From Raleigh to Benin to New Jersey to DC... At least there's a period on that phrase now. We're settled in DC and although we're thinking of where we'd like to be this time next year, I'm fairly confident that we'll still be working the same jobs and living a similar life to what we've established for ourselves here in DC.

The most exciting thing that has happened recently was purchasing my first spinning wheel. This was a Christmas present from Ryan, though it took a while to make it happen because apparently they don't have a lot of stores around here that stock wheels...go figure?! Well with the help of our good friend Katie, we made it out to Vienna, Virginia and were able to scope out the wheels in a store called Uniquities. There, the wonderful Caroline explained all about the Kromski Sonata that I was interested in. She broke it down for us and we decided to buy it on the spot!

It was wonderful that Katie could drive us, because originally we had thought we could walk to the store (2 miles) from the metro...but I don't think we could have actually done that... And of course, it being the DC metro area on a Saturday, there was track work, which meant walking up the escalators to go ride a bus to take to another station where we would walk this giant backpack with a wheel down the escalator. Well, it was a lot of walking.

I set the wheel up in our living room and set to spinning. I thought I would have forgotten how since I've only spun for a weekend in 2008, but I picked it right up! I actually had to switch out from the original bobbin, which had some not so great spun fiber from the class that the shop had had earlier in the day, and by the end of the night, I had almost filled my second bobbin!

Now I have a few little spinning items to search for online, then I'll be back up stairs to keep spinning!

I feel like Forrest Gump. "I'm home Mama." Well, it's true. Ryan and I arrived on Saturday evening at Newark International Airport. Mom and Dad were there and Mike and Eleni were at the house when we arrived. My mom got a huge sign that went across the front of the house to properly welcome us, as well as some accompanying helium balloons. The flights were fine, but the experience was exhausting and I was practically asleep on my feet for the first 48 hours or so.

Since we've arrived we've eaten Tony's pizza, Mimi's Italian ice, delicious bbq, leftovers, desserts (including a tasty root beer bunt cake), and a fudgie the whale ice cream cake. Yesterday we went peach picking, which was a really nice throw back to North Carolina. Except we paid for the peaches we picked here... Well things are shaping up nicely. We're actively looking for jobs, so hopefully our dream jobs will come through shortly.

Has it really been since November that I've last posted? Well, time does fly when you don't have the internet...

Ryan and I are in Cotonou for our Close of Service Medical exams. So if this post ends in the middle of an incomplete sentence, you'll know that the doctor finally was able to see me! And since we're on the topic of Close of Service, it's now common knowledge that Ryan and I will be leaving Benin on July 29th to return to New Jersey! Until then, we'll be mostly in our village doing the same old greeting people, trying to find something to eat, and sweating. I just cut our moringa trees before we left and will make the leaves into a powder when I return home. Maybe I'll even get to give the powder to these malnourished twins that keep coming to the maternity... I brought my tissue to the tailor and he's making my "going home" outfit. He was the first person I told when we were leaving and I had to hold myself back from crying after I said it. I didn't think I would be emotional about that, but it really struck a nerve putting our end date out there for everyone to hear. He's pretty tactful, but other people have already started asking, "When are you leaving? What are you giving me?" To which I say, "good health" and then try to ignore their persistent, "But really, what will you give me?" I've said it once, and I'll say it probably at least 100 times before I leave (esp. in moments of dire frustration) I'm ready to leave Benin.

So on that note, we just booked our tickets to travel to Denver for Shannon and Ryan J.'s wedding in August and are excited to do some traveling in southwestern Colorado. We're looking forward to spending time with my family and friends in the NJ area before then and hopefully getting jobs in September.

Well that's it for now, I'm going to read while I wait for the doctors!

One of the women from our shea butter group said this to Ryan and me before we left for our marathon October travel exploits.

I like to think of the fetishes as gnomes that follow me around and morph into everyday items to keep guard on me, but not let me know. They've done a good job so far. Our travels in October went off without a hitch. I traveled for a training with two youth from my village. We spent a week together learning about HIV/AIDS, malaria, and diarrhea. When they returned to village, I took an hour long moto ride out to visit my friend Meredith. She was a really good sport about the fact that I felt pretty ill the whole time I was staying at her house. When we walked in to her place, I put my bag down and said, "I think I'm going to throw up now." And being a woman of my word, I did just that. I did have a good time just sitting on her couch, playing with her new puppies and chatting.

When I left her village, I went down to Cotonou for my mid service medical check-up. On the way, I was packed into this little 5-seater car with 9 people. After almost everyone got out, we got to a point where there was some construction on the road and a huge line of traffic. Our driver decided to cut the line, but unfortunately there was a police officer near the front and he whistled for us to pull over, then came over, took the keys and yelled at our driver. Even though we were another 5 minutes from our drop off site, I could see I would be arriving there with this guy. He hissed and a zem (guy driving a motorcycle) came over. I told them where I wanted to go and my driver bargained the price for me. I hadn't realized how far from the PC office we were, but it was about a 15 minute ride.

Mid-service went well, and I got an opportunity to do some luxury item shopping (canned hummus, spices, amaretto). I also got to eat some great foods, including Indian food at a place we call "Secret Indian Lady". We call her this because she doesn't have a restaurant. If you want to try her delicious food, you have to go to her house. We sat in her living room while she prepared our dinner. You don't order, you just tell her how many of you there are and she makes enough food for all. There was a lentil dahl, a sauce with tofu(ish stuff), wheat naan, samosas, and fried milk for dessert. All for 3000cfa (or about $6).

The week after that Ryan and I headed to Grand Popo for a conference on food security with 8 other volunteers. It was a great change of pace from what we were used to! Our room had air conditioning, there was a pool, the beach was right off our front porch, and the food was so good! On afternoon we walked down to see the fishermen pulling in the nets. They caught so many fish! There was also shrimp and crabs and lots of jellyfish in the mix.

After 4 days, we headed back to Cotonou, then back up to Parakou before heading to post. The rains this year demolished the road between our post and Parakou. There are so many pot holes that it feels like you're driving on the surface of the moon. The road had been bad before, but now! And now that the rains are finished, the dust is awful. If we take a taxi up to post, which already is pretty exhausting (4 hours stuffed into an old Peugeot), by the time we get there now we're covered in fine red dust.

Well after being at post for only a week, I was feeling sick, but just went about my business. Then after 10 days of diarrhea, I started vomiting a lot, for 4 days. This past Monday I felt awful. I called the doctor and told him my symptoms and he said I should come down to the office.

So now, I'm fine. Just waiting to see the doctors and I'll probably be back at post this weekend.

That's it for now! Thanks for reading.

Ryan and I are on vacation for the week in Niger with the Darr's, Benin's other married couple. We came up on Monday in a bush taxi, 24 people in a 14 place van. On the way up to Niamey, we saw camels and even a giraffe!

Other highlights include:

searching for and eventually finding a camel to ride in Niamey.

searching for and taking pictures of the wild giraffes.

Italien food.

Chinese food.

Swimming at the American Recreation center.

Sunset on the Niger river.

Tour of the Grande Mosque (including a view from the top of the Minaret).

Awesome/super helpful Niger PCVs.

We'll post some pictures on Flickr when we get back to Benin. Today we're hoping to visit a hospital that helps women with fistulas and then maybe get some pizza before heading to a concert. More later!

Those of you following Peace Corps Blogs may have seen a post from fellow PSL 22er Clay a few weeks ago describing his run in with a metal pole which attempted to scalp him. He had to get stitches and from what I hear didn't even get anything to numb the pain. After my mom relayed that story to me, Ryan ran into Clay in Cotonou and although he seemed fine, his retelling of the story led Ryan and I to start vowing, "If we can make it through two years in the Peace Corps without getting stitches, I'll consider our time here a success."

Well, on that account, we've failed. So perhaps I'll need to come up with another indicator of success. Or perhaps I've learned my lesson and shouldn't temp fate with such specific taunts of what I don't want. Maybe I should just say, "If everyone that I sensibilize learns one thing from each sensibilization I do, I'll consider my time here a success." Then we can all hold hands and sing kumbiya...

Anyway, here's what transpired: On Tuesday I was supposed to go to a village almost an hour away with our friend Wassiou to meet some women who are growing vegetables to improve their diet, but also to sell and make some money. An hour before he was supposed to arrive, I was laying around in a tank top and skirt. When all of a sudden, "Ko Ko Ko!" It was raining and I knew Ryan would invite him in, so I jumped up to go to the bedroom and put a real shirt on.

That's when fate and our 6 foot high cement doorframe intervened. I smacked the top of my head on the doorframe and fell to the floor. Ryan helped me up and asked, "Are you okay?" To which I responded, "I'm fine!" and proceeded into the bedroom. At this point I touched my head and saw blood all over my hand. Then it started. I was bleeding all over. Blood dripping down my face onto the floor. I walked out and said, "Actually, I'm not okay." I proceeded to bleed all over the floor and Ryan told me to sit while Wassiou just stood there with his mouth open. I told Ryan to call our Peace Corps MD and then sent Ryan out to go find us a ride. Our friend Ahmin came in to sit with me, but refused to sit. Instead, he got some cotton and gently cleaned all the blood off my face while holding a piece of gauze to my wound. The mama of our concession came in and quietly cleaned all the blood off our floor.

Before too long, there were two men I didn't know in the house and our other friend who I call "Baby Mama" (since she's the mama of this super adorable baby that was gifted to me a few months back). These men were with the taxi that would take us to Parakou. We asked if there was anyone who could see us at the hospital in Kandi, but our doctor said we'd have to make the 4 hour drive down to Parakou. So I sent Ryan to gather a few things and mama reminded him to get a fular to put over my head. When I stood they saw all the blood on my cloth skirt and sent me to change. As I was walking out, Baby Mama and Ahmin saw all the blood on my hands and arms and proceeded to wash and dry me on the porch.

Two things: Although I was bleeding like a stuck pig, the cut itself didn't really hurt. I had a slight headache and was a little dazed, but that's all. Secondly, even while it was happening, I was really touched by the way that our concession family took care of me. If you think about what would happen in the States as far as blood born pathogens are concerned, I would never consider touching someone else's blood or cleaning them up without gloves, yet as they aren't available here, our family had no reserves about cleaning me up.

So then our taxi ride in a 9-place station wagon. Ryan kept saying, "Directly to the hospital in Parakou, no stops, we'll pay for all the seats". And although they understood, less then a quarter mile from our house we stopped on the side of the rode and picked up 3 passengers! The first lady was just going 7km. Then the other two were going to Bemberke, about an hour away. It was a fast ride, but not exactly directly to the hospital...and the car! Oh! How the seat's metal frame rubbed against my spine and although Ryan and I were the only ones sitting in the middle of the car, but the seat was uncomfortable and the roads horrendous as they are, seemed to take on a new dimension as we hit potholes and I tried to protect my head from hitting the ceiling!

About 30 minutes from Parakou we called the doctor and told him when we'd be arriving. The taxi dropped us off at the hospital and with concrete sack in hand; we walked on the grounds and sat on a bench under a tree. The doctor arrived at the hospital in his car and was consulting with a nurse about an x-ray of a clearly broken arm in front of the Beninese version of an ER, when we climbed in to his nice clean car. He took us to his private air-conditioned office and consulted with two more nurses before kicking them out and asking me some questions.

I told him what happened, wrote my name on a paper, and then he told me to lie on the bed in his office while he went to go get some stuff. One of his medical students came in, and read the paper he had written about me on the desk, (no HIPPA privacy laws here!) then when the doctor came back he sent her for supplies. When they came back with all the necessary things to do some stitches, the doctor put on some gloves, had Ryan tie back the window curtains so we'd have enough light and then told the med student "to cut my pretty hair." Then the doctor cleaned out the wound, which was a little sore and while Ryan sat on the corner of the bed. The doctor stood next to me in his suit and Louie Vutton shirt and gave me three stitches. Then used a razor to cut away some more of my hair.

Next, he took us to a building near our old workstation to get an x-ray of my head. Now, I had an MRI in the States a little over a year ago and comparing the two machines...well let's just say I think the x-ray machine was maybe from the 80's?

After that I talked to our Peace Corps doctor in Cotonou and he said that I could either stay in Parakou or come down to Cotonou. I opted for Parakou, so the doctor dropped us off at our new workstation and said he'd come back in a few hours to give me a tetanus shot that the PC doctor had ordered. Then he gave Ryan and prescription sheet with the tetanus vaccine and some medicine he needed to buy for me.

While I sat at the workstation talking with our postmate Sarah, who just happened to be in Parakou, Ryan went all over Parakou looking for my medications. What a sweet husband, right?

It was no easy task. He went to a bunch of different pharmacies, and was eventually able to get 3/4ths of the prescriptions.

Later that night I couldn't stand the hair helmet that the blood and iodine had created on the right side of my head so Ryan, Sarah, Chadsey and I went outside and I proceeded to cut my hair off. I should also mention that the fact that my hair was pretty much shaved in the front from my forehead back a few inches giving me a new-wave-trying-to-have-a-mullet-look that I wasn't really digging. Ryan was a big help in getting some of the more gnarly parts, and not I'm still rocking a diy short hairstyle with a shaved accent in the front. I'm gonna shave it all off when I have some access to clippers.

That's all for now! I'm fine. Ryan's fine. Parakou's fine. Hopefully we'll get back up to post next week and then I'll be back to Parakou for In Service Training in a week.

The internet has been down in Kandi, and soooo slow in Parakou that it's made a blog post impossible!

Well, not much new news from us, David's hand is healing, work is picking up for me, Ryan's heading down to Porto-Novo for another in service training, and it hasn't rained since October.

It's been hard to find fruits and vegetables in village lately since we're heading into the hottest part of the year. Even the onions and tomatos aren't looking so hot (when they're there...) and besides those, there's nothing else by way of vegetables...It's mango season though and we're enjoying grafted mangoes when we get the chance. These are the kind that you get back in the States. The ungrafted ones taste good, but are really stringy and not very fun to eat. The grafted though...mmmm... they are soft and smooth and warm and creamy, it's pretty much like eating mango custard.

Anyway, so I came up to Kandi, and just 30km up the road, they have eggs, cabbage, carrots, potatos, waggasi (a cheese sort of like tofu consistency) and toffee! I stocked up at the market and will be heading back to village tomorrow to eat my bounty.

Other than eating, and thinking of eating, we had a fun visit from Elliot last week, and Ivy came up for a visit too . Hopefully she'll post some of the pictures we took around village for all to see. Peuhl farmers y'all. I made their day by saying "Hello!" in Peuhl, this was just the wedge in the door we needed for an impromptu photo shoot. Ivy and some Peuhl men. Peuhl man and cow. Ivy, Peuhl man and cow. Sweet!

I started the care group in a nearby village on Wednesday and I think it was a good start. 7 out of 10 moms were there for the first meeting. They each have 14 moms to check in with, so 154 moms are getting health information in their very own homes! We're going back in two weeks to do our first health lesson about complimentary foods for when you start weaning your child.

On an unrelated, but interesting note, when we arrived we stopped by the "Care center" (which is a small building with a pharmacy and 2 beds to care for sick people run by someone appointed by the head of our health center) and visited a Bariba teenager who had been stabbed with a machete by a Peuhl teenager. While we were there, the head of the village went to the Peuhl encampment and retrieved the Pehul teen on his moto. They brought him back to the village and then loaded the hurt teen up into a truck and drove them the 7k back to my village to turn him over to the Gendarm (police). When I asked the health worker what had transpired, he said the Peuhl teen was on drugs. I asked, "Which drugs?" and he said, "From Nigeria!" Well! Of course, right?!

So thanks for reading! I wish we could update more regularly, but it's just not possible, and with power and internet cuts up in Kandi because of the hot season. More soon!

The heat has officially began. It's hot. All the time. Yesterday, our thermometer said it was 99.9 in the shade of our front window. So now we've entered the sweaty season, which means, among other things, talking about the heat while sweating and wondering why people are still going around in beanies and ski jackets.

Here's a recap of my week so far:

Monday was baby weighings and vaccinations in the morning. I was anticipating some flack since last week I cut out early saying, "I'll be right back!" and I didn't go back. Instead, I went to the CPS (Centre de Promotion Social) and helped Kadidja hand out school supplies to orphans and kids whose parents have HIV or AIDS. Mostly I was doing paperwork, and watching--or being watched or a little of both. The room is like 8x6feet and was packed with the supplies, 6 chairs, a desk and about 15 people at any given time. Benin is not a place to be clastraphobic. At one point I looked down at the floor and a kitten was walking by (from where--who knows..) I picked it up and said, "Kadidja, c'est pour toi?" and she litterally flew out of her chair up against the wall. Everyone had a good laugh at that. Then she was like, "Kim! Why did you bring your cat to work!" Which I thought was a pretty funny picture in my head. Bringing a cat to work. Anyway, that was last Monday. This Monday, when I finished baby weighing I went back to the CPS and mostly just sat there for 3 hours. It was nice.

Tuesday, I went to a small village 7k away and started a census of all the mothers who have children under the age of 5. We started at the delegae's house--I think he's something like a chief of the village--anyway, he was nice and put my bike in his house to keep it safe (which is just a formality really, no one would bother my stuff there). Then I proceeded to walk around the village with the two health workers, going into each concession and recording the names of the mothers, if they were pregnant, how many kids under 5 they have, their names, and the name of the concession. We managed to register 63 moms in 3 hours. Before I left for the 7k, in 100+ degree heat, bikeride home the Delegate said, "We need to eat together tomorrow, what do you want to eat?" I told him Yam Pilee and thanked everyone and headed home. Hot hot heat. I slept that afternoon and rested.

Wednesday, I went back to the village to finish the census. It was hot at 8:30 when I arrived, to be nice, the community health worker gave me 3 pieces of fried, burning hot dough, sort of like a donut without frosting. I took a bite then this super old lady came over and said something in Bariba. The health worker told me, "It's neccessary to give her one piece," not being one to argue, and slightly relieved that I wouldn't have to eat all this oily dough myself, I handed it over. As soon as the old woman turned her back, the health worker put another piece in my bag! I finished eating them just as I got to the Delegates house. I thought we were just saying hi, but he told me to sit down. So I did, and he went and got me a ruler to use for the census notebook. When he returned we started to leave and he said, "It's necessary to eat yam pilee!" So I sat, and 15 minutes later he returned with a big bowl of it. I asked the health worker if she wanted some, but she said, "no" and I thought the Delegate might come back, but he didn't, so the health worker told me to eat. And I did. With my fingers. When I finished, we went around and registered another 49 women for our health program. And then, rode my bike home. On the way there that morning, I saw a over stuffed truck carrying cotton from the fields. It was starting to tip, so someone managed to wedge 4 large logs to prop the truck up and when I passed, they had just started unloading the cotton from the top to get the truck right side up. Well, 3 hours later, the truck was upright and they were stacking it back on. If this had happened in America....oh! I could just imagine the tempers and impatience, but here, it's just another day, and so when I passed all 30 of the men who had come to help and watch called out, "Good morning! How are you? And your morning?" Which was nice.

We caught a taxi to a nearby village in the afternoon and went to visit our postmate. We had a great time visiting with her. This morning we caught another taxi and came all the way up to Kandi, where we attempted to buy an internet device for our house, and I visited the CPS here to get a book about teaching French. The people at the CPS were really nice and one even gave me a ride to the store to get the book photocopied. Then she waited while the man placed each page individually on the copier. Yup. All 80 pages. Then collated it for me. At the end he was like, "Was that fast?" Which it was. The lady who had driven me to the store was sitting outside waiting for me, then took me back to the CPS, where I thanked everyone and said goodbye.

We're heading back to village this afternoon. Hopefully with some vegetables and baskets. Tomorrow's Marche day, so it's like a free day to read and do laundry, and cook.

Ryan and I came up to Kandi today for a meeting about a girls camp that we'll be working on this summer.

Last week we did the Alibori Bike Tour and logged over 100km in just 4 days (we biked up to Kandi on the first day- 35km). It was a good time, even though both Ryan and I felt a little sickly at times.

I worked hard on Monday and half of Tuesday, with baby weighing at the health center and school supplies distribution at the Center for Social Promotion (with my favorite social worker--and the only other social worker in our commune). Tuesday, I biked the 7k out to a small village where I'm going to be working with mothers to reinforce positive health behaviors--such as good nutrition, birth spacing and a bunch of other topics.

Wednesday we headed down to Parakou for banking.

Thursday, we ate falafel before getting on the bus back to village and we arrived back in the evening.

Friday, I washed laundry for a few hours, had lunch out at Five Star Bar with a visiting PCV, and then ambled around the marche.

We slept outside last night, it drizzled for a few minutes....maybe like 100 drops total, but it was exciting none the less.

More some other time.

Ryan and I got to Kandi yesterday afternoon so that he could bus to Cotonou today. I slept in and made waffles with friends. So here's some blurbs of what I've been up to

Well, in-service trainig is over. It was exactly how I thought it would be, minus the sleeping arrangements...

Back at post, I'm starting to plan for the next few months. I have a few ideas and a few awesome people who want to work with me. My bariba tutor, who I think is about 15, will start coming to the house for 3 hours a week to help me get fluent.

A child came up to me yesterday and said, "Bon soir!" and wanted to shake my hand. We stood there for a moment, just holding hands, then she kissed mine.

Ryan and I biked out to a village I've worked with a little. While we were there I saw a kid who had been badly burned by hot water on over a third of his body.

We had awesome packages waiting for us at the workstation when we arrived yesterday!

Ryan's holiday present was King Kong vs. Jaws, the dvd. So we've been watching Jaws for the last few nights, in French, none the less. Awesome.

It's so dry right now, that Ryan and I wake up in the middle of the night cause our mouths are dry and we need water.

Our friend David's restaurant is finally shaping up. He asked us to think of a cool English name for the place and I supplied him with, "Five Star Bar," so if you're ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by and getting a cold beverage. I'm working on a Five Star Bar inaugural cd to get the party started.

What else...we taught 2 of our friends in village how to play Skip-bo and now they're almost as addicted as Ryan and I.

We bought really delicious oranges at the marche on Friday, and found avocados in the marche in Kandi yesterday. Yum. We've been cooking/ stirfrying rice and beans with soy cheese (tofu) a lot lately. It's been our new favorite.

As far as work goes, Ryan's starting formations with all of the artisans next month. We're doing an HIV/AIDS bike tour in the Alibori. I'm helping with the girls apprenticeship program, I'll be teaching the girls how to write and count, and eventually Ryan will teach them basic accounting. I'm also starting care groups in local villages without health facilities. The peer educators from my village have approached me and said their ready to make a schedule to work together and teach youth about malaria, HIV/AIDS, and healthy relationships. We'll see how that goes!

That's it for now! Thanks for reading!

-Visit to Alfakoura- Tourism workshop (see pictures on Flickr). Tour of Alfakoura included a cotton spinner and a man who made rope out of concrete sacks. Tour of a Peuhl encampment, then jewelry fashion show and a photo shoot with a Peuhl mama in a Hannah Montana shirt.

Another tour the next day where I didn’t understand much of what was being said. Especially after we visited a really old man who was blind, which means he didn’t see all of us who came into his house and bowed in front of him. Someone there took out the chainmail that he wears to sit on a rock and I’m not exactly sure what. On the way out of his house I practically knocked myself out on a low ceiling board and then was immediately thrown into a chorus of “Doucement, eh!” (doucement is an all inclusive phrase meaning, such things as, watch out, sorry, pardon, god-bless-you….) and “Faire attention!’s” that lasted for about 5 minutes after I had hit my head. As if removing myself from the house and walking 20 feet wouldn’t be enough to stop me from doing that again… Then we visited a woman who weaves mats, another spinner, and a metal smith.

We slept in the watchtower most nights and it got pretty cold there at night, which was nice for a change. The first night and another night in the middle of the week, elephants came to the lake the watchtower looks out over and bathed. We couldn’t see them, but we heard their splashing and grunts. The first night it lasted about an hour, a few of us sat up listening until it sounded like that had gotten out and dried off.

Saturday we picked up 20 kids in the morning and headed into Park W to see some animals. I decided it would be more fun to ride with the kids, so I hopped on the yellow flatbed, I said, “Doucement!” and the kids said to each other, “Let the mama on!” Well, I called Ryan over, but he insisted on riding on top of the Land Cruiser with the other volunteers. Erika shared my sentiment, so after all the food and the foresters- one with a machete, one with a shot gun- loaded up we took off, 20 kids, 2 UNC alumni, 2 questionable hunters, 4 men to help the truck, a cook, a tour guide and a teacher. The last 3 in the cab with the chauffer, the rest on the back of the flat bed. So off we went into the park in our flatbed with 3 benches.

5 minutes into our ride I spotted a baboon, and there was a whole family in the trees. We saw a bunch of warthogs, another family of baboons with babies on their backs, green faced monkeys, lappet faced vultures, roan antelope, and a bunch of birds including hornbills, and these pretty green ones that we couldn’t id.

We stopped at a bridge 2 hours in and Ryan’s car caught up with us. When he called out, “Show us your cards! What did you see?” I thought he was just excited about seeing so many animals. When I said, “a lot!” he scoffed. When I listed everything his jaw almost hit the ground from the top of the Land Cruiser. When I asked what they saw, he said, “a ground squirrel”. Apparently our vehicle had scared off all the animals!

That evening after dinner we went for a twilight ride to this big stand of baobab’s where there were some baboons in the trees. We got out and walked along, practically chasing the baboons, until we got to a clearing and our tour guide Aziz talked to the kids about the importance of nature and information about the park. We headed back to Alfakoura the next day in the late afternoon and got a ride into Kandi before catching a taxi home.

-Mutton liver pizza- We made reservations at Chez David’s Sunday night, probably minutes after arriving back in town. We asked for Wagassi pizza (the local cheese that Peuhl people make), but our friend David searched all the surrounding towns and couldn’t find any on Monday. He was sad. Then a friend who had killed a young mutton (which in Benin could mean either a sheep or a goat) appeared. For reasons that will never be understood, he had the heart and liver of this youth mutton in a black plastic bag when he ran into David. David told the friend of his predicament and asked if he could have the liver for his friends. This was what David told us when we arrived at his restaurant. This was followed by smiles, happy laughter, some hand shaking and David saying, “RYAN!!” like he does when Ryan says something that he thinks is funny. Well, 30 minutes later, when they were ready, David sliced our pizza into appetizer size slices and put them on plates. I think this is a good time to remind our reading audience that prior to coming to Benin, I was a vegetarian for 10 years, with 3ish of those years being vegan. So you may be able to feel a little of tension in my gut when I heard of the menu change. Although I don’t eat meat at home in village or back in the states, I make a lot of exceptions here due to the lack of variety in daily cuisine and so as not to be rude. So what was the verdict on the mutton liver pizza?? I really liked it! Surprising myself, I ate my whole portion-minus a piece for Obed (David’s adorable son). Ryan felt the same. Although I can’t ever imagine ordering liver on a menu anywhere, the two times I’ve had it here have been pretty tasty.

-X-mas- Hamburgers in Kandi. Grinding your own meat is an art, and I give credit to anyone who can do it and then eat it afterwards. Watching the process was not appetizing. Think giant bowl of ground chuck sitting a marinade of red liquid. Since I’m on a pretty regular eating schedule, Ryan and I cut out at noon and I had a plate of spaghetti with an omelet on top. When we returned, they were making the patties and frying them up. Ryan had one, I declined. We ended up catching a taxi from the middle of town and getting back in time to go to the Marché and talk with Eleni for a while. We ran into some friends and bought dates, a hat, a leather wallet, and giant tomatoes. It was a good day.

-Watching a baby be born- Happy Birthday baby boy! I just stood there. The mom was amazing. I could tell from her faces that it was painful, but she didn’t make a peep. The nurse said things like, “Do you want this baby to be born? Push!” Not in the nicest of tones…which made the experience a little less serious for me…my brain processed things like, did she really just say, “What? You want to drop your baby on the floor?” and “I’m going to smack your butt if you lift it off the table again”. I have a greater appreciation for all of the mothers of the world who give birth in health centers like the one I work at, as well as for overworked nurses with lots of responsibilities.

-Egg coquette- Another magnificent meal at Chez David’s. Fried igames, egg coquette, brioche, and sauce moyo (tomatoes and onion) with an icy cold coke to wash it all down.

Thanksgiving coincided with Tabaski this year in Benin, which meant that getting from our village up to the workstation was unusually difficult. There were no taxis, and the one that we saw was already packed.

After wrangling Spanky Muffin (the turkey) and carrying up to the main road, we stood for 15 minutes before deciding one of us should go back to the house for our helmets. Once we got those, we ran into some people we knew and then went over to talk to the zem's. The first one said he'd charge us 2,500CFA for the ride, which is a lot seeing that you can take a taxi for 500CFA, but since we didn't have a lot of options we stood there being stared at by 3 fulani women who were no doubt wondering if I was fulani with my blue and white beaded necklaces...when finally we saw an orange license plate in the distance.

Ryan held out 2 fingers and shouted, "Kandi!" The driver nodded and we headed down the road with Mr. Muffin in tow. When we got to the taxi it was a 5 seater, meaning that there are two seats in the front and 3 in the back...which means that you can actually, in Benin anyway, fit 8 people. Four in front, four in back. The driver thought about putting Spanky in the trunk...not an ideal transport place...but finally we decided I'd carry him on my lap. So I climb in. The car is full of men and they think this is the funniest thing they've ever seen. I say, "It's for an American Holiday" and they laugh and hoot. So in the front seat we have the driver, a teenage passenger, Me, Spanky on my lap and then Ryan. Before the driver could even climb in, Spanky emptied his bowels all over my leg and the guy next to me. This causes another eruption of laughter. I say, "Sorry!" to the kid next to me, but he's not really mad. The driver takes a piece of cloth and grabs what he can of the poo.

Then we take off on the fastest taxi ride of my life! No stops from our village to the workstation! Spanky mostly enjoyed the ride and didn't flap his wings or resist much. My leg fell asleep 15 minutes in and when we finally got out, I hobbled over to the workstation with Spanky in my arms.

We hung around for a while waiting for people to show up. I knew I wouldn't be able to kill Spanky, but even so I thought maybe I could at least be out there. Nope. I helped wrangle him again and then went inside to cry for a minute. Even for all his short coming, Spanky was a very nice turkey and he made the sweetest cooing noises when he was just wondering around the concession looking for things to eat.

Amy and Sarah took charge of the cooking, so I helped peel potatoes, apples, and carrots. We managed to watch Home Alone 1 and 2 while dinner cooked and then around 5, we all went out and ate in the Pailliot. It was really pretty and the food was amazing. Benin or not, the PCV's hooked it up. And for dessert, pecan, pumpkin, and apple pie and a plate of oreos and milano cookies.

So that's a recap of my first Thanksgiving in Benin.

So, since we don't get to use the internet often, I haven't had a chance to update ya'll on what's been happening at post. Tomorrow is our one month anniversary of being volunteers! I thought I'd recap on some of the events of the past month. I'll start off with why we're here today.

This is our 3rd trip up to Kandi this month. Our first was to get furniture for our house. Our second was on Thursday to get mail, and then we came up today because we got locked out of our house and the carpenter couldn't come until "later". Ironically, today was also our post visit, so Chadsey came down from Kandi to check out our post (and Elliot was on his way back to his post so he came by this am too)...and we may have led on that we could whip up some mean wagasi blintzes...but lo and behold when we wandered back home and when I went to unlock the door, the lock wouldn't budge. So we tried that for a while...and then went over to David's for lunch.

Well, the lock still wouldn't open after lunch, and since the carpenter was kind of vague as to when he could lend a hand, we thought it would be best to stay at the workstation tonight and try to get back into our house tomorrow.

So, other than that slight glitch, things have been rather smooth at post. The people in our town have been really welcoming. The town has had volunteers in the past, so we gather that they view us as an extension of those other volunteers...long lost relatives in a way.

I've gone to two vaccinations/baby weighings, which happen on Monday's at my health center. Mostly, I just sit there and search for files, though last week I managed to put all of the files for October into numerical order. Yup. I'm sure next week that effort will have been in vain, but it worked for me while I was there.

I spent Wednesday with the Social Worker for our Commune. We went on an extended moto ride into the "brousse" (bush) to talk with some community health workers about some "sensibilizations" they're supposed to do tomorrow (which I may have said that I wanted to do, but since that was never confirmed, I don't feel so bad about being in Kandi tonight). Then we stopped by an orphanage to visit and have lunch...and topped the morning off with a visit with Elliot at the health center before heading home.

What else, we stopped in Erika's village on our way up to Kandi this week. Her place is tiny compared to our sweeping estate. We had a hard time finding a moto to leave her town and when we finally did, we got about 100 yards before the back tire on it blew out....luckily, there were some really nice guys passing by who gave us rides on their moto's to the workstation, and we didn't even have to pay! Like I said, people here are really nice.

We've been eating really well. Ryan made awesome banana bread, and I made really good wagasi pizza this week.

We've gone on some really nice bike rides in our "down time." I've also done a fair amount of reading and playing Skip-bo...as well as watching the teenage-mutant-pooping-ducks.

I think we're heading to Parakou this Friday for banking and to pick up the Alibori's Thanksgiving turkey. I'll hopefully be able to get some pictures of this misadventure as we attempt to bring a live turkey on a 4 hour taxi ride. We're brainstorming names...so if you have any good ones, pass em along. We'll keep the turkey at our house until Thanksgiving, when we'll bring it up to Kandi for the feast.

Big thanks to Mom, Whitney, Somaly and Regina for the packages!

Somaly- This is a very popular PC book! I'm glad you sent it so I can read it first hand, I've heard a lot about it! I'm jealous that you have two puppies, even if they are a lot of work, hopefully they'll get along with our boston terriers when we reunite in 2 years!

G- I tried to post on your facebook...but I think someone forgot to feed the hampster running on the wheel in the back of the computer...Thanks for the awesome package! I can't wait to read (and reread) People and Readers Digest! Tell Aurel we say bonjour!

Whitney... Thanks for asking Bust to put Maybe on the cover! I love her and can't wait to show her off to the ladies in village. I've already eaten half of the candy corn, and I had to battle with myself not to open it on the taxi ride up here (to make it even more suspenseful, our taxi ran out of gas in the middle of no where [which is like, everywhere] and then I pictured myself rationing out candy corn to Ryan, Chadsey, and the three other men in the taxi, luckily, the third man literally ran into the next town and found a moto to bring him and two wine bottle full of gas to the taxi, thus rendering the rationing null). Thanks also for the tarot card reading! Spot on.

Mom- We got the swear in package this week and demolished some buttermilk pancakes for breakfast on Thursday. It was awesome. As is the lotion and shampoo! We showed the magazines and pictures to David at his stand and attracted a small crowd who enjoyed looking at pictures of Rocky and Layla. The dogs here are so skinny by comparison...

So I guess the Kandi address works so far for packages! So far so good! Thanks for reading!

So... Kimberly and I swore in as Peace Corps volunteers on September 25th and helped sing a song about the Peace Corps for the people of Benin. Generally, I'm not too keen about singing songs, singing songs for audiences of foreign dignitaries, or singing in French; but watching the Peace Corps staff who helped write and rehearse the song with the volunteers, it became apparent to us that many people here (including Peace Corps staff) really love the Peace Corps and the work they've done here for over 40 years. Yes, if you happened to be watching national television (Canal 3) later that day - and what else would you have been doing - you may have seen us. We were at a fundraiser/final dinner when the ceremony aired, but our host family informed us it was 'beautiful' (masculine), which I interpreted as a personal compliment.

In attempting to achieve the Peace Corps' goal of exchanging American culture with host-country nationals, I attempted to make garlic bread for our host-family last week. After burning the hell out of a potent little garlic and butter sandwich in the gas oven, I apologized repeatedly for my transgressions, plaintively stating, "Sorry. I boiled the bread". So, I'd say that was a success.

After finishing some shopping in Porto Novo and Cotonou, we're off to our post in the north of Benin tomorrow, where I'll begin confusing our new community.

Today's the last day of week 7, which means we have 2 weeks left as stagiers! Swear in is Sept. 25th and after that we move up to Gogounou (it's in the north just south of Kandi) to start being PCV's.

We left Porto-Novo last Wednesday for our post visit and were fortunate that our homologues came down in a private vehicle. While this didn't make the drive any faster (surprising, i know) it did allow us to stop at almost every single town, which meant that women and children would surround our truck with whatever it was they were selling, bananas (the ones here are tiny and fat), plantains, peanuts, oranges, peanut sticks, igames (or yams), and pineapples. Since there isn't a lot of produce up in the Alibori, our homologues and chauffer stocked up in every town along the way. I think this also was their wives payback for being without their hubbies for 4 days...

Anyway, we got up to Gogounou at 9:30 and went directly to the health center where I'll be working. My homologue, Lucien, is the doctor there and lives on the property with his family, so we went to their house and had dinner with Lucien. After that, the chauffer and Lucien brought us to our house. We're in a nice concession (the beninese version of a gated community), not far from the "police"--they're called the gendarm, but I think I misspelled that and about a stones throw from a cell phone tower. Our concession has one family and was home to the last PCV who is doing a third year and China and thus left in May.

When you walk up to our house, you'll see a huge citron (lemon) tree in front of our porch. It hangs over and makes some shade in the morning. When you walk in the front door, you'll be amazed to find that our whole apartment is painted in turquoise. Or at least I was amazed by this-I had been warned, but had downplayed this in my head. Everything but the floors and ceilings-turquoise. Our living room is huge, and then we have two bedrooms, one of which will be our kitchen, and our indoor shower area. We have a well in our concession where we'll get water to shower, and apparently there's a pump nearby where we'll get our drinking water. We have electricity from 7pm-midnight, which is enough time to hopefully cool down the house and fall asleep. As for the bathroom facilities...we have a clean latrine about 20 feet from our front door. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it doesn't stink, or smell at all really.

Our bedroom window faces the path that people and animals walk along. There's a tree right outside our window where everyone sits, or sometimes a cow will come along and scratch it's body... Our only pets at this point are a family of ducks that live in our concession and that we like to watch stumble around.

What else...our village has fresh milk, butter, wagasi cheese, and yogurt. We even managed to find a Fanmilk guy the other day!

We started our journey back south by heading north to Kandi last night and staying at the workstation. We got to the bus today 5 minutes early, and hung out for another hour and 10 minutes until we left. The ride to Parakou was amazingly bumpy and a few times I was completely airborne in the back of the bus! We got to Parakou at 12:15 and left around 1:15. It started raining at some point and by the time we got to Bohicon, there was litterally a river flowing in the street. Somehow we made it through, and even managed to buy some oranges out of the window...we stopped for a pee break when we were still in Bohicon and I got off the bus into a giant puddle where I may or may not have contracted thyphoid and a variety of other diseases, and then managed to wrap a piece of cloth around my middle so when I squatted to pee no one would see anything. I think this is probably one of the most important things I've learned here. Always bring a pagna (sp). Ladies here just squat right next to the road like it's no thang.

Well we finally got in to Cotonou around 8:30pm and headed to the bureau. We're staying the night and heading back to Porto Novo in the morning.

Apologies for not updating. I haven't been online in weeks. Keep emailing and calling though! If you want my number you can ask me via facebook.

If you'd like to send us snail mail, our newest address to get mail is

Kimberly or Ryan Pfirrmann-Powell, PCV's

Corps de la Paix

B.P. 126

Kandi, Benin

West Africa

We'd love any news from the U.S. snacks, spices, m&m's, and most of all pictures! Of you, your house, your town, whatever. We'd love to add them to our scrapbook of American things. Our host family has definitely loved looking at the pictures we've brought..esp of animals and American's who aren't white--strange, I know.

XOXOX

We made it! We're staying in a nice "retreat" type of a place where we have our own dorm-style room with our very own toilet and shower. We both like the food that we've been served so far and have been eating whatever is served--so goat, fish, and bread among other things. We've even ventured outside the walls/gate of where we are staying to walk along the side of the very busy road that seems to go on forever! After our first few minutes in the van we understood why PCV's aren't allowed to drive! The streets are very busy and there aren't any formal rules...though the people here know what to do.

Today we went on a walking tour of the market and got to see produce, bush meat, and other items. Yeserday, we were placed into our language groups and will start more training later in the week. On Wednesday we'll be heading to Porto Novo and into the home of our host family. We'll have some access to the internet while we're here, since the PC office has computers for us to use, but after that, who knows!

Send your good thoughts and wishes to Eleni and Chris, my good friends, who were married yesterday! I thought about them all day and hope to see some pictures soon!

1. That I've completed 22 out of the 40 required hours that I pledged to finish with Rosetta Stone.

2. Ryan and I will be together for training! We had been warned that we could be separated for our in country training, which would mean we would have separate host families and lives for 9 weeks. Today when I spoke to someone from the country desk, they said that PC Benin has changed their policy on separating couples for training. This means that during the day, we'll go our own ways, but we'll get to fall asleep together each night. Very comforting.

The wonderful thing about packing for Benin is that technology has enabled current and prior PCV's from Benin to be in direct contact with those of us coming over. Although it's all very individual, it's extremely helpful to know what you can and cannot get in Benin. To this end, my favorite comment so far about packing has been, "You're going to Africa, not the moon."

So I finally shelled out for a pack, and have been slowly accumulating things to put into it. Ryan still doesn't have his bag yet...he's hoping to go over way lighter than me. I'm half expecting him to board the plane with a second set of underwear in his pocket and a toothbrush tucked behind his ear. On a high note, we both ordered our Chaco's yesterday! I already love their sandals, and now I love them even more because of the awesome discount that Chaco provides to Peace Corps Volunteers!

Enough writing for now, I need to practice some French!

With less than a month to go before we pack up and drive/fly out, we thought it may be time to put a blog together. Ryan and I are excited to share this adventure together and will try to funnel some of that excitement into this blog for you, dear reader.

Our plates are full for the next month, literally and figuratively. We've been indulging in our favorite meals such as Fontina cheese and shells, Lily's Pizza, homemade bread and strawberry jam, and even tried our hand at making some mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. Ryan is still working at Duke and will be finishing there only days before we pack up a truck and head out. I'm busying myself with Rosetta Stone and my college French texts, trying to glean as any verbs and phrases before we head over to francophone Africa.

We've also been trying to pack our weekends with new and fun activities. Two weekends ago, we visited Georgia to meet up with our friend Somaly. We sweated the day away in Augusta taking in the local sights, such as the James Brown statue, and eating at Nacho Mama's. Then we stopped by Lyman, S.C. home of my Aunt Diane and Uncle Tracy. We took a drive up to N.C. and got to see the wonder that is Lake Lure and of course, Chimney Rock.

This weekend, we're heading up to Charlottesville, V.A. for our 1-year anniversary. We're hoping to tour a few wineries and relax while we can. We're excited for the 4th of July, since my brother and Rita are coming to visit and then it's sell whatever we can, donate the rest and move.

While we won't have the same amount of access to the internet as we currently do (i.e. checking facebook 10 times per day), we're hoping to still stay in touch via this blog, letters, and emails. Feel free to comment when the spirit moves you or to send sporatic emails or handwritten notes.