Thanksgiving in Benin

For Thanksgiving proper, I stayed in Fo-Boure, taught 2 classes of English, had a nice lunch of igname pillet... in short, it was an ordinary day in the bush - though I admit to cheating and towards the end of the day I broke out my Christmas playlist on my ipod and thus announced the beginning of the Christmas season a few hours early with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir... not too shabby, if you ask me. The real celebration was to be that Saturday, when our TEFL group started to arrive in Parakou for our weeklong workshop....I don't feel like continuing this thread today....later

Na Fo-Boure Kin - well, sort of

translation: I love Fo-Boure.

This will be a collection of pictures of the wonderous world of Fo-Boure, when I get arround to it.....

Bird Flu.... the end is near

I suppose the time has come for me to change my way of life here - Bird Flu has come to Benin... No more butchering birds, no more handling raw eggs (though I would have to find them first - no eggs in Fo-Boure) no more more poking sick birds, and finally, no more playing more playing with bird feces - life will be hard. Yup, bird flu has been discovered in birds in Cotonou and near Porto-Novo, though it has not been found in any humans. Though, if it were to be found in humans, we would all be immediately pulled out of the country and ordered to take the drugs that we already have as a precaution (although, come to think of it, I definitely don't have mine anymore, so good thing I'm living at the med-unit right now.) Anyways, I am not particularly concerned about all this, especially as I am leaving the country in 4 days... and even if I wasn't, I still wouldn't be that concerned...

Pictures from Post

I'm heading back to Fo-Boure tomorrow (after trying to catch a bit of the sox game on the internet...), but I'm sure people are a bit curious about where I live and all that, so, here are some pictures of my town, and other volunteers. Hopefully this will give you all a little better of an idea of where I'm living. I think it really is quite beautiful, even if it is isolated. Actually, the isolation probably helps maintain the landscape of my village. Well, I'll be at post for the next six weeks, working away, molding young minds (no worries, they've already got the boston slang down pat. Here is an example dialogue I taught.

Teacher: Good afternoon class.
Class: Good afternoon, Madame.
Teacher: How is the weather today?
Class: It is wicked hot out today.
Teacher: How 'bout them Sox?
Class: It ain't ovah til it's ovah.
Teacher: What else?
Class: Big Pappi is a god.

so, as you can see, I am keeping busy. Later!

This is my school, in lovely Fo-Boure... though to be fair, when the students "cleaned" up the school yeard, all this lovely green went away, to be replaced by dirt.


This is my humble home, though this was taken on my post visit, so there is now a shower in the front, on the porch.


The Porte de Non Retour, at Ouidah, which is a memorial to those whoe were taken away via the slave trade. I think it is maintained by Unesco. It is actually really an impressive site when you come down to it, following the route the slaves had to walk to the sea.


Me and two of my host sisters, Nellie and Ariane. And this, is my swear-in outfit. It is a traditional outfit called a Boumba. And yes, those are lamps. Our whole group had to be in matching tissue for the ceremony, adn this is what we chose.


The whole TEFL group, all dressed up for swear-in.


So, for all of you who though the Peace Corps was somewhat exclusive....this is our entire group of guys for the 2007 newbies... the night before swear-in.


Well, it is the rainy season...(view from my porch)


The next house over from mine...


A few of the locals...


There's just something about the skies here. The sunsets and the night skies are absolutely breathtaking - this picture does not do it justice.

Some pictures from stage....

Ok, as I have some time now, I thought people might like to see some pictures I hadn't been able to put up.



Well, I'm sorry to say I ate this adorable little bunny... after I made it pose for this cute picture...



This is a Voodoo deity, which we saw in teh King's Sacred Forest in Ouidah. It represents a blending of Christian and Voodoo beliefs... note the incense burner...



This is part of the Porte de Non Retour, a memorial on the beaches of Ouidah. Ouidah was one of the most infamous slave ports in West Africa.



In case you wanted to know where Fo-Boure was...

Still in Benin...

Well, I am still in Benin...

I have survived my 1st three weeks at post! Not too bad. And, since I'm in the mood to list accomplishments, I read 5 books during that time, including Moby-Dick, I have sewn my own curtains, and cleaned everything I own... I had a bit of time on my hands... But, Now school has started and things are picking up. I have over 200 students, divided into four classes, and thus have my work cut out for me, as I would really like all of them to learn a bit of English... (Actually, I'd like them to learn a lot of English.)Today has been my first day since getting to post where I have had internet, electricity, and running water - in other words, I have left post for that haven that is the Parakou workstation. Life is good. Now, my first weeks of post were not without their hiccups. For instance, I wanted to go to the Catholic church in my town, and thus asked someone who spoke a little French what time mass was. She said 10. so, at 9:45, I left to go to church.... I get there, and the Priest is giving out communion, oy. Hurridly, I found an open seat and hoped that no one noticed that the one white person who was in the church had entered it obscenely late, and was now trying to blend in... well, I wasn't doing a very good job. In my self-conscious search for an open seat, I had failed to notice that the church was divided down the middle by men and women. I had, of course, accidently sat on the mens' side. Well, as I didn't notice this for quite a while, I just stayed there, not knowing what else to do, and when mass was over I hurried on out and went home...oops. My next trip to mass was a bit better. I got there at 8:45, as someone else told me that it started at 9, and I was only a little late. Maybe I had better stop asking people who don't own watches what time things are at... Anyways, mass was fine. The priest said it in Bariba, so I just sat there and listened, understanding well, nothing except that he kept mentioning a certain Jesu Chreest, but other than that, it was a nice time to sit and think....until I realized that everyone was turning arround to look at me and point. I just kind of smiled and sat there, until finally someone said Anna - allez-y and pointed to the priest. He had been asking me to come up to the front for a little while, to introduce myself, and I had no idea he was talking to me - I can only say greetings in Bariba. Well, I went up, adn told him I don't speak Bariba, so he told me to speak in french, so I, who am always brilliant when asked to say things on the fly, said, "ikwunundo, Je suis tres heureuse d'etre ici....oui, ca c'est tout." good morning (in bariba)I am very happy to be here.... yes, that is all......yup, I'm sure I made a wonderful first impression. But, I suppose there are much worse things I could have said. Oh, on another note, my name (Anna) means come here in Bariba. Which, everyone thinks is hillarious, and makes a point to say Anna, Anna, to tell me to come there, and I always here my name all over town and get very confused. Well, at least they can pronounce it, and it is certainly easy to remember.

Leaving Lokossa...or really hippos

As the title suggests, I will be leaving Lokossa on Sunday for my post, the tiny Fo-Bourée. I am excited and a wee bit nervous/rather freaked, but I think it's about time for our stage (training) to be over. Anyways, on another note - since I really don't have much more to say about that - Last week me, Rima and Lauren tried to go and see the hippos that live near Lokossa. To do this, we had to first leave around 5:30 and catch Zemis to the tiny village nearby. When we finally managed to find zemis - no one is up at 5:30 - the only ones we could find tried to charge us about ten times the price to get there. They saw of course that we are yovos (foreigners), and that there were clearly no other zems arround, so they figured they'd charge us a crazy price and we'd pay it. We got them don to only double the real price, and settled for that. We finally got to the village, and had to go and find the chief, who in turn had to go and find the person who would take us to see the hippos - all at about 5:45 AM, when it was still mostly dark out.When we were finally ready to get started, our sketchy Zemi drivers decided to follow us and the guide along the path to see the hippos. Ah well. The path was kind of its own little mini advernture. It was maybe three-fourths of a mile long, and was almost entirely made up of mid-calf deep mud, that was covered further by a layer of water from the torrential downpours of the night before - gotta love the rainy season! Not to mention that it is almpost certainly infested with hookworm... Anyways, we got to the lake where the hippos live, and the guide took us out in a dugout canoe, called a pirogue, (not to be confused with a pirogie, though wouldn't that be wonderful right now...). Basically as soon as I sat down, I was bitten by a tiny little bug that hurt more than I could possibly imagined from such a little thing. anyways, my whole knee swelled up, but it didn't spread to the rest of me, so I figured I was good to go. It was a stunning lake,



. we stayed on the lake for about an hour, maybe, didn't see any hippos, though we got to see their various haunts: where they eat at night, where they eat in the morning, and where they eat during the rest of the day. But, although we didn't actually see any hippos, it was still worht the trip, I'd say! Though the walk back through the mud was a bit of a downer, when there was no prospect of hippos to keep us going. But, its ok, since when we got back to the village, the chief brought out a basin of I'm sure pristine water, and our zem drivers washed our feet for us. We werre then treated to a nice early morning pick me up of sodabe (Beninese hard-liquer, think almost everclear. It's that good, and we were on our way home.... Later...

ok, I thought you might like to see me and some of the group in traditional clothing, so enjoy...

Back to work

We've been back in Lokossa for week or so, and have started our model school - basically a free school for stuents so we can practice teaching before we go to post. And I have to say, I am actually liking teaching so far, which is a relief, since if I didn't, I'd be in for a very long couple of years... The classes here are nothing like in the states, though, for example, I have about 50 kids in my class, and somehow it actually works. I'm not saying that kids here are that different from in the US, but put 50 American kids in one class - say about 6th grade, and keep them there for 3 hours teaching one subject, and you would have anarchy. I think. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I just don't see it happening Well, I've got to go, since I have class in a few minutes, but as I'm sure you can tell, my picture didn't load again, so you'll just have to wait to read some more bad English (or just reread some of my entries where I was particularly sloppy with my grammar). - As you can see, I got a few more pictures up, so no more problem....

This, by the way, is from our trip to Ouidah, the home of an infamous slave fort and a center for Voodoo> This is me in the python temple.... I was a wee bit terrified, but I have survived.




Ciao

Post Visit...

I am sitting in the PCV work station (a cool place to sleep, hang out, get fast internet, complete with a guard, fan ice and frozen pizza - not to mention dvds and player.... - and you can do work here- basically I am sitting in mini USA and am loving it)in Parakou right now, waiting with a couple of other stagaires to grab a bus back down to Lokossa. I have to say, I am glad I got to stop here after my post visit for a little break from the whole travel travel thing. It is nice to have seen it for future reference. Oh yeah, the post visit. to start off with, there really is no experience quite like a "bush taxi." You are crammed in a car with at least 8 other people and maybe a goat or duck or something, 18 fulani women,chickens, etc. and travel for hours with no bathroom break (I deffinitely think a kid peed on me to day)And lunch is served now so I may just call it quits for the time being.) But, I'll leave this post with a picture of the back of a CD I saw at my host families. note the english.

3 weeks down, 2 years 5 weeks to go

A couple of nights ago,I was greeted with a scene that, had it happened in the US, would have left me more than a little panicked. I had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the latrine (which is outside, of course), and when I gt ouside, litterally the enitre ground was covered with cockaroches. There were hundreds of them, just covering the ground and all over the inside of the latrine as well. Considering that until that moment I had only seen one or 2 at a time here, I was rather taken aback, but somehow it wasn't quite as shocking as I would have expected. I asked my host-sister about it the next day and she said they had put poison out, so they were all dead by morning, but they were cretainly very much alive when I went out... Other than that, things qre going well here. I went to the marché with one of my other host-sisters on saturday, and bought a pagne and another good bit of fabric, which I al getting madeinto a shirt and a couple of skirts (all for about 10 US dollars. Class is long, but I'm sure it will all be proven useful whe I get to post... speaking of which, I'll find out where I'll be posted for the next 2 years sometime this week, so wish me luck...

a bunch of TEFL stagaires at a buvette

à Lokossa

ok, so my group, TEFL, is in Lokossa now, which is a lorge town of about 40,000 people near the southern border of Togo - I think we're only 7 miles away. I've been living with my host family, who are all really nice. We have basically been kept really busy here, and will be for the next 9 weeks or so of stage. Not much else to report, except I handwashed my cothes for the first time, which was really tiring, but worth it. My host family was excited it was the first time I hqd done this, so they offered to take a picture for me...but as it doesn't seem to be working with this internet connection, I guess you'll just have to wait. I hope you're not too dissappointed. It was a pretty awesome picture...

Je m’appelle Yovo

We’ve been in Cotonou for two days day now, and there is certainly one new word we all have down now – “yovo,” or foreigner. Whether we are taking our busses to another location, or walking down the street normally, everyone, men, women, children call out to us Yovo! I think the youngest one we got was maybe just 2 years old… It is not always a negative thing either. I mean, that little boy was incredibly adorable. He just kept waving to us and yelling yovo over and over again.

We’ve been meeting a lot of current volunteers, all of whom so far seem to really love their posts, and really love what they do. Granted they probably wouldn’t have volunteered to meet us new trainees or (“stagaires”) here in Cotonou if they were miserable in the Peace Corps, but still their enthusiasm for what they do really does make me feel much more confident in my decision. They all say their location is the best, whether they are in the north or south, urban or rural, which makes me less nervous about where I get placed. It seems work out for most, which is all I need to know. All the volunteers and other trainees I have met have been really cool and nice, and I think this will be a great 2 years… easy to say when you’re being pampered and living in a sort of hotel. Ciao!

Last night in the US...

Tonight I went out to dinner with some fellow trainees - I may or may not start calling them PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) soon. One of the first things you learn about the Peace Corps during training, by the way, is that they LOVE to abbreviate everything! And for some reason, everything practically starts off with PC. You'd think they would be able to drop the PC since everything has it...but no. (after another long day of vaccinations and staging stuff - which basically consists of sitting in a conference room going over logistics and the like) We went out to a wonderful dinner at a Cuban restaurant, complete with ceviche, which was served on a plate with dry ice, and squash ravioli, and white pear sangria. Basically I was in heaven. Umm, so its late and we will be traveling for about 14.5 hours tomorrow, with about 9 hours in the airport (we totally win, though because the group from Mali that staying in our hotel has a 14 hour layover in Paris, where we have only 5. Anyways, good night!

Staging

Well, I'm in Philadelphia for my staging, and so far I like the people I have met here. And, I now know where I'll be in Benin, if any of you were curious - I'll be in Lokossa, which, since no one knew where Benin was to begin with, will probably mean absolutely nothing.... but, it has an internet cafe, so yey! I will likely be able to stay in touch with people for at least a bit longer. I will however, mention a few concerns that have arisen since the beginning of staging:
1. Benin has scorpions
2. I have never wanted to ride on a motorcycle, and now it looks like I will be doing so quite frequently, and on scary roads with scary drivers...
3. In an effort to reassure us, our staging director told us that if we were really careful, we could avoid being sick for a long time... when asked what a long time was, she said about month...

only 3 days to go...

Well, I am leaving for my staging in Philladelphia with the Peace Corps on the 17th, and then it's off to Cotonou, Benin on the 19th! I have to say, this has really come up on me fast, and though I am incredibly excited, and am definitely ready to leave my little town, I am a good bit nervous as well... but seriously, who wouldn't be nervous about going to live and work somewhere they've never been before and where they don't know anyone - not to mention the fact that they're going there for 2 years! But, as I said, I'm more excited than anything else. My family had a little going away party for me last weekend, which was really nice. Actually, perhaps the most useful part of it was the cake.

It meant that at least for that one day I didn't have to explain exactly where it was I was going. I have gotten quite used to saying,"Benin, it's in Africa, between Nigeria and Togo."

I have basically been spending my time the past couple weeks wrapping up stuff here and getting ready to leave, trying not to over-pack (the limit is 80 pounds of checked baggage, which is really not all that much), from what I can tell from other volunteers' blogs, it seems like most people worry too much about packing, so I'm sure I'll be fine with what I've gotten together. Oh, for anyone who was wondering, I am now officially done working at Subway. (No, not like the last time I was officially done. this time is for real. I swear!)

My plan for the next three days is really just to take it easy and make sure I'm not forgetting stuff. Last time I went abroad, I got really sick immediately because I had crammed way to much in before leaving, so I really am going to try and take it easy and get enough sleep and all, so I can at least get off to a good start. We'll see.

Once my trip actually gets going, I plan on posting up pictures, to make things more interesting, but I don't know how often I'll have internet access, so we'll see how all this works out...

Well, I leave for Benin in a month with the Peace Corps , so until then, I really have nothing much to say here...