell moringa to a health center in a town called Come for people living with HIV/AIDS. Hope all is well!

I have the pleasure of announcing that Benin now has an official government recognized volunteer corps. They are the first registered group with NGO status in Benin. It’s called Corps des Volontaires Beninoise or C.V.B. and is headed up by a student named Ibrahim. Saturday morning a handful of Peace Corps volunteers had to opportunity to go to the opening ceremony, a necessary official act of all organizations here in Benin (it’s called a lancement). This is quite possibly the best demonstration of the actual goal of Peace Corps in the host countries we inhabit; showing how an organization like ours would work and someone tailoring the idea to his own community. Ibrahim was an instrumental part of our 2007 AIDS education bike tour and has proved time and again that he is committed to the idea of selfless service in the name of nothing except good old fashioned humanity. It is so refreshing to see a student as busy and privileged as he to take the initiative to grow his own project from an idea he got from outsiders. Projects they’re doing include typhoid and cholera awareness campaigns at the grand market in Parakou, organizing blood drives, and general youth awareness of pressing issues affecting emerging adults here in Benin. There ceremony was a few hours long with the usual important people giving their blessing, there was even a group represented called “Les Sages”, literally the Wise-men. No idea what these guys do but it’d be pretty cool to be in the “sage” group! Spliced into the program were songs and dances. We all wished him much success and I really can’t wait to see what this kid does with his future!

In other news, the salad in our garden is done and I’ve switched back to akassa. I still hold a special place in my heart for that meal but it just can’t compare to actual vitamins. Proposals for the library and this year’s Camp GLOW are in so we’re waiting for the paperwork to filter through…ohhh bureaucracy. Chaleur (the hot season) is definitely here. Heat rash is in full force and it seems to rile the kids up even more than normal. Oddly, I have welcomed the season this year. It feels familiar the second time around and it just means the mangos are coming! Not much else to write as of now, day to day is moving right along.

I have so much to write about! Holidays are always a busy time but this year felt crazy. Last post was right after Christmas and I was in the middle of rushing down to Cotonou to get some shots and then trying to get back up for New Years. I did, in fact, make it back, with a bit of time to spare. New Years Eve was spent with my fat mama. She made pate and chicken (pate is the corn jello stuff). We ate and drank and about 10pm, we both said we were tired and needed a small siesta before the big midnight minute. I went back to my house, both of us knowing full well that I wasn’t coming back that evening. Holidays center around food in the States and it’s really no different here. New Years day was full of delicious village dishes and I swear, I ate 4 solid meals, all with meat. This is the time of year when everyone gets some protein. For most kids, it’s the only time of the year for that. My friend, whose name is also Rachelle, invited me over again for the nighttime fete. Last year I had another volunteer to share the parties with but this year I went solo as I feel 200x’s more comfortable just hanging out. I put on my green party dress and headed over around 6:30. It started with just her, her husband, and another friend from Guinagourou. The whiskey came out then a lovely spread of akassa (sour pate), chicken, rice, macaroni, all complimented nicely by her fantastic sauces. I was about ready to pop, party dress was a bit more snug. Then the generator came on and her husband announced it was time to dance; more a declarative statement than an invitation. The dance party started with just the four of us and after THREE HOURS of cha-cha-ing, the room was packed and everyone was screaming the songs’ words along. It was funny to see some students I know and other friends just letting loose. I finally said enough and wiped my brow thinking they’d give me permission to go home. Oh no, it was time to eat again; I sidestepped that only after I agreed to free beer all night long. My life is so difficult. A group of us sat around the table and had conversation about 2008. I was wished lots of money and few worries about a thousand times and of course, I reciprocated. Pretty much all conversations have a certain protocol here. After the second round of dance party, I excused myself and rolled home about midnight and collapsed into my bed. January kicked off with us continuing our garden and seeing the end of cucumber season and the flood of lettuce. I’ve had a salad everyday for a month! It has done wonders for my body and I haven’t felt this great since I left home 19 months ago. This may seem ridiculous to be so happy about but in my village, even tomatoes are hard to come by so green veggies daily is right up there with miracles. About this time, I finished a book by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (mom sent it over). I highly recommend it to anyone curious about the economics and environmental impacts of our eating choices in the western world. Now, I’m not one to preach about lifestyle changes but as I was reading this, I realized that here in Benin, we can’t help but eat with the seasons and my body lets me know when it’s time to eat certain things. It would be magnified in the US due to the drastic changes between seasons. I’ve since passed this book around to friends and it’s led to some excellent conversations…as there is no reality tv to occupy our time.

I thought the parties were over until Easter but I was informed the fete of Dohn-Korou was approaching. Excuse me? Another feast day? This is strictly a Bariba fete, it’s their New Years day. It follows kind of the same idea as the winter Solstice we have every year at home, with burning the things we want to leave behind in the old year and welcoming a fresh start. However, instead of burning writings on paper and watching the ash float upwards to the powers that be…..the Bariba burn tires. That’s right, it’s an eco-friendly ceremony! The king lights the first fire and after that it’s a free for all. I walked to the schoolyard around 10 at night and as I turned the corner, my jaw dropped. It looked like Dante’s Inferno meets Lord of the Flies. Kids to young adults were all lighting tires and attaching them to ropes to swing around their heads; both bike and car ties. Once it had burned through enough, it would break off and you just hope that you’re not in the flight path. I kept my distance but my friends couldn’t help but laugh at my face and audible exclamations. “Those crazy Bariba” people not originally from there would say. “This is so dangerous!” Of course, these people are also failing to mention their own cultural groups’ ceremonies that could also inflict major pain, like the whipping fete coming of age ritual the Lokba group does annually. All the kids are cautioned every year about somebody who died a few years ago because the gasoline bottle he was keeping in his pocket blew up…this was of course explained to me matter-of-factly and even with a chuckle. Yup, so funny. Anyway, after an hour or so, I’d seen enough people being chased with burning rubber and headed home. That was the absolute end of parties and now we wait for Easter. I love the mix of cultures in my village, Muslim, Christian, or traditional believers, we all party together!

The rest of my January was spent at post, nursing the garden along, eating salad, and getting reports ready for this year’s Camp GLOW, AIDS bike tour, and the library for Guinagourou. This has taken so long because the community changed the piece of land 4 times and we had countless meetings just to describe to the elders what exactly a library is. I think the idea is finally taking off and people are asking about it almost daily. Fingers crossed everyone!

I also took a few days and biked to a town called Nikki, about 60 kilometers away and the head of Bariba kingdom. I missed out on saying what’s up to the king but did make contact with the health center to see about selling Moringa in that area, more to come on that later.

The season has moved from rainy to 100 % harmattan. This means the winds come down from the Sahara and everything gets covered in dust, everything. I sweep and clean every single day but I just can’t keep up. It also gets really dry and my lips, feet and hands are so cracked and calloused. It has been so cold! The volunteer community who has been here since July 2006 says this is the coldest we’ve seen it. The newbies tell us we’re crazy so maybe the body really can adjust to equatorial living. I sleep in a hooded sweatshirt and socks every night. Hot morning coffee is SO appreciated and for the first time I heated water up for my bucket shower. It’s so luxurious!!! Hot water really does get you cleaner. It’s my Sunday treat.

I’m in the northern town of Kandi for a few days then down to Cotonou for a national volunteer rep. meeting. If anyone is curious to see a video of what life is like here, a guy who was a volunteer 10 years ago came in September and make a 15 minute clip. He sent a copy to my family and over here but he also put it in YouTube for all to see. It’s totally free and it is actually a pretty good representation of how it is. I don’t know the site but just go to YouTube.com and search Benin, or Return to Benin. I know I promise every time but pictures should really, seriously be coming in a few days. The connection was fixed in Cotonou so I’ll keep trying. Patience and flexibility folks, the Peace Corps mantra.

happy holidays everyone! sure was nice, and a little wierd to hear people at home say merry christmas in africa...again. true, i am passing my second holiday season here in Benin and life is so much easier the second time around! i didn't feel awkward about just showing up to friends' houses, getting fed, and making conversation. things just sort of fell into place. as the title says, i bought chickens and a goat for new years presents. the goat is for my work partner, David, without whom I wouldn't have a thing to do and speak no Bariba...or French for that matter. the chickens are for the families living in my house concession. it totally works to my advantage because food gifts always give a little back to the giver. the animals are yet to be given as it is still the eve of new years eve, one party left! 5 days before the christian christmas, the muslims celebrate the holiday of Tabaski. i finally discovered that the mass sheep slaughter is to honor the sacrafice Abraham was ready to make of his son. yada yada yada we all know what happened and that sheep is a tasty one! new years is the holiday everyone fetes together and we just dance in the new year. i've got a few invitations and should be in wonderful holiday overeating pain again, like thanksgiving.

in other news, i've got my hand in quite a few projects and am feeling terrified that nothing will get done before i am out of here. time has flown and is continuing to pass us by at warp speed. my schedule honestly has something big every three weeks at least until Septeber, my leave month. CRAZY! when did the change happen from this being the "most insane thing i've ever done" to "just another day" complete with screaming guinea fowl, goats, and babies?! projects on hand are:

Moringa: we're trying to get into two more counties before i leave, complete with supply contracts with the health centers.

Library: the "old wise men" (not kidding, that's what we call them) in Guinagourou have changed the building site 4 times at least to please the people. we've got a land donation form ready to be signed but who knows what will happen when i get back tomorrow.

English club: every saturday 7th and 8th graders ahve the chance to play games and practice english with a real, live English speaker - ME! it's hilarious and has been a fantastic way to getthe kids to learn my name and for me to know them.

Some of the professors want to come too so this may result in a spin-off club called "the professionals". a chance for adults who have some background in English (there are more than one would think)to practice and learn more. that's still in the works.

Rice Growers: with a small start up fund from a local NGO, we've gathered a group of people to form a rice growers co-op. this would give them a chance for no or low interest micro-credit loans from the group pool, thus avoiding the institutions that are difficult to access for those of us in village. we've started with Accounting for Illiterates book-keeping. everyone gets so involved! some of the women have even shown me how they practice in the dirt while they're cooking dinner.

World Map Mural: my friend Tara came out to Guinagourou for a few days and we tackled the world map project. it's a kit made by a volunteer years ago and it's making a mural from a grid. way simpler than i thought but since we're so intelligent, we decided to start the first day in the blazing noon sun...we had to go home by 3 to pump sugars back into our bodies. we finished in the next two days and now our new middle school building has a detailed world map that the geography professors were gawking at for hours. a map of Benin and of Africa are in the works. this was really cool to do, especially as the school helped pay for a good protion of it and a small projects fund from Peace Corps took care of the rest. financial help from local organizations is hard to come by, even in the schools so i was shocked to see how involved they were!

i think that's it for now, everything else is still in zygote stage and will HOPEFULLY come to pass sooner rather than later. I wish everyone happy holidays and a fantastic 2008!!!!!!

Over the last month, I have been really getting into formations. This is the main goal of my sector SED (small enterprise development). Between learning French, getting used to community protocol here, and finding groups to work with; it has taken until a few months ago to feel capable of actually helping adults through classes. The range of education here is so broad that it’s really important to appreciate all levels and try to cater to everyone. Just like in any type of classroom, you must keep the higher level students interested while not leaving others in the dust. David and I have been biking to villages with health centers and talking about Moringa. Our main audience is pregnant women, mothers, and generally women of the household. People in the communities questioned our deliberate ignoring of men. We had to explain that if any men wanted to come, they were more than welcome, however; if you teach a woman how to eat well, her whole family will. It’s just not the same with men, who (due to cultural reasons) rarely if ever prepare meals. At the end of a 30-45 minute discussion, in which the women themselves are our best marketing tools, we bring out a huge container of bouille, (corn porridge) and distribute it with Moringa and sugar to anyone who brought a bowl (everyone). This is when the madness ensues but it’s all good natured and we even have women purchases bags of powder after the sessions. We’ve chosen towns with the health centers we’re already using so the Moringa will always be accessible to them. In general, this has just been so cool! If I did nothing else in Peace Corps but work with village mothers, I’d be a happy camper. They don’t have the longest attention span and you have to work a schedule around not only field work but all the household chores too. When a group does finally get together, it’s amazing. There are always a few alpha members who are super engaged and share everything, also some who need to be drawn out a little. Then there are the kids to deal with, no babysitters here! Just strap that kid on your back and go! Of course, there are many benefits for the children but sometimes you have to run defense to make sure the mothers are getting the most out of the formations.

Another type of formation I just finished is accounting for illiterates. Only in the past 5-7 years has there been a big push to get girls in school and actually finish. As a result, the grown women of today do not have much formal training or French. Another volunteer posted in a little village 3 hours north has just started and amazing garden project. It is a group of mainly women and two men who have shared 2 hectares of land for the last 18 years. They plant 1 hectare with corn or something else stable and split the rest to grow whatever else they want, some have even been so ambitious as to start really foreign crops like lettuce or potatoes. This means they have to look for non-local buyers, and extreme demonstration of motivation for a small village group. They just received a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant to buy a pump and hosing for an irrigation system to expand the land able to be farmed and just to make life a little easier. Watering cans get really heavy after the 50th round! As a byline to this grant, the group is obligated to learn and use an accounting system. As none of these women has been to school, we opted for the colors and symbols system. This is pretty simple and by no means accounts for inventory or anything above the in and outflow of money; but it is a step towards self-empowerment and they women were so receptive! I have been to the village twice and had two formations with the group. The only man present kept notes and he translated from French into Bariba. He deserves a nobility prize for the work he’s doing with the group. He doesn’t get frustrated and once he understands, he takes over as the formation leader, as it should be. After all, volunteers leave but if the community can learn a skill, it will continue to grow for year! The first meeting was introductory and the women got really into it, asking questions and writing on the practice charts I made posters of. Reality set in when I gave a woman a marker to make a line with and she couldn’t figure out how to get the cap off (and she wasn’t the only one). Hmmmm, baby steps. Just as during the bike tour, we danced and sang at the end. See why I love working with women?! Every meeting is a party! By the second formation, the president of the group brought her very own chalk slate and showed me that she’d been practicing making the symbols and adding up the math. I showered her with praises and let the group know what she was doing. The caps came off just fine this time and I saw that they had even retained most of what we’d discussed last time. Progress like this is the most encouraging thing to see, it was community initiated, after a little guidance, community run, and with regular meetings to follow up the skills learned, this will remain a community project; thus giving more opportunities to local people to learn a bit more. This has been such an awesome experience and I can’t wait to start next month with my rice growers association in Guinagourou! Lesson 1: get those caps off the markers!

well, word on the peace corps street was that ghana is the land of greatness where everything is just better. they're SO right! the food, transportation, customer care, FOOD, and most everything was spectacular. Tom, Liz, and Annie were my partners in crime as we took off for a northern border crossing the 9th of sept. Togo is not a huge country so we passed through Kara and right over the Ghana border in less than 5 hours. The road from the Ghana border to Tamale (the major northern town) was ....bumpy. We had estimated getting there by 2 and arrived at dusk. No worries because we found a cheap, centrally located hotel right away and got some great street food right away. I will admit that it was no fun figuring out the new and old currency on an empty stomach when all i wanted to do was toss fried rice down my throat. Ghana changed their currency in July and now 1 new cedi is equal to 10,000 old cedi. We got the hang of it and I think between the 4 of us kept the getting ripped off to a minimum. Street food is fabulous in Ghana! Fried rice and beans w/ rice (called wachai, same in Benin) is big and the sauce is not quite as spicy as in Benin but a little thicker and a great taste. We planned on eating locally until Accra then going wild, which is pretty much what we did. Tamale is a beautiful city and apparently the volunteer capitol of Ghana. We did a two day sidetrip to Mole national park and saw ELEPHANTS! like a BILLION! it was a 6am walking bush tour with a ranger. we all had sandals so they made us rent knee high rubber boots that really came in handy in the marshland where annie and i both bit it pretty hard. Aside from the elephants, we saw monkeys, warthogs, baboons, and various types of bush deer/antelope. It was amazing and a great tourist experience. We had to catch a 4am busride out of there and slept the whole way back into Tamale. Peace Corps has a transit house there so we found it and had 7 hours to kill before our bus to Kumasi left so we played monopoly and made omelettes for everyone there. The Ghana volunteers were so nice and welcoming! We took the STC bus which is airconditionned and leather seated. It was beautiful and seats are coveted but good good was it cold. By the time we got to Kumasi, we all had clothes wrapped around every part of our bodies, we looked homeless. In Kumasi, we stayed at the Guestline lodge. It was a fabulous experience, very clean and again, centrally located. The market is supposedly the largest in West Africa and when Tom and I decided to brave it we only covered about 1/16 of it. The main language people speak throughout is Twee and I once again, realized the power of speaking local language and wish I could learn them all. People respect it a lot and it makes discussing prices much easier. The other great thing about Kumasi was the artisans center. It had a fabulous gallery and all the workshops set up right there from bronze casting, to drum making, to pottery. All very cool and it look as if Ghanaian people enjoyed it as much as the tourists. We also visited the Arms museum, which gave a tour of the military history of Ghana. SO cool and very well presented. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and it was by far our best museum experience. After Kumasi, we went to Cape Coast where we saw the slave trade castle built by the Portugeuse. It is a beautiful structure but the tour is haunting, especially standing in the underground holding cell where captives were held in transit. There is also a very well done historical museum inside, tracing the history of the Gold Coast inhabitants and the route they took to the new world. Cape Coast is a nice, relaxed fishing town and I felt it was the down time in our vacation. Accra was next and we did it right! Nachos, burgers, beer on tap, soft serve ice cream, thick crust pizza, chinese food galore......truly the promised land. It also had quite a large ex-pat community, I've never seen so many Brits in all my life! The WEB Dubois house is there and tells the history of his life and things he was involved with in Ghana. We stayed at the salvation army which had a great location and the people were really nice. We visited the national museum and walked around a lot. It is a great city and I can see why ex-pats seek out jobs there. After Accra, we headed to the Volta region to see the dam and the largest man-made lake in the world. Very impressive but we took it easy as Accra burned us out a bit. We were home for the new volunteer swear-in in Cotonou so the timing worked our perfectly. Travel was so easy! They pre-sell tickets and all the cars are 15 place tro-tros. In Benin, we pack cars to the max and it is never EVER comfortable. None of us could believe it when they told us it was only 3 people across to seat. I highly recommend Ghana to any first time traveler, the people are sweet and there's something for everyone. I just posted over 100 photos so check them out, sorry if they're out of order. I had to try the upload a billion times and just didn't feel like arranging them at midnight. Hope you enjoy, can't wait to get back to post!

take a deep breath everyone! toot and i managed to successfully travel around Benin and we didn't make the news OR create any more ruckus than necessary. She flew in the 27 of July after getting stuck in Burkina for two days. her unextected stay there was due to a false ticket issued by her ticket company. WHAT? how does this happen? best part is, she doesn't speak a word of french and had never traveled before. when she finally arrived in Benin, she could make the thumbs up sign and say "Burkina is good?"...she made many a friend. after i had whipped all of Cotonou into a frenzy over her non-arrival on the 25 (the previously scheduled date) i was finally able to check my email the next morning to see what had happened as her mother, organized as always, had let me know what happened. three cheers for communication! we began by heading north to Natitingou where my host family lives. i haven't been there for almost a year and it was a HAPPY reunion! my host dad bolted out of the house and gave me a big hug, something people here just don't do and was very reminiscent of my own dad, awwwwww! my host sister is now 5 and speaks awesome french! she didn't leave my side and i had all in all, an amazing time up there. we saw the waterfalls even more north in the town on tanegou then headed back to parakou. the trip from Nati to Parakou was toot's first bush taxi experience as we took a bus up. she wasn't a fan. 9 people plus children in a 5 place is the norm but apparently shocking to some. after shifting to get the feeling back in both our legs, toot declared she thinks "this is just insane." arriving in the parakou auto-gare was also a new experience as it's one of the more aggressive places in the north. we went to the tchuke marche (millet beer) and even got to guest speak on a radio show put on by the English club at Parakou University. We talked about gender roles which was perfect for toot b/c she got asked ALL THE TIME here is she was a boy, on the sole fact that she doesn't wear earrings. the question we got even more was "are you twins?" good to know this is a cross-cultural question as it happened just as much in the states. we continued down to see the voo-doo history museum in Abomey then to Lake Ganvie, the floating stilt village. she flew out today and has a connection in Cote d'Ivoire, set to touch down in the states tomorrow. we had a fabulous time and Benin gave her a wonderful welcome. definitely recommended for the first time traveler, but plan ahead for what we're dubbing "the Burkina snag"!

well, the newbies (PSL-20) arrived July 20th around 10pm. I must say that PSL-19 (my training class) was very excited to see some fresh blood come into Benin. First impression was great! They were so positive...and clean! Their baggage got here first so we started unloading it and then they rolled in just as it started to rain. we helped everyone to their rooms, dripping wet but not caring at all. it was already apparent how much we had all changed in a year. nothing really describable but a general group feeling that we had, in fact, made some progress. the first night they all ate dinner and we tried to sit around and talk but the kiddies were all so fried that bed time came early. slighty crest-fallen from the anti-climactic experience of acting the "older, wiser" sibling, we headed out for a beer. the week only improved from there. these people are ready to work! one striking difference we all saw was in the technology they brought. my class came in with a few laptops and a lot of ipods. we have recently connected wireles internet in our library lounge and once they heard that, every single person in the room whipped out a computer, mostly apples. i'll post pics soon but the image of 20 laptops typing away was startling. i'm glad they all did (and they will be too) because it makes work and writing home so much easier. They went to their training sites Wednesday, so the fun has begun!

Well, the craziness is over. After the weeklong bike tour, Camp GLOW, and a week in Cotonou planning stage; i'm back in Parakou and heading to post today. it's really nice to miss my post and know that i'll be welcomed back like family when i return...as long as i bring presents. it's a cultural thing here, after a long trip one MUST bring something, normally bread. my friends are definitely not shy either about reminding me. Camp GLOW ended on a fabulous note. I continued to be shocked all week by the enthusiasm the girls put forth, especially mine YEAH Guinagourou! Some girls got a bit snotty a few days before the end so instead of making bracelets as scheduled, we sat in village groups and talked about why we were all there and what we plan to do with this information that has been dumped on us througout the week. my tutrice (model woman from village) surprised me yet again by saying she would like to start having sensibilisations for at least the young girls and boys in Guinagourou about the things we learned. namely AIDS and environmental issues. my favorite session all week was a money management class i gave with a mama who owns two restaurants in Parakou. her story is amazing! she ran away from home before she finished school and started selling peppers for 25 francs a small bag. she realized the importance of saving and started a bank account so the minute she had 5.000 cfa ($10) saved she started a bank account, something NOT NORMAL here. people squirrel away money and eiither are pressured to give it to family or have to invest it in a half-constructed building so they don't blow it on something else. she saved and saved until she had 1 MILLION cfa....that's SOOOO much money, even in the states. currently, the exchange rate is about 489 francs to the dollar, you do the math. at the end of the session, the girls and even tutrices were walking away in a haze of simple accounting methods and the promise of success if one was motivated and patient. There have already been positive success stories that have emerged! One of our guards asked if his daughter could attend a few session so he took the schedule home and really talked it over with his two wives (who actually get along). One of the sessions they chose was AIDS education. A few days ago he told us how she had come home and convinced him and the two wives to go with her and get blood tests!!! this is something that is really difficult get some people to do because of the stigma, even though there are free clinics. all 4 are negative. I feel this best demonstrates how Peace Corps actually works. we're not here to save countries or even villages. the few lives we can really impact are just as precious and at times i feel more sustainable. these people can now spread the word which will do ten times more than i ever could simply because i'm an outsider.

well, Camp GLOW (girls leading out world) has kicked off. sunday, we were all supposed to arrive between 2 and 4 pm.....my group from Guinagourou showed up at 6:30. we hada great excuse though....i was sitting in a churchfor SIX hours. keep the sinner comments to yourselves folks, i was at the baptism of one of my camp girls. though long and extremely hot, it was really good to see how a church ceremony got going here. having no previous experience to draw from, i must say it was quite the production. chickens were presented and egss passed around, translation into Bariba is also something that differentiates churches here from back home. all in all, great but our schedule definitely got off to a late start.

we walked in right as dinner was being served so we ditched our bags and ate. the group i brought is me, a model woman from the community (we call them tutrices), and 3 girls in 8th grade. the girls were pretty excited from the get go but i was reluctant to think they'd really seize the moment and jump in the groups, especially b/c we were SO tired from travelling.....and church. After dinner we had a dance party with Beninese and American music. the girls were AWESOME! all of them! Lizzie made the party by using her aerobics instructor skills and leading an improptu class to "Barbie Girl". it was a vision. one of the guars at our workstation is a musician and brought his drum to play. he asked to girls to sing local songs from their villages. after a few timid volunteers, they really opened up! i almost fell over when two of my girls sang and danced for everyone, it was SO COOL! it was neat to see how the dancing varies by village also. around 9:30, heads started to drop, even the volunteers so we called it a night. mosquito nets were hung and everyone passed out. this week is all about health, nutrition, good environmental practices, womens' rights, and the like. my favorite session so far has been sports, when the girls relly got to let loose. duck duck goose has never been soo intense. things are rolling along smoothly, knock on wood!

The bike trip was incredible. it lived up to be what I consider "the peace corps experience." I have been trying to think how to explain it to do it justice. So here goes….

I didn’t do a good job really explaining the bike tour before I left because frankly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

15 volunteers, five beninese counterparts, and three fireman all geared up the next day. Before we left, we had an other volunteer give us a formation on AIDS formations. We broke off into five groups and decided the logistics of how we were get our information across. The five groups consisted of children, young women, young boys, old women and old men. Each group had three volunteers and one beninese counterpart...except mine. Sue, Betsie, and me were on our own with a translator that changed in each village. Our group was the old women and boy, were they a riot! These women probably were the best demonstration of village culture out of the 5 groups.

basically we had an hour with each group to give out information concerning AIDS. Some of the villages were so small that it could be possible they didn’t have a lot of information about the subject. Really we weren’t sure what to expect. We also had to consider that at each village we needed to find at least five people who spoke Bariba and could translate the french because not all villages speak french. For the older groups, we gave out condoms, showed them how to put them on (we have wooden penises!) had discussions about how AIDS is contracted and prevented. And for the kids' group, they got to sing songs and clap a lot!

Thursday, we kicked off with a day of training and an opening ceremony with teh mayor of Parakou, mayor of my commune of Perere, and some otehr representatives. we ate lunch and the press covered it all. we took off early Friday morning to Queen's ballad, after a small parade around parakou. By the end of the trip, all our beninese counterparts knew the words by heart! The three fireman followed us in the "chase car" with a med kit, a ton of water, and bike repair stuff. We each had a sack on our bikes with our clothes and our mats for sleeping. The rout wasn’t too long, a total of 200 or so kilometeres and we sensibilized about three villages a day. The first day was on the main dirt road and we stopped at several village along the way. Some villages were scheduled to feed us and others just fed us anyway. Lack of food was not a problem on this trip because it coinsides with beninese hospitality! At night we slept in health centers or just outside. We totally lucked out on the weather because it was cooler and cloudy most of the trip and we only had one major storm. That was another "total peace corps experience." The second and third day we took off the main dirt road and headed out small one lane dirt paths. On that second day, during the morning, a massive storm rolled in and caught us in a huge down pour laughing hysterically, having no idea how far away the next village was on a completely sand road. forget peace corps, this is hard corps! we were rolling though thigh deep puddles and screaming all the way. the firefighters following us must think volunteers are certifiably insane. The village was so happy we showed up even in the rain.

The logistics of the formations was awesome. In such small villages, it wasn’t hard to round up participants. The kids group was always the first to arrive. When a group of "estrangers" shows up on bikes, the little ones come running. People come out of the woodwork to see who just arrived in their villages. We were in Bariba land. (bariba is a language) and the culture here is quite different from the other cultural groups such as the Fon in the south. Most bariba villages have working kings and lots of fetishes with dancers and drums. We got to say hi to the king at each stop because it’s a sign of respect and it involves a lot of bowing and grunting inside a small hut and some guy sits on a huge chair with a big hat! Sometimes we would get gifts like live chickens and eggs! Thankfull for the chase car we didn’t have to ride with those on our handlebars. Lots of times the women fetishers would come out in the traditional outfits and dance to drums with us.

The personalities of each group was different so that each group of volunteers had a unique experience. In the kids group, we had lots of giggles and smiles, clapping and singing, cheering, sometimes crying, and by far the largest numbers! They understood that AIDS was a disease but they weren’t quite sure how you caught it. My favorite comment was "from a mean dog." The young women were fun because the our beninese facilitator was about their age and she was awesome! These girls got to talk with someone their age about the realities of AIDS and how to prevent contraction. They believed that if you were a virgin then you couldn’t get AIDS. The young boys got lots of laughs and usually they all wanted the most condoms. They said the condoms weren’t big enough, so they were educated on the elasticity wonderousness of the condom! The old women were almost like the kids in the village, laughing and hooting when the condom demostration took place. Comments like "my husband won’t wear them and sex doesn’t feel the same" came up and you can imagine the translation in the local language! And each time, the old mens goup took the longest and conversations were long and thoughtful and serious. We tried to hit home that they have a responsibility to educate the youth of the village but proverbs like "you can’t eat the banana with the peal on it" were used a lot. We got such a kick out of seeing how each group took on a personality of their own and were similar among villages. Some villages were more educated than others and the differences drastic, but that same, african hospitality, love of strangers, eager to have visitors resonated through them all.

When I signed up for peace corps, this is what I wanted. I wanted to meet people of a different culture, see how they lived, help in any way I could, speak new languages, make new friends and see life from a different perspective. I got that on this trip and my memories will last forever. This sunday kicks off camp glow so more posts to come! i'm working on the picture situation, stay tuned!

well, i'm back from the vacation of a lifetime. we started with the annual all-volunteer conference in Cotonou where most volunteers in Benin gathered for presentations on current projects and otehr information that would make our jobs a bit easier. then the fun started...i took off for a 10 day vacation with two other girls, Tara and DeLude. We went from Cotonou over to Togo, continued up to Burkina Faso where we hooked up with 4 Ghana volunteers. All 7 of us made the trip up to Mali, just over the border in Dogon Country. All traveling was done over land with public transport. Specifically bush taxis and buses. The buses were great, we could reserve tickets and it was guaranteed to leave at least around the time stated versus bush taxi which only leave when they're full and by full i mean 15 people in a 9 place station wagon. Since it's the hot season we were drenched the whole time but it was a dry heat which was a nice change from the humidity of Cotonou. Highlights were:

1) the drive up through Togo, green and beautiful

2) the artisans center in Burkina. it was huge and very reasonably priced.

3) Dogon Country in Mali. our guide omar was incredible, he only works with Peace Corps volunteers and the like. this is an ancient strip of village that have been around since the 13th century. amazing and beautiful landscape, both desert and mountains.

In other news, Camp GLOW for girls that I posted about last time has been fully funded! It only took two weeks! Please don't think that we don't need any more support over here though. I am still gung-ho about this library project, more to come on that. Hope everyone is great and had a wonderful Easter!

well folks, it's been awhile. i apologize but cyber cafes just don't like blogger. it takes forever or doesn't work at all. also, i want to apologize for the smut some cyber villain posted, mama miller cleaned it up and saved my rep! three cheers for moms! so, hrere's what's been going down. i've started working on a website for my NGO, a seattle based company called www.interconnection.org works with developing ngos in developing countries, it's FREE!!!! well, almost. i highly recommend just checking this site out, what a great idea! the link i'm pasting below is SUPER IMPORTANT! we are having the third annual Camp GLOW (girls leading our world) this summer in Parakou. This is a week-long camp for 53 girls brought in from rural villages and we're partnered with 3 Beninese Ngos who work in gender development. The way this works is we write a proposal and Peace Corps puts it on the site. People donate funds through this site then we don't have to deal with the banks (saving numerous headaches). Please tell any and all people you know, this is a great cause! We will be covering subjects like sanitation, environmental issues, women's rights, why it's important to stay in school, family planning and many other subjects along the lines of empowerment. any questions, please email me remille5@yahoo.com I'm in Cotonou for the annual all-vol conference then off on a 10 day vacation to Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Pics will come when the connection picks up in Parakou. Hope you're all great and PLEASE check out this link!

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.projdetail&projdesc=680-142

well the season is over and time to start working again. The 30th of December was Tabaski, a Muslim holiday traditionally though in my village everyone parties. I still am not sure what it's all about but I did eat goat that day. With new year's eve and day, I had another volunteer as a visitor and did we eat well! we ate meat (the same meat you see in the pics) and rice both days as well as other Beninese food. The pictures of me dancing with people are some neighbors. The husband is the director of an elementary school and his wife is a fabulous cook! we ate and drank our fill three times over with them then they turned on the Christmas lights (powered by generator) and we danced for a good 40 minutes. what did we do after that? we went next door and did the very same thing. needless to say, i am even more impressed with Guinagourou than before and it was great to feel like a part of my community! in case anyone is wondering (like the ruggers) what we drink during fetes (said fet) is a lot of everything but my favorite is a local brew called tchukutu. it's a fermented millet beer that is flat and you drink it from a gourd. the yeast content is really high and it can do horrible things to your stomach if one were to consume it in mass quantities but it tastes amazing. i have found this to be the best way to learn the local language, Bariba; is by sharing some conversation over a gourd of tchuke.

A sad defeat was realized yesterday. We built a water tower, originally to better irrigate our garden so we didn't have to schlep water from the dam with is a good 100 meters away. It almost filled completely with water (well over 200 liters) piped in from the pump but alas, a wall gave way. It was really discouraging! We are continuing the garden as planned and perhaps a water tower is in the plan for next year. The pictures posted show the before and after.

Well, we did it. the volunteer class of 2006 made it through our first Christmas. AND we had a great time! Christmas Eve, we helped give a party for about 120 orphans through an NGO called Victory Way in Parakou. We gave presents that had been donated throughout the year and the staff cooked a fabulous meal of goat and rice. As I said in the pictures, this was probably one of the only times these kids will get a piece of meat for the year. Though it did feel good to be involved and give just a little something to these kids, I do not think I would do it again. The surface message being sent was not something I agree with. We are here to teach and promote self-sustainable skills and mass giving, though an amazing quick-fix does not mesh with the long term plan. Christmas day was nice with the other volunteers. We started with a pancake breakfast and went to a hotel pool. After a relaxing day we ended by treating ourselves to the nicest dinner I've had in country. I had salad and pizza with a glass of wine followed by a beer. This whole meal cost about $16 USD. I remember in the states when I used to drop that with no problem at a burger king. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have a great new year. Christmas is pretty widely practiced here but teh huge party comes in January. It's called Tabaski and it's a Muslim tradition. So far the only thing I can get out of people about it is that LOTS of goats are killed and eaten. Whoo-Hoo, meat!