So I realize that it has been like 3 months since I posted a vrai blog entry. For which I am incredibly sorry (loyal blog readers I apologize) esentially life caught up with me and all of the sudden there was no time to sit around brooding in my house and writing up blog posts. In reality the spring (chaleur) which everyone said would go ridiculously slow because it was so hot went ridiculously fast because I didn't have a minute to think about how hot it was. and it was HOT everyday was over 100 in the house so who knows how hot it got in the sun. But i was distracted by visitors in the form of other PCVs and getting ready for my world map which I painted with the help of Adrienne (kolokonde) and Laura (Natitingou) at the end of April (it now adorns the batiment wall in all its 16 foot by 8 foot glory). May has been somewhat calmer or at least would have been if it wasn't for the wildly fluctuating devoir week. every time it gets close (I mean the wednesday before) they push it back. Which has left me grasping at straws trying to figure how to teach and keep the kids occupied while still leaving the oppertunity to turn my lessons into reviews if the devoirs will only finally stay put! On top of this I'm trying to plan for the big vacation parents to benin then off to Greece, finland, and london. I'm most excited about washing machines, hot water, and replacing all of my paint stained clothing (which is infact all of my clothing!)

Of course not everything has been fun and games had some bad news from home, and spent a few days being sad and lonely only to then be scolded for being anitsocial, (well forgive me!) I'm not aloud to be antisocial, but I also shouldn't be social if I'm sad... talk about contradictions!

I know this is all terribly quick in the world of updates. but I have a rather amusing incident concerning my students and the simple past tense I want to type up next.. and maybe some observations on soap... :) will write more tonight if the internet it still working!

So we recently went on safari and I fully plan on writing up a real long post about the safari but here are some pictures, to get started.

I think that it’s been quite awhile since my last blog entry. So here is the last month, in summary, although likely not short. Mohammed still hasn’t come back, but we are expecting him almost any time now. As many people have told me, he’ll probably show up just after I’ve lost hope of him ever actually coming back. I got a new kitten, actually I had gotten her just before I posted the last set of blogs, but it was so recent I forgot to put it up. I walked out of my house that morning, bag over my shoulder ready to head to school and the grandmother next door hands me this kitten. Absolutely adorable, and very very small. She tells me she found me a kitten and its 500 francs. So I tell her that I’m going to school and then off to Nati that afternoon, and she puts this kitten in this tiny wire cage and says no problem we’ll keep her in here until you get back. Anyway, the kitten is like I said adorable, I’ve named her Mai Mai, and she is quite the handful. As Kate put it, ‘You’re going to be this kitten’s whole life, that’s a big responsibility.’ She doesn’t eat rice, or tomato sauce or tomoatos, she’ll eat pasta, or pate, but not akassa, she likes yam pile, but not bread, she HATES baths, and every time I give her one she immediately demands to be let outside so she can role around in the dirt and undo the bath. But I think she has survived long enough that I can reasonably assume that she won’t die because she was too young, so that’s positive.In response to losing Mohamed as my official post-mate, Adrienne who is posted in Koulokounde has taken on the job. She comes by every couple weeks to charge all her electronics and we have a cooking/movie marathon. First it was tacos, and chocolate chip cookies, with Jarhead and band of brothers. Then it was chili, white cake, and sugar cookies, with a Law and Order SVU marathon. Next weekend I will be going out to her village to help with her world map, we are hoping to figure out how to make and jar fruit preserves, and maybe come up with a Peace Corps game, like the game of Life. So instead of graduating from college you’ll swear in, and instead of having a block in your progress because you have cancer or something you get amoebas (I haven’t ever actually played Life the whole way through so I’m a little shakey on the finer points of the game, but when there is no electricity other entertainment must be found.)We finished with the first semester finally, and while the grades overall were disappointing, I’m glad that its done. Only 3 more months of teaching to go before summer break! Speaking of summer break, it looks like Mom and Dad will be coming, and then we’ll head off to Athens, Finland and London. A whole 25 days off and away from Africa! The count down has begun! Not that I don’t love it here, I do, but it does get weary not having vacations. Before now, there was always these long vacations, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, all of which were opportunities to go home and relax or just get away from life for awhile. Here I don’t feel like I’ve had a real break since I got here, and its starting to wear on me. I also have IST (in service training) and All volunteer conference to look forward to, IST is probably not going to be anything special, but All-vol is at the nicest hotel in Cotonou, and we get fed awesome food twice a day, hot showers, and wireless internet! So March will be busy busy busy, all that on top of the Baha’i fast, fortunately all-vol is after the fast is finished so I’ll be able to partake in the food fest.

At the Falls, or climbing back.

A yam field.

Lunch at the small falls.

Pretty northern Benin.

Reading and chatting in the Nati Workstation.

Dancing.

Swimming in the big falls.

So I want to try to write a blog post that kind of encompasses a normal day for me. I don’t know how well this will work but suffice it to say that this is kind of like a compilation of several things happening on different days, that all amounts to my average sort of day.

5 days a week I wake up at 8:30 in the morning. I have a cup of hot chocolate/Nescafe mixture and get ready for school. I try to be at school around 9:50. (On the 3 days I have a 10 am class) This leaves me about 20 or 25 minutes to greet the administration and chat with other professors. Technically, (by the schedule) class starts at 10, but after fighting against losing time in the classroom I have discovered that my student aren’t late and generally more ready to begin if I follow the actually practice of not starting until 10:10 or 10:15. This also gives me the opportunity to chat with the other teachers who, because we don’t have a staff room, congregate under a rather nice tree during the morning break. My school has something like 40 professors and I’m just beginning to feel like I’m getting to know some of the non-english teachers but its been slow going. Most of the teachers in Benin are on year by year contracts, so they might only be teaching at Copargo for the one year, or they might be back next year. My school has 3 female teachers aside from myself, two in the French department and one in physics. Or at least that’s how it was until this week. We got two new teachers, stationed here by the army these two are civil servants who are doing 6 months of service. The best thing, they are both women! I love watching them around the school in their uniforms. I think they are great example for the students. Women, teaching, and in the Army. Really fantastic.

Class is getting easier, the longer you teach the more used to it you become, and I’m starting to get a feel for my classrooms. When they actually understand something, when they don’t but are really bored or tired. My students are also becoming more interesting, they stopped being a mass of blank faces and have become individuals, which I think helps. I finish teaching at noon, and come home for lunch. I generally spend lunch and repos around the concession I eat and then chat with the other families here, or read and rest. After repos I make my social visits (on days when I don’t have afternoon classes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday) almost always first is my mama.

Generally I sit with her for around an hour, sometimes she’s doing something and I help. Like shelling peanuts. Which is hard on the hands. She always has a series of questions to ask me, or things to comment on.

“Tante, this is hard work isn’t it?"

"Yes, it is, this one doesn’t want to open.” (indicating a nut)

“Do you have these over there?”

“In the states?”

“Yes the states, what other over there is there?”

“Yes we have these, but we don’t make sauce with them. We eat them just like this, or make peanut butter.”(she translates this into Dendi for her other friend who is there)

“You put that on bread don’t you?”

“Yes we put that on bread.”

“A hah!”

After Mama, I visit my other friends or just say hello in passing, then wind my way home for dinner. Unless I’ve been asked to eat dinner somewhere in which I case that’s where I go. After that I come home and begin to put together a lesson plan for the next class I have, sometimes when I’m working in the evenings the kids in the concession will come over and draw or read. I’ve started a wall of their artwork which makes them very happy.

I haven’t really wanted to write about this because most of us, still don’t really know what’s going to happen but I figure you’ve all probably read about it on someone else’s blog by now. My postmate, Mohamed, has been administratively separated from Peace Corps (Loss number one). He was sep’ed for having a moto, which as we all know is a big ‘no-no’. Now whether or not this can be counted as a big loss or not is still up in the air. As far as I know, Mohamed has no intention of leaving Copargo until his projects are finished. Unfortunately he is on vacation and so no one knows what his plans are, including me. He might be coming back he might not, who knows. I hope that he will come back for awhile, but I can’t really say what’s up. The good news on this score is that I’ll probably get a new post-mate next summer, Copargo has requested a health volunteer (this is not one of the gains as its not current).

My second loss is more upsetting, my cat Acoté is gone. Disappeared. I put him out as usual, the night before New Year’s eve, and he just never came home. At first I wasn’t worried because he’s a tough kitty but after a few days I started asking if anyone had seen him. No. People in Benin eat cats, children steal cats, I live next to the Gudron (highway), taxis don’t generally care what they hit. My thought here is that Acoté it beyond being able to come home at this point, whether he became dinner, a pancake, or someone else’s pet, I don’t really want to know. But after 2 weeks I’m willing to say that my cat is most likely not coming home. The neighbors have offered to help me find a new cat, and soon I’ll have to take them up on that, the mice that live in my ceiling have started coming down into the house. I assume because there isn’t cat presence around to scare them off anymore.

The two gains came together, as a kind of set. I was at the post-office in Djougou, to pick up a package that couldn’t be brought to Copargo, when I was first sort of told off by Estelle. Estelle is an old friend of Robyn’s (The volunteer I am replacing).

“Do you know who I am?”

“You’re Estelle.”

“You said you would come Saluer.”

“I’m sorry I was sick, and then on Vacation.”

“Oh, well you have to come to the health center to saluer.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

This was Wed. January 2nd. On Sunday I decided to go into town to get salad for dinner and took terra rouge home instead of Gudron. On the way I was flagged down. By Estelle (I will say, she is persistent.)

“Miriam!”

“Yes?”

“I live here.”

“Oh, this is really close to my house.”

“I know, you didn’t come saluer.”

“The health center is fair away and I have a lot of correcting to get through before tomorrow.”

“Oh… this is Mirelle, (indicating another woman) she works at the health center too.”

“Hello Mirelle.”

“Did you buy food?” – Mirelle

“Yes Salad” –me

“You bought food? Nonono garble garble Robyn never, garble!” –Estelle (I still have trouble when people talk fast)

“Its just salad!” –me

“We’ll come by tonight at 8.” –Estelle (o.O what? Weren’t we just talking about salad?)

“umm, ok?” –me

And so they did, and took me to a buvette, for a soda (beers for them) and invited me to a fete the following Saturday. They also roped me into allowing them to tress my hair for the fete on Wednesday. So while they were tressing my hair Wednesday they invited me to come over for lunch on Thursday. On Thursday they cunningly got me to paint my nails. And of course there was the fete on Saturday. It was a decent party lots of speeches which I didn’t listen too, the real high point was that Lindsey, the Health Volunteer in Anandana (about 25 k from Copargo) was attending so I had someone to talk to, which was great.

So my two gains here are Estelle and Mirelle who seem to be intent and determined to be friends with me.

So I’m writing this considerably after New Year’s Day, so you’ll have to bear with my patchy memory. I went to bed just after midnight New Year’s Eve, and was frankly astounded I made it to midnight, there was nothing special that night, although I heard a few fire works go off and some loud music not much else. The Next morning I woke up to the sound of pilè-ing. Probably around 9 or 10, I was served yam pilé with peanut sauce and soy cheese for breakfast, now I know that sounds bizarre but hey it was delicious. Around noon, when people were maybe beginning to think about eating again after the mid-morning pilé I started handing out cookies, I think I got really close on getting enough cookies for everyone to have one. They were a big hit. I went to the catholic mission to deliver a few cookies and was invited to stay for lunch and celebrate the new year there with them, so of course I did. That was rice and pasta for me, with pork for the meat eaters, salad, and papaya and bananas. Delicious. After lunch I went back home and gathered up the cookies and bread I had made for Mama, and went out to give them to her, and she reminded me that I was to come back for yam pilé later. I received, 13 eggs from my censor, I think it’s traditional to give meat, but he of course knows I am a vegetarian. I didn’t get a lot of food given to me but did get lots of I’m so sorry, we don’t have anything vegetarian to give you, messages. I can however be very glad for the few families that are always willing to try to make something for me, my next door neighbors, my mama, the catholic mission and a few others. I took a loaf of bread to the teachers who are like dorm parents at the catholic boarding school, and was given yogurt mixed with couscous, which while not quite what I’m used to was also wonderful. The day ended of course with me having the best yam pilé I’ve found in Copargo (or anywhere) with Mama. It was a really busy day, taking someone cookies here is not quite the same as in the states, you take them food, sit down, have a glass of water, or juice, or some food, chat about life and the kids and the house, and the pets, and work, etc. Then you give and receive about 10 minutes of happy new years and good wishes before you finally go back home. If there is a meal included this little trip to drop off cookies can take over an hour. But over all it was an incredibly pleasant way to spend new year’s day.

The first batch of cookies is done, it made about 25, 5 of which are no good because the first set in the dutch over got the bottoms burned, I was nervous about the heat, to hot and the bottom burns, not hot enough the cookie isn’t as good, but I got it down for the next 4 sets. Without brown sugar the cookies are lacking a little something, but I doubt anyone but me will notice. So one set of oatmeal cranberry cookies down. (before you ask, no there are no cranberries here, yet another bon chose my mom sent. :]) Also, we’ll see but yesterday when I mentioned to my Mama that I would be making cookies today for New Years she seemed really surprised and asked to come over and watch how they are made, so it’s possible that I’ll have a baking lesson today on cookies too, but since this is Africa and more often than not people say they are going to come over then don’t I’m not sure she’ll actually come. I also got scolded gently by one of the priests at the catholic mission he stopped me on the way back from buying butter.

“Miriam, are you in the world?”

“Yes I’m here.”(the amusing thing here is that while in french this conversation happens a lot, tu existe?, but this took place in English which made the question seem really odd to me)

“We haven’t seen you.”

“I meant to stop by but I’ve been sick, and then I was busy.”

“We’ll see you then.”

The really aggravating thing about this is that while I’ve been sick and grading deviors etc. People seem to think that I should have been visiting them, what I want to know is if they are that into seeing me why haven’t they ever come over to visit me? No ever stops by my place. Anyway, I’m planning on heading over today with a book on the Baha’i Faith (Baha’u’llah and the New Era) they are really curious about the Baha’i faith and want to learn more about my religion, but they read English better than speak it so I’m taking them the book to pour over, since there is no way I can even begin to explain religion in French.

A post actually written at post rather than in the cyber, you all should be proud. Back at Copargo after the cough infested Christmas festivities, and I think that there is something to be said for familiar surroundings, the cough has abated somewhat back to the mild irritation it usually is rather than the ragging furor it was in Nati. Also here, every time I cough people nod sagely and commiserate with about their own coughs and the poussiere (dust) although really it's dirt, grit, and sand that’s blowing around, no wonder I’m coughing. After a study of the health book, I’ve ruled out pneumonia and bronchitis (no fever, and no yellow OR green mucus) as well as a cold, (none of the other symptoms) it says sometimes a cough can be caused by simple dehydration, drinking more hasn’t helped much, so I don’t think that’s it, the other explanation is of course air borne irritants to which all the remedy there is is a suppressant, which I’ve tried and doesn’t help, so poussiere it is. Thus I will most likely be cursed with some variety of cough until February or March when Harmatan ends. Joy.

On an up note I can say that cashew season has arrived! I had no idea that there were cashew trees in Benin buit I had been assured that the nuts these trees gave were even sweeter than peanuts. So patiently I waited until the nuts came, and low and behold… cashews! So now I get to watch the truly amusing sight of the petites in my concession retrieve the nuts, the rather boring sight of the sun drying of the nuts, the almost as amusing sight of the nuts having the beejesus roasted out of them, and then the truly welcome sight of the nuts being smashed open with rocks to reveal cashews. If you are going to be really hard working after all this you would fry them in butter and salt them, my mama does that for the ones she is going to sell. Not quite the same as an American cashew but tasty none-the-less and a very welcome change from peanuts.

In other news I finally baked cornbread for the first time here. I ended up begging a cup of corn flour from my neighbors (who considering the quanity they have to buy to make pate and all the other African specialties didn’t begrudge me a small amount). This little project was made infinitely easier by the fantastic surprise brought to me by the post man, a box from Mom with a mini bread loaf pan, and a bubble envelope with a single serving pizza dish, both ideal for my dutch oven, now allowing me to make breads biscuits and cookies, before I had no idea what I would bake in or on, now that problem is solved and the baking has begun. So my first attempt at cornbread was a resounding success with the concession and with my Mama, all of whom surprisingly enough had not had cornbread made for them before. Considering I’m the third volunteer here I was pretty sure either of the two previous volunteers would have baked at least once but everyone was stunned when I said I wanted to the corn flour to make bread.

“Is it possible to borrow some corn flour?” (C’est possible je prend un peu de mais?)

“Sure, are you going to make pate?” (Oui, tu vas faire pate?)

“No I’m going to make bread.” (Non, je vais faire pain.)

“Bread?!” (Pain?!)

“Yes corn bread, its sweet, like cake.”

(Oui, pain de mais, c’est douce, comme gateau.)

“You’re going to make…bread? Are you sure you don’t want to make pate?” (tu vas faire… pain? Pas pate? Which is not actually what she said but I can’t remember the question in French so you just get “not pate” because that’s easier)

“Yes, when its finished you can have some, if you like it I’ll make more.” (oui, quand c’est finis je vais donne un peu, si tu aime ca je vais faire ca encore.)

Then the disbelieving looks while the get me the flour. (I included the French so you would see that one, my French is still not so great but I get by anyway, and two that I do actually speak French with people sometimes :])In the end remembering being told that the Beninese don’t like sweet cornbread I added less sugar which made the bread less tasty to me, but everyone else thought it was fantastic and I have two Mamas who are already planning to come over and see how its made. My next plan is to spend all of new years eve baking cookies and bread. Why you might wonder? Well I was sitting with my mama the other afternoon, while she was making akassa. [Side note: My mama making Akassa is a great sight and I’m hoping she’ll let me photograph her someday doing it. She makes it over a fire in this massive cauldron stirring it with a giant wooden spoon. So essentially what the scene amounts to is mama bent over this huge cauldron of bubbling white stuff stirring away with a giant wooden spoon. I always think the scene despite its being set in Africa is a little taste of bubble bubble toil and trouble. ^.^]

“Are you busy cooking for new years?”

“What?”

“I said are you busy cooking for New Years?”

“No, I mean, what?”

“For new years, your’re going to make something aren’t you?”

“I’m going to what?”

“Make something, like yam pilé, or pate, or rice.”

“You want me to make yam pilé?”

“Well, maybe not yam pilé, but we’re going to make lots of food and get sodas, and have a big party, you are going to make something.” (notice how its not a question.)

So now I’m tasked with making something, and in the absence of a crap load of rice, pate or yam pile, I’ve decided to bake for everyone, which means I have to make about 30 or 40 cookies at least. I think I can bake 5 or 6 at a time on my new pizza dish (thanks Mom! :]) so that means I have to bake at least 7 batches, so about 3 hours of work for the cookies, and probably more. I also want to do a couple more loaves of either corn bread or banana bread so that amounts to probably something like 5 hours of baking. Which would be really not stressful at all if I wasn’t doing it for a fete that is infact only 2 days away.

So I think I said that I was planning on spending Christmas at post, anyway I did infact decide agaisnt that, a bit last minute as well. Christmas here in Nati was really nice, Megan (cobly), Kate, Carly, Alex, Jordan, Natasha, Rima, Suny, and Danielle were the PSL 20s there, and then we had a couple psl 19s. Its was basically a massive feast of cheese and crackers, fries and sauce, sangria for the wine drinkers, and sodas or beer for the rest, cookies etc. We played loads of scrable and boggle, and hung out.

Megan and Kate even managed to organize a little christmas suprise for everyone, stockings with some candy and tastey treats. While it is not a holiday I am particularly attached to it was really nice.

So following christmas eve and Christmas the TEFL 8 of us decided to go up to the water falls. The taxi drive was long and very dusty, and while I was lucky enough to be in the front of the van the poor folks in the back got really dusted, I think carly and Alex, might still be feeling like they're breathing dirt the day after! We arrived at the falls and started our walk up, the first fall we got to was pretty, but small and we were all thinking 'is this it?' but we quickly discovered that a short climb/hike up the hill was the REAL water fall, tall and cascading into a massive pool of water at the bottom, and with all the moisture being kicked up the whole enclosure was green and beautiful, We had a bit to eat and then immediately got into the COLD water. You'll probably be happy to hear none of us jumped from the top although I'm hoping some of you can appericiate how tempting it was to try to climb up there and leap off it looked like it would have been awesome. We swam for at least an hour then sliced up watermelon to eat while we dried off a bit and warmed up. Even getting dusted again on the way home didn't ruin the fantastic view and beauty of these falls. A definate must see to parents planning on visiting. Hopefully Rima can get some pictures up when she gets back down south so we can show you how lovely it was.

There was considerable confusion about the muslim fete this year, and for all I know maybe there is every year. No one seemed to know what day it was going to take place on, the school was taking Thursday off, but there was a possibility that the fete would be Tuesday or Wednesday not Thursday. In fact right up to the wire this debate raged, the Fete did end up starting Wednesday.

The lead up to the fete is relatively boring in its own way, one day I noticed a significantly larger number of sheep in town than usual, sheep in herds that is, then one day I noticed a significantly larger number of sheep in bush taxis than usual. Then one day I noticed a sheep in my concession. A real looker too, he was big and had a nice set of horns, nice thick coat, lot of greens to munch on, and glaring at me like there was no tomorrow.

Tuesday at school, the teachers made it known that indeed Wednesday had been declared the fete day, and while technically there would be class, there probably wouldn't be students. How right they were, my class Wed. had 5 students... 5 out of 71.... the class itslf went quickly µI gave them candy and we played hangman and sang jingle bells.

On the way home is when things got exciting, every other house I passed had a sheep being slaughtered in the front yard, which was just great, here I am a vegitarian who doesn't like looking at dead animals and I get to see about 10 or 12 dead or dying sheep in the span of 5 minutes, one in my very own concession. I ended up hiding in my house for about and hour or so hoping that evenutally the carcass would be removed for cooking purposes. It was although I had to request that the severed head be stored somewhere other than the basin in front of my house. So once the death was finished I did in fact join in the fete a bit. I had my feet painted red (it turned out orange) they wrote my name on my feet that is, they gave me plain rice without mutton which was very tastey and i spent the afternoon sitting under a small mango tree in my concession feeling very happy with the fete, that night I also got some yam pilé from my mama making it a very nice day full of good food.

Now on to christmas, which I also plan to spend at post.

Anyone who knows me knows that in general, I don't get sick, or more specifically, I don't get colds, haven't infact been sick enough to miss a day of school or work since I was 16 or 17, which is why its not even funny, that in a country where 'cold' is anything below 85 degrees I seem to have finally gotten sick. And not like a little snifle, it started out as a little snifle, but its now turned into and ongoing battle to breath! For four weeks I have been spending my time swapping between blowing my nose and coughing up my lungs, well there is a bit more coughing than anything else. The even worse thing is there doesn't seem to be anything I can DO about it! nothing seems to qwell this, cough drops do nothing, tea, honey, allergy meds, nothing helps! its just ongoing, sometimes I think that its a combination of my asthma, which has not troubled me since I was a little kid and all the dirt in the air being kicked around by harmatan, but even that doesn't seem to add up. In any case I'm only marginally comforted by the fact that I am not the only one who is ill, there are quite a few students in my classes who are also coughing and hacking etc.. So there is no way to make this particular post anything but a pity party but, when writing about life in Benin, right now a huge part of my life is having a constant supply of cough drops.

I just changed the setting of this blog to allow you to post comments without moderation, I've been writing for a few months now and I haven't gotten anything weird and I know that it can be difficult to try to post a comment and not see it up or any indication that it was posted for a month or more, anyway now all you comments will go on, BUT if I do start getting spammed I will go back to comment moderation.

:)

So the mystery topic.

November 2nd, right around when Erin was letting us know she was leaving I was finding out that about 60,000 CFA (120 USD) was missing from my money envelope. As you have read I recently had a massive flood so since I had moved almost every possession I have to a new location I legitimately thought that I probably lost the money. I mean its not like i didn't lose all kinds of paper work only find it drying in random places around the house later. Then on November 10th I found out that of the 30,000 CFA I had left there was only 6,000. So I definately had a theif, someone coming into my house twice (at least) to take things of mine, they would have had to search, they would have had to watch me and learn my schedule when I was out of the house but not far enough away from the house to have locked the doors. Not at all a pleasant thought, and really not at all pleasant to deal with.

I went up to NAti and filled out my incident report, and talked to my PCVL. I also went to the bank and got money. Ended up talking to the Gendarmes and the Peace Corps, of course the money is not likely to be recovered, but its not tres grave. I think it would be hard for me to describe in writing, in a crowded cyber, how I felt about it then, but now things are well, my community has been really supportive of me, and of course shocked and outraged, but things are honestly going much better now, and Like I sazid the more distance (in terms of time) I get the better I feel about the whole thing.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who support me!

I kept meaning to write up a post about (you know what.. or hopefully you don't) but I'm just not able to write something that covers both the feelings ON THE DAY and the distance and ca va maintenant, Thanks giving this weekend and PSW in Parakou as of sunday. I'll keep trying for the blog post, or two or three, and considering the access to internet should be ok in Parakou maybe I'll even get them online.

LOVE to all

and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

So while I was off meeting buses full of white people Erin was in Cotonou in the med unit and at first it didn’t seem so bad until it was 2 weeks she’d been there and why weren’t they letting her come back? The answer, Erin is being medically separated from peace corps…. This is not happy news, and I don’t think anyone leaving is happy news but for me this is the first person to go home that I REALLY know, and that is in fact a very good friend. We’re not just losing the fantastically convient hub her house made in Djougou but really we’re losing just a friend, and I really really really wish she didn’t have to go, and it doesn’t seem fair, or right, or anything, but there isn’t anything that we can do. She has to take care of her injury and she has to do that at home. So Erin, its not the same without you in Djougou just a 20 minutes bush taxi ride of doom away, and I expect that I’ll spend the next 2 years, wishing you were still there even if I do at some point get used to going all the way to Kate’s place (an hour + Zemi ride of doom away) Seeing as she’ll be getting home probably before I get this up on the internet, Erin I miss you SO MUCH! And I hope that you don’t forget to eat the ice cream for me. (p.s. the mattress is awesome).

So this is where I talk about how I spent two weeks straight at post without going anywhere and what my weekend was like after the big rain storm. On Saturday I went to a fellow teacher’s place she had promised me that she would take the day to teach me how to use the African yams, which are a main staple of the northern diet and provide a nice variation to pasta and rice which are pretty much my other options. I arrived at 11 which was the prearranged time but was of course to early because when a Beninese person says 11 what they mean is sometime after 11 more like 12 but being there early allowed them to show me the boarding buildings. CEG Copargo has a small group of boarding students and these particular teachers I was visiting are like the dorm parents. They showed me the girls side of the compound and I even got to see one of the sleeping rooms which was basically a concrete room with some cubby holes and mats rolled up against the wall, when I asked how many girls to a room the said 5 but this year they had a large number so sometimes 6… Considering my boarding experience of a single room with a sink, desk, and bed this seemed… cramped. But the rooms where clean and bug free and the girls and boys all seem to like the area so there you have it. They also took me to the Catholic Mission where I met Father Michel the French priest in residence, let me tell you I was not expecting to meet a white person, and I don’t think he was particularly expecting the visit of a white person either, but he seems nice enough, and I figure that as long as he is cool with me not being a christen then we’ll get along just fine, although his French is considerably harder for me to understand than the beninese French. The yam cooking commenced shortly after this visit and let me tell you, this is a lesson they should give to every volunteer that is moving north. Now most volunteers will say that they can just buy the yams already cooked, and why bother with buying them and cooking them themselves, but I really think its useful, particularly if you like to cook for yourself. The African yam is a HUGE root veggie, and when you first see one you’ll probably be a little frightened that you are ever expected to eat that. I learned that you can cut off a piece to use and leave the rest, that it will keep for a very long time. I learned that you can boil them, fry them, and pile them. I also learned that people will feed me loads and often its not things I should be eating, there was definitely unfried wagasi on the table and chicken which since I’m a vegetarian was not something I was excited about, but I suppose I’m happy it was chicken and not fish. Aside from the less appetizeing aspects of the meal it was delicious and I learned a very good lesson on how to prepare a yam. Of course the lesson doesn't end there! When I went to marche to buy yams I ended up with 6! Suffice it to say I don’t think I’ll be buying yams for a few weeks at least.

Now you might think that the weekend is over but its not. There is in fact more. The next day, Sunday I decided to get off my lazy ass and go for a bike ride get to see some of the country side, and so I went off on my bike in the direction of Taneka, 7 k away, My plan was to go for an hour bike ride so I’d go out for 30 mins and then come back in, wherever that got was where I was going but, 15 mintues into the bike ride, at Taneka I ran into a bus, which was really suprising! A BUS! But not just any bus, a bus full of white people! I mean what on earth was a bus full of white people doing on a backroad out to taneka in the north of Benin, but it gets better. I assumed as I do with most white people I see in this country that they were French, and so was planning on continuing on my way, but they stopped me. In English! A bus full of American white people! Who were so full of questions what was I doing where there any other aid programs in the area, was I really living this way minus running water and all?

"You must have running water?"

"No I get my water from a well."

"a WELL!" (you can i'm sure imagine the tax payers outrage)

"yes"

"is it safe to drink? you must have tablets you add?"

"I filter it, and then boil it"

"thats alot of work for a glass of water"

"You have no idea..."

So instead of biking out the other 15 minutes I spent about 25 being drilled by American tourists. All the while a little dazed at finding the tourists where I did. Really really weird.

This Friday, the 26th of October was not an awesome day. It basically started with my only Friday class which was not horrible, but also not great. Anyway I thought the day would be mediocre at best seeing as what I really wanted to be doing was going to Bajoudai for the whipping fete and instead I was in Copargo, waiting for the first teacher’s meeting. Which was to say the leas,t horrible, uncomfortable desk seats for 3 hours, and I really just can’t pay attention for that along especially when everything is in French. I kept focus until they had one of the teachers read a four page document all the way through, then I lost my focus and honestly didn’t understand a single word after that. Then when I thought I was blessedly free of the meeting they told me that now we had to go to the buvette… so off we all go to the buvette while I’m explaining that while I’m not a muslim I also still don’t drink. This confounded them. It started to rain as we got to the buvette and within 5 minutes it was a down pour, all out thunder lightening, power outage, wind whipping storm, that lasted for 45 minutes before it let up enough for me to feel safe biking home. Meanwhile I was happily thinking during the mostly silent buvette trip well at least my buckets which I left outside will be full… only to get home to one of the girls in my concession saying I had forgotten to close my windows. My heart just dropped, at first when I walked in I thought it wouldn’t be so bad, the floor in the salon seemed mostly dry and the study didn’t look too bad, but then I went into my bedroom where I had a small lake, at least a half an inch of water, on the floor and almost everything I own was wet, including my ipod and my laptop. I can’t even begin to tell you, I pretty much just sat there too tired to even cry for the horrible day just made absolutely and completely awful. So this was about 8 pm and tiredly started mopping up the water using rags a dust pan and my broom. I spread things out to let them dry and closed all the windows, by the time I had mopped up all the standing water I had 2/3 of a bucket full of water, I finished by setting my fan to blow at the floor for the night and by 10 was finally able to start cooking dinner. I feel the need at this point to thank my dad who through his effortless sense of humor managed to get my mind off how completely distressed I was by the fact that my laptop and my ipod could very well be broken and never work again and that many of my papers and photos were destroyed. So I got to bed completely exhausted just around eleven telling myself that things would be dry and look better in the morning.

They did, the floor except for a few resistant patches was totally dry, most of the paper, a bit crinkled and with slightly runny ink are dry and legible. The ipod and the laptop are turning on and functioning without glitches. I couldn’t ask more considering the extent of the disaster.

Lesson learned.

Hi All, This is Miriam's mom just letting you know that I have uploaded some photos so check them out.

Bus Station

Making a Delivery

And they say venice is sinking....

Cotonou street

Finding our sites

Learning Beninoise Card Games

I’ve started teaching. I mean really started. Some of the other TEFL volunteers have not really started yet. Their first weeks were filled with classrooms with 2 or 3 students, if they were lucky and no students if they were even luckier (they got to go home). My first class was about 20 students, and being incalculably stubborn I decided that the sooner I got started the sooner kids would realize that they had to come to my classes even if they didn’t have teachers in their other classes. I started teaching. “Good morning class!” “…..” “How are you today?” “…..” “I’m fine, please sit down.” “….” (they sit but only because they get the hand motion.) Gestures are a huge part of teaching for me. The only reason my students do anything is because they understand the hand gesture. I act like I’m holding a pen and writing, they copy. I put my finger across my lips, be quiet. They quiet for about 5 seconds. I raise my hand toward the ceiling palm up (like I’m lifting a tray), they stand, the reverse, move my hand down, palm down, they sit. Finger to the ear and they pretend to listen, or maybe they do listen. I point to my mouth and move my finger forward, “say it, ‘It is a pen.’ Say it.” They look at me and fumble through what might be “it is a pen.” And what might also be “inhma anhm penahim” (cough bic cough). Students from other classes who come to my door tremble because they know to get the eraser like their teacher asked them to they will have to go through saying “I need the duster.” In english…

“What do you need?”

“Chiffon, si vous plait”

“What class are you?”

“4eM…”

“Tu as besoin le chiffon?”

“Oui.”

“Say it, ‘I need the duster’” (accompanied by hand gesture)

“I… chiffon”

“I need the duster.” (gesture)

“I need….” (squirm)

“I need the duster.” (gesture)

“I…. duster” (shuffle)

“I need the duster.” (gesture)

“I need …(shuffle)...duster”

“Very good, it’s on the table.” (point)

I don’t think any of the students put through this will ever volunteer to come and get the duster from my class again. But to be honest what were they expecting, I’m an English teacher, they need to speak English to me, honestly.

My students also are perplexed by having to ask permission to leave the class. They love that I’ll follow a student to the door and make them go back to their seat, until it’s them I follow.

“What do you need?”

“Je vais pisser.” (not sure of spelling but quite literally, “I’m going to piss”)

“You want to go out?” (they know ‘go out’)

“Oui.”

“Teacher may I go out?” (gesture)

“May I out?” (hopeful)

“Teacher may I go out?” (gesture)

I’m sure you get the picture. They also don’t seem to understand why my class isn’t fun and easy, I mean English with the English speaker white person is supposed to be fun and easy right? songs, games, play time… not my class… not yet, so far they haven’t earned the right to sing, and honestly how many songs are there that consist of school supplies and greatings? Good morning copybook! I have a pen. This is a desk… that is a table, does not a great lyric make.

So perhaps now we get down to the nitty gritty… I have 4 classes of 6eme twice a week, which is 16 hours of class time a week, but only two lesson plans, with slight tweaks for the different groups. I never appreciated how much effort my teachers must have put into being teachers before now. Or how horrible it must be to ask a question in class and have your students give you a series of blank empty stares. Now I know, I suppose its probably vindicating to read this and realize that now I get it. “Do you understand?” (while pointing to the board where it says UNDERSTAND = COMPRENDRE in big friendly letters)

“Do you understand” They repeat.

“it’s a question, c’est une questionne. Le reponse est yes or no. Comprenez-vous?”

“Comprenez-vous?” they repeat.

“Oui ou non?”

“Oui ou non?” they repeat.

This was my first class with this group. Now they always respond with “YES!” which is not all that much more comforting. “What day is today?....Today is Monday.” “Today..is Monday.” “do you understand?” “YES!” five minutes later, “What day is today?” “…….” (blink..blink). Oh yes they understand…

So you never really realize how hard it is to move to a totally new place without much of a support system until you do it. Now imagine doing that in a language you can hardly speak and that your neighbors can hardly speak as well. Food is hard to find, your bathroom smells horrible, your not sure if your ever going to get enough water to stop being dehydrated, and all you want to do is hide in your house and mope and that’s the absolute last thing you should be doing. Books have never looked so attractive, and the idea of putting yourself out there and possibly being taken advantage of, of possibly making a huge mistake, of possibly discovering that the peace corps is not for you, is driving you to distraction, but not enough distraction to help you forget how lonely you are. This is the first week at post. It’s hard, really really hard. And the second week isn’t much better. There are some positives though, when you join the peace corps they tell you repeatedly to celebrate everything. So here are some things that I celebrated in my first week at post: Finding and buying eggs, beginning to get my own water from the well (I have more than I need now), getting the guts to go to my director’s house, and the pres. of the APE’s house and greet them etc., managing to get to and back from Djougou twice, no help (not kidding first time I ever flagged down a bush taxi all by myself), having enough water to be able to use some freshly boiled water in my bucket shower (so nice), and hitting all new levels of achievement on my computer games (maybe not something to be as proud of but hey, I’m really really bored).

Now on to the more concrete things about post, I live in a four room house, I have a study, and salon, a kitchen and a bedroom, (I walk into the study at least once a day just so I feel like its getting used). I also have a complete set of furniture, which is fantastic. I have no running water but pretty reliable electricity. I have a latrine in the back of my house, which shares a pit with my concession’s latrine which makes keeping the smell down really hard. A small bucket shower stall, and a back slab of concrete, walled in with a drain so I can do laundry and the dishes back there. There is a well in the middle of my concession about 10 feet from my front door, I get about 3 or 4 buckets of water from the well a day. You never realize how much water you need and how much you use it for until you have to haul ever drop of that water into your house; dishes: 1 or 2 buckets depending on what I make, laundry: 2 buckets, drinking and cooking: 1 bucket filtered and boiled (per day), shower: 1 bucket (per shower unless I wash my hair, then 1 ½), miscellaneous: 1 bucket (hand washing, cleaning etc.). Now what exactly does one bucket constitute in terms of effort? You might ask, after all its only a bucket. 1 bucket is approximately 2 bags of water pulled from the well. I usually pull two buckets at a time, this is four bags of water from the well, I take my two buckets out and then throw the bag down the well, the drop is easily 12 feet if not more, you haul the bag up, dump it in the bucket and then do it again, until the buckets are full, then carry the buckets into the house where I empty them either into the water filter, the laundry/dishes basins, or my large water container for later use. A bucket weighs more than my cat but less than oh I don’t know… my propane tank. This is how one deals with the water at my house, and while you might think I’m spending an excessive amount of time in this post on water, trust me, I’m giving this post an equal proportion of writing to how much I think about getting and using water.

So far Copargo has been a very nice place to be, everyone has been friendly and helpful, things are a bit far away, since I’m on the edge of town but its good exercise to walk or bike in for market etc. The area is beautiful, and while its still the pause between rainy (cold) season and dry (hot season) its been beautiful weather not to hot etc, and by the time it really does start getting hot I can look forward to harmatan (which I can’t spell) which will make things very cool in the mornings.

I haven’t started teaching yet but I’ll try to write up a post on that once I do, so far there isn’t much else to say about what I’m up to, really mostly sweeping, and hauling water, but I’m sure things will pick up next week when I start teaching.

Natasha Erin Kate and Rima looking happy

Me, Anastasia, and Natasha, at the party for our host families.

Our 6eme B class in sepia

some dancing

last day in Lokossa

So I will with a strange sort of confidence say that this will likely be the very ast post from Lokossa. Its Tuesday and by Friday afternoon I will offically have sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer, in front of the Ambassador and everything. By sunday evening (all things going as planned) I will be at post and away from internet for a few weeks. I am planning on getting a cell phone on thursday when we are in Cotonou for banking and shopping, if you want my phone number, you'll have to let e know betwween now and thursday evening because otherwise i won't email it out to you. (this is a public blog so i will not be posting my number here). Model school is offically over and now we are getting down to the nitty gritty bits of what to buy before you go to post, how to survive your first three months, since we aren't supposed to leave post until Dec. 22, yea I know, crazy! but such is life.... crazy that is. There are a few things we will have to leave post for, our VAC meeting in Oct. and our PSW in November (no I'm really not going to tell you what that all stands for, it really won't help you anyway :]) Just know that they count as work days away from post and we won't get in trouble for them. Also in good news there is another TEFL volunteer posted very near me, and we are all thrilled to have yet another post-mate to add to our collection. (yes thats right I have a collection of post mates)

Also highly amusing: I found out that Pheobe, Mae, and my teaching in 4eme really wasn't all that bad ;) when asked on their final exam to right an If clause (type 1) [or if - will] there were multiple responses of "If you come late to class, the teacher will kill you." You see threats work :)

Thats about all for now, we are all consolidating ur pictures today in an attempt to be able to get as many different ones as possible on line while we are in Cotonou, so keep your eyes peeled for a few new pics either on my pages or on the other PCTs (soon to be PCVs!) pages after thursday.

Wish us luck for Swear In!