First Day at Work!

September 27th

I am at work right now and I have internet access on the wifi system! But…the internet is very bad right now…and is seriously very slow. I have yet to actually load an entire page and I’ve been trying for almost 5 minutes! It reminds me of the good old dial-up days with the imac at dad’s place in like 8th grade. I loved that computer and spent a lot of time AOL IMing my friends after school. Ah, how technology has progressed.

So I’m a bit hungover on this lovely African morning. I spent the evening yesterday meeting all the other foreign volunteers who live in Djougou. There are a surprisingly large number, actually. One French guy, B, and three Germans (the guy, F, and two girls, S and L). We all hung out with Doug at this nice-ish buvette for like 5 hours. I didn’t actually drink that much, but was dehydrated already and went to bed thirsty…which means hangover in the matin. Ugh…

So I’m at work, but I’m not actually doing anything. I’m not really sure what the plan is, honestly. I assume that at some point in the near future I will begin doing some sort of health related volunteer work…but allah only knows when that’s gonna be. Maybe tomorrow.

The other day when I was at the cyber, I loaded like 50 pages of chat rooms from the Student Doctor Network and than closed my computer and took home the pages to read in my house. I cracked open a Fanta orange (amazing) and fried up some wagasi and had a piece of delicious, soft, white bread (aka candy) and felt for just a little while that I was back in school just doing some quick research on med schools.

Hmmm, I guess there’s not a lot really to report here in Africaland. My house is slowly coming together. I need to get a vrai couch and find a way to get my mirror and paintings up over cement walls…for some reason I don’t think I’m going to be able to put nails in…hmmm. Maybe I’ll have someone send me some of those sticky things with the hooks on them. That would work. Yeah.

Ok, I think next time I write an entry, I will ACTUALLY make sure that it is interesting. I’ll keep track of the plethora of crazy stuff that happens here and write about it in an interesting way. Yeah, I like that.

Ok, until next time, mes amies

Elaina

Birthday and more

Tuesday, September 21st

Well I made it safe and sound to Djougou and am now typing this entry in my guest bedroom of my lovely pink abode. The master bedroom is not yet ready as I still have to purchase a grand mattress to fit my new grand bed frame. I’m really excited because the double bed mosquito net is BLUE!

I don’t have a lot of computer battery left and I’m nervous about charging my computer before I actually get a surge protector. The electricity here has been pretty spotty and cuts in and out at random. The water seems pretty regular, though, which is lovely when it’s hot as hell and I can just go hop in my awesome tiled shower out back.

Ok, I plugged in the computer…hopefully nothing crazy happens. I’m getting a protector as soon as Doug gets back to town and can help me discuter the price: I have no idea how expensive those things are.

Bad news first: the two fans that were left here do not work and so it is really freaking hot and I need to buy a fan tomorrow. Also bad news…I am sick again! Nothing crazy this time, just a fever and some aches and pains with general fatigue. I’m probably just dehydrated because my water filter broke and I’ve been boiling my water…but it doesn’t cool down for several hours and I’m lazy! But the fever is controllable with ibuprofen and I just finished watching DIE HARD so all is good in the world. And Peace Corps is sending me a new filter on the shuttle next week.

My birthday was surprisingly pleasant. I tried to cook for myself…ended up with a complete shit show of a cake…charred sugary mess…that I did indeed eat a bit of after I sung happy birthday to myself and blew out a candle that I bought for way too much money at Erevan. I spent the day rearranging my house and sweeping and making plans for my next menusier trip. I already ordered screen doors because damn, it’s hot and I want some natural light up in here! My guacamole was actually pretty damn good and today I made couscous, the dish so good they named it twice! I also did orange juice which was a wonderful decision especially with some lime squeezed in there, too. I talked to a lot of people who wished me a happy 23rd and the idea that I am closer to 30 than 13 is just starting to take form…along with the tiny wrinkle I totally have between my eyebrows. It was so nice to talk to everyone that called (Mom, Dad, Jeni, Alex, Mommoo, Colt (and Sydney, too: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LADY) , as well as a bunch of other volunteers who graciously used their credit to call and/or text); THANK YOU all so much; you really made what could have been a really sad and lonely day an awesome, fun one!

I opened my only present that had arrived…my kickass awesome pathology textbook from dad. I’ve just about finished the chapter on neoplasia and I tell ya, I don’t think there are many things that get me so excited as do recurring translocations of certain chromatin protein genes. Thanks dad, best gift ever. As to all you other known gift senders, thank you in advance! I’m sure I’ll get ‘em before October is out!

So some pretty sweet news: I have internet in my house (on occasion)! The wifi from my work seeps over into my living room sometimes and I can actually get two of five bars of reception! At first I thought I’d have to wait to get connected because I needed the security key…but I played around with the passwords and actually ended up guessing the right one! I felt like a kick ass computer hacker, haha. Unfortunately the internet is not actually working right now…but I am connected to it at least. Oh, Africa. I think it might just be too late right now and the internet is off once people at the NGO leave work. I’ll try again in the morning, but I am super stoked right now! Even if it ends up not working for whatever reason, I will always remember how awesome I feel right now! Lol

The trip to Djougou was pretty eventful, so I guess I can recount a bit of that. We were supposed to leave Porto Novo at 6 in the morning, me and my closemate, Magda. Well, the taxi didn’t actually pick me up until 8 and than about five minutes after leaving my house, the car broke down. The driver fixed it about half an hour later and Magda and I just talked and waved at all the kids shouting ‘yovo’ at us as they walked by. Well, we made it around the block before the next breakdown happened. This time we ended up waiting for about an hour and a half before a Peace Corps official guy just happened to be driving by and saw us by the side of the road. He stopped and helped us figure out what to do and wished us “du courage.” An old random guy came up to the window and asked us to give him cent franc and I said “you give ME cent franc!” and he just laughed and stood there awkwardly for like five more minutes while Magda and I ignored him.

We made it out of Porto Novo by a little after 11, but then got stuck at the toll booth. Our driver explained that the guy at the window wanted extra money because of our bikes, which are very nice, expensive yovo bikes. Magda and I were like HELL NO, we don’t do bribes…we don’t want to encourage corruption in this society! We have principles! So we waited in the now very present sun by the tollbooth and wondered how long we’d hold out. We ended up calling the same PC guy from before and he arrived about twenty minutes later in a hitchhiked car. He jumped out and the car kept on going toward Cotonou. He explained to us that our brilliant driver had forgotten the very normal and very legal fee for having luggage that was as tall as ours was piled up on top of the car. So no clichéd bribery attempts here, just plain old fashioned dumbass-ery. Now, that’s real Africa for ya.

The trip from then on out was relatively uneventful…except the breakdown in Bohicon and our driver’s random stop in a small village to purchase what we could only assume was a Beninoise…leaving it ambiguous as to whether or not that was the beer or the tanti. Interestingly, they just happen to be the same price…oooh, snap! Nothing like prostitute jokes on a hot African night!

So backup a little bit to swear in. We were at the ambassador’s house Friday morning and damn, it is nice, that is definitely what I want to be when I grow up. We listened to speeches in French and English, Fon, Bariba, and like two other random local languages that I don’t remember. Then we swore in as official volunteers (there was even a ’I will defend the constitution of the United States of America’ and a ‘so help me God’ in there; I felt like I was taking the Oath of Office). We then went to Erevan, spent way too much money on things we didn’t need (holy shit, that place was like a super Walmart…with vrai prices and some stuff that is actually nicer than Wally World…but I could be making that up, months without the conglomerate convenience could be shaping my perceptions). Then we headed back to PN for our night of debauchery, of which my legs are still store four days later. I got waaay too low on the dance floor and just a little bit drunk, but I don’t regret it, it was damn fun. I slept on the floor in Andrew and Krista’s hotel room and after some ibuprofen in the morning made it back to my host family’s house for packing. That afternoon I met some friends at Java Promo, the nicest and most expensive restaurant in Porto Novo (it’s actually sort of indoors or at least under a big awning) with the best food (mashed potatoes and a vrai salad!). I ended up staying there for 7 hours. Yes, 7 hours. Why you might ask? Well, around 2pm it began to rain and a few minutes after that it was raining harder than I thought it was possible for it to rain and it continued that pattern all afternoon. This intense rain of course keeps people from going out and about…which means there are no zems out either…which means I was stranded. For 7 hours! I actually ventured out at one point, just before ordering my second plate of mashed potatoes and gravy, but only made it about 5 minutes before I was soaked through and still zem-less. I cried a little and laughed a little, the tears just joining the rain. I am 98% sure I looked like a crazy person. So I returned to Java Promo, got a beer, and ate some more for a few more hours. It was actually pretty fun in a glass half-full sort of way. Just one of those completely unavoidable, uncontrollable situations that constantly happen here.

It really doesn’t do any good to be stressed out about stuff like that or to get angry. I’m shocked to say it, but I am already so much more patient than I ever was in the states. A lot of us just repeat to ourselves when shit starts going wrong (like the car breaking down in the middle of the bush, while it’s dark…and raining…and the windows don’t roll up on your taxi that you’ve been riding in for 14 hours on a trip that is supposed to take 7)…we just repeat “be like a boat…be like a boat.” What does a boat do? It goes with the flow…and that is really all you can do here in moments of desperation. It’s all very zen. And they said that only the Peace Corps volunteers from China come home spiritual! (The saying goes that PCVs in Africa come home alcoholics, haha.)

So far the only real downside to my house is the just insane numbers of cockroaches. Unlike at my host family’s, the cockroaches here do not just stay in the bathroom…they pretty much wander around everywhere…and I am horrified to say it, they are actually bigger than the ones in Porto Novo. Like- where is the nuclear reactor?-big. But I’ve gotten strangely okay with the weird flat spiders that my host sister so memorably killed for me. They are ubiquitous here…and they eat a lot of the other annoying bugs, so I’m sort of just letting them be as long as they are on the walls and out of the way. I’ve only seen like three, so it’s not like my house is a spider haven or anything. I swept the place today and I think I’m going to be like the Beninese and do so every day…or at least every other day or so. I think that’s the best way to prevent bugs and other critters from taking up residence with me.

As for my other neighbors, the human ones, I have two other connected houses in my concession and I’ve saluated a bit with some of the voisines (neighbors), but I think it’s just a bunch of men! I haven’t seen any women or kids in the concession, but maybe they’re just dutiful wives cooking all day. The house next to mine totally has a huge satellite dish and I’m pretty sure a baby mango spider (those are the rodent sized adults) is creating a web there. As long as it stays the fuck away from my house I do not care.

Well, Imorou is out of town until Saturday so I don’t think I’ll be going into work until next week…which is totally fine with me. I would like to get a little more settled and comfortable just walking around town before I have to worry about starting specific projects. Technically the first three months are supposed to be tame work wise, just getting to know the ONG and meeting work partners and going out with the sensibilization team to watch. It seems weird I guess, but I have absolutely no idea what I’ll actually be doing for the next two years. And even weirder is that the ambiguity doesn’t really bother me. I want to be here right now and as long as I can have regular phone sex, think I’ll be just fine.

E

PS. I’m not really sure who reads this thing…but I hope the occasional f-bomb and mentions of such activities as phone sex do not dissuade any readers. Someone please let me know if anyone under the age of 12 is reading and I’ll at least consider taking the sailor talk down a notch. kthxbai!


Wednesday, September 22nd

Well, I might have been a little hasty with the assumption of internet. Today the signal only came through for about an hour and even when it came through, it wasn’t actually working. Hopefully next week when I go into work I can get it figured out better. I would really like to get online! I’m way to lazy to go find a cyber right now.

Actually, I think I’m not lazy, but sick! I have been just feeling generally yucky now for over 24 hours. The fever went away, but then came back this evening, but not as high. It was only ever 100.4 anyway, which isn’t anything but a lowgrade fever anyway and the doctors wouldn’t do anything about it unless it lasts for like 4 days. I don’t really have any other symptoms besides ache-y fatigue that so often accompanies fever. I’m drinking enough now, so I’m not dehydrated beyond anything that’s normal. Oh well, ibuprofen helps. If it lasts through Friday I suppose I’ll call the PCMO.

Apparently one of my good friends here has to find a new post! Her homologue lied about having a house for her and now she has to stay with other volunteers until they find a new place for her to live. It’s crazy! Oh, Peace Corps.

Well, I vaguely have to pee, so I think I’m going to venture out into the darkness that is my backyard and try to avoid all the critters that come out at night. I don’t know why I can’t remember to pee before it gets dark!

E


Saturday, September 25th

Yeah, so the internet thing is definitely not going to work. It’s really frustrating because there is a tiny signal that comes through during the work day, but for some reason it has not actually been working. So I might need to get my own internet after all.

And speaking of internet, as soon as my computer charges up a bit more (yeah, I’ve clearly just been risking the electricity, although I AM going to buy a surge protector soon!), I am headed off to a cyber. I don’t really know where I’ll go, but I’m planning on just asking a zem driver to take me to one…who knows where I’ll end up?

I have been basically bored out of my mind for the last week. I’ve watched all the Die Hards, the Bourne Identities, Supremacies, and Ultimatums, finished 5 seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and gotten a quarter of the way through Alias season 1 before I decided that I didn’t really want to use up all of that entertainment before October. So I moved on to other things.

I have written a large majority of my personal statement for medical school. I can’t write all of it yet, though, because I still need to actually DO some health volunteer work before I can actually get those thoughts down. OMG I AM SO BORED

I’ve went to the marche a few times just to buy some random things like tomatoes and onions and bread. I went native yesterday and fried up some wagasi, but now I have like three quarters of a wheel left and I don’t really know how long it is safe to keep…and I am not really in the mood to eat wagasi like 3 days in a row. Plus, I splattered oil all over my kitchen and that stuff is really freaking annoying to clean up.

Tomorrow I’m doing laundry and washing all my dishes and sweeping again. The bug that is living on the cot in the spare bedroom must be invisible because I’ve moved all the stuff around and cannot find it, but I can still hear it at night, moving around. See what I mean? I totally have cabin fever. I need to go to work!

I have my big bed all ready to go, but still need to buy a mattress.

There is some species of giant wasp that has decided to make a nest in my little toilette room. So far I’ve been lucky and have not angered it with my peeing, but I seriously cannot be afraid of my toilette room. That is something that I really just cannot deal with. But there is no way in hell I am going to try to kill the wasp. No way in hell. I wonder how good at killing insects my neighbors are…perhaps I might need to make their acquaintance soon. Or maybe I’ll ask Doug to spray it with insecticide because, like I mentioned earlier, there is NO WAY IN HELL I am going to be doing that. No, thanks.

I really miss vache qui rit that my host family gave me and I think I am going to go cherche for some of that today. After I find a cyber and post this ridiculous blog entry.

Oh, and I realized that I don’t have any sheets for a double bed anyway. Aaaargh! It’s going to be November before I actually move into the freaking master bedroom!

What exactly am I doing here, again??!

E

Some Videos of Benin!

At the 50th parade

Old man dancing. He was pretty awesome

Zangbeto! The haystack voodoo spirit. He's usually pretty benign and just wants money from observers. I'm like 90% certain that the guy inside the zangbeto just downs a pint of sodabee before climbing inside. Sodabee is really raunchy moonshine, cheap and effective, can make you go blind...but everyone loves it here.

This is a bit of the journey from Lalo back to Porto Novo, an example of driving "en brousse" or, "in the bush". If you have to pee you just go off into the brush a bit and go...but not too far because there are monkeys and snakes!

Facilitating Behavior Changes (Post Visit Part Deux)

Sunday, September 12th, 2010.

Ok, well it turns out that there’s not really going to be a part deux to my Djougou post visit adventure. Pretty much everyone who needs to know has already heard the details, but I guess I’ll recount them anyway…but it’s not going to be some stylistic masterpiece or anything.

The night after I had my suspiciously delicious dinner with Doug, I woke up with stomach pain and all the associated fixings. The nausea and vomiting, however, were a bit out of the ordinary. The main discomfort came from the fact that after I puked, the nausea would still be very much present, which is usually not the case. You know what I mean; after throwing up, a sense of calm and health returns at least temporarily, even when really sick, until the next bought of nausea and subsequent vomiting occurs. This was just different; I’d puke and instantly feel nauseous again. This lasted until about 7 in the morning when I called the Peace Corps doctor and we chatted for a bit about getting me re-hydrated with ORS (Oral Re-hydrations Solution). Doug brought some over, but the taste was so gross that I just puked it up. So, it was determined after I started feeling dizzy from dehydration that I should probably get some IV fluids in me and stop the nausea. So I rode a zem to the hospital and talked to the doctor there. Doug translated and the doctor spoke a little English, so it really was no big deal. As usual, I was an awful patient, asking way too many questions and being demanding about who performed what procedures on me, etc. It was fine and the doctor stayed with me until all the saline, anti-nausea medication, and the antibiotics and anti-parasite meds had all gone into my veins. The hospital drove me back to where I was staying and I felt a lot better. The next day I just hung out in Djougou, reading and writing and the day after that I took the bus back to Cotonou. I stayed at the Bureau for a day and got checked out by the doctor; they took stool and blood samples and I’ve just been taking it easy since then. All they found was a high white blood cell count because all the killin’ meds got all the bugs by the time they checked. Right now, I feel back to normal. Taking all those meds actually probably killed off whatever I already had that had been making me generally ill for the last few weeks. I don’t think I’ve been this healthy the entire time I’ve been in this country. Honestly, we should all just do a round of ciprofloxin every 2 months or so to clean us out (ok, probably not…we wouldn’t want those fuckers to get resistant now would we?). But yeah, it was pretty trippy and I was definitely damn sick, but all is well that ends well, someone wiser than me once said.

I just spent the last hour with my host bro, Rico, writing and translating a letter for my vrai little brother, Zach. Maman wants them to be like best friends so when Rico comes to the US they can be buddies. Rico is pretty ambitious for his age; he wants to be an architect in the USA. I guess he has a better shot than a girl would, but I’m not exactly seeing it. It is possible, though, but he would really have to study hard and do everything right, which only like 10% of the people in this country actually do. Seriously, for example, like 20 out of 200 high school students in Lalo actually passed the baccelaureate to graduate high school and go to college. But it might be nice to do the penpal thing…except Zach will totally not understand anything Rico writes without translation…so it might just be a one time thing…although Rico can understand a little English probably, I don’t really see it evolving too far unless Zach wants to learn French haha.

On Wednesday I am cooking an American meal for the family. I’m going to do pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. There isn’t syrup, so I’m doing peanut butter and honey instead for on top. There will be tomatoes, onions, pimante, and wagasi in the scrambled eggs and the hash browns will be epic as well. I hope they like it, but they probably won’t. But I think pate is pretty nasty, so I guess we can debate our national dishes anytime. I’m pretty sure pancakes will win every time. Probably because America is the greatest country in the world. Just sayin’.

Tomorrow we find out the results of our last French interview. I did absolutely horribly in my interview, absolutely worse than the second interview, so I don’t really foresee any great results tomorrow. In fact, I’m a little concerned that I epically failed. Like, not even joking, I might not get to swear in. If that becomes the case, and I suppose I’ll reach that bridge when I come to it, I’m going to fight to be allowed to swear in anyway. I know I can survive with my level of French and I’ll get a tutor and test again in a few weeks. But maybe I did okay. But…I really bombed it. So. Yeah.

Well, swear in may or may not be on Friday. We are partying it up afterward at a hotel in Porto Novo and the next day purchasing a lot of stuff and packing up to move to our permanent posts. I’ll probably be leaving on Sunday, the 19th, taking a taxi with my bike, mattress, water filter, lockbox, and all my books and luggage and other random crap I’ve accumulated here with me. The next day is my birthday and I will be cleaning my house and settling in. I will also be cooking a Mexican fiesta and hopefully my buddy Josh from Boukoumbe will be coming down to have a few beers and help me celebrate a bit.

I’m actually not sure when the next time I’ll be online will be. I’m pretty sure there is internet at my office and I can bring my laptop and plug in…but I really really do not want to start working until I’ve at least gotten my big bed. The idea of having to go into work at like 8am immediately after getting to post sort of freaks me out; I need a few days to just unwind and get my bearings. I need to make sure the house is clean and devoid of rodent sized spiders and I’d like to make it feel a bit like a home if I can. It IS pink, which helps tremendously, so there’s that. But I will bring my laptop to work sometime next week and give a quick update. If I’m freakishly lucky, the wifi from the office will seep into my house, but I rather doubt it. But I am like practically connected to the office. My house is literally in the backyard of PSI. If I could get internet in my house I would be ecstatic.

Speaking of mild altering states, I just read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and my mind was totally blown. I never got through it as a kid and whoa, I had no idea what the book was about. Totally wild and got me thinking about the duality of nature and what the real differences are between science and art. It definitely made me appreciate my dad a lot more. And speaking of my dad…

HE BOUGHT THE TICKETS!!! Colt’s ticket to come and visit me has been officially purchased! He is leaving the US of A on the 17th of December and after a long layover in Casablanca, he’ll be arriving in Cotonou early in the morning of the 19th. I’ll pick him up via taxi and we’ll go back to my hotel room until 8am when we’ll take the bus to Djougou. We’ll stay at my place through Christmas and then go up to Pendjari, the national park, to have us an African safari. I think we’ll probably stay one or two nights there and then come back to my house for the New Year. On the 4th we’ll head back to Cotonou and he leaves the next day. He’ll be here for 17 days and I am SO HAPPY! We have 97 days until then, but I’m just glad it’s double and not triple digits. The longest we’ve had a countdown for was like 120 days, so we’re golden. Although if you add the 61 days that I’ve already been here…that’s like 158 days or something, but whatever. December 18th I’ll leave Djougou and come down to Cotonou for the night. Ahhhh, I’m so happy!

I’ve watched like a million episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and now I’m just like yelling at everyone…which is awkward because my French is so completely awful. I’ve also watched Law Abiding Citizen (great premise, lame ending), Blood Diamond, the Constant Gardener, and my personal absolutely favorite, Avatar. I love that movie, I wish I could live on Pandora and/or be an awesome, in-tune-with-nature huntress. I would totally eat meat if I had stalked and captured my prey. I think if you are willing to eat meat, you should be willing to take the animal’s life. If you can’t do it, don’t eat it. I’m like this weird vegetarian who totally wants to be badass and hunt and be one with nature in this spiritual symbiosis, but the idea of eating meat sort of squicks me out, unlike the meat eaters for whom the killing is distasteful. You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down? Anyway, I like movies and I wish I had a whole lot more of them. Mostly, I want Twilight and Eclipse and New Moon if it’s out. Because just the other day I was thinking about how much I loved watching Bella and Edward’s crazy crazy love tension on screen and realized that I had gotten all my movies from a dude. So I have a lot of Die Hard and not a lot of Twilight. Which is fine most of the time, but I can only watch something like the Hangover so many times.

But I guess I can continue reading the super true tale of the Grateful Dead, a book I found in the workstation library. I almost started reading this theo apologist book that uses physics to prove the Judeo-Christian God, and then realized that if he had in fact done so I probably already would have heard of it and I wouldn’t need to learn it from a paperback book published in the 80s. The workstation libraries definitely have a strange assortment of stuff, including stories of Peace Corps service, which is like the last thing I want to read right now. It’s weird that I was so obsessed with reading about the Peace Corps for so long and now that I’m living it I have no desire to even think about someone else’s experience. I can barely process my own. I definitely have no desire to read another Peace Corps blog for as long as I’m here. I can barely keep up the enthusiasm for my own! Once things settle down for me in my new house, I don’t think there will be a lot going on to report about and I doubt I’ll be updating more than a few times a month. I don’t want to bore anyone, geez.

And on that note, I just want to add that dad totally sent me the biochemistry/pathology text book that KU med uses in it’s beginning seminars and I am totally going to learn the shit out of it. I am a little concerned that my anticipation for this book is exponentially higher than my excitement about my birthday, swear in, moving to my new house, and even cooking for myself, but I’m going to have science! Yay!

XOXO,

Elaina


Monday, September 13th

Yay, my birthday is in a week, woot woot! I think I actually might have a few packages in the mail, too…so even if I don’t get anything for my birthday I should still get something SOON.

I passed my language interview! Intermediate high is what I will swear-in as, which is completely fine with me. I think sometimes I can perform at an Advanced low level, but not consistently enough and it was definitely not showcased in my last interview. I’m just glad I get to go to the big ceremony. All the different sectors have matching tissue and I am picking up my traditional African style dress (called a modele) on Wednesday from the tailor. I asked for some embroidery that was sparkly and very pretty, so hopefully it’s awesome looking. I’m not too picky, though.

So swear-in is on Friday and we only have tomorrow and a half day on Wednesday left of classes. Tomorrow we’re at Songhai for the last time and I’ll post my last blog from training! After that these blog entries will be from an officially sworn-in Peace Corps volunteer, jigga-what?! Haha

I have started writing the tale of my love story with Colt. It’s pretty ridiculously sappy, actually. We’re incredibly cute with some pretty interesting stories in the history of our relationship so I think it’ll make decent writing. We’ll see; at the very least it’s cathartic for me to write it. I spent like two hours the other day re-reading all the old notes that Colt had given me from high school and than dreamed that we were still in the very beginning of our relationship with all those first concerns and dramas. We were both really different back then and we’ve changed a lot, but somehow we’re still compatible after all those changes.

I did the calculations and right now, he and I have physically been together for more time than we have physically been apart, even considering four years of long distance in college. With his visits and my semester at KSU, we’ve been together for just over a week longer than we’ve been apart. The bad news is that in about three days that balance will even up and then switch over to the majority of our relationship being spent physically apart from each other. The even worse news is that we won’t get back to half way and then surpass it until like September of 2014. So, that sucks. Especially when I think about how probably in the course of the next two years I’m going to actually get to spend a whole four or five weeks with him in total, and that’s it. Uuuughhhhh, depressing.

Happier things now.

Velveeta shells macaroni and cheese. This can be sent to me. And should be in high numbers.

Wow, it is astonishing how quickly that thought made me feel better. I really do love cheese and I have not had any real stuff since July 15th when I had my last meal of a subway sandwich with extra provolone, toasted just so the cheese begins to melt. Aaaahhhhhhh.

I miss cooking with Colt, making really random meals and trying to pair it with a wine or beer. Colt made a Mexican casserole (aka ‘mexicas’) a few days ago and I was more homesick and missing him than I had been in weeks. It’s like for some reason the thought of good, spicy Mexican food and Colt just go hand in hand with me missing America. That and the other homesick-inducing combo of pizza, Colt, and an action movie. That’s always a nice one, especially with a good beer (ou bien, a diet coke) thrown in the mix. Ok, screw Benin; I’m coming back!

Nooooot really. But damn I am sick of couscous which is sort of crazy because it’s the dish that is so good they named it twice.

Ok, enough of this nonsense, I’m going to go read about Jerry Garcia and the Dead.

With love from the dark continent of your imagination,

E


Tuesday, September 14th

Well, clearly I did not post my blog from yesterday. That is because the internet at Songhai was not working at all. The ladies behind the counter wouldn’t even let me buy any time because it was not going to be working any time in the foreseeable future. Today we signed a bunch of forms and finalized a lot of the plans for swear-in and the party afterward as well as when our taxis are leaving to go to our posts. It was super fun. Relatedly, we get our money for move in pretty soon so we’ll be able to buy a bunch of stuff before we leave…which is awesome. Also awesome: we have only one day of classes left!! Ahhhhhhh

Not so awesome: there are a couple people who did not pass their language requirement. They do not get to officially swear in and must take extra language classes and then re-test in a month. At that point they will be allowed to officially swear-in and their service of two years begins then. So basically, they have to spend an extra month in the Peace Corps because of it. That totally sucks and I think we can all see ourselves in that position. I mean, I was really not feeling good about my interview and feel like I could have easily been placed in that position. So they have definitely got my sympathy.

I talked to some ecotourism people today and decided that colt and I should hit up the safari thing pretty much right when he gets here, like spend a night in Djougou and then spend the next two nights on safari, that way we will have plenty of time afterward to really get to hang out and be comfortable. Apparently right before Christmas is a pretty good time to go, too, because it’s the dry season and that means that all the watering holes available to the animals are known to the guides and it is easier to spot them. I’m pretty stoked!

I learned that flossing your teeth once a day can help prevent heart disease. So I’m totally doing that now; go me.

Ok, I cannot believe how boring this has become. Next time I get online I’m going to have something interesting to talk about, I promise.

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Nakayo! Part Un

That means "welcome" in Dendi, the local language of my village!

Ok, so let me just say that wow, it has been a long time since I have been away from my computer and I am realizing that I have definitely not been absconding from technology since I’ve been in Africa. I have pretty regularly updated this blog despite the fact that I no longer find anything in my day to day existence particularly interesting, unless you consider incredible bureaucratic frustration to be especially engaging. However, the last week that I have spend sans computer has been one of legit trials and tribulations, as it were, although not much of those trials were directly related to technological-withdrawl. While in Djougou I got really bad food poisoning, was throwing up bad enough that I was super dehydrated, and ended up needing to go to the local hospital for intravenous intervention. Now, seriously, before anyone freaks out, I am fine and back in Porto Novo, safe and sound. The Peace Corps doctors advised me the entire time and everything was clean and safe. That said, it was pretty intense.

I suppose I’ll just tell the little post visit tale chronologically, but know that as I write this I am at full health with my trusty anti parasitic pills, and that I really liked Djougou. I’m also breaking this post visit into two parts; my thrilling tale of food poisoning will come later, but first let me recount all the other parts of my journey! The writing is a bit more story-like, which was definitely more fun to write than normal blog entries have been.

Ok.

Djougou Post Visit Part Un

The first day of visit began at 5:00am when I left my host family to walk to the school where the van was picking us up to take us to the bus. It was still dark outside as I walked to school and the entire city was transformed into a weird, mysterious landscape that only made not speaking french that much more frustrating when dark shadows called out things to me. Once I was on the bus, I managed to use up the entire battery of my ipod within an hour and my homologue, Imorou, and I didn’t really have much to discuss beyond the basic familiarities. I think we both realized we’d be spending a lot of time together in the future and there was no need to waste the glorious air-conditioning of the bus to actually attempt to engage in a conversation en franglais (an intriguing blend of French and English). We stopped in Bohicon, a lovely little town that will be hosting Heather and Craig, and there for the first time in my life, paid someone to allow me to pee in a hole. It was cheap, but one would think that the very act of paying to urinate necessitates some sort of sanitary conditions, but that was definitely faux.

Once we arrived in Djougou, Imorou kindly discute’d (“dis-queue-tay’d” a franglais word of tres importance that means negotiation) a good price for a meal of yam pilee with wagasi. Yam pilee is like pate (sticky and solid and white without any hint of nutritional value…comes from yams…which are not like one would expect; here they are these giant freakishly hairy grey tubers that resemble firewood. To make the pilee, the yams are mashed and boiled and mashed again and then molded into a strange gelatinous pile to eat by hand with the sauce) but unlike pate, yam pilee is actually sort of good. It tastes a bit like mashed potatoes if they were made by anyone not my mother or myself (there are few things as delicious and incomparable as my mother’s mashed potatoes). They lack a little salt, but with the thick, spicy tomato sauce and the freshly fried, crispy wagasi, yam pilee is definitely my favorite traditional Beninese food I’ve experienced thus far.

Wednesday night I just hung out with my homestay family in Djougou, which ended up actually being a quasi-hotel with clean sheets and my own room, but so much noise outside that I wished I had brought my earplugs or not used up all my ipod battery on the drive. The woman who was supposed to house me was sick and I instead slept at her place of business, a tissage center, a new, French built compound where groups of women get together to weave various colorful fabrics. It is actually the place where Doug, my post mate and host brother from another mother (he had my host family last year), works with his homologue in the Small Business Development sector. The place was nice and the people nicer; the children outside were screaming the screams of children playing, the noise was supplemented by the other key sounds of the West African town: goats, guinea fowl, and the ever-so-present muezzin of the many mosques that dot the horizon in the city. That night I ate some strangely spicy rice and bean dinner (washed down with half a liter of unfiltered, unboiled water before I realized what I was doing and poured it down the drain), listened to the muezzin in his minaret and read my book called Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Labor in the American Black Market (if possible, I’ve become even more of a voracious reader here in Benin as well as increasingly, annoyingly liberal. By the end of the book I was ready to argue about the legalization of marijuana to anyone who was bored enough to listen…which was essentially the huge cockroach that ended up dying next to my bed that night). The third half of the book was all about pornography and nudged between discussions of Hugh Hefner and the porn connections to the mafia, there was a mention of my NGO, Population Services International (PSI) as having been started by a guy who wanted to sell novelty items by mail in the US and contraceptives in the developing world. Well, there ya go.

The next day was Thursday and at PSI I was introduced to the Djougou staff who all tried to speak English with me. I thought about asking them about their organization’s humble beginnings, but didn’t think either my French nor my English was sufficient to discuss mail order sex toys at any great length. Everyone seemed really nice and well educated and fully enjoying the air-conditioning and the high speed internet. A few people really joked around with me and I think that I will actually have a bit of fun working there. Imorou and I went out on a little visit to a neighboring village a few kilometers out and met up with a sage-femme at a maternite to collect from her records information about STIs and contraceptive use in her region. Imorou diligently recorded the numbers and we chatted with her for a bit. The place was eerily quiet; all the public health workers in Benin are en grave, on strike, right now for more money from the government. I asked what people do if they get sick and she just smiled and said that they all still work on Fridays.

I was able to see my house that afternoon and let me tell ya, I was not thrilled with my first impression. It had been taken back by Africa; reclaimed by the gods to the insects and creatures of this continent. Spiders, lizards, heretofore unseen bugs of various varieties, cobwebs, freaky looking plants. All that paled in comparison to the maestro, la grande, the largest fucking spider that has ever been conceived outside of a Hollywood horror film. This spider was the size of a large, well-fed rodent, although not nearly as hairy and it was hanging out in a thick, dewy web next to my shower just waiting for an unsuspecting child to wander into it’s nest, Shelob style. I’m talking ten inches from the tip of it’s disturbingly pointy front legs to the back of it’s claw-like nether regions, with a dark, sinister body as thick and robust as my fist. MY FIST. I actually don’t think I’ve seen a larger spider in cinema, except for the Tolkein creation, Aragog from HP, and those freaky Jumanji spiders that gave me the heebie-jeebies for years. Yeah, you remembers those. Imorou killed it valiantly with a stick and I have been assured that the body has been properly disposed of. Doug guaranteed that la grande was not a normal occurrence, a reassurance that was very necessary after Imorou insisted I stay at the house and get habituated to them. Yeah, I don’t want to be that bien ingre, thanks.

Despite the lurking arachnid horror, the house is lovely. I have a few things to be made by the menusier, like a bookshelf, double bed, a few shelves here and there, and a clothes rack, but I have already a make-shift couch, a coffee table, two living room chairs, a dining table with four chairs, a desk, a cot, an extra twin bed, and some duct taped newspaper clippings from the 2008 World Series as decoration. Most of my move in allowance will be spent on carpentry, kitchen supplies, and some cool paintings if they are not too expensive. The house is big and right next door to PSI. I think I’m going to try for a garden outside in my concession if it is okay with my 2 neighbors, although I doubt they’ll care if I give them some tomatoes or moringa leaves free of charge every now and again. I have a guava tree beside the house, but my favorite thing about my house is that there is a mango tree right in front of my little stone porch and I can absolutely see me and Colt sitting underneath it in the hot African winter, eating warm mangoes that have just fallen from above us. It’s like a Jack Johnson song in my front yard, which is just dandy for me although it makes me miss him even more.

That night I had another ‘whoa Africa’ moment looking up at the stars while on the roof of the buvette near my house, on the outskirts of the town where the noises fade away after dark. Doug and I met up to get to know each other a little bit better and have a couple drinks and somehow we ended up on the roof with the very drunk proprietor and a bowl of yam frites while drunk dialing Maman Rico in Porto Novo. I was drinking a petite Beninoise, the local beer of Benin, which is also the feminine nationality here (one could think I was ordering up a small Beninese woman for the evening if that sort of thing happened here, which it does, just not by other women). We had lapsed into a comfortable silence despite the odd moto horn in the distance, unintelligible insect noises in the bush, and the reassuring snores of the bar owner next to us. The moment was subtle, I hardly noticed it to be honest, but I looked up and realized that all the stars seemed somehow nearer and brighter than I’d ever seen before in my life and immediately after that realized that that moment was the first time I was really seeing the unaltered African sky. Because I’d only been in big cities thus far and was too tired and stressed on tech visit in Lalo, I’d managed to miss one of the most simple and breathtaking sights this continent has to offer.

I spent Friday at the Centre de Sante, the health center, and talked with the sage-femmes and lab techs there. I actually watched a women, who only spoke Dendi, get the implant contraceptive, Jadelle (like Norplant) contraceptive inserted into her upper arm in the morning and sat in on a positive HIV test informing meeting in the afternoon. Both of those were pretty intense for different reasons. The first one was pleasing to me because I really enjoy procedures and seeing them done is always exciting for me to learn more about how the human body works and responds to stress. I am always impressed with both the resiliency of the patient’s body and amazed by what looks like a callous roughness from the physician or nurse. Imorou was with me during the insertion and he mumbled reassuring things to the woman in Dendi while taking photos of me dripping iodine solution onto a gauze pad for the midwife. After that we saw the lab where one of the doctors was just about to get the results for an HIV test he was working on. We waited while the little strip began to clearly show the outline of a positive sign and I found myself choking back tears as he explained that the woman, also a non-French speaker and Muslim, was waiting in the other room to get the results. I sat next to him in his office while he called her in. Her face was veiled completely save for her eyes, which were outlined with black and flashed boldly. When the door was closed behind her, she removed her veil and sat down, silent. Without the cover, her gaze was less bold and more tired; the lines of the years had begun to write themselves in the corners of her eyes. I glanced down at the papers in front of the physician and noticed that she was thirty years old and that she was pregnant. Looking while trying not to stare, I could see she was just starting to show under her robes, the swell not more than 6 months old. I expected him to greet her, open the conversation carefully, doucement, break the news as gently as possible, but that didn’t happen. He simply pulled out a stack of cotrimazidole pills from his desk drawer and handed them to her; she didn’t even blink as she tucked them into her waistband.

Later, after a suspiciously tasty dinner at Le Cafetariat le Flamboyant, a buvette/salad joint near the bus stop, it began to rain harder than I‘ve ever experienced. I was lounging on the bed, the mosquito net still flipped up, not yet ready for the night, fanning myself and reflecting on the Dendi that I had managed to pick up during the last couple days (Nasuba--bonjour, Me teg gah?-- comment ca va?, baani--ca va bien, nagbe--merci). I was laying there, trying to think over the noises of the guinea fowl, children, and mosques, vaguely hoping that the still distant cramping in my gut would soon abate, when the skies abruptly opened up with the crack of lightning. My door had been open to the warm evening and the tiled floor was instantly soaked with the sudden African rain. I felt the heat immediately dissipate as I jumped up to close the door against the barrage. I noticed something else as I stood there, the rain soaking through my clothes. It was easy to miss if you weren’t listening, but the sound of the rain was so complete that it filled the room perfectly and silenced all the other sounds of the city save for the pounding hush of the downpour.