Voodoo and Foodoo

Friday, August 20

It is officially less than a month until my birthday and I have started counting down the days. I’m not really sure what I’m so excited about, though. My birthday just so happens to coincide with the exact day that I’ll be traveling up to my post after swear-in. It’s possible that it could end up being my first day at post, but either way it’s not exactly going to be a party. It will be hot and I’ll be exhausted and dirty from travel and I’m sure I won’t have everything I need to feel at home…and I’ll be all alone in a brand new city where I’m probably one of like 0.2% of people who speak English. I guess birthdays aren’t so special as to require a huge group of people celebrating my life or anything, but being totally alone seems sort of a bummer, too. I hope people call me, hint hint.

The language interview went well for me I think. I won’t know for sure what my level is for a few more days, but I know it went up at least one level. I doubt I’ll make it to intermediate high, but on va voir. It’s nice to feel like I can take a mini break and not worry about French for a couple days.

This weekend we’re all getting together and cooking some good old fashioned American food. We’re having fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese with banana bread for dessert. We were promised pizza for a few hours and I was especially excited due to the ridiculous amount of pizza I usually consume in the states, but mac and cheese is still a pretty awesome idea.

I cadeaux’d my can opener to my family today when Rico was opening up my can of peas. He was using a knife and it looked super dangerous, so I just ran and grabbed it and he was super stoked about it. I told him it was a gift for the fam and he definitely was into how easy it was to open up the peas.

I’ve been in kind of a bad mood for the last couple days and I just feel grumpy. I don’t really know why exactly…there’s nothing specific…but just little things seem to annoy me more and my food has not been tasting as good as usual. I think I might be a little sick, but I’m sort of just easily irritated, physically and emotionally. Like one mosquito bite was frustrating me way more than normal and certain little things that other people have done have been more irritating than perhaps the action truly was. I don’t know; I’m ready for a change soon. I like my host family, but I really just need to get to my post so I can figure out my own routine with my own food. I am also really frustrated with the quality of training that we’re getting. I don’t feel like I’m learning anything from the administrative staff and rather all my knowledge is coming from the PCVs. There just seems to be a lot of mix ups and confusion about scheduling and we always seem to be changing things around at the last minute. There have even been a couple things related to health that we’ve been told of which I’m not sure about the validity. I don’t know, I’m just annoyed right now and am really looking forward to week 7 when we go on our post visit!

There was a mini hope for Akon earlier in the week when Papa said he’d think about letting one of the older sisters go with me and then after we could stay at Maman’s sister’s house in Cotonou…but he hasn’t gotten back to me and since the concert is in less than a week, I don’t really foresee it happening.

Ramadan has started and the amount of prayer calls has increased by a large factor. Instead of just a few times a day, I’m pretty sure the pink mosque down the street does the call like every two hours now. I am probably going to keep Ramadan next year when I’m living in a predominantly Muslim area, but in Porto Novo it’s pretty commonplace to see people eating and drinking during the day just because of the large Christian population and no one thinks twice about a yovo doing the same.

Speaking of yovo habits, my beauty routine has changed considerably. Instead of make-up, I basically apply like four different white creams to my body twice daily. One is sunscreen. Another is benzoyl peroxide. Another is this anti-mosquito cream and if that fails, the fourth is hydrocortisone cream. I have all the tubes lined up on my little white plastic desk by my water filter and stack of health related books. And on that note, I really want that “Where There Is No Midwife” book that Jeni bought, but I never actually received. Does anyone know anything about this? Jeni?

I thought I had something else to say, but I don’t remember. TIA

E

Sunday, August 22

I started thinking about writing a book about my Peace Corps service. Since the Peace Corps owns everything I write while I’m here, I won’t be putting any of it up here on the blog because I’m not officially writing it yet. I’m envisioning it as having two main sections for each year of service and having it follow, chronologically, my time here. I’m actually going to include the application process and all the thoughts and decisions about choosing to go. In a really sappy turn of events, I am pretty sure it’s going to be a chronicling of having a super long term long distance relationship in addition to what will hopefully be entertaining snippets of my service here. I know that when I was considering the Peace Corps I read almost everything written by RPCVs and really wanted information about successfully maintaining a serious relationship with someone in the states. So I envision this book as being both informative, reassuring, and an enjoyable read. It always feels very self-involved to be writing something vaguely memoir-esque, but I’d like to think that my experiences here are both enough outside the norm and potentially helpful to others as to negate a little bit of self-aggrandizement. In addition to that book, I’m writing a bunch of Africa related short stories to maybe collect in one book as fiction and publish someday. And in addition to those, I’m continuing on my latest young adult novel about a girl living in the US, but who is actually a fairy princess from another realm. Good stuff. Plenty of things to keep me occupied for after swear-in when I’ll just be sitting around meeting new people before I can actually work.

I met the girl who I am replacing in Djougou and she was super nice and helpful about the house. I haven’t asked her too much about working with PSI yet, but she’s here during this week for training so I’ll definitely have the opportunity. PSI definitely pays for my electricity…so I will be getting a fridge for sure. Immediately after finding that out, I heard that Erevan, the huge yovo store in Cotonou, just so happens to have diet coke…so I will be bringing diet coke to my house in Djougou to get cold in my fridge. I am thinking that during the Chaleur this will be the best idea ever. I also found out about furniture. I will need to get a double bed frame made and possibly some dining room chairs, but that the house is basically completely furnished. She said that I have: a dresser, bedside table, chair for the bedroom, extra bed in the guest room, a cot, a futon like sofa, a coffee table and a dining room table with three chairs, but places for 6 people. So depending on what it looks like on post visit, I might be getting another relaxing chair for the living room and additions to the dining set. I am super happy though! It was pretty funny because she said that everyone always says that she’s spoiled and doesn’t have the “real Peace Corps experience” because the house is so nice, but that she didn‘t really mind missing out. Well, that’s okay with me, too!

Right now I am super hungry for protein. I want a huge glob of peanut butter and I am really regretting not buying some from the peanut butter lady at school yesterday. She’s always there with her jars during all our breaks, but I just decided to wait until Monday for some dumb reason. Mmmmmmm, peanut butter.

So last night Auro came out. Auro is a vodun (voodoo) spirit that comes out in the south of the country during certain times of the year. It is forbidden for a woman to see him; if she does, she will die. Men are supposed to avoid Auro, but nothing will happen if they see him. What happens when “Auro is out” is everyone makes sure they are home before dark and that all the lights are out (because he doesn’t like the light). When he comes by the house, you will know because there is a loud, creepy sound that surrounds the house. There might also be banging on windows and doors. But whatever you do, do not look outside or open the door if you are a woman. It seems sort of silly to us…clearly, “Auro” is just some dude dressed up making a lot of noise to freak people out. But there are actually some pretty serious consequences for not taking Auro seriously. Essentially, because people believe so strongly in the vodun, if a woman is known to have seen Auro, she can be murdered and it will be blamed on Auro. It’s a very subtle difference, but most people don’t even risk looking because of the strong superstition. There are actually some parts of the country where volunteer women are allowed to leave during the time of the year Auro is out because it’s just not safe to risk it. The fear of the community’s reaction to you seeing Auro and the fear of Auro himself become interestingly intertwined in a lot of volunteer’s minds it seems. It almost becomes something you believe in. Last night, for example, I made sure I was home before it was too dark and I asked my host sister when Auro would be out. She said if he came it would be around ten or eleven and that we’d be safe in the house because he wouldn’t come inside the concession. All the windows were covered anyway, though, which seemed super spooky. The entire night I listened for Auro, not sure about what I’d hear. Then I heard it in the distance sometime before midnight. I was half asleep, but the eerie whooping whistle sound was not something I had ever heard before. It never got close enough for me to analyze and I was too tired to stay awake to wait, but the noise was definitely unmistakable for something natural. This morning I’m not even sure if it actually happened or if I was dreaming. The fear of Auro is very intriguing. He never forces you to see him. As long as you’re inside and don’t peek out your windows when you hear him outside, you are in absolutely no danger. And yet, the curiosity about what he looks like…about who he is and how he’s dressed up…about who is with him and what they’re doing to produce the eerie, loud sounds…that curiosity is almost strong enough to almost cause you to want to look, even though you know that looking is the one thing you are not supposed to do. So the fear is not really of Auro, or even of the community’s reaction to you seeing Auro, but of not trusting yourself to have self-control over your own actions. It’s very vertigo-esque. You don’t fear falling itself, but the desire to fall.

I have run out of all snacks and candy. It is really depressing. Someone please send me a package of something! Include stamps (preferably the ‘forever’ kind) and maybe some cheap, women’s cut, colored t-shirts. Handwashing is super rough on my tee-shirts, and whites have not remained white. I’m thinking simple reds and blues, browns, blacks, etc. No writing on them, just a simple scoop neck, size small. Please and thank you!

My birthday is in 28 days! WOO HOO!

E

PS. Apparently, all the money that was stolen from me has been returned! Miranna and Charlie are coming down to Porto Novo at the beginning of week 7 before post visits and will return it to me then. YIPPIE! They will recount the story and the perpetrators then, too…so get ready for that story!

Monday, August 23

Well, the levels are back and I’m intermediate-mid…as expected. I really wanted to get up to intermediate high so I could start learning local language, but apparently no one in our sector is starting local languages yet…so it doesn’t really matter for now. I just have to get one more level before swear in…which I think is possible if I just practice a little bit more at home. It just takes time and it’s hard for me because I am so not a patient person. But little by little I get better. One thing that is sort of frustrating, but nice at the same time is that I have the same instructor as I did before. It is sort of annoying because I wanted to work with someone new, but it’s good because I know her style already. I have two new classmates, though and I think they will make it fun. One guy, Matt, seems very good at just going off on tangents and having a conversation which is so much better than always just doing the lesson. We debated the merits of dutch ovens in french for like ten minutes…which was way better than recounting a boring story.

So I finally went to a tailor to get some stuff made…I haven’t gotten it back yet, but I’ll pick up a new skirt and a modele (the Beninese outfit of skirt and top) on Thursday and report back. Sometimes it’s necessary to get some alterations afterward, but the tailor took all my measurements and I should have some faith in his ability to do a good job. Innocent until proven guilty haha.

After going to the tailor, I bought a coconut on the side of the road off of some little girl’s head. I paid 100 F for it and had a hell of a time cracking it open on the ground. Rico and Fifa helped me and we were giggling for like 20 minutes while we tried to get all the delicious pieces out. There was one particularly stubborn piece that Rico was working on that he kept bouncing up higher than our heads. I was definitely having a good time with it haha. The coconut milk was amazingly refreshing after a long day, too, although I spilled a lot of it on the ground. There was something super rewarding about eating some nourishment that I had worked on with my bare hands (and my leatherman lol).

Well, I guess I should talk about something sad that happened. Today I came home after going to the grand marche to get some meme tish with Carlos and Papa was MAD. He was totally going off on Amede and I asked Rico what was up and he whispered to me that she had failed her school exams and had to repeat the year next school year. On one hand I was happy to see him taking her education so seriously, but damn, he was pissed. He is still mad and she’s been crying for like 2 hours. Every few minutes he’ll come back to where she is and talk to her…the yelling has decreased which I think is good…but she just looks at the ground and cries. I feel so bad and I don’t really know what to do. I would totally give her a hug if I thought she’d be receptive. I tried to give her a piece of my coconut via Fifa, but she didn’t want it. I just wish people would leave her alone. I am pretty sure she gets it now! I told her just now that she would be okay and she just nodded and her eyes welled up. Man, it totes sucks. She’s now just sitting in the living room with us, but on her own couch and she’s just crying silently, looking down while everyone ignores her. It’s so awful but I don’t know what to do!

A commercial for the Akon concert was just on and everyone was like AHHHH, AKON!!! ELAINA TU L’AIME, OUI?! And I was like YES I like Akon, I want to go to the concert…but papa just smiled and went back to berating Amede. Totes lame sauce.

On the lame sauce note, there wasn’t any peanut butter at school today. Also, I’ve given up with trying to be super careful with my weight while I’m living with my host family. They get all sad when I turn down food and since I’m actually usually able to keep eating…and the food is generally pretty tasty…since we’re talking a giant plate of delicious spicy spaghetti for example…I think I will be a happier person if I just sort of enjoy myself for this last month and I’ll watch my weight once I get to Djougou and I can actually have some control over the amount of oil in the sauce and how many carbs I’m taking in. I just can’t control it now and it doesn’t really help anything for me to be all worried about it, you know? So for now…my 6 pack abs plan is on hold. But I will recommence with it after my birthday and hopefully I’ll be super svelte for my Christmas conjugal visit. haha

Ok, I just started laughing at the very serious soap opera and the whole family looked at me like I was being ridiculously disrespectful of the tres grave situation. But I mean, come on. The music was super intense and then this guy said (dubbed over the Spanish) “No, doctor. That is not my brother” and everyone gasped. It was just hilarious and I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

Oh, Rico’s birthday is the same as Colt’s which he was pretty pleased about. He and Fifa were actually planning the meal for when he visits in December and kept asking me if Colt liked various things…meat, beans, fromage, etc. I had a hard time describing his aversion for red meat, but willingness to eat chicken…especially since the best way for me to explain my vegetarianism is to say that I’m a buddhist and it’s forbidden by my religion. Since that’s sort of true, I guess it works.

Ok….so, one of the sisters just said that Papa is going to go to the Akon concert with me…now I am super confused and frustrated with my French. Grrrrr. Tomorrow I will ask him because he is sort of tired right now.

Until next time,

E

Tuesday

So, I am definitely going to Akon on Saturday! Papa said we're going and maybe I can bring Krista and Andrew.

Today we learned about Moringa oleifera. It is a plant that was introduced to Benin in the 60s and many environmental action volunteers here have worked with it since 2000. It has been called the “Miracle Tree” which is a little sensationalistic, but actually pretty appropriate. Moringa has all the essential amino acids, which is super rare for a plant. It also has more potassium, calcium, and vitamins than most other sources. There is statistical evidence that shows that when added to nutritional recuperation programs, there is a higher success rate of increasing weight and improved health for malnourished kids. It is also an extremely effective carbon sink and absorbs a lot more carbon dioxide than many hardwood trees. It can be used as animal food, fertilizer, a natural pesticide, and a way to purify water. So, I’ll be eating this in addition to eggs and wagasi to get all my protein. Yay!

Djougou and bisap!

Sunday 8:45 Benin/2:48am CST

Happy Sunday morning, tout le monde! Some of the family is at the Evangelical church and the other section (which includes Maman Rico) is at the Catholic church. From what I gather, this difference causes a little bit of drama in the household. I declined to attend either simply by saying I didn't want to go. They didn't press me for more details, but I think I would just say that I believe in something different. Apparently the Beninese just want to know you believe in something, but don't really care what it is, haha.

Last night over some bisap (bee-sap), a sugary drink made from hibiscus leaves, I talked with Maman in English and realized that her English is not so good afterall. She can really only barely remember basic phrases for greeting and some vocabulary, so I think it's pretty funny that she told me that she spoke English! It's really weird to be here and recognize that my French is better than a lot of people's English. My French instuctor, for example, teaches English when she doesn't work for the Peace Corps, but she definitely cannot sustain a conversation in English. I guess high school foreign language instructors are often the same way if they don't regularly speak the language they are teaching. It's just strange to know that my best language for communication here really is French. When someone says something to me in English and I don't understand the word because the accent is to thick or they're mispronouncing it, I ask them to tell me the word in French, and then I'll totally understand what they were trying to say in English. It's just bizarre to have to ask for clarification in a language other than English. I also showed Maman, Rico, and Ginny some pictures of my family and Colt and I have this one of Dad holding me on his back when I was like 6 months old or something and they thought that was HILARIOUS. Men do not carry babies like that here and women ALWAYS carry babies strapped to their backs, so Maman was in a giggle fit over that. She also thought Colt was handsome and I promised to bring him through Porto Novo on our way up to Djougou in December. I spent a lot time explaining all my parents' marriages and remarriages and what brothers belonged to what parents and she exclaimed at the end that American families were just as complicated at Beninese ones! That surprised her I think because we're always portrayed as so nuclear: Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, dog, white picket fence. I felt pretty stoked to be able to give a good picture of America; that's the 2nd goal in action! (The Peace Corps has 3 goals: 1)To help people who need and want our help, 2) To share American culture with the Host Country, and 3) To share the Host Country culture with America)

Yesterday we did some baby weighings in a nearby village. I weighed two babies and they were freaking adorable. A couple babies were on the borderline of the danger zone, but no one was in the red. We spent a lot of time with the mothers singing and dancing before and after the activity which was a fun icebreaker and helped put the moms at ease before handing over their little babies to a bunch of yovo strangers! A lot of us used the moment to get a shit ton of pictures of and with the crazily enthusiastic African kids. They really love cameras and posed in all sorts of ridiculous poses, just like Oliver does! It was really fun although one bad thing has happened. MY CAMERA DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE! The stabilizer (according to people who know stuff about cameras) isn't working and I can't get a clear shot of anything; all my photos are strangely distorted. Nothing really specific happened to it; I didn't drop it or anything...it's just old I guess. So that's a bummer. It is sort of priority that I get another camera at some point...preferrably something nice and good that will last and take some bomb ass photos of Africa...but one that is user friendly for a photography novice. I am sort of into it, though, so it's something I could definitely learn about and get into. ANY SUGGESTIONS? My birthday is in fact coming up, just 3 days after swear-in...if anyone is interested. hint hint to anyone not already helping send Colt to me for Christmas...

Speaking of Djougou...

It is apparently a beautiful area of the country and the city is surprisingly clean for its size. I am excited to be in such a vibrant, hopping place. It is, like a lot of Benin, full of a lot of young people, and there are many efforts to get more tourism going. It's a very Muslim city with each neighborhood having at least one mosque. I am hoping to get an opportunity to go to service with some neighbors or something, but I'm not sure about the rules for non-followers. I'm pretty sure another trainee went with his host family once, so we'll see. Djougou is the major carrefour (intersection) in the North, with roads leading to Natitangou (my Peace Corps work station city only an hour away), Parakou (the other work station city in the North), Cotonou (the Southern work station), and the Togolese border. Apparently most people have cars and/or motos as it is a relatively wealthy city and there are beaucoup de zemidjians. It is also known as a safe city, with a few instances of petty theft as the only concern. I will have running water in my house and will probably end up boiling my drinking water and then filtering it only because I'll want to use the spiget on the filter to collect my water from. From what I've gathered from most volunteers, filtering tap water is a little bit overkill. There is a grande marche that has pretty much the best stuff in the North, including a lot of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits. There are also boutiques for more expensive stuff like pasta, butter, spices, and coffee. Wagashi is native to the North and is apparently super delicious up there...and since wagashi is probably my favorite Beninese food (when it's not too strong), I am pretty happy about that! There are two health centers and a private hospital, as well as many birthing centers. It seems that PSI, the NGO I'll be working with, is interested in having me work with sexual health and family planning initiatives, which is totally great. I'm also, hopefully, going to have an opportunity to work with some of the birthing centers if I ask for it. I definitely don't want to work in the PSI office all day...that's not really how I envisioned my Peace Corps service. But a little bit of that is fine as long as i have time to do some of the more hands-on stuff I am interested in doing as well.

A few days ago I had another "holy shit, i'm in Africa" moment. Maman and I went to Cotonou on Friday to say good bye to Jess before her flight and on the way, the driver was playing loud African music on the radio. The sun was setting and the silhouettes of the palm trees were outlined by the pink haze on the horizon and people in the car were chatting animatedly in Fon or Goun. I took a deep breath of the cleanest air outside of the cities I've had and thought "WHOA, I am in AFRICA." I'm almost certain the novelty will wear off, in fact to some extent it already has, but for now, I am happy to savor those split second moments where I feel the adrenaline of newness again and even if just for a fraction of a second, reaffirm my decision to live and work here. I am exactly where I want to be right now in my life and that is a wonderful bit of knowledge to have.

Until next time,

E

JACK BAUER

August 4th, 10:26pm CST, 16:26 Benin time

Right now I am online at the internet cafe near Gbezounkpa and I am attempting to update with pictures instead of playing soccer. I've had that mefloquine induced insomnia business for 2 nights now and I am way too exhausted to run around in the heat for 2 hours.

I don't have a lot to add to my post yesterday, so I'll just say that we're all very excited to hear about our placement on Friday. Heather and Craig suspect they'll be hanging out in the center of the country, the Collines, so we'll see if I'll be near them.

Today we worked on gardening and we got all sweaty and dirty. It was fun, but I was pretty tired. Heather and I now have a sweet little plot of land to cultivate each day. Hopefully we'll get some cucumbers, lettuce, and local tubers by the time we swear in after September!

I am super hungry and I really hope my family has some decent food for me tonight...I don't think I can handle french fries again.

Oh, and check out Jessica Bruce's blog, Under African Skies, because she totally had the same host family as me...which is just so weird to know after reading her blog for almost a year!

Please send me mail or email or packages or something! I want to hear about your lives =D

I think I'm going to go home and take a shower!

E

August 3rd, 2:19pm CST, 20:19 Benin

So I broke into my sour patch kids stash this evening and am happily chomping down on some sweet, sugarly deliciousness as i type this. I thought I could make it a month without candy, but apparently, it is pas possible.

Tomorrow is another round of soccer and this time I am going to remember to bring sports shorts! I have been so tired lately, though, because i think the mefloquine is causing a bit of insomnia. I talked to the doctors today about it and they said that insomnia is a common side effect reported by volunteers, but that it usually goes away after three or so weeks on the drug. I'm going to stick it out for another week, but if I don't get a good solid night soon I'm going to be grouchy and not very energetic for soccer!

I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but another volunteer has left training. I had talked to him on several occasions and knew he was having a hard time. I was really making an effort to include him and let him know I was available to chat about the suck fest that this whole thing can be...but I guess if you want to leave, you should go. There's only so much other trainees can do to help. I know for a couple days I was really having a hard time and the only people who reallly helped were current volunteers who had served for a year already. But even for me, I didn't need immediate counsel or anything because I wanted to leave after training was over; I knew I could make it to post at least. It's definitely a bummer to hear about one of us leaving and supposedly about 20% of a stage will ET by the end of the 2 years. So we're already 2 out of 60 gone after 2 weeks...that means like 11 or 12 of us will leave before then...which is like crazy weird to think about. But it won't be me. At least not just because I miss Colt or something. If my post is terrible for administrative or logistical reasons, I suppose I can't completely rule out my becoming part of that statistic until I've seen my post. Not everyone leaves because they miss a significant other (but of the 20% who ET, 80% of those are for that reason).

Tonight my host family was watching 24. Yeah, that's right...24...the Fox TV drama that kicks major ass. It was dubbed in French and watching it totally made my night. I totes recognized some of the drama and told them that I was very happy because it made me think of America. They don't call it 24, though...they call it "JACK BAUER!" And everytime you say "Jack Bauer" in French, it will make you crack up. Seriously, just try it. Now imagine 5 African kids all shouting it at once and you will understand my family's living room situation for the last hour. They asked if he was a real policeman in the United States...and I was like "no, he's not a real policeman. He's an actor!" and they thought that was pretty funny. It was super fun. It made up for the fact that Maman Rico was gone and Estelle made me dinner...which was a plate of lukewarm, soggy french fries with an overly fried egg plopped on top. I ate it all because i was starving, but damn. I have never wanted some ketchup so much in my entire life!

I had a zem driver try to give me shit today. At first he refused to take me home from Songhai for 200F, but then agreed to it when I told him I would find another zem, so I should have known he was finicky. Then as we got close to the school that is close to my house I told him to go to the end of the paved road, where it turns to sand and he was like "noo, you said the school, that will be 300F to go further" and I was like "whoa, buddy. I said near the school and I know the price. I always pay 200F for that same route." I made him pull over then about a block from my house and said "Fine, here is good. I will give you 200F since that's what you said at Songhai." And I gave him 200F, thanked him, and walked off. FUCK YEAH.

So I have discovered that the internet at the cafe close to my school, Gbezounkpa, is soooo much better than the internet at Songhai. they don't have wireless, but I can pay the same amount to use a desktop and then just plug my computer in instead. Heather totally was talking to her sister on skype there the other day, so I'm going to try to get on and post this on tomorrow after school and maybe even get to chat with my naughty puppy, colt...who was not online today when I was at songhai. Grr.

mais, c'est bon!
Love and miss you all,
Elaina

Photos and Videos from the fete!

Some bomb ass tissue prints of some kids during the flag raising.

The kids here really like getting their picture taken. These girls were hanging out at the mayor's house after the parade and eating some snacks they bought of of a maman's head.

This girl was almost lost in a sea of singing ladies during the parade, but I snapped this quick picture of her.

The internet is being pretty shady, but that seems to be typical here haha. These pictures are from the 50th independence day on the 1st of August. Enjoy!

I'm not sure if the video will work, but it's a few seconds of this guy who was encouraged to go out and dance to the drums and he went out there and kicked some ass.

This is a video of a women's group who rocked at the parade.

some random updates

July 29th, 3:18 pm CST, 21:18 Benin
Well, my stomach ache is much diminished today and I feel a lot better. Yesterday we spent a good couple hours playing a pretty intense game of soccer with all the volunteers and some of the language facilitators. There are a few of us with some soccer background, but I was actually quite happy at how quickly it all came back to me. I was wearing a skirt which made running and manuevering difficult, but it really made me miss playing soccer! Those were the days, man. I should have kept up with it or tried harder or something because it is way badass. But I suppose I have rubik's cube skillz and karate skillz to make up for it.

I went looking for tissue today with the Wiricks and eventually I had to go home because it was getting dark, but apparently they totally found some and are getting sweet clothes made for the fete (party) on Sunday for independence day. I totes missed out. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to go sometime this weekend, maybe Saturday afternoon.

I learned from my host sister, Rosine, about hair weaves today. It was very informative and I feel a little embarrassed that I don't really know anything about how many black women do their hair. But she showed me how the faux cheveux was actually sewn onto her actual hair and then she oiled it and put it in a cute knot at the knape of her neck. Which is all really impressive considering that there are no mirrors in the house and we all use whatever reflective surfaces we can find, like the glass doors!

OH, and my host sister is AMADIE, not Amelie as I've been calling her and apparently she's actually 18. There's a host bro who is actually the uncle of Amedie...who is 23, but he's not always here. He does have my number, though...and I cannot for the life of me remember his name. But Ricardo I know! He kicks ass (and apparently sometimes his sister, Genevieve...who they call "Ginny" but I don't know the spelling of it). Rosine is also 18 and I don't really know if they're actually half sisters from different mamans or if one is adopted or if they are twins or what. I don't think twins, so I really don't know. It's wild and I love it!

i got a letter today from Mommoo and it made me very happy! I don't really have the time to send letters back right now because I'm pretty sure I'd have to get them to Cotonou somehow first which is about an hour away...so for now, please please send me letters or packages with PHOTOS of you and magazines like Cosmo for light reading and craft projects.

And I really want to take pictures, but I can't get them online, apparently, because it takes an hour to load each picture...so does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I could try emailing them and Colt can post them or maybe try sending them through the snail mail on a flash drive? I don't know...people might have to wait until I get back before they see them!

Ok, that's it for now!
E

July 30th, 3:00pm CST/21:00 Benin

The married couple, A and K, who resemble Colt and myself, are in Cotonou tonight because the husband has food poisoning! It was pretty wild actually; during class (bike training...very dull), K received a phone call and then hurriedly left on her bike to go home and no one told us anything. It was pretty clear that A was involved and Heather texted her hubby, Craig, who has school with A, and he said something about A having to go to Cotonou. I found out a little while ago from K that they should be back by Sunday and that it was food poisoning specifically. It’s a little ironic because he is always joking about the safety of eating “street meat” and joking about liking it too much. Haha. I’m glad he’ll be okay. There’s actually another one of us stagaiers at the med station in Cotonou right now because of heat exhaustion and sickness. It’s crazy!

On the subject of sickness, my problems have almost completely gone away. My appetite is still a bit lower than normal, but I’m alright with that. Everything is carbohydrates here anyway, so I’m definitely eating enough. I get a little cramping in my stomach right after I eat, but it’s not as bad as it was at the beginning of the week.

Tonight I talked with my host sister, Ginny, a lot. We discussed snow and how she wants to go to France and the United States for university and to see different things and study English. We spent a long time talking about her maternal language which is a local one that I forget the name of, but it starts with a D...and we also spent time talking about the things she knows in English. She would name something and I wouldn’t quite understand her accent and so I’d have to ask her to say it in French and then I’d understand what she was going for. It was very strange to have to ask for clarification in French and actually understand what was going on! Also she taught me a few words in her maternal language, but of course, I can’t remember and can barely pronounce them to start with! She said D, her langue, is not very common, but Yoruba, Goun, and Fon are more common and that she can understand Goun also because it’s so common. She said that Papa tells them to speak French, so they speak that when he is around (and also when I am around because I am supposed to be learning French!), but when he’s not around, they all speak in that language so that they don’t forget it. It was a pretty cool conversation, actually. One of the best ones I’ve had with a host country national since I’ve been here. I feel like my French has gotten much much better and I am just not afraid to make mistakes anymore. I’ll bust out some future proche, future simple, passe compose, and a little immediate past and present. I even whipped out a conditionelle passe the other day and just about gave my language facilitator a heart attack haha. I can’t do that on command, though lol.

Today we went to a village and saw a local school and health center and got to talk to a midwife and the local community about their town just to get practice with speaking to a community. It was really cool to use French and chat with the kind of people we’ll be living with once we get to post. Everyone is just so excited to work with us and to talk to us about their town. I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble being accepted by my community as long as I make the effort to go out and meet people. The ‘community map’ project is pretty easy to do with a group of people and very well thought out as far as community involvement goes. The process doesn’t feel patronizing, which I was worried about, but because we as volunteers are mostly acting as facilitators at the meetings, and the people are doing most of the talking, it was much more inclusive. I definitely need more French to feel comfortable doing it on my own, though. And we had to have someone translate from French to Fon for the community, and then some people even needed French to English translation, too! It was kind of wild.

After that, my APCD (pretty much the highest up boss I have besides the country director), took me aside and told me that there were rumors that I was leaving early because I was engaged and he wanted to know if they were true. I was totally shocked and told him that I was not leaving anytime soon and that I had been invited to Benin even after my engagement. I told him that all of us have ups and downs, but that he would be the first to know if I was deciding to leave. It’s not a choice that would really just surprise him out of nowhere. It isn’t something that I can just do; he would be very aware if I was leaving. It was just frustrating to hear that people are gossiping about me or other people ETing. If someone wants to ET, we’ll know. Until then, it’s not really polite to put wagers on it. The fact that the rumors got all the way to Christian, the health sector APCD, is very annoying. The point is thus: I’ll stay here as long as can. That’s really all any of us can say!

I had a horrible, freakishly realistic nightmare last night that I know is from the mefloquine. I woke up around 4:30am or so, still believing that the dream was true for like a minute and I don’t think I’ve ever felt as sad and empty as I did for that minute. Once I realized it was just a dream and not real, I was so overwhelmed with relief that I totally bawled my eyes out and fell back asleep for another hour or two. It was really trippy and totally different than anything else I’ve felt. I can usually figure out when I’m dreaming, but this was so vivid, I literally thought I was living that life. I did not know where I was when I came awake and I didn’t know anything really except despair. It was super weird and intense. Not bad enough that it disrupts my life or anything and definitely not bad enough that I’d need to switch to doxycycline, the once a day pill, but just kinda freaky enough to mention! It’s sort of interesting in an academic sense, too. I’ve noticed other people discussing their mefloquine induced nightmares and they are all about giant bugs or monsters or freaky things like “snakes crawling into my skin” stuff like that, but my nightmares are all about bad things happening to the people I love. I guess that’s the price I’ll pay for having lots of love in my life!

Ok, it’s cooking time tomorrow at the RCH volunteers’ house in Porto Novo and then Satin (a health volunteer getting ready to start her 3rd year who rocks super hard) is going to help some of us get tissue and have some pretty clothes made. Yay!

Ok, I’m exhausted. Bonne nuit,
E

Spiders, zemis, and yovos galore!

July 23rd, 3:50pm CST, 9:50pm Beninese temps, Porto Novo

Today was an interesting day. My host sister, Amelie, helped me call over a zemidjian, but it was not an 'official' one. The ones who are registered and have training wear blue shirts with identifying numbers on them and baseball caps. This guy had the cap but not the blue shirt, but Amelie flagged him down and negotiated a price before I could say anything...and I wasn't even sure at the time how to say that i needed the official ones. So I said, hey, whatevs, and je prends cette zemi comme personne avant moi. And of course everything was tres bien.

Apres l'ecole, I had to get a zemi back to the house, which was an interesting problem since I had really had no idea where to go. One of my (apparently two) host mamans explained where the maison was, but hell, I couldnt' explain it to a zemi. So luckily there was a current PCV hanging out a Songhai and she helped explain that my house was proche l'ecole Davie at the end of the road. The zemi said okay and I hopped on with my sweet ass helmet (ma cas). It was pretty embarrassing, though, because he kept asking me, "vous connaissez?" ("you recognize anything?") and I kept saying "non" (nope!). Finally he rounded a corner and I saw the gigantic pink mosque that is a block from the house (and the muezzin call goes every few hours...I haven't figured out the schedule, but I will not soon forget the dulcet sounds in the wee hours of the morning!). I told him to stop and then thanked him profusely while he laughed and I paid him the deux cent francs.

That whole laughing at me thing seems to happen a lot here and I'm sort of enjoying it in a strange way. I mean, some of this shit is pretty damn funny. For example, this evening there was a fucking huge spider in my room. And naturally, I have this aversion for killing spiders. It's not a "I love nature and don't want to harm God's creatures" aversion, but more of a "I don't want it to scurry away and hide or jump on me or touch me with it's freaky legs" aversion. So I contemplated this spider as he chillaxed on my hundred dollar Chacos. We were at an impasse for probably a good fifteen minutes. I considered going to find Amelie...then decided I needed to man up because there wasn't always going to be a nice African waiting for me to utilize her spider killing services. I prepared myself to kill it and then realized that it was sitting on my shoes that I would have otherwise used to smush it. I decided then that perhaps my petite problem might be funny and I could use it as a bonding experience since I have yet to bond over my impeccable francais. I grabbed my handy dandy french dictionary while keeping that deceptively still spider in my sights and then made my way through the giant maison to trouve Amelie. Well, Amelie just happened to be on her way out and I told her there was a huge araignee dans ma chambre and that I had fear of it. She seriously started cracking up when she saw it. Her laughter brought Ricardo running and that attracted the attention of Estelle and Genevieve and at least two or three other neighborhood kids who were all in the livingroom watching the french dubbed version of an Argentinian Days of our Lives...and they all laughed and jumped up and down and teased me mercilessly saying it was "tres petite" and Amelie smushed it with her hand and brandished it in front of me just as Maman entered my little room with a low chuckle...and what the hell else was i supposed to do but just laugh with them? I am still grinning like a dork now that they are all gone. But, shit, it was pretty big.

I'm telling you, life is pretty freaking hilarious.
E

Sunday, July 25, 9:02am Beninese time/3:02am CST, Porto Novo

I am officially ill for the first time in Africa. Yay! I think it is less an actual infection and more just getting used to the food, but I stayed home today while the fam went to church because something I ate yesterday did not agree with me and I feel pretty crappy.

I filtered and boiled my first batch of water on my own; I definitely had to pick out a floating ant this morning when I poured it into my water bottle...so...yum! I have 5 liters stored now which should last me a few days and I’ve filtered like 6 more liters that can be boiled and stored in a couple other water bottles. I wasn’t brave enough to drink it plain, so I added a pomegranite lemonade packet to it and it is bon!

In the spirit of doing new things, I fait les lessives hier...(did the laundry yesterday) which was pretty ridiculous. I asked Maman Ramone (the younger, 2nd wife who usually cooks and does most of the work from what I can tell) if she could show me how to do it and she said something really fast and gestured to the patio and after about 5 minutes of me trying to repeat back her words and her getting frustrated that I did not comprends, I finally burst out in English, “I’ll bring out my clothes and you’ll show me how?!” And she smiled and said “yes.” AHHHHHHHHhh, so annoying! So I brought out my laundry and she told Amelie to take me to buy a bar of laundry soap and then we spent like an hour doing half of my laundry. I soaped up a shirt and then scrubbed it hard and then she’d take it and do it, too and then rinse it and go hang it. She had this very interesting complex system, too, of buckets and water and savon (soap). I realized that as the rinse bucket would get more sudsy and the first couple wash buckets got more dirty, the rinse bucket would become an additional wash bucket and another bucket with fresh water would be added on to become the rinse bucket. After doing like 10 items, we had basically used 5 buckets. It was pretty cool actually and much more efficient than I would have been able to figure out on my own. But dang, my arms got tired! I told Maman that and she and Amelie cracked up. They let me do it by myself for a bit (because Maman said I had to learn because I’d be alone at post), but I don’t think neither she nor Amelie could handle how slow I was, haha. So Amelie helped me finish while Maman went to preparer mon diner. I think she said something about how I was going to help her do it next Sunday (but not today because she was going to Cotonou).

I visited Craig and Heather yesterday at their sweet digs. They are staying with an older couple with an adult son who lives there, but their other kids live in Paris. They are very successful and have a lot of money and servants (called domestiques) to cook and clean. It’s very different then my experience; they have the entire downstairs to themselves! I hung out there for a while and chatted about wedding planning and stage and found out from Heather that instead of the $200 per month that goes toward our readjustment allowance, we actually get $275 because Obama increased our budget. So instead of $6000 at the end of service, volunteers get closer to $7400! Sweetness. Craig and Heather are considering perhaps doing a third year, too, which pays a bit more...so when they COSd (Close of Service), they’d have total upwards of like 20 grand. WHOA, haha. See, Colt totally should have come!

So far, the bug situation is thus: GIANT spider, freaky huge moth thing on my door last night, cockroaches in the bathroom at night and one died there and I don’t want to touch it, millions of ants that I sprayed with bug spray and they freaked out...and I don’t think I mentioned it earlier, but THERE WAS A SCORPION! In the livingroom a couple days ago, I saw it and knew immediately what it was, but asked Amelie, pointing, “qu’est-ce que c’est?” and she saw it and jumped up and stomped on it with HER BARE FOOT! It was like a clearish, light brown color and about two inches long and they move soooo weirdly, like their whole body turns in a perfect circle. I asked Amelie afterward if there were a lot of scorpions here and she said, “NON. C’etait une seul” (“that was the ONLY one”). So apparently that was the only scorpion in Benin, so I should be good. Ha ha. But damn, she’s such a bad ass, n’est pas?

I talked to mom, zach, and lucas last night! Yay! The boys didn’t have much to say, but I told them a bit about where I’m living. Mom says they need more perspective to really get it, so she ordered Blood Diamond from Blockbuster. It’s not that VIOLENT here, so dont’ get the wrong idea! Everyone is super nice and in general, Beninese culture is very welcoming and open to yovos. That said, I did get a sexual invitation from a stranger the other day, haha. There’s a gesture that rude Beninese men will do to women when they’re shaking hands if they are beeing skeezy creepers; it’s like rubbing one finger against the woman’s palm during the hand shake. Anyway, there was some teenage boy outside the school who smiled and said good morning and offered his palm and I was with a bunch of other yovos and Peace Corps people, so there was nothing sketch about it, so I took it and he totes whipped out the dirty finger move. It’s really impolite and they know it is, so I just exclaimed “non!” and yanked my hand away before continuing on my way, which is what we’re supposed to do. So, yay! I get to check that one off the list. Another volunteer said it took her a year to get it, so I must just be very advanced haha.

I suppose there is some bad news to report. One of the trainees in the health sector has decided to early terminate (ET). Word on the street is that he really missed his boyfriend and being away from him made him realize how much he needed to be with him and that the work he would be doing here was not important enough to him to stay. So, that kind of shakes the resolve, you know? I heard that someone has a bingo card of all the trainees who are expected to ET and that I’m on the list...but I am pretty sure that all the people with serious relationships are on it. I mean, look. I know I can make it through swear-in in September and for a while at post for sure. But honestly, once I’m in my village and I see what I’ll be doing for the next two years, I will have to re-evaluate. Not just because of my relationship, but because I want to make sure that the work I’ll be doing is significant and helpful and that I can be accepted into the community. They actually recommend that you take time at the one year mark to make sure that you can be successful where you are for another year. So in March I’ll decide if I’ll stay the entire time or if I’ll come back in the summer. There’s really no way to know for sure until I’ve been at post for several months.

On a happier note, it’s really freaky and cool to meet the people whose blogs I’ve been reading for a year. I sort of feel like they are celebrities or something. I wonder if anyone will feel that way about my little old blog someday?

I’ve been reading “Where there is no Doctor” and it’s pretty interesting. My goal is still to assist with a birth and actually catch a baby being born. We’ll see, I have a long time to go before I’m at that point. I’m just making it day to day...and I am so happy that I can just relax today and not worry about getting to school on time. I think it’s worth it even if I have to run to the bathroom every hour.

Well, i think I’ll be able to post this on Tuesday at Songhai. A bientot,
Elaina

July 26th, 1:32pm CST/19:32 temps de Beninois, Porto Novo

Well. The stomach problems persisted until today. I almost wasn’t sure I could make it to school...but fortunately I’ve had no issues since this morning. That’s one thing about Peace Corps Benin I’ve noticed—everyone pretty casually discusses their poop situation. It’s pretty hilarious now that I think about it. I’ve tried to be relatively vague on here, but digestion is definitely a hot topic of discussion among the volunteers and trainees!

Today for lunch I mange’d an avocado sandwich (ok, so I’m leaving the word “mange’d” just to indicate the weird level of ‘franglais’ that I’ve been thinking in. Manger is the word “to eat” and I actually forgot the word ‘avocado’ just now and could only remember the french word ‘avocat’. It’s a weird state of being, actually. Hmm.) Anyway, it was tres bien with lettuce and onions and vinaigrette on a demi-pain (half of a huge baguette). It sat ok in my stomach and then I pris (see I did it again! Pris is the past participle of prendre. Prendre means “to take” or “to get”), I got some “fanmilk” which is the closest thing to ice-cream here. I got the yogurt version because with my tummy trouble I thought adding a bunch of lactose would be a bad idea (and yogurt has the enzymes to break down lactose and has not ever been a problem for me). It was soooo good, but definitely tasted very yogurty. But it’s better for my stomach than the regular one. But anyway, these fanmilk guys go around with their super cold trunk on a bike and honk this very distinctive horn. It’s a lot like the ice cream truck guy in the US. It’s super cheap and they always have petite monnaie (change for big bills, which is a bitch to find here).

Today we were at Songhai and for the first time I chose to hang out with some other stagaiers instead of stay there and get on the internet. I know I am going tomorrow, so it’s okay, but I feel a little bad because I told Colt I’d be on so we could skype chat or something and save him some money since it’s so expensive to call. But I gave him a ring and told him I wasn’t going and he was totes still sleeping, so I don’t think he minded waiting until tomorrow. I went to the marche (“mar-SHAY”...I can’t figure out accents with this computer grrrr) with Heather and Craig (the Wiricks from now on when I’m talking about both of them haha). It was just a short walk from Songhai and it was a freaking crazy place! Many many people selling lots and lots of stuff! There is a lot of cheap plastic stuff in the stalls and they will try to overcharge the yovos like mad. Heather wanted a powercord, but we couldn’t find any which is a lot different than the marche in Cotonou where there seemed to be power cords in every stall! I am on the lookout for a nice coin purse to keep my money, but I haven’t found anything besides cheap plastic ones. I want something that will last...so I’d be willing to pay like a mille franc for one. Which..is like $2, but it feels more like $10 to me at this point! I’m doing really well with understanding the money, a lot better than some of the other volunteers it seems. It’s very intuitive for me and I don’t have to think of it in US dollars at all at this point. I know what a decent price for most stuff is, but I’m definitely still learning. Heather tried to haggle down the price of clothespins, but was unsuccessful and it’s hard for us to know if that’s because we’re yovos or because the seemingly high price is just actually a reasonable price.

Related to les prix, I had my first major transaction today. I called over and got my first zemi on my own! I asked how much it would be and that my maison was a cote d’ecole Davie (next to the school Davie—“Dah-vee-ay”) and he said yes and that it would be 2 hundred franc. So, me, surprised that he gave the legitimate price right off the bat, said “ok” and hopped on. Well....we drove about 5 minutes and he stops and says “voila...xavier.” And I’m like “Non non non, DAVIE, pas XAVIER” and he’s like “OOOOHHH, DAAAVIE, ok” and we keep going, but I’m thinking “he’s going to charge me a lot more, but deux cents francs is the correct price”. I know what I’ve been taught, too, so when we finally stop and he asks for 500F I know he is trying to swindle me. So I said “You said ‘2 hundred’ so I am going to give you 2 hundred.” And he’s all pissed and tries to get more out of me and I say, “I KNOW the price, I live in Porto Novo. I will give you 2 hundred.” And he acts all grumpy while I get my money out and I throw in a 50F piece with it and he smiles and thanks me and I thank him back. So I paid a little bit more, but to be fair, he WAS confused about what I had said...but that generosity was definitely not going to get me to pay over twice as much as I KNOW the route really is. But yeah, that whole thing made me feel super bad ass. I totes did it all by myself. Woo hoo!

I recounted the story to my host family when I came inside, but before I could finish, the war hit! Ricardo, my host brother of 12 ans, and my host sis, Genevieve, 13 ans, totally started physically beating the shit out of each other in the other room. Another one of my host sisters, an older one who I don’t think always lives there, but sometimes does, jumped up to separate them and Amelie came over and chatted casually with me about the zemi thing! We left the room and I said I was going to take a shower, so I went outside to the well (la puis I think is the word) to get my water. While I was outside, Ricardo came out and said “bonsoir Elaina” all sweet, and walked by me to the back of the yard. I smiled and kept drawing out the water and when he came back by to go back inside he smiled back as he sauntered by, carrying this huge metal two by four. A minute or so later I finished up and followed, and came in to find the older sister, Genevieve, and Rico all entangled up with the two by four and some wooden implement of Gene’s, the older sister’s pagne (wrap around skirt) was totally falling off of her as they battled down the hall. Amelie came up to me and was cracking up. She said “ils se battent!” which means, interestingly “they are battling!” and I just nodded. After a bit, they calmed down and separated and I asked her if it was normal and she sort of laughed and said “that’s Ricardo!” She also told me that he had disrespected his sister and she got mad...but I didn’t really understand exactly what had gone down. But it was pretty wild. I called Rico over and asked him if he was not happy. He said he was “fache” which means “angry” and I said that sisters can be difficult. He agreed and I told him I understood because I had 5 brothers back home. He just sighed and when I asked if he would be okay he just nodded and said “ouais” (like saying “yeah” instead of “yes”). It was pretty trippy. Hitting in this culture is pretty commonplace, especially in the home, but I’m glad the big sister tried to stop it at least. Even if it’s normal for parents to beat their kids (frappe les enfants), it’s not good for brother and sister to wail on each other. Anyway, it was pretty wild. I can hear them all talking very animatedly now and Papa is home and he does not sound too happy about it lol.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll definitely be online tomorrow evening when we finish up at Songhai. I think i’ll be on for probably an hour at least, so i can update the blog and do the facebook thing. Maybe I’ll even have time to check my email! It hasn’t been working lately because I need to change it to HTML or something...hopefully I’ll get that taken care of tomorrow, but if you’ve sent me emails and I haven’t responded, that’s why! Facebook message me for now and I’ll let you know when gmail is working for me!

Oh and I decorated ma cas (my moto helmet) and everyone thinks it looks banging. I will get a photo of it before it fades. My photo situation is pretty lame right now...I’ve taken...zero photos of Africa haha. I’m just so overwhelmed so much of the time and it’s impolite here to take photos without getting peoples permission first, so that’s kind of limiting...also it takes like an hour to upload 5 pictures, so I’m not sure it’s going to work anyway. I think I might ask people to send me memory cards and I’ll just take the pictures and then send the memory cards back and Colt can put them up for me or something. We’ll see what works best. Also, I can’t find the flash drive that I stole from my puppy...which really just seems like karma to me.

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL. CALL ME SOMETIME OR SEND ME A LETTER!

A tout a l’heure,
E

Porto Novo

July 20th, 10:25pm Beninese time/4:25pm CST, Contonou

So first thing's first: I bought a phone! And 3000cfa worth of minutes! And then used up 2000cfa talking to mom less than an hour ago! I also called Colt's fam, looking for a number to get in touch with him...but, rather unsurprisingly, they didn't know either. Bad puppy! Dad was also unavailable. Geez, people.

I'm sitting here now in the hotel room in Cotonou, listening to many of the other stagaiers (pronounced in a french-y sort of way like "staahh-gee-airs" meaning "trainees") outside on the patio drinking and enjoying our last night all together. Tomorrow we're off to meet our new host families in Porto Novo where we'll be until September 17th. They are supposed to provide us food and shelter and help us figure out how to do laundry and get to our classes as well as communicate with us in french and help us learn about Beninois culture. The kids of the family are supposed to actually walk us to school on the first day! We got photos of our families and there are 11 people in mine and it looks like 5 of them are teenage girls! Maybe they like Twilight lol. There is a papa with two wives and two smaller kids like age 10 or 11 with another older woman who might be a grandma or aunt. I seriously can't wait to meet them and get to work remembering their names.

Training will be at a primary school in Porto Novo, walking or biking distance from our family's house. The Rural Communicty Health (RCH) and the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) people are all together on one side of the city at one school and the Environmental Action (EA) and the Small Business Development (SED) people are on the other. My married couple friends, Krista and Andrew, are in different schools (Krista is RCH and Andrew is EA), but will live somewhere in the middle of Porto Novo with their host family and will spend most of the day apart. I like them because they are both awesome. Today, the guard of the hotel (who is hilarious, btw and speaks about as much English as I do French) confused me with Krista and asked me if Andrew was sleeping in our room. After a couple really confused moments I just burst into laugher and re-introduced myself. He thought that was pretty funny when I explained and later when Andrew came down, we all joked that he had two blonde wives. Ah, good stuff.

I am really excited to meet my family and nervous about my ability to communicate effectively en francais with them. There are a lot of simple things I really just don't remember how to say and my vocabulary is ridiculously bad. For the most part I remember a lot of verbs and basic conjugation, but that was always my strong suit. Ask me how to say "window" or "monkey" in french and I will be lost.

During my long and very expensive (haha, mom, I love you) conversation with my mom, I mentioned that I had like a million mosquito bites and she expressed surprise since I had written earlier here that I had yet to see a mosquito. Well, just to clarify, I still haven't SEEN one, but I have seriously 23 bites on my lower limbs (none above the ankle yet though...). The little suckers are tiny and for some weird reason I really haven't actually caught one in the act yet, even though it feels like I am getting attacked pretty hardcore right now. I don't know how they get under the mosquito net at night! Ah!

I started my mefloquine today (that's the one that is supposed to give us crazy dreams) to prevent malaria. Not to alarm anyone, but apparently I missed one of my doxycycline doses this week. I have one extra pill in my case that I shouldn't. Oh well. I told the doctor during my medical interview this morning and she said that since I am doubling up today with the doxy and the mefloquine that I should be protected. Malaria is a truly interesting disease. One that I do not want, but sort of do in a strange masochistic way. But don't worry, that one doxy miss was a one time deal; I'll be taking the mef once a week on schedule like a good girl. The most common malaria strain here also happens to be the most deadly and I'd rather not risk it, call me crazy.

Things I want to buy in Porto Novo: multiple traditional skirts and full African outfits, a big purse/bag for all my shit bc I don't like carrying around my backpack all the time, a wallet/change purse for my money and la petite monaie (coin change...basically anything less than 1000 francs is a coin), and my kickass, awesome, will-be-planning-it-every-time-I-see-a-place-to-buy-tissue wedding dress. I'm SURE I will think of other things to purchase with my HUGE Peace Corps salary*. I love SHOPPING!

I shorted out my surge protector by trying to plug it into the universal adaptor I brought that I had plugged into the wall here. There was a big spark and then smoke started coming out of it. I'm sort of confused because it says that it works for up to 330 V and the voltage here is 220 V...compared to the United States of 120V....so whatever. I can just buy a universal power strip for like 300 francs. I don't understand this technology stuff. But fuck, I love my netbook. It is really portable and light, small and convenient. Almost as cool as me.

I am going for another run tomorrow morning with K and A and a couple other people. It is really funny to see the look of surprise on people's faces when they see all the yovos running in unison down the street at 6:30 in the morning. I'm sure running in PN or village will be much more fun because it's even more unusual there. Score!

AH. Traditional Beninese food was today. The food we've been having is a sort of Americanized toned down version with couscous or rice or pasta with some sort of tomato and onion based sauce with a meat or cheese side and white, french baguette bread. That is not necessarily the stuff that the Beninois eat. What they have is pate with sauce. It's pronounced "pot" and it is made from some grain that I can't remember that they boil until it's sticky and solid. They use that to pick up the sauce with the right hand (the left hand is taboo in Beninois society). The sauces I've had are the tomato which I like, the vegetable legume one which is delicious, and the okra one...which is like snot in color and consistancy and disgusting. The pate has no flavor itself and can come in either blanc or noir or rouge, but I've only tried the first two and only liked the white one. They also have a kimchi like fermented pate blanc and that was pretty gross, too. The cheese is okay if it is fresh (I can't remember what it's called), but if it's a few hours old it is waaay too sour and I can't really choke it down. The salads I've had here are awesome; just lettuce, tomato, and onion with egg halves and some sort of really light mayonnaise sauce. It's tasty! And they also had some fried potatoes today that were delicious and the best fucking croissants I've ever had are served during our coffee and tea breaks here at the hotel but I'm not sure if they're a staple item. They don't really do dessert here, which is a bummer, but I had an oreo today from another volunteer who brought them with him. Tres delicieux. I'm really curious about what my host family will be cooking for me tomorrow night. They know I'm a vegetarian and apparently it's not a big deal to let them know what I like and dislike. Well, I think I can say that in French. Je l'aime or je ne l'aime pas.

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but the ipod is in working order, thanks to monsieur Colt S. Sellens. Merci, mon amour. <3 Speaking of all that, there is one other engaged person here, a guy named Scott, who has only been dating his lady since March! So...whoa. I know a few people are in long term, committed relationships, too, but besides the married folk, I am pretty sure mine takes the cake. When people find out they immediately express their support if I decide to ET (early terminate). Those comments would annoy me if they weren't so close to the truth of how I've been feeling sometimes!

But come on! I bought a cell phone! Tres cool, non? I just WISH WISH WISH my babyluv had a way for me to get in touch with him...Since it will probably be several days before I even get a chance to post this. Ahhh, nothing is reliable here or easy to plan around.

But hell, TIA, man, TIA.

Elaina

PS. TIA means "this is Africa" for all of you who have not seen Blood Diamond or anything else related to foreigners in Africa...

PPS. It is actually like that here. You should watch M. DiCaprio in that if you want to see where I am. That's in Liberia which is a bit northeast of here, but it's basically a good depiction of West Africa.

PPPS. I have not yet lost the African gamble. Google it. That's all I have to say about that.

PPPPS. If you want my phone number in l'Afrique just message me on facebook or email me. Don't post on my wall something you really want me to read and respond to, bc I'll only have time to do that in extreme situations of free internet time. So let me know and I'll get you the digits or you can get them easily enough from ma mere if you can get in touch with her sooner than I'll be able to check online again! I love and miss you all and thanks for reading =D

E

*I don't have a huge salary. I was being sarcastic. I make 94,000cfa a month which is a bit less than $200...which will still be one of the highest paid in my village, but is definitely not enough for Cotonou or Porto Novo shopping sprees. Oh well.

July 22^nd, 22:34pm Benin time, 4:34pm CST, Porto Novo, Benin

This is the second night I’ve stayed at my host family, the Hounzounkou family. They are all really nice and want to help me with my french, which is painfully bad when put into a situation where the only thing I can speak is the language. There is a mama, a papa, a big brother, a younger brother, a big sister, and a younger sister who all live in the same house with me, but there is another mama and at least one or two other youngish girls who all live in the same family compound in a different area I think. My host maman who I see the most is really nice and speaks English, but she said she wasn’t going to let me use it at all and I heard her telling the kids to go talk to me in french, haha. The older sister, Amelie, is also nice, but very direct. She doesn’t smile unless you are having a conversation with her. She is 17. Ricardo is 12 and he is my favorite so far. Genevieve is 13 and she is also really nice. The papa said in English last night when he came home from work “you will pass a good time with us!” so that made me laugh. I only talked to him for a little bit because I am really tired pretty early and I don’t think he always stays in this maison. I think it’s a little like Big Love, lol.

Tonight after dinner (a huge salad with beets and lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and eggs on top of spaghetti with a mustard viniagrette sauce. Actually not too bad, but definitely weird lol. But there were pineapple pieces on the side that were the best freaking pineapple I’d ever had like ever. Like actually it might have been the best fruit I’ve ever had. And since I really like fruit, that means it was like one of the best tasting pieces of food of my life. SO GOOD.)....so after dinner, both mamans and Ricardo, Amelie, Genevieve, and another sister who maybe doesn’t live here, but maybe does, but I think she might be the daughter of the other maman, Estelle, hung out in the huge livingroom with a chandelier and watched an Argentinian soap opera that is dubbed in French. I sort of tried to study my french, but mostly listened and tried to catch stuff.

Basically if someone speaks slowly and directly to me, I can understand like half of what they are saying. The rest of the time I am primarily lost.

Amelie walked me to the school where I have my lessons this morning. I studied French all day pretty much and got some rice and beans with tomato and onion sauce for lunch from an apparently reputable vendor. It was fine, but I really need to lay off the carbs. Whew.

Tomorrow I have school at the big compound place called Songhai that is really nice. It is far away from my house and I am like 90% sure I have to take a zemi to get there which will be...interesting. But I have my helmet! J’ai un cas!

Ok, I am exhausted and SO HOT. There is no air in my bedroom. I REALLY need a fan. Or I am going to die. NEED AIR!

I am attempting to boil and filter my water tomorrow. So far, I’ve lasted on three huge water bottles from the hotel, but that is running out and it is time to get down to business.

Oh, I guess I should say that I have electricity, but no running water. There is a well where I get my shower and toliet water from and I bring it inside and then use the plumbing like normal, but pour the water in. Sort of like dad’s house when the water would get shut off lol. I took a bucket bath today and actually found it surprisingly pleasant; I was very conscious of each drop of water that I was using and really felt intellectually stimulated by the process. We’ll see if it gets old.

Oh! Also, the YOVO YOVO song business has started. I LOVE it and think it’s adorable, but other people really hate it and get annoyed. It’s just little kids, but whenever they see us, they start chanting in a sing song voice, “yovo, yovo, bonsoir. Ca va bien, merci.” And it was totally stuck in my head all day. It’s pretty cute. They get these huge smiles on their faces and start clapping and jumping up and down and grab their friends, calling out the words. They just seem so happy to see us! I don’t think my own mother is ever that happy to see me! Haha

Ok, I like it here, c’est tout! Je suis fatiguee!

Elaina Hope

Friday, porto Novo, 7:16CST, 1:16 Benin

I MISS COLT and this internet SUCKS. waaaaaaa

C'est tout =(

E