Send me mail!

Elaina Murray, PCT
Corps de la Paix Americain
01 B.P. 971
Cotonou, Benin
Afrique de l’Ouest (West Africa)

These tips are from one of the married couples' blog (not the ones that look like me and colt), Craig and Heather's Excellent Beninois Adventure:

"If you do write us letters, be sure to number them on the envelope because they may hold our mail until we get more so they can give it to us at once or they may come out of order. Also, from what we have read, we will probably not have access to internet for an extended period of time after we arrive, like 1-2 months! So don't worry if you don't hear from us online. Snail mail may be the only way you'll hear from us during our first couple months so get the ball rolling and start writing us so we have letters to respond to. :)

As of now, no packages are necessary at this point because we don't know what we will have access to and what is available over there yet, but if you want to send your dear friends/family a care package in the future, here are some tips for any future packages:

Never write the real contents of a package. Write general items such as "food," "clothes" and "magazines"- not the specific items or brand names. Don't give them any reason to want anything that is inside.

Never write the real value of items on the customs form. Always put $10 or less otherwise, we have to pay taxes on packages. If they think there are valuable items in a package, they will open the package and then charge us more money or they may take

the contents for themselves.

Write "Dieu Te Regarde" on the package in large letters. This translates as, "God is watching you" and if they are religious, there is less of a chance it will get opened and looted through. It also helps to write everything (even addresses) in big RED letters because that is generally associated with government or top secret things that they don't want to mess with.

You will want to include an itemized list of the contents in the package so if there is something missing, we will know it. If they don't know English, then they won't know what the note says, and even if they do, they will know that someone paid attention to what was sent so if everything doesn't make it, there is more of a chance of someone following up. Lastly, use the US Postal Service- not a FedEx or UPS."

Well, y'all. I definitely want packages at some point, but right now, I'd really just like letters and photos. Or magazines so I can make sweet decorations for my house later. But for the next two months or so, I'll be with the host family, so I won't really get to do a lot of my own decorating or anything.

So, let's talk communication. I have quite a bit of time in the PC office before I head back to the hotel for dinner. Basically, phones here work through a couple different companies, the main and most reliable and used one is MTM. Phones are cheap and there are a lot of crappy knock offs, but real brands, primarily Nokia, are the way to go. Most volunteers have a small $50 black phone from Nokia that texts and calls. You buy credit from these dudes on the street and then enter the code into the phone to put it on. 500cfa is about $1 and will get you about 5 minutes of conversation, which seems not bad, but it's ridiculously expensive. That's for you to call someone. If someone calls you, than it's free for you to talk. So, if I call the states, I have to pay that ridiculous amount, but if someone from the states calls me than I can talk for free. So all y'all rich folk in the states will need to be calling me. Mostly, what I think will happen is I'll call really quickly and hang out and than you can call me back.

Now, it costs for you, too. But it's waay cheaper. You're best option is to use skype and go through your iphone. Just download the program, you are smart and can figure it out. You can also use skype on your computer. You need a microphone and speakers...clearly. I think you can also buy international calling cards and use them as well, but I don't really know the process for that, but I'm sure you can figure it out as well. Or you can just forgo regular phone conversations and be content with like a 5 minute one every now and again from me. Or wait for internet...facebook messages are good. Wall posts are not so good bc I really won't be able to respond to them if I'm limited in my time online. Email is always an option as well since that's usually the first thing I'll check with facebook.

I gave my preferences today for where I'd like to be at post and I said I want: Cell phone service, electricity, and a post close to Cotonou. I said I was ambivalent about post mates and running water. So we'll see. My optimal experience would be to live like an hour or less away so that I can come to Cotonou as often as possible. But we'll see where they put me. I hope my directness at saying "please put me near Cotonou with electricity and phone service" was perhaps a bit more direct than other volunteers and that means they'll give me what I want.

Well, that's about that. I think, interestingly, I've exhausted my internet capacity for now. I wish mom or zach or lucas or oliver or jeni or skyler or josh was on facebook so we could chat! I'll be online most of tomorrow, too, so I should be able to do that then...if anyone actually reads this!

Miss you all,

Elaina