After receiving a hilarious email about things my friend Alyssa learned in Timor, I decided to write my own version about my experience. I’m afraid mine may not be as funny, but I hope it will reflect some of the more important aspects of my time here. So, in no particular order, some of the lessons I have learned in Peace Corps:

Animal husbandry is not for me. I lost years off my life after watching my cat give birth, and the fiasco that ensued. Also, I have had enough of crowing roosters, squealing pigs, and curious goats to last me a lifetime.

I can’t fix everything. Unsurprisingly, this has been one of the most frustrating aspects of my service. And of course, it’s not just that I personally can’t fix things – it’s that I can’t envision a sure way for anyone to fix them. From the problems with the school system (overcrowded classrooms, underpaid and undereducated teachers, sexual harassment of female students, rampant cheating, lack of resources…) to the challenges of village life (poverty, lack of education and employment options, poor healthcare and sanitation, extremely disadvantaged female population…), the issues facing the Beninese population – and anyone, like the Peace Corps, who tries to get involved – often seem overwhelming.

Latrines are cool. Or at least better than a toilet that doesn’t really work, which is generally the other option here. Also, intestinal parasites aren’t as bad as they sound. Really.

Family is important. And I mean that in the widest sense of the word – people you’re related to, people you’re friends with, people you share part of your life with. Beninese people often wonder what in the world would motivate all these young, educated Americans to leave everyone they know for two years and come work here, for less money than we would earn in the US. In general, the Beninese depend on their families for everything – a place to stay when you’re away from home; a place to send a wayward child, or one you can’t afford; the surest way to get a job or a place at university; friendly intervention in disputes of all kinds; etc. While I would argue that there are many benefits of leaving the nest for a while, I also know that it has been hard – and wouldn’t have been possible without my many families: my parents, sister, and fiancé, who spend hours listening to me whine on the phone; my relatives who sent letters or packages; my friends who write me emails and don’t mind if I take a few weeks to get back to them; my neighbors in village who can overlook my utter foreign-ness enough to scold, annoy, and help me just like they do their own family; and my fellow volunteers, who know what I’m going through before I tell them. Now that I’m finally about to return to my pre-Peace Corps family, something for which I’ve felt ready for a while, I can’t escape the sense of loss that comes with leaving my closest neighbors, and the community of volunteers to which I now belong. But as I tell everyone here who asks why I won’t extend for a third year, I will be sad to leave Benin, but happy to return to my country.

I don’t have to understand everything. As some who know me may have noticed, I like to ask ‘why’ about pretty much everything – and then critically evaluate the response in a way which I am sure is nothing but constructive. When I first got to Benin, I couldn’t do anything without posing a series of questions: Why does a full taxi stop for ten minutes in every village? Why must I eat with my hands, and not the perfectly good spoon you have in the kitchen? Why is it rude to use your left hand if you can help it? Why is it okay for all the other teachers to start class 15 minutes late but not okay for me to end class 15 minutes early? Needless to say, I was pretty annoying to be around for a while. Sometimes I would get good answers to these questions – perfectly valid reasons I hadn’t even thought of. Other times, people would just shrug and say, That’s how it is. C’est l’Afrique, ça. What I’ve found is that, either way, those things that everyone does here aren’t going to change because I demanded reasons. I can either choose to do things my own way – which I usually get away with, as a foreigner – or get used to the Beninese way, which I like to think I have done in a lot of situations. Sometimes I still ask the questions, out of curiosity, but I don’t worry too much if I don’t get an answer, or if the answer I get doesn’t make any sense at all. I consider this a very big step for me.

Motos are cool, but safety is cooler. Although I must admit that I found nothing scarier at the beginning of my service than having to travel by motorcycle, there is nothing quite like speeding down the road on the back of a motorcycle, arms out to catch the wind. Until, of course, your zemidjan driver, preoccupied with adjusting his single rearview mirror, slams on his brakes, forcing you to smack him in the head with your oversized helmet. Or he fishtails in a sandy part of the dirt road. Or he takes a ‘speed bump’ (aka small tree placed in the road by concerned citizens) so fast you fly off the seat and land with a thud, happy not to be on the ground. Or he underestimates the depth of a puddle, and the clothes that you hand-wash end up splattered with mud. Or, squeezing through traffic, he squishes your foot between his moto and the hot tailpipe of another one. Or… well, you get the picture. I often love the breezy, unencumbered feeling of riding on a moto, but I will be more than happy to go back to travelling in cars with solid windshields and seatbelts and doors that latch, on roads where everyone stays in their own well-marked lane, even when it would really be faster just to use the left lane or the shoulder.

Kids are kids, everywhere. Sure, Beninese kids are generally more obedient to adults than American kids are (because they’re scared they’ll get smacked), and they do way more manual labor than you could ever con an American kid into doing. (I’m not allowed to carry anything around the village, even if it’s a bag so heavy I really can’t imagine how that skinny eleven-year-old could possibly lift it.) But as soon as their parents’ backs are turned, they’re playing around and smacking each other and yelling and doing all the other things kids usually do. And I don’t even want to hear about how students in the village must be better-behaved because they recognize how lucky they are to be in school. My students’ behavior ran the gamut from delightful to downright mean, but generally landed somewhere in the middle – a mix of respect, boredom, fear, interest, and mischief. Accordingly, my frustrations with teaching mirrored those of US teachers – even though our schools and our students seem so different.

I’m sure I have learned other things – or at least I hope so – but those are the big ones I can think of. Now here’s hoping they will have some bearing on life back in the US!

From Dad's Visit

Dad came to visit Benin finally! We had a great time, mostly hanging out in the village. These couple of pictures were taken during our epic sojourn into the Country... we followed three girls down these paths to go see the 'fields' - of course it turned out that they didn't really know where they were going, so we ended up traipsing around, collecting mangoes, watching for snakes, swatting at flies, etc. But Dad felt right at home, being that he is a Country Boy. If you look to the left of Dad in the pictures, you will see a gris-gris thing (meaning like a vodoun symbolic religious thing...) which the girls told me was to protect the cashews on that tree from getting stolen.

From Dad's Visit

From Dad's Visit

We also had the traditional dinner of yam pilé with my former host family in village, which was fun, and a lovely photo op. Please note that I was not asked to be in any of the pictures, but rather to be the photographer. I know where I stand.

From Dad's Visit

One of our main activities during our hanging out in village time was working on this gigantic puzzle I had intended to finish before he arrived, so when we finished it we took a picture. Also I am holding Dora's sole remaining kitten, aka Una, aka The Kitten Who Lived, aka Omon Dora. Mom requested that to see how small it is I think...?

From Dad's Visit

And last but not least, we had a fund-raising dinner the night before Dad arrived, for which we all took off our Chacos and put on nice clothes, so I am including a picture of several of my friends and myself from that evening. Don't we look... normal?

A couple of days ago I was invited to a friend’s house for a party in honor of the fourth anniversary of his older sister’s death. I knew that it was pretty common here to recognize such anniversaries, but I had never actually been to such a celebration, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The family who hosted it is fairly well-off (for the village), so it was quite the shindig. They had held a special mass (they’re Catholic) before it, and the prominent members of the church had come back to the house along with extended family and friends. There was food, beer, and soda, and everybody was in their nicest clothes. It was really quite festive. They had the video tape of the funeral playing over and over on the TV. That sounds dreary, but funerals here involve a lot of singing, and a couple of processions through town accompanied by a brass and percussion band. I was sitting with the teenaged daughter of my friend, who is also my student, and she was explaining the video – now they’re walking past the taxi-park, now they’re in our church, there’s so-and-so, etc. Then she tells me that they’re in the house where we’re sitting, and they’re saying some prayers and such over the coffin. Then she says, now they’re going to bury her, and points to a rectangular area on the floor right at our feet that is tiled over in a design depicting a cross. Now, I often misunderstand things in conversation here, which leads to me looking like an idiot if I don’t confirm what I think is going on. But in this case, my first impression was correct: there is indeed a woman buried under the floor of their living room, which I have walked over many times. I was a little freaked and tried to inconspicuously inch my toes back from the tiled area… The best I could gather, this isn’t the norm here, but they certainly don’t think it’s as strange as I did. In any case, other than that interesting revelation, it was a nice celebration of the sister’s memory, and it reminded me of get-togethers at home, which was unexpected.

I have been receiving complaints about my lack of blog posts. I would like to blame that on, you know, being in Africa, but it’s mostly because nothing too exciting is going on here. I have nonetheless decided to do a post, but it’s definitely not going to be action-packed, so feel free to skim.

This week is the first of four exam periods at my school. The students have to do exams in all subjects at the same time, for logistical reasons I suppose. It seems like it would be a nightmare to study for, and it certainly is no picnic to grade. But it means that I don’t have to teach this week; I just have to proctor exams in random subjects. It’s super boring, but I get to see what the students are being tested on in other classes. And I always discover fun new ways to cheat.

I met up with my friends this past weekend to have Thanksgiving dinner. We had to do it on Saturday, since teachers in Benin in fact do not get Thanksgiving off, but it was very nice and we managed to prepare quite a lot of delicious traditional food. We made up a plate for our Beninese guard, and his response was, what IS this? I’m sure he enjoyed it in the end though…

There was a big Muslim holiday this past Friday, which threatened to thwart our Thanksgiving plans by closing stores and the main market and interrupting transportation. It was Tabaski - ok, I actually don’t know how it is spelled, but that is how it sounds. Anyway, it’s the one where they kill goats.

The pictures are not really related to the post. The first is me with the daughter of my host family from training. Her name is Machoukouratou, which is a typical name for a Muslim girl here. The second is Daniel during his visit, riding a zemidjan with Dora (my cat) in a colander on his lap. We were taking her to get her rabies shot so I wouldn’t get kicked out of the Peace Corps (or get rabies). And finally, the American flag we made out of an Air France towel and some sheets on the fourth of July. Yes, there are 50 stars. Count em.

Hello everyone! In case you were worried, I have not in fact dropped off the face of the earth, but rather had a busy summer of traveling and otherwise being lazy. So here is my very short summary of the last 5 months of my life:

Part 1: Camps

CampGLOW, the girls’ camp for which I brought four of my students to the big city, went well. It was a bit exhausting – it turns out you have to be very energetic on very little sleep in order to be a camp counselor – but the girls seemed to have a fabulous time, so it was worth it. Those same girls are now helping me to run the girls’ club here at our school.

I also taught English at an English day camp some volunteers were holding up North. That was a much different experience (fewer songs and crafts, to be sure) but it was fun to teach with other volunteers, and I enjoyed seeing the northern part of the country. The predominant ethnic groups there are different from those in my part of the country (the middle) and it’s a mostly Muslim area. Also they have lots of cows – big white ones with scary horns and a humpback.

Part 2: Daniel’s Visit

My fiancé Daniel made his obligatory visit to Benin in July, much to the delight of basically everyone I know here and of course me. I made the poor boy hand wash his own laundry, pull water from the well, and cram himself into crowded bush taxis, but he got a snazzy outfit and a Guinness out of it, so he decided it wasn’t a bad place. We chilled in the village for a lot of the time, and also made an appearance at a volunteer party in honor of Beninese Independence Day (August 1st) at which the main attraction was the slaughtering and eating of an entire cow (again, one with big scary horns). Needless to say, Daniel got the full Benin PCV experience.

Part 3: Work

Since Daniel left, I have slowly and sadly been saying goodbye to my long summer and getting back to work. I helped with the training of the new folks, who arrived at the end of July, for a couple of weeks. That was fun because it meant I had really been here a year, and that somebody thought I had learned enough to teach the new kids. I have also been doing some work with our volunteer Gender and Development Committee.

School started almost four weeks ago, so I am pretty much in that routine now. I have four classes of about 55-60 kids again this year, though I have moved up a grade level. The second year is turning out to be easier than the first, since I’m no longer completely out of the loop at school, but I still face a daily struggle to keep my group of energetic students from becoming a boisterous mob.

So that’s the update on my life – send me an email with an update on yours! Oh, and sorry about the lack of pictures – my reliably unreliable internet connection won’t upload them today. I’ll try to add them later.

From Maman comes to Benin

1 – I have made four posts at the same time, for the sake of keeping the info organized. So if you have time, make sure to scroll down and see them all!

2 – Thanks to a relatively new service through my cell phone provider, I now am able to access the internet at home. Of course, the connection is not great, and I am also trying not to spend every second tethered to my computer like I would in the states. Nonetheless, I am much more available for communication now, so if you want to send me an email or find me on skype or gchat, that would be cool.

3 – While I would never want to pressure any of you into giving money, if you are interested in donating to Peace Corps projects, there is a link on the main website (www.peacecorps.gov) that says Donate Now. You can search projects by country and keyword I think. There are several up for Benin right now (all sponsored by individual PCVs here). The girls' camp that I will be taking four girls to in June was just recently funded through such an online account.

4 – Due to my new internet access, I have been able to upload a whole bunch of pictures to Picasa, and I hope to be adding more as time goes on. I'm not really that familiar with Picasa, but I figure you can figure it out if you'd like to check out the pictures. There are videos too, including one of me looking super cool hauling water from the well.

From Maman comes to Benin

I have now received my first visitor in Benin – my mom came to see me for Easter. She was here for over two weeks, and we had a great time. We spent a couple of days at the beach – it's not like a Florida-type beach, but it was still relaxing – and then spent over a week in my village before heading back down to the city, where I had to do a workshop type thing with Peace Corps. So she got to meet all my village family, and my Peace Corps friends and bosses. She also got to see me teach, to my students' delight, so she can attest to the craziness I deal with in the classroom. And we had matching outfits made, which is a cool thing to do here for special events, so we were a big hit at school. To my neighbors' astonishment, I put her to work while she was here. She painted my living room, made curtains, cleaned up, etc., etc.

From Maman comes to Benin

So my house is greatly improved after her visit, plus she brought me lots of great loot from America. In case you are wondering, I have found that multicolored cheddar goldfish taste exactly like America. Mom was really cool about all the minor inconveniences of living, and particularly traveling, in Benin – all except the heat. She used my fan 24/7, even on rainy nights when I was freezing. But she was great with motos, latrines, bucket showers, my cooking, crowded taxis, and long waits for everything. She even stayed calm when I lost her in the next town over from mine! I had put her on a moto to go ahead of me to a restaurant, but the Zemidjan got confused and took her to a different store, and she couldn't correct him since she doesn't speak French (although, neither did he, which was the root of the confusion). Anyway, I nearly had a stroke when I showed up at the restaurant and nobody had seen her. I got back on a moto and cruised through town, and spotted her sitting patiently on a bench on the side of the road. After that I never left her without giving her a cell phone! The only major problem we had was getting Africa sick – both of us – right at the end. It was the sickest I have been in my service so far, so I felt really bad that Mom had to experience it with me! It wasn't so bad though, because we were already in the city, so we had access to meds pretty quickly. In any case, I think she is proud to have an African illness story, but don't believe any claims she might make about dengue fever (which is in Central America, I think) or swine flu (in North America). So, despite not being able to eat for the last couple of days of her visit, I think Mom would still recommend it to anyone with a couple thousand dollars lying around, and I would certainly host anyone who manages to get themselves to Cotonou, so let me know if you're interested!

(more pics for this post will be coming as soon as I get them uploaded)

The Beninese school year (which is on much the same calendar as the American one, just shorter) is wrapping up, but a couple of weeks ago the teachers decided they had been jerked around enough (there is some business about not being given contracts by the state, which amounts to them not getting paid properly, or on time) and started striking on a weekly basis. Well, we are about to enter week three of strikes. The thing is, I don't work for the Beninese government and in fact am expressly forbidden by the Peace Corps to participate in strikes. So, while my colleagues take extended weekend trips, I am holding regular classes at the school. It's not all that weird, because the admin is there, and some of the teachers (for reasons I don't really understand) are still teaching. But a lot of my kids don't come during the strike, which makes my class size more manageable but also means they are missing stuff. And, to my dismay, the school year may be extended because of the strikes, which means I actually have to teach extra, which is just not nice when I am soooo ready for summer. But nonetheless, I have faith that we will finish at some point, and I will be free and easy for the summer.

From Maman comes to Benin

In the last few months I have been engaged in an epic battle against some very small, very scary mice that had taken up residence in my house. My original strategy was to stand on a chair and hyperventilate whenever I saw one, but when one showed up on the outside of my mosquito net while I was sleeping, I decided I needed a more proactive plan. Long story short, I ended up doing something completely out of character and getting a cat. I was assured by all my Beninese and American friends that this was the only sure way to deal with my mouse problem, so in spite of my allergies and intense dislike of animals, particularly cats, I bought a tiny little kitten while I was in the city. Then I had to keep her in my hotel room, where she disappeared while locked in the bathroom. My friend and I actually had to enlist the help of the hotel staff (who didn't bat an eye at the idea of me having a cat in the room) to look for her, and finally found her inside the porcelain base of the sink, miraculously unscathed. So we named her Dora the Explorer, and she continues to lose herself in small places. Although I think she is still too small to catch mice, she seems to have put the fear of God into them, and they at least stay out of sight. Of course, Dora does many of the annoying things the mice did – making messes, chewing on my stuff, eating my food – so I'm not sure it's really that much of an improvement, but the neighbor kids enjoy having a pet to toss around.

As many of you may have already heard, we have had a tragedy here in Benin. One of my fellow volunteers, a second-year teacher named Kate, was killed in her village a few days ago. The details are unclear right now, but it appears to be an isolated incident that does not threaten the general security of the other volunteers here. Of course, we are all shocked and upset at her death. Most of us are in the capital right now for a memorial service and to get updated information on the situation. Peace Corps is working hard to address all our concerns to ensure our safety and enable us to continue our work here in a few days. Kate's family is from Cumming, Georgia, so the story is being reported on Atlanta news. Please keep Kate's family in your thoughts and prayers, but also know that this tragedy does not represent a general trend of violence toward volunteers in Benin.

I hope to be posting other news soon, but I have been finding internet access to be rather inconvenient lately, so I won't make any promises.

Until next time----------------------

Okay, pop quiz: how do cashews grow? If you're thinking about peanuts - which is only logical - then you are very wrong. Yes indeed, they grow on trees. Alright, maybe I was the only one confused - I think almonds grow on trees too, but being from Georgia peanuts were the sensible comparison to make. Right now I am sure my dad is saying, 'yes, but peanuts are legumes, not nuts like cashews,' or something similarly explanatory, but still. It's just weird. There are a lot of cashew trees in my region of Benin, and in fact there are several large ones in my school yard. Cashew exports are a big business around here; they seem to be the main enterprise of the most successful people in my village. A lot of them apparently get exported to India. Anyway, the season is rolling around so I took a picture of the tree at school to share with my fellow Georgians who may be confused. The nuts actually grow under these little apple-ish fruits, which my friend says you can eat, but that people usually don't because the nuts aren't ready until the fruit is past ripe and falls. I haven't actually tasted any Beninese cashews yet, but I am dying to get my hands on some. The cashews have looked ready for weeks now, but people keep telling me to wait. The mangoes (which also grow on trees) seem to be in a similar state of misleading almost-ripeness, so I am waiting impatiently for those as well.

I finally took a picture of one of my classes. I had been waiting because I knew producing a camera during class would cause an uproar. My concerns were not unfounded, but I managed to get a couple of pictures without having the camera broken or causing a ruckus loud enough to get scolded by anyone. I am trying to correspond with a teacher in Atlanta and her class through this penpal program the Peace Corps has, which was the initial impetus for taking the pictures. It's actually pretty cool because the teacher is a recent college grad doing the Teach for America program. Anyway this is a class of my older students, around eighth grade. There are about fifty of them in the class, but I don't think you can see all of them in the picture. Also they usually sit in groups of three desks, so they're not all in rows like that, but this was just after test week and the desks were still lined up from that. The first picture was when I had threatened them in French with punishment if they didn't stay in their seats for the picture. The second was after I had shown them all the first picture on the camera and then let a student take a picture with me in it. Clearly they could no longer contain themselves, but it was pretty fun to get that picture.

I have also started my girls' club since Christmas, which is sort of exciting. Most TEFL volunteers do a girls' club, so it's not like out of the ordinary or anything. We have had three meetings so far, and our fourth is tomorrow. I have between 7 and 15 girls, though I hope a few more will start coming. It is mostly for the younger girls at the school (like 7th to 9th grade) and it is pretty educational - we deal with topics like time management, sexual health, leadership, hygiene, etc. I am not quite sure what I am doing yet, but there is a great club mentor in my village who has worked with all the three volunteers before me, and she is helping a lot. We visited the local health center a couple of weeks ago and talked to the midwife about family planning, which I thought went really well, and tomorrow a man from a local NGO is coming to do a little training on HIV/AIDS. Side note on HIV/AIDS in Benin: the national rate is like 1%, which is much lower than many countries in Africa, but it is still taken very seriously by the government and NGOs and such. It's common to see signs that say things like 'AIDS knows no borders' and they even talk about it in various classes in school - it will be one of my topics when I have 9th graders next year. Besides the obvious method of transmission, there is also concern here about shared razors, because ritual scarification (mostly of the face, I think) is pretty common. The man who is coming to talk with us tomorrow is actually doing a campaign right now where he does trainings specifically with traditional religious groups, since they do a lot of the scarification.

Anyway, girls have a lot of disadvantages in school here, which is why Peace Corps really encourages girls' clubs. Until recently it was very uncommon for girls to finish secondary school or even primary school. Now primary school is free for girls (and pretty cheap for boys) and there has been a big national campaign to get 'All girls to school.' But still, especially in villages, girls are much less likely to finish secondary school than boys. My classes are the first two years in secondary school, and girls make up only about one-third. I certainly wouldn't consider myself on the many and complex factors that explain this, but some of them are pretty clear: girls have more responsibilities at home (cooking, cleaning, caring for younger siblings, etc.) so they have less time to study and often fail out; boys are often dominant in the classroom and boys are expected by the teachers (who are almost all male) to be better students; early pregnancy is very common, and girls generally have to drop out of school permanently to care for the child; some parents don't make education a priority for their daughters; there is also an issue with some (certainly not all) teachers dating their students, which is pretty widely accepted around here, although there are definitely people working to change it (side note: Dad says Ms. June said that 30 years ago she knew teachers in the US who ended up marrying their students, so I try not to be too high and mighty about this issue); and the reasons could go on and on I'm sure. But I think things are slowly changing, and I hope that the few girls who come to my club will maybe have a better chance at finishing school, which of course opens up a lot of opportunities for them to do something than what their mothers do (which is generally sell things at the market, sell gas or food on the side of the road, work in the fields, or make clothes, all with a baby on their back). Even a few years in school is very valuable, because it means they learn French, which is important if they want to leave the village, because there are so many other local languages in Benin. And that ends my girl power rant for the moment... I had mentioned before that I was going to try to grow some vegetables, and even compost to feed them. But the reason there is no picture accompanying this is that I have found myself unable to grow even flowers, which is sort of demoralizing, and thus have not tried to grow vegetables, which seems like it would be harder. I had this cool flower box made for lots of money, and decorated it, and filled it with good dirt from a man I met in the village who does his own compost, and I planted flower seeds my grandma sent me. And then nothing grew. I am fairly certain this is because daily watering proved to be way too difficult to remember, but I am nonetheless putting that project on hold. So if you want to send me dried vegetables, I wouldn't send 'em back... Ok, the connection here keeps cutting in and out so I'm going to post this before it's too late. A la prochaine...

Happy 2009 everyone! Thus begins the first full calendar year I have ever spent outside the US. Not sure why that's important, but it helps me to get a better handle on exactly how long I am going to be gone. I just hit the 6 months in-country, 4 months at post mark, and we are coming up on the end of our first school semester, so there are lots of milestones coming up. Plus, of course, I celebrated my first Christmas and New Years in Benin! The holidays were pretty good, especially because I got two weeks off of school which was a very good opportunity to lay around and bake a lot. I also went to visit some friends who sort of live in my region, and we did lots of very Peace Corps -esque things to celebrate Christmas. My friend John Mark dressed up as Santa for an orphanage Christmas party (check out the suit - a local tailor made it based on a picture of ol' Saint Nick). Then we killed (ok actually we watched a neighbor kill) a chicken, then deplumed it and fried it for Christmas dinner. Yep, I actually pulled the feathers out of a chicken. The highlight for me was cranberry sauce made with Craisins. Delicious. Then, I was at my friend Claire's house, and her postmate was doing a world map project where they paint a world map on the side of a school, which is really common for PCVs. Anyway it ended up being more work than anticipated, so my friends and I spent the day helping with that, which was fun, but hot and thirsty work. What I found out, basically, is that I am familiar with an extremely small percentage of the countries in the world. I can find Benin on a map, which is more than a lot of people can say I guess. I was home for New Years. I had gone to a Christmas Eve service in my village before travelling on Christmas day, which was a 10 to 12 pm service in local language followed by a singing concert. There was a repeat performance scheduled for New Years eve, but I opted to stay home, to the chagrin of my neighbors. On New Years Day I was stuffed to bursting with food by some friends in the village. Then, on January 2, people kept dropping by my house for the 'party'. I was way confused, since I thought the holiday was the day before, and they were disappointed that I didnt have any cookies to give them. Oops... I took this picture with Roseline on Christmas Eve. She's wearing the hat my grandmother gave me for Christmas, and which I proceeded to wear with my new holiday outfit to church. It was a hit. I think we should bring goofy hats back into style at church. So school is back on now, which is okay I guess. We will have tests in a couple of weeks, which brings us to the midpoint of the year. My Peace Corps boss is scheduled to come visit in February, so I might be coming home earlier than planned. Well, not really, but I am nervous about it... she is going to watch me teach, and I don't think that is a very good idea at all. Then we have a training at the end of February. In other news, I am developing several projects around the house (aka thinking very hard about them). These include cementing the gaps in my ceiling, composting, growing vegetables, embroidering a table cloth, teaching Roseline to read, and drying fruits and veggies. If anyone has any insight on one or more of those things, I would be happy to hear about it. That about sums it up for here. I'd love to hear about your holidays, and lives in general, so drop me an email!

Yes indeed, they do have Christmas in Benin. We get a school holiday and everything. But of course, there will be no snow (thank the good Lord) and they dont really do the Christmas tree thing around here... but my family sent me a paper one to stick to my wall, and as you can see it is pretty fabulous. It was sorta hard to explain to my neighbors, though...

The lack of American seasons here makes the holidays seem sort of improbable, like we're just pretending it's Thanksgiving or whatever. But it is actually getting a little cool here. There is a season called the Harmatan that is very dry, windy and chilly at least in the mornings, and I think we have started it (although i keep getting conflicting reports of the weather). In any case, it hasn't rained in like a month and it is legit cool in the mornings, like below 70, although it is still really sunny so it's hot by afternoon. All the Beninese run around in jackets in the morning, while I just enjoy not sweating for a bit. Plus, everything in my house is covered in a nasty layer of dust. That part isn't so awesome...

So anyway I was in Parakou (the second biggest city in Benin) last week for a Peace Corps TEFL training. The training part was appropriately informative, but the main attraction was that all 14 TEFL volunteers got to hang out together and have a little fun after being mostly stuck at post alone for nearly three months. This is us on the left, in our fabulous 80's attire that we selected from the piles and piles of used American clothes they sell at markets here. (Next time you donate to the Salvation Army, imagine a little Beninese kid wearing your shirt.) I am way in the back in the picture, but my outfit wasnt great, and we all look like we are having so much fun I had to include the picture.

The other obvious perk of my stay in Parakou was having Thanksgiving with Americans! We went all out and had a really marvelous - and fairly authentic - dinner for 18. Being in the big city, we could get most of the stuff we needed, although sadly there was no cranberry sauce. We had turkey (not a whole one - we bought a whole bunch of what we were told was 'shoulders' and turned out to be delicious) and sweet potato casserole (which i made) and mashed potatoes (not even yams! real potatoes!) and bread and butter and gravy and stuffing and salad and cornbread. It was all delicious, and we felt very domestic (since none of us had ever coordinated a thanksgiving dinner before) and proud of ourselves. Of course we all had calls coming in from the family at home, but it really was the best Thanksgiving you could ask for if you have to be away from home.

I had to take a picture of my plate because I figured this would all sound wayyy to good to be true, but I am not exaggerating! Look at that turkey shoulder!

Well thats about all I have for today. School continues, although having a break last week was amazing, and this week we have tests, which the whole school takes in every subject at one time (it has something to do with keeping them from cheating) so all i have to do this week is supervise tests, which is boring but doesn't require any planning. And Christmas break is coming up fast! Our first semester doesn't end until February though.

As a general note, thanks for all the emails slash comments slash letters I am getting from everyone! It's good to hear what's going on at home. I'll try to post again soon!

Hello there everyone!

So it seems that it's been a long time since i posted, and I've been busy, but mostly with the same stuff over and over, so this post will probably be short and uneventful. The pics are of my very favorite neighbor, Roseline, who is 11 and helps me with everything. (Today she carried my empty butane bottle to the taxi stand on her head because i couldnt carry it. That was a little embarrassing.) She wanted to take these pics because it was Sunday and we were both dressed up. The second one is of her with her youngest brother, Leonel. He used to run when he saw me, and cry when his older brothers tried to make him come near me, but now he comes and stands outside my door saying, 'Ko Ko Ko,' the local equivalent of knock knock knock. He doesnt speak any french yet, so thats pretty much the extent of our conversations.

Anyway, since my last post, school did indeed start. So I have been teaching - I have 16 teaching hours a week, plus a two hour meeting. So not a lot of hours, but it is taking some getting used to. Plus, right now I am doing extra classes to make up for a week of school I will miss for a Peace Corps training. I have four classes, two each of the Beninese equivalent of seventh and eight grade. My students are, on a good day, rambunctious, and there are about 55 in each class. Basically I have found out that it is not easy to get that many kids to stop talking at one time, not to mention the kids that are not my students who are hanging through the nonexistent windows of the classroom, nevermind getting them to actually understand what I am saying. But we are working on overcoming those little issues. I took a trip to the big city a couple of weeks ago. Parakou is the biggest city after Cotonou, the capital, and there is a Peace Corps workstation there, which translates to a really cool place where volunteers can sleep and hang out for free without having to worry about being friendly in local language. We had a meeting there and several of my friends were in attendance, so it was really nice to see them after almost two months basically on my own. I was also able to get new books (the workstation keeps a library) and buy ketchup and green beans and carrots, which was a big deal. My training is also there, so I am excited about that. The goat on the right was dinner one night - some of the other PCVs (ones who have been here longer of course) decided they were going to grill out, and that only a whole goat would do. Of course, the Beninese guard had to kill it and clean it, since we had no idea how to do that. I didn't watch most of it, but from what I did see, there is quite a complicated technique involved. Did you know it's actually illegal to kill a goat or other animal in your yard in the US? Well thats what my PC friends said. Maybe it's not true in GA.

This next, lovely picture is of my most impressive wound yet. It's actually not a great story; but its all I've got, so I'll tell it. I had these two mosquito bites on my ankle that were normal for like a week, then mysteriously got infected, which was ok until my ankle got all swollen and I was pretty sure gangrene was the next step. Long story short, I had to go to a hospital in the next town (ok it was really just a medical center, but the french word is hôpital) and they prescribed some antibiotics that took care of my fear of losing my foot, but i did have to work hard to keep bandages on a rather impossible place (your ankle, you know, bends) so I walked around looking like a wounded civil war soldier for like two weeks, prompting lots of judgmental comments from my friendly neighbors, who could not in any way understand how a mosquito could possibly inflict such damage. I have also had encounters with a mouse, a gigantic cockroach, and a bat in my kitchen, but none of them have deigned to make a second appearance (well the bat can't because Roseline came and bludgeoned it to death with a stick that was taller than her, to my horror and relief) so I still am able to, you know, set foot in my kitchen without feeling the need to crouch in abject terror on my chair. Basically, my pest problems could be much much worse, so I just hope they stay as they are. In other news, the election of Barack Obama has made me a local superstar (who am I kidding, I already was one). Everybody congratulated me on it, which I thought was kind of funny. I think Africans are quite possibly more excited about it than Obama supporters in the US. If anyone's looking for a good book to read, my recommendations include The God of Small Things and A Prayer for Owen Meany, although most books are enthralling when your only other entertainment is BBC World Service on an ailing short wave radio. Not to knock BBC of course - they keep me quite informed about the world and I have learned some about British politics, cricket, and world football ( aka soccer for all you Americans ) in my hours and hours of listening time. Anyway, time is getting away from me, and I need to go to the bank if I want to eat for very much longer (which I do), although the apparent butane shortage is going to mean i can only eat cold, raw food pretty soon, but oranges and bananas cost money too! Oh yeah, and the title is a response to one of the favorite questions around here, Have you done a little? Normally you just say yes, but if you have done especially a lot, you can answer beaucoup même, which i guess translates to, a lot itself. This amuses me and it happens to fit right now. So anyway, until next time.

So, school starts Monday and my administrators still havent gotten back from vacation. I am a tad concerned, but everyone assures me that they are coming and there is nothing to worry about. I am sure they are right...

Things are going fine here. My biggest health problem for now is the fact that I cut myself like all the time, mostly in the kitchen but once with my fabulously sharp multitool, and the cuts always get infected because, well, I touch stuff with my hands, which is where most of the cuts are. So I am flying through Neosporin and Bandaids, and everyone in the village gets really concerned every time I have a new Bandaid, but there are wayyyyy worse problems - cholera, anyone? - so I dont mind.

This is how yam pile is made. It takes two people, two big sticks, and a lot of effort. These girls let me try but then laughed and took the stick away. Then I get to eat it for lunch. Yummm...

This is how it turns out.... all round and smooth. They just boil the yams, then mash them up and add water. I think a little butter and garlic wouldnt be out of line, but its pretty good as is, with sauce.

This is my back patio. Big metal door, glass bottles on the top of the wall... The walled in space is the shower area. Also there are clothes lines across the whole space that you cant see, and a covered storage or work area to the left of the picture.

These next two pictures are my kitchen. Thats my stove on the table, with the gas bottle underneath. To the left are my sinks, which are just basins that sit in holes in the table - they dont drain - but they are delightful.

Then I have a big shelf full of yummy stuff, and there is my super fancy drinking water container, that actually has a spigot at the bottom. A gift from my predecessor, of course.

This is my front room. Lots of chairs for my many visitors. And new curtains!

And this is the other half of the front room - separated by a big curtain - which I am calling my study. Ha.

This is my friend who lives up the road. He is from Cote d'Ivoire, but is visiting his parents who live here, and he sits on this bench all day because he is disinclined to make Beninese friends. But he is really the sweetest man and now he has volunteered to help me with my Nagot. So I take a notebook and after we discuss life, politics, and how I slept despite the heat, mosquitoes, and general miserableness (in his view) of village life, i take some notes on important phrases and vocab. Right now we are working on market words!

OK, gotta get back home. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Although my post is in the region of Benin generally considered to have a lot of believers in 'animist' religions (aka voudun, which is not nearly as scary as you think), my village seems to be mostly Christian, with a few Muslims and animists sprinkled in. There is one mosque, a big Catholic church, and two Protestant churches: an Assembly of God Church and - believe it or not - a Methodist church. This seemed rather too unlikely to be coincidence, so I have faithfully attended the service there each Sunday (3 for 3 so far!).

There are two services each Sunday - one in French and the other in local language. The first Sunday I went the two were combined, whcih meant it was almost all is local language and I understood almost nothing. It was sort of cool though, because they have both hymnals and Bibles in Yoruba, which was sort of surprising to me, although it makes perfect sense considering the number of people around here who don't speak French well (or at all). Also my dad tells me that translating Bibles into local lanugages is a pretty standard missionary task.

Anyway, the next Sunday I attended the French service with mostly young people (who are more likely to speak French well). I was relieved to be able to understand a great deal more of the service. Basically, it's a lot like a Methodist service in the States, with the main differences being cultural, I think, not doctrinal. Although I havent yet gotten my hands on a French hymnal, I actually recognized some of the hymns. I also recognized the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, though I didn't hear the Doxology. There were also some prayers that reminded me of the Episcopal church, though I won't elaborate lest any four year veterans of the Episcopal choir at All Saints feel the need to correct me. There also seems to be a familiar spirit of inter-denominational Protestant rivalry here. My predecessor attended the Assembly of God church and the Methodists are bound and determined not to let those crazies get me. (Let me now make perfectly clear that I mean no offense to anyone affiliated with the Assembly of God church; basically the only thing I know about them is that their missionaries must rival the Methodists in reach and effectiveness.)

As far as differences go, they seem mostly superficial to me. (You'll have to forgive the compare-contrast format; four years of college essays haven't quite worn off yet.) Of course, I really haven't been in a position to become aware of more fudnamental differences, but here are my observations thus far:

First off, women cover their heads during the service. Not sure if this is compulsory, but everyone does so I don't challenge it. This is actually quite common for women when dressing nicely, and wouldn't be a problem at all except I haven't gotten the hang of tying the head wrap in such a way that it does not cause discomfort that develops into pain after an hour and forty minutes. But I'm working on it.

There's also quite a bit more dancing than one would see at, say, Conyers First UMC, but aside from some energetic choreography by the youth choir, it's nothing too wild and crazy. All the hymns are accompanied by hand drums, which is standard for Beninese music, and I think would be a festive addition to US church services.

During prayer, everyone hunches forward over their knees, or kneels on the ground. This is a nice visual sign that everyone is praying, though given that one's eyes are supposed to be closed, that can hardly be the point. Other than that, there are little things that seem odd to me because I don't understand. For example, after the regular offering there is a cermonial offering in which everyone sort of dances/processes up to the front and puts very small change into a basket. There is no explanation given since it is a part of the weekly ritual. I'll ask someone eventually...

I have acquired a New Testament in French, and I am looking forward to getting a Bible in Yoruba (so I can be mystified by scripture in 3 languages). If I get any deeper insights into church here, I'll post an update...

Well I have arrived at post, and officially begun my 2 years of service. Swear-in passed nicely and uneventfully. The first picture is me in my official tissue (if you look closely you can see the shape of Benin with 40 across it, and it says in French and English 'In Benin Since 1968') with a PCV pal. And it is, as you can see, magenta. The next picture is me with my host brothers, who had adorable outfits made with the matching tissue I gave them. The third picture is pretty bad, but its just to show the different colors of tissue that the new volunteers were wearing (each sector had their own color, but the pattern was the same). Basically, we were pretty fabulous as a group.

So, Sunday the 7th I packed up to head to post in a very full taxi. School won't start until the beginning of October, so I'm spending the first few weeks trying to get my house set up and generally getting used to living here. My general aversion to housework - of which there is quite a lot around here - is making hte house setting-up a rather slow task, but other than that things are going fine. I spend a lot of time going around greeting people, generally in Nagot, which is the local language here. Of course my knowledge of Nagot is limited to 'Good morning/afternoon/evening. How did you wake up? Fine, thank you.' But people seem generally impressed Ive managed to pick even that little up- although it's a product of several classes and some studying before my arrival here. I've made several friends in the village (mostly inherited from the previous volunteer) and they have been very nice to me, and they are always willing to help me out with anything I need. The next big task, of course, will be preparing for the start of school. I have to keep reminding myself that while cooking every day, cleaning house, doing laundry, going to market, and keeping up with my social life is difficult, I do actually have a job that will be starting soon! What follows is a sort of overview of the logistics of life without Modern Conveniences, for those who are interested, then as requested a description of Beninese cuisine. My house - like, from what I can tell, most houses in the village - has electricity, which is not the case for all PCVs in Benin and is much appreciated by me. So I have lights at night and outlets to charge things like a cell phone. I have no fridge though - it would cost too much to buy and then would use too much electricity. The few fridges I've seen around here, even in the city, are generally used just to keep things cool, only plugged in periodically. The exception, of course, is anyplace that sells beer and Cokes, which are always refreshingly cold. Anyway, having learned to cook (sort of) in the US where there are fridges and other convenient things like canned vegetables, I am having to adjust quite a lot. Basically, I have to cook (on my PC issued gas stove) whenever I want to eat, although leftovers usually last from lunch to dinner or even overnight if I can keep them from the ants. I havent tried cooking meat yet, basically because I'm afraid I'll poison myself, but I hear even that will keep overnight if you reheat it to kill the bacteria. Eggs, incidentally, dont have to be refrigerated, for a while at least. So I am basically subsisting on rice and beans, although I also have access to spaghetti, couscous, and yams. I can get tomato paste, fresh tomatoes, onions, and garlic at the market, as well as salt, sugar, eggs, and various other things that I wouldn't know what to do with. Right now oranges and bananas are available, but I expect they're seasonal. The good news is that I am able to bake - using a contraption that reveals the origin of the term Dutch oven - and though I have yet to perfect this technique (I burnt my first cake pretty badly) I think there are good things to come. My most frustrating kitchen discovery so far has been that it takes over an hour to cook dry beans - and that's after soaking them for half a day. This is hardly convenient when you are hungry. Makes me miss McClurg... I don't have running water, but this is less inconvenient than it sounds. My concession (2 other families plus me in a semi-enclosed block) has several cement cisterns that catch rainwater off the roofs, plus a well that I'm guessing we use in the dry season. I (or the helpful neighbor kids) haul that water in to the house where I have several large storage containers and I use it for everything but drinking. Although I still filter and boil my drinking water, the neighbors have said I should use the water from the public pump, which is quite a bit farther than the cistern, for drinking. I have trouble believing the pump water is all that much cleaner, since I don't know where it's pumped from, but whatever. For dirty water I have a drain through the wall of my back patio, and I have several big basins I use for sinks. Then there's the latrine in lieu of a toilet, which is also not nealry as bad as you think. All in all, life here is a little bit like camping - which I know doesn't sound good to anyone who has heard me carry on about my hatred of camping - but only a little bit. Your feet are always dirty, which means your bed is always a little sandy; you have to sleep with a mosquito net; you have to go outside to brush your teeth; when it's sunny you're hot and when it's rainy you're chilly; spiders are ubiquitous. But other than little things like that, it's not so different from 'normal life' like in the states. My house is really very nice - certainly not the much anticipated Hut in Africa. So I'm not complaining about my very first house of my own. I do miss vegetables though. And meatloaf! Speaking of food... My one disclaimer about food is that I am not exactly wild about Beninese food in general, although lots of Americans are. So if I make anything sound unappetizing, it's probably just my personal taste... Pâte- The quintessential Beninese food, this is a staple which many Bneinese eat every day. It is made with corn flour, and as the name suggests (pâte is the French word for paste) it has sort of a thick, sticky consistency. Served with sauce (some made with spinach, some with okra, some with tomatoes), it is generally a meal in itself. Though the Beninese are not averse to using silverware, this is one food they insist you eat with your hands (after washing them of course). Pâte is sort of like bread in that it is mostly just to fill your stomach and give you something to eat the sauce with.Yam Pile- This is probably my favorite Beninese main dish. It is eaten just like pâte, but it is made of the huge white yams that grow here (pictured at left, partially peeled, with a big knife and on a bucket lid, for size reference). White yams are sort of the consistency of sweet potatoes, but they taste a lot like regular potatoes. Pile is a word that seems to mean 'really smooshed up' so yam pile is sort of like really smooth mashed potatoes. Other than that, staple foods seem to be rice, couscous, and other pasta, all of which are usually served with a thin, oil-based spicy red sauce. Also white beans, which they eat with something called gari, which is sort of like bread crumbs, but made from manioc, which from what I can tell is sort of like a yam. On the coast they ate a lot of white fish, but here I've mostly seen chicken, goat, and pork, but meat isn't a huge part of the diet. My favorite foods by far here are the snacks. These include... Pineapple- A whole pineapple usually costs 75 CFA, which is less than a quarter, and they cut it up and put it in a plastic bag for free! Sadly not available at my post. Dough Balls- Actually called beignets, these are slightly sweet fried rounds of dough. Guaranteetd to speed the clogging of your arteries. Bissap- Pronounced bee sap, this is apparently the same as jamaica juice sold in Mexico, reportedly made from hibiscus; but I haven't confirmed that. Basically it's a dark, sweet juice put in little plastic bags and frozen. Best part is, according to other PCVs, it has to be boiled when made, so your chance of getting amoebas from drinking it are low. Fizzy Pamplemousse- Local grapefruit-flavored soda. Deliciously refreshing, plus fun to order because of the ridiculousness of grapefruit in French. So that's all for now; I've spent basically all my money on internet time. I hope everything is going well at home... send me updates via email if you have time. And one last photo - the neighbor girls (who arent as unhappy as they look) sitting in one of the classrooms at my school. The room is a little disheveled right now, but that's where I'll be teaching. (there is a blackboard on the opposite wall.)

Hello everyone! I am on the internet for the first time basically in ages for the express purpose of uploading this picture of my friend Claire (not Atlanta Claire) and I in our sweet tissue outfits. The fabric here is called tissue - its basically just cotton cloth with all sorts of crazy prints. This is my third tissue outfit, and I am totally psyched about it.

We were all dressed up for a party hosted by the mayor of Porto Novo on Wednesday night for all the PC trainees, since we're about to leave his city. There were like a bunch of cultural dances and music and stuff, so it was pretty cool.

In other news, we have just finished model school, which was four weeks of like a summer English school for kids around here that we (the PCTs) taught to practice teaching before real school. It was super intense, and we are all exhausted and glad to be done. But it was definitely good training - I have never taught before, but I feel moderately prepared to walk into a classroom of 60 fourteen year olds in a few weeks. I do have a new appreciation for the horribly time consuming task of lesson planning, although that probably gets better with practice. Mostly I have been working on my stern face (because these kids, like American kids, are pretty obnoxious).

Swear-in, when I will become a PCV and begin my two years of service, is in one week. It's going to be a pretty big deal this year because it is the fortieth anniversary of Peace Corps in Benin, so there is a big celebration planned, which the President of Benin will be attending (he's a big supporter of PC - apparently he invited some former PC teachers of his to his inauguration ceremony). Plus all our host families are invited. We even have specially made tissue that has the Peace Corps logo, a map of Benin, and 40 years or something stamped into it. Each sector has its own color and TEFL got magenta - so get ready for that outfit. It's gonna be fabulous.

I think I never finished my post about my post visit (post = the village where I'll be living for two years, starting next Sunday). I of course had a brilliantly written post composed, but it seems somewhat irrelevant now, so here is the rundown:

My village is sort of in the middle of Benin, about five hours from Cotonou by bus. I was fully delighted by the experience of Beninese bus travel, which was nostagically similar to Ecuadorian bus travel. My village is right on the main highway, which is convenient because it means the bus stops there, but it is still a village - as in not very big, no internet or post office. It does however have a market every five days (yes every five, not once a week), electricity, and a cell phone antenna. My post visit was uneventful, which was good. I stayed with a very nice host family and went around and said hi to basically everyone in the village. The main conclusion I came to while there was that I am going to need a hobby, since school won't start for 3-4 weeks after I get there and even then I'll have quite a lot of free time ... I'm open to suggestions, since I am having trouble finding local crafts/musical instruments to pick up. I'm considering getting myself unofficially apprenticed to a local tailor, but I'm not sure how that will go over... So anyway, that's about all I have. This last picture is of my two host brothers, Nassif and Ismail, and Rebekah, who is sort of a 'domestique' at our house, and goes to sell at the market with my host mom. I havent taken a whole lot of pictures recently, but I think this one is really cute. It's in the outdoor part of our house (the whole house is surrounded by a sort of patio surrounded by a wall) and you can see the well behind the kids. Also note that Nassif is wearing my bicycle helmet backwards, and saluting Beninese style. Ha. Hasta luego (I'm trying to keep my Spanish up.) Kendra

So as always the internet is slow and this time my friends are waiting, but i am trying to upload some pics. Sorry for the lack of, you know, accompanying words.

This is my house at post! It is part of like a triplex, that is the front door.

These are my latrines! Actually only the one on the left is mine; the others belong to my neighbors. My house is just out of the picture on the left. Please notice the pig! They are everywhere at my post.

This is my school. It is pretty typical for a Beninese school, although I know you cant really tell much from the picture.

So here is the much-requested picture of me in Beninese dress. Its hard to get pics of myself around here because digital cameras are not common and no one knows how to use them! But that is my host mom on the left, her aunt on the right, and another person. There was a group of 8 or 10 family members who had that same tissu (fabric) - that is the cool thing to do for Beninese parties. It helped me in particular because we went to a series of three weddings that day, and I always knew who I was related to.

This is a picture from the first wedding I went to (there have been four total - my family goes to lots of fetes) and these women are carrying the gifts for the bride on their heads. The shiny blue thing is actually the same gas stove that the peace corps provided for all of us. I was so excited to see it! Ok, thats all for now. I'll try to do some more picture worthy things soon. Oh yes, and hopefully there will be a more informative post soon. à la prochaine...

First of all, thanks for the comments! This is the first time Ive been on the internet since I left the last post, and it was great to find so many lovely notes from friends.

I have just a few minutes to upload pics - I just got back from visiting my site so some of the pictures here are from that. My post is a large-ish village in the south-central part of Benin, on the western side near Togo. We all found out our post assignments on Friday the 27th, then on Monday all the school directors (principals) showed up for a 2 day conference in Porto Novo, during which they were reminded of several key things such as: PCVs dont have money to fund projects; female PCVs should be called Madame not Madamoiselle; and PCVs should always wear their helmets while riding motos. These things may seem trivial (and of course they were not the only topics of conversation) but they all came up during my visit and my Director had all the appropriate responses, to my relief.

So after spending two afternoons with our Directors, we all packed up to go to post with them on Wednesday. This, it turned out, was quite an endeavor, although my trip paled in comparison to others who had to go much farther north. My host papa rather admirably volunteered to take me to the training site at 6:15 am, where a PC van was waiting for me and 2 others who are posted near me. It took us to the directors hotel, where the six of us (3 PCTs and 3 directors) piled into a taxi. This was exciting because it was my first ride in an actual car taxi in Benin. It was a Peugeot that had definitely seen better days, and we were (by American standards) stuffed in - 4 in the back seat and 2 up front, plus the driver. Of course, this is merely a normal full load in Benin. TO BE CONTINUED! Clearly, only one picture got uploaded and its time for class. Thats me, with a python around my neck, at the temple of pythons in Ouida. This was perhaps my bravest moment in Benin. Seriously. More pics later!

A common Beninese thing to say, particularly when one person is returning to the house and someone is already there; is Tu es là? meaning Are you there? To which the answer, of course, is yes! I am there. And indeed, here I am in Benin.

After spending several days in Cotonou, doing basic orientation and living summer camp style, we have moved to Porto Novo for training. Porto Novo seems to be calmer and reputedly safer than Cotonou. I am living with a host family (Mom, Dad, and three kids) in a nice house (sturdy cement with an outer wall, tile floors, and limited indoor plumbing and electricity). The PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) who are helping with training have made it clear that we shouldn't get used to such nice accommodations!

What I have seen of Benin is, in short, very different from other places I have been. Even in the biggest cities, most of the roads, except for the biggest ones, are rutted dirt. It is also not uncommon to see unfinished cement block buildings or in some areas, rows of wood and corrugated tin shacks. These are sometimes next to, even leaning against, very nice, elaborate buildings. Although Western dress is not just for yovos (foreigners), traditional Beninese clothes are more common, especially for women. In general these clothes are made of multicolored, patterned cotton in a style that seems to be common throughout the region. I am getting my first Beninese outfit soon, so more details will follow...

One thing that was surprising to me and probably shouldn't have been is that the women here actually do balance things on their heads as the preferred method of carrying basically anything short of babies (which they strap to their backs). They steady their burden with a hand, but I have seen some impressive no-handed balancing. My general favorite is when a woman has a tray of food or other stuff to sell topped with a wooden stool that she can set down as a stand for the tray when making a sale.

The most widely used means of transport (at least in urban areas) are motos, basically like dirtbikes/small motorcycles with a small engine that are made to seat 2 people (think banana seat). There are moto taxis, called Zemidjans - which is the word for hurry up in a local language - and then regular personally owned ones. My host papa has one and I ride with him whenever we go somewhere. Motos are so much more common than cars (there are like a billion of them here) and more convenient in traffic or on small rutted roads that most car taxis will only take you to the edge of a city, not drive you around in it. So motos are often the only choice for getting around. So all PCTs in Benin get a super spiffy moto helmet (complete with visor) and a moto training session, during which a group of highly amused Zemis were paid to pretend to haggle over the price with each of us, then drive us around the block. It was terrifying at first but I'm getting used to it, though I still hang on for dear life. One good thing is, given the size of the engine, most motos can't go all that fast. Not so comforting is the fact that Benin is reportedly the only country where all PCVs are allowed to ride motos - since apparently only here does the necessity outweigh the risk.... I myself am able to ride my sweet mountain bike to school every day, which isn't bad once you get used to all the motos zooming past.

I am still working on getting used to the extra work involved in some basic things here, mostly because I am far from mastering the necessary skills. Laundry, for instance, is all done in basins, which entails a long process of soaping, wringing, re-soaping, rinsing, wringing, rinsing, and wringing a second and third time, then hanging everything to dry. I have washed clothes once so far and now marvel that anyone is ever clean here. (Although the Beninese are generally impeccably cleaned and pressed for work or events, something that seems to befuddle even experienced volunteers.) Showers, also, are a little more work since you're usually working with a bucket of cold water, but you get used to that pretty quickly. One extra thing for foreigners is filtering and then boiling water, which takes some foresight if you're going to avoid buying water (because filtering takes like 2 days for a big bucketful of water) and engenders an appreciation for what must be in the water to need so much treatment. My latest revelation about that is that, when filtering and boiling is not possible, you can add a few drops of bleach to a liter of water to treat it. Um, bleach? The stuff with the big skull and crossbones on the bottle?

In general, I have been pleased with my PC experience so far. They have given us tons of materials and supplies, and training seems pretty well organized and comprehensive. I feel like it is very possible that I will be prepared for post. So for now, I'm just trying not to burn out with a packed schedule of classes while taking in as much of my new home as I can.

Pictures will come soon I hope! Internet is not so available here, so be patient. And sorry about the typos! Beninese keyboards are different... [Editor's Note: Those typos have been fixed... hopefully]

Well, my bags are full and I've finished my online French program, so it's off to the Peace Corps I go. Early July 1st I'm flying to Philly for 'staging' and on July 3rd I'll get on a plane with my 54 new best friends. After a stopover in Paris, we'll arrive in Cotonou, Benin on Independence Day. There we'll start 9 weeks of training that will culminate in a swearing-in ceremony in September after which I will be a full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) instead of a lowly Peace Corps Trainee (PCT).

If you've never heard of Benin, you're probably in good company. It's located in West Africa, between Togo and Nigeria. It's a republic of primarily French-speaking people, with religions (Christianity, Islam, and animism) concentrated regionally. The dictionary gives three pronunciations: Be NEEN, Be NIN, and BE nin. My favorite is the first, but more on that will be forthcoming.

I'm going to try to at least post pictures on this blog, and hopefully text as well, but I'll know more about that once I figure out internet availability in Benin. So stick with me for a little bit, and more interesting stuff should be coming right up!