I Took the African Gamble....

and lost. On to other things...

My sister visited me for 2 weeks.

When she first visited I was finishing up in the med unit so we didn't do much. We spent a few days at the workstation (where I got sick from eating a bad salad) and then at my post. Post was boring for her but awesome for me to have her there. We didn't do too much, as there isn't that much to do in village but Chanda got to experience a small sampling of my daily life. This included sitting around in the heat, and doing her own laundry (pictures to follow)!

That weekend, we headed down to GAD weekend. GAD weekend is comprised of a night of date auctioning and a formal dinner and dancing to support small projects for Gender And Development. We had a beautiful dress made for Chanda from traditional tissu! Everyone loved it, but she thought it made her look like a big kid.

The first night, the date auction, was hilarious. Chanda got drunk and bid (and won) on almost every date. Of course the volunteers who work for GAD love her (and I love her because she I get to enjoy all the lovely dates she bought for me). I'll be getting a tea party, a sleep over, a foot massage, and a full course chinese dinner complete with night looking at the stars from a watch tower. WOO!!

The second night was fun too, mostly consisted of being thrown in a swimming pool, fun dancing, and more bidding and winning of art and jewelry.

We headed back to post and just chilled for the rest of the week. Chanda, who was going crazy, helped me fixed my fence and plant sunflower seeds to start my garden! Because I knew I'd be away from post a lot in the next few weeks, I taught the neighbor boy how to water them daily. I'm so excited to see sunflower saplings (pictures to come)!

We ended with a day at the beach complete with nude men. It was a fun time and I miss her!

I'm so ready for Rob to be here now that I've had practice with my sister, I'll feel like a professional Peace Corps Volunteer host.

Also, I found out that (even though her work is more dangerous) she's spoiled!!!!!!

Occurrences or, around these parts

Suddenly, I became a Peace Corps Volunteer and time began to slip away from me. Sorry I haven't written anything in a while.

I'm not feeling very creative so this blog entry is going to be dry.

The music, unfortunately did not get better. Some one died at the very end of January, so I had to put up with music for a another week. At some point, according to PC doctors, I developed insomnia which is why I'm writing this post at 3 in the a.m. This morning, marked 48 hours of no sleep. Woo! I have been in the medical unit for 2 weeks now as the Peace Corps doctors figure out what the best course of action is.

My sister will be here is 2 weeks which is exciting!

A T.E.F.L. Volunteer is leaving which makes me sad but I've been with her the entire 2 weeks I've been here, and she's going to Namibia and, it seems, will be living in much better conditions than in Benin.

I have applied for a position as Peace Corps Volunteer Leader. Essentially, I would run a workstation here in Benin and act as a mentor, guide, and confidant to Peace Corps Volunteers within a certain region. As far as I know, 5 other people applied and there are 4 positions available. The process is very interesting because Peace Corps Administration will send out an email listing all applicants and volunteers are asked to provide feedback. I think this is super excellent because, to be honest, the administration does not have daily contact with most volunteers. There is also a panel-interview made up of the current Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders and a few administration members. Of course, I'll update when I find out more :)

There are widespread teacher strikes occuring in Benin. Most schools are not functioning because teachers are fed up with not getting paid or getting paid half their salary. I heard a volunteer say that school may get extended, which would suck because the next stage will arrive here in Benin in the middle of July, much earlier than my stage did. If school is pushed back, stage will undoubtedly be effected.

The Chaleur, the hot season, is hot, hot, hot.

I took that picture near some waterfalls after the safari. It was a very bright day.

Those are the major updates of the past month. I'm sorry this blog lacks wit, sarcasm, and is boring.

LIfe in Benin...

is schizophrenic. One day--heck, one minute, I'm in love with the country. Mangos grow on trees lining streets, the people have an exotic look, and I can see the milky way in the sky a few nights a month. The other morning I saw a shooting star. Lovely

But oh how Benin has another side, I side that--and I hope this doesn't express cultural intolerance on my part--drives me absolutely insane....literally.

Death in Benin is celebrated. If I were to beam you over here, and take you to a death fete (celebration), you'd think people were partying hard, getting drunk, and being plain ol' obnoxious and well, you'd be justified. When someone dies, the Beninese party hardy. When someone important dies, say a very old member of the community, the Beninese party hardy--FOR 30 DAYS!

Why is this relevant to me? Why should I care? Why am I so over the Beninese funeral tradition you ask?

Answer: Someone died in a concession (little community of people within a village) right across a small field from me.

Picture this: Beautiful full moon, half moon, lunar eclipse. A Milky Way so visible you're pretty sure that God took a huge paint brush dipped with Milky Way No. 32 and flicked it across the sky. Stars that actually twinkle. Cool breeze at night. Crickets chirping. And then, at 12 o'clock at night you hear the music. It's so god awful loud it sounds like your playing it in your bedroom. You try to ignore it which is impossible. Your ipod doesn't help because you'd have to turn the volume the whole way up just to sort-of block out the music.

You're probably laughing or smirking or something but I ask you to imagine this music from across a field, played so loud you can hear every word clearly, played from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m. EVERY NIGHT FOR 1 MONTH.

One night last week, the absurdity of it all got into my head. I got up at 1 o'clock, went to a bar and drank a beer hoping that it'd make me loopy enough to pass out. You can imagine my anger when I was slightly drunk, laying in bed, not falling asleep. I wanted to come home.

It may seem silly that something like that could push me to the point of wanting to come home but it was 30 days, 7 hours a night of Beninese music and people hooting and hollering. Wednesday of last night, I asked God if he hated me--and I wasn't kidding. I thought the universe must be putting me through some test of growth. You know, a "suffer this one last thing because you will have a revelation and be stronger because of it" sort of thing. I'm pretty sure I didn't do any growing but I did have a revelation; there are some things that will always annoy me no matter much traveling I do.

If you found me at the ends of the Earth, where people find themselves and save themselves and lose themselves, I'd be bitching about loud things that disturb me while I'm sleeping. :)

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.