Where animal crackers come from!

Safari. Amazing.
It was exhilirating to see antelops and lions and elephants and hippos and pelicans in the wild, doing their own thing; far different from animals in the zoo.

Seeing lions is the huge thing when one is safari-ing. We got to see lions all 3 days we were at Parc Pendjari. The second day was frightening. Now is mating season so the males are aggressive to intruders. We came across a male and a female and he was angry. He (lightly) attacked the car in front of us, and charged our van as we drove by. We got to hear a lion growl in the bush as we sat and watched him for a few minutes--it isn't anything like you've heard, not even like lions in the zoo. They're growl fills the air so completely that it seems the growl is coming from all around you, not a single, fixed point. And yes, they are amazingly cat-like.

Elephants and antelope were everywhere--they're common place. So common place that by the 20 billionth time seeing them we didn't want the driver to stop to watch them.

The lake of hippos was so neat--they're so loud! They make sounds that can only be compared to the Devil's laughter.

And of course, the sunsets were absolutely beautiful. I manage to get a good sunset shot--my first time ever and it's of an African sunset!!

I took tons of pictures but these are my best 5 (according to me). I will put more up if you demand them :)

Baking in Benin

Many things are different here in Benin, mostly because it's a third world country; travel, daily experiences, people, non-paved roads--you know, the nuances. It should be no suprise then that food is vastly different. The Beninese have all the same ingredients we do (minus a few vegetables) but they crazily different things with them. For example, pate (pronounced pot) a staple of the Beninese diet. It's base is corn. The Beninese grind corn into a powder, add water, then reduce it to a pasty white substance that looks like paper mache. L'igname pile (prounounced Yam Pee-lay). Mashed yams with added water to make a sticky pasty substance like pate but tastes better. Both of these things are time consuming to make and offer no nutritional value.

So, cooking has become a sort of adventure (like traveling). I get to create all different kinds of sauces for pasta or rice and baking has become an endevour. I like baking. In the States, I baked all the time--mostly for Rob--because I thought it was fun. And, believe it or not, decent baking can be done in the third world. I live in the mountains, don't have a working stove, and can't use any fresh butter--the odds are against any aspiring baker. But like I said, it can be done.

All this to say, I made a pound cake in my Dutch oven and it's bomb (extremely good). A Dutch oven here is the large pot with two cans in the bottom you see. You place the dish on the cans, cover and let it cook. I forgot to take a "this is the finished product picture," but it came out perfect; golden brown, moist, sweet, and soo good. I put Hershey's special dark chocolate chips in the batter, they all sank to the bottom and created a layer of chocolate--oh boy.

At thanksgiving I managed to make 2 pumpkin pies, apple tart, and a pumpkin custard that everyone loved. I'm excited for Christmas. At some point I can post recipes but not now, this blog is already too long :)

Bon appetit!

Exciting Events

AHHH!
Imagine this: 200 students, crowded on old wooden desks—the kind of wooden desk that the bench is attached to table part—huddled together in the dark of the night. The 200 students are hushed in awe, except for every now and then, en masse, shouts of “OHHHH!” and the few minutes of excited chatter that follows. That was the setting for my first showing of the first episode of Planet Earth, in my village. AND, IT WAS UTTERLY AMAZING!
One goal I have as a volunteer while I serve in Benin is to complete a series of projects using the least amount of money possible. For my first official-in-my-eyes Peace Corps project I started showing Planet Earth last week. I will show one episode a week for the duration of the number of episodes there are. And, not to be repetitive, it was amazing.
I put the word out by spending all but 10 seconds talking about it at the end of my four classes 3 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I was gone for a week because all TEFL Volunteers were in Parakou (a big city, not as pretty as Natitingou) for review and update sessions. I thought when I came back last week that my students had forgotten about it but they in fact had not.
Armed with a projector and a dvd-player donated by the mayor of my village (I’ve been so lucky) I showed the first episode of Planet Earth. I had to wait for nightfall because I decided to project the show on the side of one of the school buildings. The student brought desks into the courtyard and waited.
The first episode of Planet Earth is a general overview of wildlife from the North Pole to the South Pole. At one point, the show features a herd of Caribou migrating in Northern Canada, and the wolves following them. Eventually the wolves move in for the kill, chasing the Caribou. It was at this point that the students went crazy. Off-their-seats-squeals-of-excitement-clapping-crazy. It was so apparent to me that they had never seen anything like this before in their lives. I was on an emotional high.
At one point, the program features animals in Africa and the students were even more excited. They began discussing the show in French, amongst themselves, naming the animals. Touching.
For me, the point of this project is not to give the students a scientific explanation of the world around them but simply to show them the world around them. I don’t have the French version of Planet Earth—I did search for it. But I realized that an added element of project glory comes from the fact that the students are listening to English while being so focused on the images. There’s some subconscious level of something going on.
I’m doing fine, post is fine. I’m going to Parc Pendjari (a natural wildlife preserve) in just 2 short weeks!! Of course I’ll post about it!

Over the Hills and Through the Woods, Around Benin We Go.

Being in Benin is an adventure for the spirit. Being alone in a village is definitely an adventure for the will. Eating fish complete with head and teeth and eyes is an adventure for the appetite. But traveling, traveling in Benin is an adventure all it’s own.
There are three ways for volunteers to travel in Benin: zemidjan, taxi and bus.
Zemidjan-Firstly, volunteers call them zemis. They’re a cross between mopeds and motorcycles with a little bit of ATV thrown in. Some are old and rickety and leave a trail of smoke behind while others are moderately newer. The Peace Corps requires that we wear helmets, which in my opinion does not ruin the experience. Zemi drivers go fast and when volunteers travel together they race each other! We zip through traffic at terrifying speeds—did I mention it’s faux pas to touch the zemidjan drivers—with your arms at your sides, or clenching your legs, as the zemidjan drivers weave through cars and run red lights. It’s our own little scene from Fast and the Furious. It really can be an adrenaline rush. The flip side is this: you’re riding a zemi to post, on an isolated road and the motor sputters, clicks, and finally shuts off. The zemi driver continues coasting as if nothing is wrong and for all you know nothing is wrong; maybe they’re trying to save gas. Either way, you’re scared that you’ll have to walk along the road until another zemi happens by or worse yet, you’ll have to walk the 20 kilometers to your post. I haven’t experienced the latter yet but I still have 703 days left, I’ll let you know when it happens.
Taxi—As I was typing the word I began to chuckle. Do not think New York Taxi Cab or any American Taxi Cab. A taxi for 5 people will always have 8 or 9 passengers, a taxi-bus for 9 people will always have about 20 passengers and a taxi for 15 people will have about 25 passengers inside, 3 passengers on the roof, one passenger holding onto the bike rack while standing on the back bumper, and one passenger hanging out of one of the various windows. Taxis are never new cars. The cars usually need to be refilled with oil en route, will be smoking by the time you get to your destination, have a lock broken on the door, and/or no rearview or side mirrors—this isn’t the worst thing about taxis though. The worst thing, and this is more an expression of fact that cultural insensitivity, is the 15-25 other people in the taxi who aren’t wearing deodorant. The smell can literally floor you, stop you mid-sentence and trip your gag reflex. It’s foul. Not a normal I-forgot-to-where-deodorant smell but a repulsive I’ve-never-worn-deodorant-in-my-life smell. It fills the nostrils with an acidic smell. The closest thing I can compare it to is the way wood smells when it’s burning, except this isn’t a smell that fills you with peace and causes you to breathe deeply. Oh no, this smell make you wish that you could not breathe but survive. I once went for a week without wearing deodorant and I didn’t smell 1/1000 as bad. Horrifying.
Bus—Imagine this: a coach bus, complete with air conditioning, a smashed in windshield and windshield wipers that clearly haven’t been changed in the bus’s 20 year existence. The bus is on a debatably two-lane highway with no center line, going roughly 70 mph, passing taxis and zemies and big-rig trucks without using a turn signal and while going around sharp turns. The bus holds the correct number of passengers thank God, but on the bus is a lady with a child who will cry for the entire 8-hour journey. She tries are hard to quiet it but when that doesn’t work she pulls out her breast and pops it into the baby’s mouth. Of course, there are people who aren’t wearing deodorant but the air conditioning helps a little, and there’s a lady selling her wares. Her voice starts high and pitchy and gets deeper and deeper as she ends each sentence. She goes from high G to low G not in a beautiful melodic way but a monotonous, repetitive way. The background music to this is a Beninese soap opera that is playing through for the third time and at such a loud volume that even with your i-pod at maximum volume you can hear the ladies squeaking and squawking.
So there it is. That is how volunteers in Benin get around. I am not complaining, it really is an adventure and there have been many times I’ve burst into laughter because of the absolute absurdity of traveling situations. It’s hilarious how people can fit themselves together, even more hilarious when zemi drivers race but don’t know where they’re going.

This Just In.

It's been 4 weeks. Things are better!
I’ve started to teach classes regularly now, which really means that most of if not all of my students are showing up. Teaching makes me feel really productive because I’m actually doing something with my time.
So far, it seems the students are well behaved and interested in learning. Usually, I try to include a song at the end of my lesson and the students go crazy over that. The school system here is very teacher-centered. There is student participation but most of the student’s time is spent in silence, copying information from the board. When I want to involve them in the learning process it’s a real struggle; they look at me very confused-as if I’ve gone from trying to teach them English to trying to teach them some ancient dialect of Chinese. But, I can tell they like being involved, writing on the board, clapping all the time, and singing.
At some point there will be an addition to my house! I am going to get a puppy to hang out with. When I get him, I’ll post pictures and maybe he’ll become a guest blogger :)
I have plans up until June of next year. They’re all fun things like vacations with other volunteers and visits from friends and family; it’s great to have some things to look forward to and they will chop up my time here helping it to fly by.
I got a rash! The best way I can describe it is by comparing it to ring-worm except it didn’t have a circular shape, it went every which way and was all over my body. I visited the Peace Corps Bureau in Cotonou, which was very nice because I got to take warm showers and eat good food and be around other volunteers. A dermatologist told me that it was reaction to a chemical released by some bug. Very mysterious I know. Today I’m headed back to my post to insecticide my house and see what happens! I’ll update on this if something else happens.
That’s really about it. I miss everyone, hope all is well, see you around the bend and all that jazz.
Peace

Post

Post

I’ve been at post for 6 days now (including today) and it’s been quite the experience. When I first got here, I seriously considered E.T. ing (early terminating my service) right away. I’m here alone, not doing anything—literally—but sitting on my porch for hours a day; my house isn’t a home yet; I don’t have friends immediately available; and I can’t even eat good food. These are the things that were running through my mind for 3 days straight from the time I got up until I went to bed.

For those parents (who aren’t mine) who read this blog, please don’t be in despair. This is just my experience and no one else’s. I can say that this part of the journey (I think) for all of us is very lonely.

In the last 6 days I have realized how much of a social creature I truly am. In the states, I always “wanted my space,” not necessarily from my friends but in general. Foolish, foolish, foolish. People who say they need their own space from time to time say that because they don’t know true isolation. That is, isolation that isn’t self-prescribed but imposed. In other news…

I was struggling—and am to some extent—but then a series of events happened that made me feel like this still is the right path for me. Sometimes it just seems that the universe smiles on you and gives you everything that you need, strung together like—I don’t know—beautiful pearls. Things that give your heart courage and make you laugh aloud at nothing and cause you to smile without realizing it. And these things are always very simple; rain after 3 god-awfully hot days, a photographic moment and the like.

My time in Africa will be a maturation period for me. I’ve learned in 6 days that I need to be around people I know to feel secure which, when I’m being honest, is the real reason behind my struggle with being here.

I don’t want this blog entry to turn into a journal entry. Let me just say that Africa is absolutely stunning, my post is beautiful, it’s a bit lonely so write your children or friends or whoever my fellow PCV’s are to you and of course WRITE ME! Even if I don’t know you, and believe me when I say that the mundane things to you are comforting to us because we want to be back there with you!

In fact: Jamie’s Mom, David’s Mom, Jennifer, Some of Jamie’s friends. You all should write letters right now. Your children/friends miss you J Of course, they didn't tell me any of this themselves.

Birthday in Benin

First birthday in Benin, check. The Beninese certainly do find a way to influence all aspects of your life--even your birthday.

There's a really nice restaurant (remember my standards have changed. I lived in Africa) called Java Promo. Getting there was a blast. Erin and I rode together, and were taken to the wrong place and charged too much. Once we got there, I had 8 shots of a Beninese-made liquor called Sodabe. Very good. Enough said.

Here in Benin, often times, the trip is more interesting than anything you experience at your destination.

Today, TEFL went to visit a village built completely on stilts in the middle of a huge lake. Very nice because it was my first real photo excursion here in Benin.

On the way there, smashed in a Peace Corps vehicle (as always), I was sprawled across a seat sitting in front of 3 current volunteers. I forgot to keep my balance after the van stopped and found my face in the breasts of said volunteer. Yikes.

Ganvie was really beautiful (see photos).

Because it's a village built on stilts, people travel around the village on little wooden boats.

At one point, there was a boy bugging us for money and gifts. The guy steering the boat decided to take the boy's only oar. This boy is only 1o years old by the way. He immediately broke into tears. Other people started yelling at our boat steerers started yelling at ours.

Imagine this: a traffic jam of boats, all the boatsmen yelling at our boatsmen. We're sitting in dirty water--the boat is rocking. Tres scary.

My birthday is fine so far.

Also, warning NOTICE THE ADDRESS CHANGE. ALL PACKAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO THE NEW ADDRESS :)