We had another swarm last night, and this time they made their way IN to my house, my mosquito net/bed, into my water, etc. It was horrifying, but my cats had a hayday.
Anyway, Monica has been at my post the past few days, and we have had lots of fun exploring the area. Yesterday we went to Possotome to chill by the lake and make an awesome veggie lasagna, and today we are in Lokossa to cook, bake, and watch movies with Michelle. Last night we also drank wine and went star gazing! I will never get over how beautiful the stars are here.
Katie and John Mark come tomorrow, and I start school again on Tuesday. Lots of work to do grading exams this week! I will be back on the computers in one week when I will be in Cotonou for a Camp GLOW meeting.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Easter
Happy belated Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful one and spent it with family. I had a nice Easter with my quasi-family. On Good Friday there was a reenactment of the stations of the cross, but it took place in the afternoon in the hot sun and they walk over 4 miles, so I decided not to do it.
My Easter started at 1am when the Easter vigil service got out. I did not go to the service, but I was awoken by the absurdly loud drumming and singing that followed it. I sat up and did crossword puzzles until the party ended almost two hours later.
I took the young girls to church in the morning. The service was three hours long and all in the local language so it was pretty hard to sit through, but I entertained myself by looking at all the fancy and outrageous outfits people had made for Easter. One really cool thing is that every year the village picks out a fabric that anyone who can afford it gets to make their Easter outfit out of, so many people were wearing the same orange and blue fabric. Another entertaining thing was watching the ten or so men with big sticks who roamed the church during the service, smacking those who were sleeping, talking or babies who were crying. It sure seemed to me that they enjoyed and almost abused this position. I wanted to scream that if the services weren't so darn long, people wouldn't be falling asleep! A few older women received their first communion, and they each gave the church a gift: one woman gave 20 eggs, one gave a live chicken, one gave a basket of onions, etc. After the service these women paraded around the town singing.
After church I took the little girls to get some food, and then we came home and they helped me bake a devil's food cake. While it was dancing, we had a dance party in my kitchen! It was a blast despite being I think the hottest day since coming to Benin. Then, I was invited out with the family for the evening. We stopped at several different family members' houses and had a drink at each one, and then ended up at the main family house to have a meal of delicious BBQ chicken, beer, and my cake! (I can't imagine how many chickens were killed yesterday- our family alone killed 5! Poor guys) It was nice to feel like part of the family. In fact, the zipper on my top broke, and they acted like it was no big deal and the women covered me and got me a pagne to cover-up- it was so nice! I also got several calls from family at home, which was great. I guess my dad put together a DVD of the photos and videos that Sandy took when she was here, which my whole family got to watch on Easter. They got to see me teaching!
My spring break is now in full swing! We had a short two-day school week, the highlight of which was my department meeting in which- no joke- we took two hours to discuss the steps for doing a reading comprehension lesson. My first day of break I took to overhaul my house, and while I cleaned a boy from my concession scrubbed the floors, walls, and windows. It was kind of fun- we turned the music up and drank some beers as we sweat profusely and did our work. I am finding that I am already getting a bit bored, which isn't a good sign for the summer break! I have lots of camps and little trips planned, though, so hopefully it will be ok.
Today I am in Cotonou to get my packages and run some errands, and tonight a friend and I are going to a nice dinner. Tomorrow she is coming back to my village with me, and then on Saturday my friends Katie and John Mark are coming to Lobogo. We will probably visit Possotome one day, and maybe even hit the beach at Grand Popo. I still have about 150 exams to grade before the end of break :(
But how crazy is this: I found out that our final exams start on May 11! And one of the weeks before then is practice testing, so there are no regular classes. So basically, the year is over! Part of me is happy, but I am also disappointed in how not far I got in the curriculum. Since exams are the week Amanda comes, I will now have that whole week free to be with her and not worry about school, which is great. She now comes in less than four weeks! She is going to bring my new camera which I'm really happy about.
Yesterday, we had an insane downpour in Lobogo which almost flooded my kitchen and revealed several small leaks/seepages in my house. I didn't even care, though- my house got down to 77 degrees!!! It was HEAVENLY! And then- drumroll, please- when I woke up I was COLD and it was 75 in my room!!I don't think I have felt a temperature that cool since leaving the States! Let's hope that this means the start of the rainy season! (One bad side effect, though: flying ants decided to breed in my shower. There were so many that I couldn't see the walls, it was horrible. There was a mouse trying to eat the ants and then in turn my cat ate the mouse. Ah, circle of life...)
That's all for now! Have a good week :)
My Easter started at 1am when the Easter vigil service got out. I did not go to the service, but I was awoken by the absurdly loud drumming and singing that followed it. I sat up and did crossword puzzles until the party ended almost two hours later.
I took the young girls to church in the morning. The service was three hours long and all in the local language so it was pretty hard to sit through, but I entertained myself by looking at all the fancy and outrageous outfits people had made for Easter. One really cool thing is that every year the village picks out a fabric that anyone who can afford it gets to make their Easter outfit out of, so many people were wearing the same orange and blue fabric. Another entertaining thing was watching the ten or so men with big sticks who roamed the church during the service, smacking those who were sleeping, talking or babies who were crying. It sure seemed to me that they enjoyed and almost abused this position. I wanted to scream that if the services weren't so darn long, people wouldn't be falling asleep! A few older women received their first communion, and they each gave the church a gift: one woman gave 20 eggs, one gave a live chicken, one gave a basket of onions, etc. After the service these women paraded around the town singing.
After church I took the little girls to get some food, and then we came home and they helped me bake a devil's food cake. While it was dancing, we had a dance party in my kitchen! It was a blast despite being I think the hottest day since coming to Benin. Then, I was invited out with the family for the evening. We stopped at several different family members' houses and had a drink at each one, and then ended up at the main family house to have a meal of delicious BBQ chicken, beer, and my cake! (I can't imagine how many chickens were killed yesterday- our family alone killed 5! Poor guys) It was nice to feel like part of the family. In fact, the zipper on my top broke, and they acted like it was no big deal and the women covered me and got me a pagne to cover-up- it was so nice! I also got several calls from family at home, which was great. I guess my dad put together a DVD of the photos and videos that Sandy took when she was here, which my whole family got to watch on Easter. They got to see me teaching!
My spring break is now in full swing! We had a short two-day school week, the highlight of which was my department meeting in which- no joke- we took two hours to discuss the steps for doing a reading comprehension lesson. My first day of break I took to overhaul my house, and while I cleaned a boy from my concession scrubbed the floors, walls, and windows. It was kind of fun- we turned the music up and drank some beers as we sweat profusely and did our work. I am finding that I am already getting a bit bored, which isn't a good sign for the summer break! I have lots of camps and little trips planned, though, so hopefully it will be ok.
Today I am in Cotonou to get my packages and run some errands, and tonight a friend and I are going to a nice dinner. Tomorrow she is coming back to my village with me, and then on Saturday my friends Katie and John Mark are coming to Lobogo. We will probably visit Possotome one day, and maybe even hit the beach at Grand Popo. I still have about 150 exams to grade before the end of break :(
But how crazy is this: I found out that our final exams start on May 11! And one of the weeks before then is practice testing, so there are no regular classes. So basically, the year is over! Part of me is happy, but I am also disappointed in how not far I got in the curriculum. Since exams are the week Amanda comes, I will now have that whole week free to be with her and not worry about school, which is great. She now comes in less than four weeks! She is going to bring my new camera which I'm really happy about.
Yesterday, we had an insane downpour in Lobogo which almost flooded my kitchen and revealed several small leaks/seepages in my house. I didn't even care, though- my house got down to 77 degrees!!! It was HEAVENLY! And then- drumroll, please- when I woke up I was COLD and it was 75 in my room!!I don't think I have felt a temperature that cool since leaving the States! Let's hope that this means the start of the rainy season! (One bad side effect, though: flying ants decided to breed in my shower. There were so many that I couldn't see the walls, it was horrible. There was a mouse trying to eat the ants and then in turn my cat ate the mouse. Ah, circle of life...)
That's all for now! Have a good week :)
Monday, April 6, 2009
April
I am writing this blog just about ten minutes after watching one of the concession goats give birth in my bike shed. It was quite the site- and came with quite the sounds- but we now have a new goat in our concession that could literally fit into the palm of your hand. I know I have said this before, but I think that baby goats are just about the cutest things on earth.
I would take a picture of the little guy, but unfortunately my camera recently broke :( I think I mentioned that in my last blog. I emailed technical support at Kodak and they said I have to send my camera in for repairs. My parents are going to try and send a me a new camera by way of my friend who is visiting next month, since the one I have now is quite old. I don't want to go another four months without taking pictures!!!
Life since my last post has been a series of ups and downs. The first few days back in Lobogo after the week of being away and with friends were really tough. That is when the tragedy really hit me, and I just felt really sad an lonely. I didn't feel scared, but nonetheless had some trouble sleeping those first few nights, for obvious reasons. I think the reason I had a tough time was a combination of the support being with other volunteers was taken away, and I had no one in my village to commiserate with, as the way they deal with grief here is either very private or just saying “God wanted this.” I noticed that volunteers who live in towns with other volunteers or other westerners did not have this problem, so I realized that it was my isolation making it harder for me.
However, life has been getting better everyday, and I no longer have trouble sleeping nor do I get so sad and lonely in the evenings. Many people from home have called to support me though this, and I really appreciate that. I have definitely missed home more since this incident. It has helped getting back into the swing of things at school, and spending lots of time with my kitties! (They really care about me- the other night they caught a big fat mouse and dropped it at my feet triumphantly as a gift.)
School was the usual this week, with lots of frustrations because of discipline and building problems, and lots of fun in the classroom like when I taught the kids the “Days of the Week” song to the tune of the Addams Family theme song: There's Sunday and there's Monday, there's Tuesday and there's Wednesday, there's Thursday and there's Friday, and then there's Saturday! Days of the week (snap snap), days of the week (snap snap), days of the week, days of the week, days of the week! (snap snap) They went NUTS over that song! I have also been grading a lot of quizzes and tests this week, which I must confess is probably my least favorite part about teaching, both because it is very time consuming and because it is depressing when kids don't do as well as you would expect and hope.
Last weekend, I went to Lokossa to help grade the written portion of a regional English competition. That in itself wasn't too exciting, and was certainly frustrating at times. We were working with Beninese teachers, so everything inevitably took about five times as long as it needed to, and I also had to convince my fellow graders that even if the answer that the student wrote wasn't word for word what was on the answer key (such as for the short answer section), it could still be right. For instance, the answer key had “Would you watch my child on Tuesday?” listed as one of the answers, and I had to go through hell to convince them that “Would you mind watching my child on Tuesday?” meant the same thing and was also correct, since it wasn't listed on the answer key.
I was happy to go to Lokossa as it gave me some time away from the isolation of my village and with other volunteers, and after the competition we all went and got pounded yams, cheese, and beer for lunch. I met another American volunteer who is in Lokossa for two months, she is there for a college class. That evening, that girl, Michelle, and I went to the local missionary family's house and watched 27 Dresses, which was really nice. On the way home from Lokossa, I discovered a farm on the side of the road that sells fresh cheese! I bought some for myself and my neighbors.
This week I also decided the girl that I want to bring to Camp GLOW with me in June. We asked her the neighborhood where she lived, and my homologue and I said that we would be there that evening. Well, it turns out that she lives almost five kilometers from the school and literally out in the middle of the jungle. We had to use a machete to get through some of the bush on Blaise's moto, and it took us over twenty minutes to get there on a moto! That poor girl has to walk that four times every day, and she told us that she leaves her house at 5:30am to get to school by 8! My heart was breaking for her, but it also made me very happy that I had chosen her to come to the camp with me. When we got there, the ENTIRE family clan of about thirty people gathered around us, and we sat in a circle and had a meeting under the moonlight. I very politely introduced myself and told them all about the camp, and that I had chosen Carine because of her grades, good attitude, and potential. Everything I said was translated by Blaise, and he in turn translated the questions they were asking me. They want so much for Carine to do well for their family and not become a farmer like they are. Finally the VERY old grandfather- the head of the family- pulled out a shot glass and some sodabe (the local moonshine) and took a drink, signifying that he agreed to let Carine go. To seal the deal, Blaise and I also were required to drink and then bow to the grandfather.
I have to say that this was probably one of my favorite moments since arriving in Benin. There was something so magical about driving through the jungle in the moonlight, sitting with that huge group of bare-breasted women and decorated men, having a traditional meeting with them, and drinking their local brew as a symbol of agreement. All the while, a voodoo drum circle nearby in the jungle added to the effect. The fact that this very traditional family scrapes together the money to send Carine to school and wants her to succeed was so uplifting, and their agreement to let me take her to the camp made my night complete. They have invited me back in the daytime sometime next week to dine with them- I am really looking forward to it!
The bricklayers have added two layers of bricks to my back wall, and today they finally added the broken glass bottles (sort of like barbed wire). They were very timely about the bricks and came to do that right away, and then every day subsequently they promised to return to add the bottles, and finally showed up a week later. I can't say I'm shocked- it's the Beninese way. Similarly, the electrician has been promising to some every day for the past three weeks to fix one of my outdoor lights and only came after I told my homologue how exasperated I was. (My homologue apparently told the electrician I was “furious” and he came with many apologies.) The same thing happened with the tailor who was making a pair of pants for me this week: every day I went and he promised they would be done the next day, and every day he said to come back the next day. When he was finally finished, he hadn't done a great job and the pants were too big, so I STILL don't have them. Patience is a huge virtue here in Benin, folks...
On Saturday, we had an American BBQ in Dogbo! We made cheeseburgers, corn on the cob, jello, potato salad, coleslaw, and a cake (with Betty Crocker frosting sent from home!) It was SO delicious, and so much fun to make all of that stuff from scratch. We bought two kilos of meat and had to cut off all the fat and bad parts and then put it through the meat grinder several times, but most of the other work was minimal. We also had lots of delicious cold beer! Then on Sunday I stayed in Dogbo the whole day to work on revising the TEFL manual for the incoming volunteers this summer. It is so weird to start to become the “old guys” in Benin and to have much of the focus shift to the newbies coming on July 24! After a day of revisions, we made fresh pico de gallo and guacamole for dinner :)
Now I am in Lokossa in the cyber cafe, and I needed to head to the bank before going back to my village today. Starting Wednesday at noon is my spring break, which is 1.5 weeks long. Two of my fellow volunteers were supposed to come down and spend Easter weekend with me, but they found out at the last minute that they have a meeting up in the north and can't come, so I am kind of bummed about that. I still ave a few people coming later in the second week, though, which I'm really looking forward to. I will probably just end up celebrating Easter with my neighbors, which hopefully will be fun. Other than that it will just be a good and relaxing break, and I am glad that I don't have to travel anywhere! (I will be doing plenty of traveling during my summer break: I have recently decided to help run an English camp waaay up on the border of Benin and Niger at the beginning of July, and afterwards I will travel around visiting my friends who are posted in the north.)
Final thought for this blog: one year ago today I took off to France with my parents- so many good memories! One year ago yesterday was Maddie's ritzy bat mitzvah, too. I can't believe how fast time flies.
That's all for now. Keep the calls coming! They are really helping me through the tough time right now. And they help me get excited for coming home- just over four months now!
I would take a picture of the little guy, but unfortunately my camera recently broke :( I think I mentioned that in my last blog. I emailed technical support at Kodak and they said I have to send my camera in for repairs. My parents are going to try and send a me a new camera by way of my friend who is visiting next month, since the one I have now is quite old. I don't want to go another four months without taking pictures!!!
Life since my last post has been a series of ups and downs. The first few days back in Lobogo after the week of being away and with friends were really tough. That is when the tragedy really hit me, and I just felt really sad an lonely. I didn't feel scared, but nonetheless had some trouble sleeping those first few nights, for obvious reasons. I think the reason I had a tough time was a combination of the support being with other volunteers was taken away, and I had no one in my village to commiserate with, as the way they deal with grief here is either very private or just saying “God wanted this.” I noticed that volunteers who live in towns with other volunteers or other westerners did not have this problem, so I realized that it was my isolation making it harder for me.
However, life has been getting better everyday, and I no longer have trouble sleeping nor do I get so sad and lonely in the evenings. Many people from home have called to support me though this, and I really appreciate that. I have definitely missed home more since this incident. It has helped getting back into the swing of things at school, and spending lots of time with my kitties! (They really care about me- the other night they caught a big fat mouse and dropped it at my feet triumphantly as a gift.)
School was the usual this week, with lots of frustrations because of discipline and building problems, and lots of fun in the classroom like when I taught the kids the “Days of the Week” song to the tune of the Addams Family theme song: There's Sunday and there's Monday, there's Tuesday and there's Wednesday, there's Thursday and there's Friday, and then there's Saturday! Days of the week (snap snap), days of the week (snap snap), days of the week, days of the week, days of the week! (snap snap) They went NUTS over that song! I have also been grading a lot of quizzes and tests this week, which I must confess is probably my least favorite part about teaching, both because it is very time consuming and because it is depressing when kids don't do as well as you would expect and hope.
Last weekend, I went to Lokossa to help grade the written portion of a regional English competition. That in itself wasn't too exciting, and was certainly frustrating at times. We were working with Beninese teachers, so everything inevitably took about five times as long as it needed to, and I also had to convince my fellow graders that even if the answer that the student wrote wasn't word for word what was on the answer key (such as for the short answer section), it could still be right. For instance, the answer key had “Would you watch my child on Tuesday?” listed as one of the answers, and I had to go through hell to convince them that “Would you mind watching my child on Tuesday?” meant the same thing and was also correct, since it wasn't listed on the answer key.
I was happy to go to Lokossa as it gave me some time away from the isolation of my village and with other volunteers, and after the competition we all went and got pounded yams, cheese, and beer for lunch. I met another American volunteer who is in Lokossa for two months, she is there for a college class. That evening, that girl, Michelle, and I went to the local missionary family's house and watched 27 Dresses, which was really nice. On the way home from Lokossa, I discovered a farm on the side of the road that sells fresh cheese! I bought some for myself and my neighbors.
This week I also decided the girl that I want to bring to Camp GLOW with me in June. We asked her the neighborhood where she lived, and my homologue and I said that we would be there that evening. Well, it turns out that she lives almost five kilometers from the school and literally out in the middle of the jungle. We had to use a machete to get through some of the bush on Blaise's moto, and it took us over twenty minutes to get there on a moto! That poor girl has to walk that four times every day, and she told us that she leaves her house at 5:30am to get to school by 8! My heart was breaking for her, but it also made me very happy that I had chosen her to come to the camp with me. When we got there, the ENTIRE family clan of about thirty people gathered around us, and we sat in a circle and had a meeting under the moonlight. I very politely introduced myself and told them all about the camp, and that I had chosen Carine because of her grades, good attitude, and potential. Everything I said was translated by Blaise, and he in turn translated the questions they were asking me. They want so much for Carine to do well for their family and not become a farmer like they are. Finally the VERY old grandfather- the head of the family- pulled out a shot glass and some sodabe (the local moonshine) and took a drink, signifying that he agreed to let Carine go. To seal the deal, Blaise and I also were required to drink and then bow to the grandfather.
I have to say that this was probably one of my favorite moments since arriving in Benin. There was something so magical about driving through the jungle in the moonlight, sitting with that huge group of bare-breasted women and decorated men, having a traditional meeting with them, and drinking their local brew as a symbol of agreement. All the while, a voodoo drum circle nearby in the jungle added to the effect. The fact that this very traditional family scrapes together the money to send Carine to school and wants her to succeed was so uplifting, and their agreement to let me take her to the camp made my night complete. They have invited me back in the daytime sometime next week to dine with them- I am really looking forward to it!
The bricklayers have added two layers of bricks to my back wall, and today they finally added the broken glass bottles (sort of like barbed wire). They were very timely about the bricks and came to do that right away, and then every day subsequently they promised to return to add the bottles, and finally showed up a week later. I can't say I'm shocked- it's the Beninese way. Similarly, the electrician has been promising to some every day for the past three weeks to fix one of my outdoor lights and only came after I told my homologue how exasperated I was. (My homologue apparently told the electrician I was “furious” and he came with many apologies.) The same thing happened with the tailor who was making a pair of pants for me this week: every day I went and he promised they would be done the next day, and every day he said to come back the next day. When he was finally finished, he hadn't done a great job and the pants were too big, so I STILL don't have them. Patience is a huge virtue here in Benin, folks...
On Saturday, we had an American BBQ in Dogbo! We made cheeseburgers, corn on the cob, jello, potato salad, coleslaw, and a cake (with Betty Crocker frosting sent from home!) It was SO delicious, and so much fun to make all of that stuff from scratch. We bought two kilos of meat and had to cut off all the fat and bad parts and then put it through the meat grinder several times, but most of the other work was minimal. We also had lots of delicious cold beer! Then on Sunday I stayed in Dogbo the whole day to work on revising the TEFL manual for the incoming volunteers this summer. It is so weird to start to become the “old guys” in Benin and to have much of the focus shift to the newbies coming on July 24! After a day of revisions, we made fresh pico de gallo and guacamole for dinner :)
Now I am in Lokossa in the cyber cafe, and I needed to head to the bank before going back to my village today. Starting Wednesday at noon is my spring break, which is 1.5 weeks long. Two of my fellow volunteers were supposed to come down and spend Easter weekend with me, but they found out at the last minute that they have a meeting up in the north and can't come, so I am kind of bummed about that. I still ave a few people coming later in the second week, though, which I'm really looking forward to. I will probably just end up celebrating Easter with my neighbors, which hopefully will be fun. Other than that it will just be a good and relaxing break, and I am glad that I don't have to travel anywhere! (I will be doing plenty of traveling during my summer break: I have recently decided to help run an English camp waaay up on the border of Benin and Niger at the beginning of July, and afterwards I will travel around visiting my friends who are posted in the north.)
Final thought for this blog: one year ago today I took off to France with my parents- so many good memories! One year ago yesterday was Maddie's ritzy bat mitzvah, too. I can't believe how fast time flies.
That's all for now. Keep the calls coming! They are really helping me through the tough time right now. And they help me get excited for coming home- just over four months now!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Our darling Kate
I think I am at a point now where I can write a blog... first things first, I am ok, both safe and in an ok place emotionally. I am sure that most of you reading this have already heard this news, but here is what I will say about the situation:
On Thursday March 12 at about 1pm, I got a phone call from my boss informing me that one of my friends, a fellow English teacher from the training class ahead of me, had passed away. She said that more information would be shared with us as it became known. Judging from the way in which she shared all of this, I assumed that the death was either an accident or something medical, and sat in my yard crying for an hour or two. Later that night, a fellow volunteer called me saying that he had heard from two separate sources that the death was in fact a murder. I did not know what to think because I assumed that if the death had been of that nature that Peace Corps would have informed us and consolidated us, so I was not sure whether or not to believe that information. Nonetheless, I was invited to sleep at my neighbors' house that night, and took them up on the offer. After a miserably hot night with no fan and crowded sleeping space, I was awoken at 6:30am by a call from the local priest saying that she had definitely been murdered and that he would be over soon to tell me details. When he arrived, he told me that she had been brutally murdered with a machete and some other gruesome details that I will spare you. Obviously, I was shaken, shocked, and sick to my stomach, so I had to sit down and try to sort things out. When the tears started coming, the priest immediately told me that I wasn't allowed to be upset because “God wanted this”, and then began lecturing me on how it's not good that I don't come to church very often. This was about the last thing that I needed, so I decided to head to Lokossa to be with some other volunteers. Before I left, I heard on the radio that the manner of death wasn't quite as gruesome as the nasty rumors had been saying, thank goodness. I also received a phone call from my boss confirming that it had been a murder, and saying that we could do whatever we needed to be comforted, and that there would be a memorial service on Monday in Cotonou.
I spent the weekend relaxing in Lokossa. On Sunday Michelle and I headed to my village because I needed to pack up my things, and on early Monday morning we came to Cotonou. That morning we had an informational meeting between volunteers and staff. Here is what we have learned so far: Kate was sleeping outside on her front porch because it is hot season now and it is too hot to sleep indoors. At some point during the night, someone came into her porch and killed her. Her body was found on her mattress the next morning, and she was wearing ear plugs. Her dog was shut inside her house. There is an official investigation underway by American, French, and Beninese police (and I think the FBI), and so far there are several people in custody undergoing questioning. But, as of yet, they can't say anything official and therefore neither can I. Kate lived in a small village right on the border with Benin and Togo. I wanted to give you all of this information to squash any rumors that you may have heard, and hopefully to reduce the fear factor back at home.
The meeting was a bit tense, both because we were obviously all on edge and in shock and because many people were quite angry over how Peace Corps had handled this situation. Many volunteers, myself included, thought that Peace Corps would activate the “Emergency Action Plan” and consolidate us all, if only for information sharing. PC says that they had every reason to believe that this was an isolated incident so consolidating us wasn't necessary, but I tend to agree with other volunteers that in a case like this you need to consolidate, if only for emotional support. (We also found out later that volunteers near her village on the Togo side were consolidated...) Peace Corps always says that our safety is their number one priority, and lots of volunteers felt a bit betrayed. On the other hand, PC Benin did the best that they could considering this situation, and I am guessing that none of us have ever dealt with a situation like this before. One volunteer decided to leave Benin after this incident.
In the afternoon we had the memorial service. It was a really nice and obviously really emotional time. Several people read letters and gave testimonials, and some of her closest friends put together a really nice slide show. A few volunteers did some musical performances, and at the end we all sang Amazing Grace. Lots of tears were shed but we also had lots of joyful moments celebrating Kate's love, passion, and joyfulness. We also all wrote letters to Kate's family and friends in the States. Please keep Kate and her family in your thoughts and prayers.
For the next few nights, American expatriates opened up their homes to us. Myself and a few other volunteers stayed with a really young couple, the man of which was in the Peace Corps about a year ago in Vanuatu, in the south Pacific. His wife was a Japanese volunteer there, and now they are married, have a kid on the way, work for the American embassy, and live in a really nice house! It was really good for our mental health to stay in a real house with real beds, air conditioning, a dining room, movies, hot showers, etc. I finally got to see Dark Knight! Great movie.
On Thursday I headed up to John Mark's post. We made chicken and real gravy for dinner, watched The Other Boleyn Girl, and got a good night's sleep. In the mo0rning we were creative yet again and made french toast with homemade allspice syrup, got some delicious pounded yams for lunch, and then headed up to Parakou for the GAD fund raising weekend.
The weekend was a lot of fun and was a huge success. Friday night was the date auction, where lots of volunteers auctioned off dates doing fun things in their area. Then Saturday night was a nice dinner and silent auction for things like food items sent from home, Beninese jewelry and art, and gift certificates. I won two pairs of gorgeous Tuareg earrings! I paid more for them than I would have paid if I had gone to one of their boutiques, but it was for a good cause. All proceeds from the weekend go to the GAD small projects fund which gives small grants to volunteers doing gender and development projects in their community. Aside from raising the money, the night was really great since we all got really dressed up, had our tailors make fancy dresses, wore makeup, etc! It was so fun to see everyone looking so nice since we are all usually dirty Peace Corps volunteers haha. (The sad news is, my camera is not working right now so I didn't get any pictures of the night.) It is also the only time in the year that we all get together, and it was great seeing some of my good friends. After the steak dinner, we danced the night away and jumped in the pool. The weekend was a really good stress reliever for all of us and really good for all of our mental health.
I am now back down in Cotonou and I think I am heading back to my village later today. There is a memorial service for Kate on Wednesday at the ambassador's house, but it is mostly for the media and government officials so I don't think I am going to go. I am finally starting to get back to normal emotionally and don't need that to dredge it all back up again. It will be strange and certainly somewhat difficult to get back to life as normal in village, but I am looking forward to it all the same. This week is midterms at my school, so I am glad to have a respite from lesson planning for the moment. Also speaking of my school, my high school French teacher Mr. Vess and his classes, with whom I do a correspondence, sent me two HUGE boxes of school supplies which I will be distributing at my school soon! Really nice of them. Also got a great package from my Grandma and uncle Tom and finally got my U of M fabric from my parents! Also, I no longer need someone to send me a press pot, as a volunteer who was leaving gave me hers.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know what was going on over here and most of all let you know that I am safe and overall happy still. I bought my plane ticket home last week, so that is really cool! I will be in France August 9-15 and then the States August 15-September 7. Start marking your calendars and making plans :)
On Thursday March 12 at about 1pm, I got a phone call from my boss informing me that one of my friends, a fellow English teacher from the training class ahead of me, had passed away. She said that more information would be shared with us as it became known. Judging from the way in which she shared all of this, I assumed that the death was either an accident or something medical, and sat in my yard crying for an hour or two. Later that night, a fellow volunteer called me saying that he had heard from two separate sources that the death was in fact a murder. I did not know what to think because I assumed that if the death had been of that nature that Peace Corps would have informed us and consolidated us, so I was not sure whether or not to believe that information. Nonetheless, I was invited to sleep at my neighbors' house that night, and took them up on the offer. After a miserably hot night with no fan and crowded sleeping space, I was awoken at 6:30am by a call from the local priest saying that she had definitely been murdered and that he would be over soon to tell me details. When he arrived, he told me that she had been brutally murdered with a machete and some other gruesome details that I will spare you. Obviously, I was shaken, shocked, and sick to my stomach, so I had to sit down and try to sort things out. When the tears started coming, the priest immediately told me that I wasn't allowed to be upset because “God wanted this”, and then began lecturing me on how it's not good that I don't come to church very often. This was about the last thing that I needed, so I decided to head to Lokossa to be with some other volunteers. Before I left, I heard on the radio that the manner of death wasn't quite as gruesome as the nasty rumors had been saying, thank goodness. I also received a phone call from my boss confirming that it had been a murder, and saying that we could do whatever we needed to be comforted, and that there would be a memorial service on Monday in Cotonou.
I spent the weekend relaxing in Lokossa. On Sunday Michelle and I headed to my village because I needed to pack up my things, and on early Monday morning we came to Cotonou. That morning we had an informational meeting between volunteers and staff. Here is what we have learned so far: Kate was sleeping outside on her front porch because it is hot season now and it is too hot to sleep indoors. At some point during the night, someone came into her porch and killed her. Her body was found on her mattress the next morning, and she was wearing ear plugs. Her dog was shut inside her house. There is an official investigation underway by American, French, and Beninese police (and I think the FBI), and so far there are several people in custody undergoing questioning. But, as of yet, they can't say anything official and therefore neither can I. Kate lived in a small village right on the border with Benin and Togo. I wanted to give you all of this information to squash any rumors that you may have heard, and hopefully to reduce the fear factor back at home.
The meeting was a bit tense, both because we were obviously all on edge and in shock and because many people were quite angry over how Peace Corps had handled this situation. Many volunteers, myself included, thought that Peace Corps would activate the “Emergency Action Plan” and consolidate us all, if only for information sharing. PC says that they had every reason to believe that this was an isolated incident so consolidating us wasn't necessary, but I tend to agree with other volunteers that in a case like this you need to consolidate, if only for emotional support. (We also found out later that volunteers near her village on the Togo side were consolidated...) Peace Corps always says that our safety is their number one priority, and lots of volunteers felt a bit betrayed. On the other hand, PC Benin did the best that they could considering this situation, and I am guessing that none of us have ever dealt with a situation like this before. One volunteer decided to leave Benin after this incident.
In the afternoon we had the memorial service. It was a really nice and obviously really emotional time. Several people read letters and gave testimonials, and some of her closest friends put together a really nice slide show. A few volunteers did some musical performances, and at the end we all sang Amazing Grace. Lots of tears were shed but we also had lots of joyful moments celebrating Kate's love, passion, and joyfulness. We also all wrote letters to Kate's family and friends in the States. Please keep Kate and her family in your thoughts and prayers.
For the next few nights, American expatriates opened up their homes to us. Myself and a few other volunteers stayed with a really young couple, the man of which was in the Peace Corps about a year ago in Vanuatu, in the south Pacific. His wife was a Japanese volunteer there, and now they are married, have a kid on the way, work for the American embassy, and live in a really nice house! It was really good for our mental health to stay in a real house with real beds, air conditioning, a dining room, movies, hot showers, etc. I finally got to see Dark Knight! Great movie.
On Thursday I headed up to John Mark's post. We made chicken and real gravy for dinner, watched The Other Boleyn Girl, and got a good night's sleep. In the mo0rning we were creative yet again and made french toast with homemade allspice syrup, got some delicious pounded yams for lunch, and then headed up to Parakou for the GAD fund raising weekend.
The weekend was a lot of fun and was a huge success. Friday night was the date auction, where lots of volunteers auctioned off dates doing fun things in their area. Then Saturday night was a nice dinner and silent auction for things like food items sent from home, Beninese jewelry and art, and gift certificates. I won two pairs of gorgeous Tuareg earrings! I paid more for them than I would have paid if I had gone to one of their boutiques, but it was for a good cause. All proceeds from the weekend go to the GAD small projects fund which gives small grants to volunteers doing gender and development projects in their community. Aside from raising the money, the night was really great since we all got really dressed up, had our tailors make fancy dresses, wore makeup, etc! It was so fun to see everyone looking so nice since we are all usually dirty Peace Corps volunteers haha. (The sad news is, my camera is not working right now so I didn't get any pictures of the night.) It is also the only time in the year that we all get together, and it was great seeing some of my good friends. After the steak dinner, we danced the night away and jumped in the pool. The weekend was a really good stress reliever for all of us and really good for all of our mental health.
I am now back down in Cotonou and I think I am heading back to my village later today. There is a memorial service for Kate on Wednesday at the ambassador's house, but it is mostly for the media and government officials so I don't think I am going to go. I am finally starting to get back to normal emotionally and don't need that to dredge it all back up again. It will be strange and certainly somewhat difficult to get back to life as normal in village, but I am looking forward to it all the same. This week is midterms at my school, so I am glad to have a respite from lesson planning for the moment. Also speaking of my school, my high school French teacher Mr. Vess and his classes, with whom I do a correspondence, sent me two HUGE boxes of school supplies which I will be distributing at my school soon! Really nice of them. Also got a great package from my Grandma and uncle Tom and finally got my U of M fabric from my parents! Also, I no longer need someone to send me a press pot, as a volunteer who was leaving gave me hers.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know what was going on over here and most of all let you know that I am safe and overall happy still. I bought my plane ticket home last week, so that is really cool! I will be in France August 9-15 and then the States August 15-September 7. Start marking your calendars and making plans :)
Sunday, March 8, 2009
I apologize in advance for the length of this post
I am finally getting around to posting a blog even though I have had a lot of internet access lately! We had a busy week training in Porto Novo, and the internet wasn't too reliable (although I had a wireless connection at the hotel a few times!). I guess I still have to write all about the week I spent with Sandy!First, though, these are the pictures that need explaining: the one of me with a man is my homologue, Blaise. He is one of my best friends in Lobogo. There are details of the various slave monuments on the beach in Ouidah, then pictures of people getting their water from the hot springs in Possotome, as well as the lake and our hotel there. There is a picture of another English teacher at my school and his family, and finally pictures of our hotel in Grand Popo. Here goes: Picking Sandy up at the airport was frustrating. I used a Peace Corps recommended taxi driver, who was a nice guy but wouldn't leave me alone about marrying him, yada yada. When it became clear that I would not, in fact, be marrying him, he became determined that I “send him one of my friends” from the States to come and marry him. When I said that this was completely ridiculous as they wouldn't even know each other (along with the million other problems with this idea), he said that he and she could “email for several months beforehand to get to know each other.” This conversation grew very tiring seeing as how Sandy's plane landed an hour late and it took her over an hour to get her luggage and get through customs. Since the Cotonou airport is not very busy or big, there is only one massive luggage room and one customs counter, making for a really slow process. Nonetheless, Sandy made it to Africa just fine and we headed out to find an ATM before going to the hotel for the night. So, we get to the ATM and Sandy pulls out.... a Mastercard. Unfortunately, Mastercard is VERY rarely accepted on this continent, and the one bank who did take Mastercard said their system has been down for over a month. Luckily Sandy had brought along a decent amount of dollars and euros, so we headed to the sketchiest part of Cotonou at 10:30pm to find the illegal Nigerian money changers! I had also brought my Visa card so we had that for emergencies. Lesson here: don't bring a Mastercard to Africa!! It is rare enough to find an ATM or establishment that accepts Visa. I am a bit shocked that her travel agent did not know this or inform her of this. That night we stayed at the Novotel, the nicest and most modern hotel in Cotonou (they don't take Mastercard :)) It was like stepping onto another planet for me. It looked like a modern, very nice American hotel! We had been looking forward to a nice meal at the hotel restaurant, especially since I hadn't eaten since noon. Even though the sign said the restaurant was open until midnight, and it was 11pm, we were informed that the restaurant was closed for the night. The staff was extremely unfriendly, and the next day even tried to tell me that I hadn't paid yet even though I had paid in full the night before- good thing I kept the receipt! I ended up getting really yummy room service- a beer and real Caesar salad! (Unfortunately, they way overcharged me for it, and I had no proof of what I had bought so couldn't argue it when I paid the next morning.) I had also requested a room with two beds, and we were given a room with one large bed. Once again, not a huge deal, but they were extremely rude to me about it. It WAS nice to sleep in air conditioning and with a comforter and shower with hot water, though! We had the hotel breakfast the next morning which was pretty nice. We then headed out to Grand Popo. If you remember, Grand Popo is a small resort town on the border of Benin and Togo, juuuust on the Benin side. The taxi the night before had helped me find a taxi to take us there the next day (we took private taxis everywhere since I didn't much want to subject Sandy to the normal 5-people-to-a-back-seat-crowded-hot-smelly Benin taxis). Our driver was nice, but was extremely dumb and didn't pull off the highway at Grand Popo because I didn't tell him to stop, even though he knew that's where we were going! I'm not familiar with the roads in Benin, so how was I supposed to know?! We were nearly at the Togo border when I asked him if we were almost there, and he grew exasperated and said we had passed Grand Popo fifteen minutes ago! He was not very nice to us as we turned around and headed back to Grand Popo. Getting to Grand Popo made up for everything, though. We stayed in a place called the Auberge, which happens to be run by a Frenchman who spent 15 years of his life in Michigan! The Auberge is a set of old colonial buildings that he has turned into the resort, including guest rooms right on the beach, a nice restaurant and bar, a pool, and plenty of beach space furnished with hammocks and thatch roof huts to give you some shade from the sun. Sandy and I stayed in a cute little lofted room, and spent the afternoon laying on the beach. Some other PCVs happened to be there for the day, and Sandy really enjoyed getting to know them. There was even a former PCV from Cameroon on vacation there who sat with us for the day. The water is really warm, but you can't go in much past your knees because Benin's coast has some of the strongest tides and undertows in all of the world. There are tons of little sidewinder crabs that are fun to watch play in the surf. Sandy invited one of my friends to join us for dinner that night, and as we had a dinner overlooking the ocean, a crazy lightning storm came in that was absolutely gorgeous to watch. We had a bottle of wine, a steak and even some chocolate mousse. I may have been with Sandy and Liz, but it was still the best Valentine's Day dinner ever! After dinner, the owner invited us to join him for drinks and a night of conversation. He was quite a fascinating man who has lived in France, Michigan, and all over Africa. I also talked to some French volunteers from Lyon, and to my relief and great satisfaction I discovered that when I speak to French people, my France-French accent comes back!! I have been kind of bummed about how African my French has become. The next day we spent the morning walking the town and did a bit of shopping. There are lots of artisans in Grand Popo since it is a tourist destination. We bought matching fabric and Sandy even bought a pagne! We saw many beautiful hand-dyed fabrics, lamps made out of calabashes, and great jewelry. I got a neat bone and rafia necklace from one of the artisans we met. We lay on the beach some more that afternoon, and Sandy walked down the beach to watch the local fisherman pulling in their huge nets and boats. We had another amazing dinner that night. I must say, though, after all of these good dinners, all I really wanted was a plate of rice and beans!! The next morning we headed to Lobogo! They have made huge progress in putting down cement and gravel on many of the roads leading to Lobogo since I got here, so the drive in wasn't too bad. We got in and spent the remainder of the day walking around the village, eating some delicious rice and beans, and having a drink at my favorite second-story buvette. Sandy did just fine with my latrine, bucket showering, and sleeping in the heat on my couch! The next day she came to school with me, which I think went really well! She took pictures and videos of my lessons, and then went around practicing English with the kids while I gave them each their semester grade outside the classroom. I found out why you are supposed to calculate semester grades in front of the whole class: so that the kids can make sure you are not playing favorites or miscalculating. I still disagree with this, and my students seemed just fine with me giving them their grades the way I did. Wednesday was a busy day for us. After school, the administration bought us drinks and cookies, something we didn't much want to do but could not refuse. (Culturally, it would be quite rude to refuse the offer, but then the two of us ended up sitting there while the rest of the administration complained about school problems in local language!) Sandy had her first moment of huge culture outrage when she saw the men throwing their plastic cookie wrappers on the ground. I had to explain to her that they knew that their garbage would be swept up and burned later, but it was still hard for her to accept that the most learned and respected people inn the village were treating the environment like that. It was market day, so we walked into the village to explore the market. I walked her through every part of the market: the fish section, peppers, bananas, livestock, used clothing, etc. I hope she enjoyed it, because it was really crowded and hard for us to walk and chat together! After market, we changed into our matching-fabric outfits and we were invited yet again to someone's house for drinks. This time it was one of the English teachers at my school. Sandy was once again faced with culture shock as he invited us over and then proceeded to leave the room multiple times, and tons and tons of people came in and out of the house, most without explanation. We escaped in as timely a manner as we could, as we had a dinner of BBQed rabbit waiting for us in the concession! The culture shock continued as we were rushed to the table and then sat waiting for 45 minutes, and my proprietor didn't show up, and Angele didn't join us at the table, and music was being played loud enough to burst our eardrums, and Angele served her a plate big enough to feed an army. Sandy sure did get a crash course in Beninese customs! Overall, though, I think she really enjoyed my village. She loved sitting under the mango tree to read and relax, just as I do. She also fell in love with Fifa, who enjoyed taking her on walks around the village. The next day we headed to Possotome (pronounced po-so-toe-may), a village not far from mine that has the mineral hot springs and is the post of my friend Christopher. There are two nice hotels there (Possotome does a lot of eco-tourism), and we picked the one that took Visa to try and save some of our cash... only to find out that the Visa machine was down. Sigh. Gotta love Africa. The place was really, really nice though. Our room had AC and we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant which is built on stilts above the lake. They only had one entree: fish shish-kebabs with a tomato salad, which turned out to be one of the best meals I have had since arriving in this country! We then spent the afternoon walking around the village, sitting by the lake, and visiting my friend Christopher's house. He joined us for dinner, which we had at the other hotel in Possotome. I had bought a coconut on the streets that afternoon, and for my drink I had the bar tender crack it open and add ice, rum, and pineapple juice! We had a nice slow dinner under the stars on the edge of the lake. Sandy left the following evening, and we decided to leave Possotome fairly early in the morning so that we could make a stop in Ouidah on the way back to Cotonou. We visited the old Portuguese fort that is now a slavery museum. (Interesting fact: there were four ports that shipped slaves to the New World: Isle de Gorée in Senegal, El Mina and Cape Coast in Ghana, Ouidah here in Benin, and Angola.) We then went to the Door of No Return monument on the beach, where a tour guide accosted us and would not accept our refusal of his tour and kept talking to us even though we ignored him. As we headed back to our taxi, I grudgingly reached into my purse and took out my small change, and I only had 100 francs. Still, since we had repeatedly refused his tour, I didn't feel I was slighting him, and handed him the change. He grew furious and started screaming at me that he usually charged at least 1000 francs, but would cut it down to 500 for me. I calmly explained that we had refused his tour several times and had ignored him, let alone discussing any kind of price. The argument continued and I finally had to get in the car and tell the taxi to start driving. As we did so, the man threw the change in the car window and it hit Sandy and I in the face. hat really, really frustrated me and it took me the whole car ride to Cotonou to cool down. To make matters worse, our driver wasn't at all familiar with Cotonou and got us lost several times, and when we went to an ATM, it took several tried before it worked. Nonetheless, we made it to the airport well before her flight, and sat in the air conditioned lounge drinking beer for a while. Overall it was a great visit, despite the many small glitches and culture shocks! Since I had to be in Porto Novo (which is on the far side of Cotonou when coming from my village) on Monday, I stayed in Cotonou for the weekend. Friday night a few of us went back to that amazing Thai restaurant and talked to many people dining there who were with MercyShips, including several Americans, which was really nice. We stayed in the old medical unit, which was really weird since the old bureau was completely torn apart and abandoned accept for our room. The air conditioning had already been taken out, so it was absurdly hot in our room. The mosquito nets were also gone, which meant I was feasted upon by mosquitoes all night long. (The other two girls, of course, didn't get bitten. I don't what makes me so attractive to mosquitoes :() Saturday was a pretty fun day. We went to Dantokpa market, the largest market in Cotonou and one of the largest markets in West Africa. The only way I can think to describe it is: hell on earth. I don't necessarily mean that in a 100% negative way, I just mean that the place was writhing with dirty, smelly people selling anything you can imagine, beggars of all shapes and sizes, and thieves. The smell was quite offensive. I will say, though, that I don't think I have ever been somewhere that felt that “alive.” We spent several hours browsing through their massive selection of fabrics, and I left with two really pretty ones. I also bought a pair of hilarious gold knock-off designer heels that I will wear to the GAD dinner in a few weeks. We had lunch at a cool little hamburger joint, and then Nora and I headed to a ritzy tailor in the ex-pat neighborhood of Cotonou who copies his designs out of American magazines, and I ordered two dressed to be made with my new fabrics! For dinner we ate at the pizza place that overlooks the ocean, and I had pesto pasta and beer on tap :) We finished out of day of extreme indulgence with a trip to the ice cream shop. Then we indulged all over again on Sunday, when we sat at a restaurant from 1pm to 8pm drinking beers and eating hamburgers and fries. I will say, in our defense, that at that point there were about seven TEFL volunteers in town and we hadn't seen each other for three months, so we needed the relaxation and conversation! Before heading to Porto Novo on Monday, we went to the Indian restaurant in Cotonou, but unfortunately the Indian woman was not there that day so the food was not nearly as good. The drive to Porto Novo took twice as long as normal because of a bad taxi accident on one of the crazy roundabouts. We got to Songhaï, the hotel/conference center/organic farm/restaurant/cyber cafe where we were staying and had a relaxing night hanging out in the air conditioning! (Yes, even our ROOM was air conditioned!!! It was heaven- AC five nights in a row!) Our four days of training went really well. The first day was just for the volunteers, and we debriefed about our lives at post since November and learned how to write grants to raise money for secondary projects. (I am considering doing this for my possible library project, I will let you know as soon as I see the books arrive and talk with the PTA about its possibility.) From Wednesday- Friday, our homologues joined us. We had many fruitful discussions about their roles and our expectations from each other, teaching methods, and sexual harassment in schools and towards us volunteers. We prepared lessons and tests together, and it was once again frustrating to see how focused on formula and how unoriginal the Beninese teachers were. We did a visual aides and songs workshop with them, which was really fun! It was hilarious watching them try and figure out how to do the motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes! The most intense part was our discussion regarding sexual harassment towards us volunteers (not by the homologues themselves, but by other community members) and what the homologues can do to help us. The homologues seemed really angered that we had to go through this, which was great. It was also good to show them our cultural differences in how we view sexual harassment. What is sexual harassment in the States is “just a joke” here in Benin, and we had to let them know that in the USA, it is sexual harassment as soon as the victim feels like it is. One homologue went too far, though, and started telling us a story about one of his colleagues who would “do anything to sleep with the volunteer,” which in turn made the volunteer run out of the room crying. As I said, it was intense, but I think overall the training was great. The food was also amazing! Homemade juices and three-course lunches all made fresh from their gardens and farms and dairies! We went out to the one nice restaurant in Porto Novo two of the nights, and one night I got steak and mashed potatoes- it tasted so much like home! Wednesday night I visited my host family, which was really great. When I walked in everybody rushed up to hug and kiss me, and my little Vivi clung to me all night and repeatedly told me she loved me. Mama made rice and fish in tomato sauce for me, and I had a good conversation with papa. I had such a good time that I told them I would come back on Friday night to see them one more time. Well, leave it to my host family to disappoint at the end, but the second time around I was all but completely ignored, not fed, and didn't get to see my little Vivi. Oh well. We had our traditional TEFL tear-jerking bonding time afterwards wince it was our last night together. It was also a huge bummer- the AC and water both went out on the last night. We WERE able to get CNN that night though, which was really exciting, and that evening I found out that one of my best friends from high school and college got engaged!! That is so crazy, I don't feel like we are old enough for that to start happening yet! I hope that I will make it home in time for her wedding! I almost forgot, one more crappy thing happened that week- I found out I got rid of my amoebas, but now have a different type of intestinal parasite! I had been feeling a bit off in my stomach, but nothing too severe. Apparently this type of parasite, called Giardia, isn't as bad, and I took a one-dose treatment for it. I will have to go back for testing soon to see if I am finally parasite free! I was able to hop a ride on the free and air conditioned Peace Corps shuttle back to Cotonou, and did some grocery shopping and had a pizza (four cheese!) before heading back to Lobogo. I visited a store that is known among volunteers as “Target”- it was really like stepping into a Target! I finally bought myself a mug and pasta tongs. I also picked up my dresses from the fancy tailor- they are great! One is a shirt dress and one a wrap dress, both picked from American magazines he had. The wrap dress even- gasp- shows my knees! I will be wearing that one to the GAD dinner! It was nice getting home after being away for so long and being with people constantly, but it was also a bit lonely. The first week back at school went quite slowly, and it was extra frustrating as my sixième kids couldn't seem to get possessive adjectives and my cinquième students could not understand comparatives. I am a bit nervous now that I talked to my director about the possibility of building the library that he thinks I am for sure doing it, even though I told him I was just toying with the idea and made no promises. The bureaucracy around here is hard for me to follow and understand, and I'm not sure I went about discussing my idea in the best way. I also went around and announced to students taking upper-level or college entrance exams in the summer that I would be offering tutoring every Saturday, but now one came to my first session. The power also went out a lot this week, including once at night so that I couldn't sleep. It is usually exactly 90 degrees in my room when I get in bed at night, plus 100% humidity, so without the fan it is murder! I saw and killed another scorpion, and my cat bit the tails off of two poor lizards (the tails wriggle for a good five minutes after they are severed, it is really creepy) which in turn gave her bad diarrhea. Never a dull moment. I am now in Cotonou to turn in my semester report to Peace Corps and to get my vacation time approved by my boss and the country director (my school director already approved it!) It is the first time I will be sleeping in the new bureau, air conditioning, hot water, and wireless included! I must say, I have not been having a good day so far, though. I saw a bad accident with a dead man in the street on the way into Cotonou, I lost the ring I wear everyday (left it at a restaurant, went back two minutes later and someone had already taken it), I found out that the bureau is probably closed tomorrow based on a muslim moon sighting holiday, and the wireless internet is not working on my computer, boo. Anyway, just so you all know, as long as the vacation gets approved (which it should), I will be home August 15-September 7! Start planning your trips to Ann Arbor :)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Happy Valentine's Day :)
Hi! Had a couple of hours to kill in Cotonou before picking up Sandy at the airport (!!!!!!!!!!!) so I had time for a post. Not much to say since I updated a week ago, other than I'm SO excited to have my first visitor from home!! The taxi for the airport is picking me up at 7:30pm and Sandy lands at 7:50. Tonight we are sleeping in air conditioning!! Since it is the hot season right now, I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to that! Tomorrow we head to Grand Popo for two days of relaxation on the beach, and Monday we will head to my village where we will get matching outfits made, Sandy will get to watch me teach for two days, and she will also get to experience the wonders of latrines and bucket showers :)
The rest of my weekend in Cotonou last week was actually fabulous. We went to a Thai restaurant called Bangkok Terrace for dinner and it was phenomenal, both for the food and for the setting. It is in the ritzy area of Cotonou, and is all outdoors with paper lanterns and colonial Thai decorations, complete with a mill with a working water wheel and fountains. It was adorable! The food was fabulous (I really, really miss Ann Arbor's ethnic food scene) and I even had a big glass of red wine with my dinner :)
The meeting to plan the GAD dinner went well, and we are planning a Cinqo de Mayo themed dinner for expatriates in Cotonou on May 2, to raise money for Peace Corps Benin's Gender and Development Fund. We are serving Mexican food and even have a salsa band coming to play so people can dance. We even have use of a margarita machine for the evening! The money we will raise is used 100% for volunteers doing projects like girl's clubs, family planning sessions, HIV/AIDS events, etc. I may even use some of the money for my library project!
Here is some preliminary info about that: my cousins Dan and Corene have tons of books from a library that has donated them to my school in Lobogo, which is wonderful! I am even toying with the idea of taking on the large secondary project of building a larger library at my school, since now it is one VERY small room overcrowded with books, but I will let you know about that when the time comes. For now, the problem is the cost of shipping all of those books to Benin. If you have any interest in helping, or have any questions, shoot myself or my father (darylhurst@comcast.net) an email.
I am also looking to raise money to buy my next door neighbor, Fifa, two pairs of eyeglasses. Fifa is albino, and therefore has very light eyes that are overly sensitive to light. She literally has to hold things 2 inches in front of her face in order to read them, and she is doing a year over in school now because of difficulties related to her deteriorating vision. Her family can not afford to buy her glasses, let alone take her to see an eye doctor, when the nearest one is three hours away. I have arranged with an NGO in Cotonou to get her a free eye exam, and will then be looking to buy her two pairs of glasses, perhaps when I come home over the summer. If you have any interest in donating any money for this, please let me know! There are some pictures of Fifa in earlier blog posts. I will also try and post some pictures of my current school library soon.
The other reason the weekend was great was that I got four packages! It was like Christmas! They contained such wonders as Kraft Parmesan cheese, febreeze, and maple syrup. That maple syrup, however, opened up during transit and spilled all over everything in that package, which was an absolute nightmare to clean. I managed to salvage half the bottle of maple syrup though!!
School this week went well but was extremely busy, as I had to finish grading exams and then calculate each of my students semester average, which is quite a long and complicated process. Glad to be done now, though! Unfortunately, the next round of exams is at the end of March, so I don't have much of a respite from the madness of grading exams. It's amazing how fast the school year is going. I found out today that end of the year exams are finished before the end of May! This week I taught my younger classes how to tell time in English, and with my older classes wee did a massive verb review, as their exams made it clear to me that they forgot everything they learned about conjugating verbs last year. Honestly, that was kind of fun to teach because we are never formally taught how to conjugate English verbs, so it was nice to have it logically laid out.
One obnoxious thing that happened this week was some man came to the school selling an elixir that "cures everything", so an impromptu staff meeting was held so all the teachers could hear about it. Not only did it cut out of class time, but people were actually buying this stuff, to cure "everything from cancer to infertility!" I was appalled. These were teachers buying into it, too. Ugh. It is things like this that remind me sometimes that I'm living in an animist and highly superstitious society.
For my travels this summer, I am now hoping to connect my France and USA trips, as that will save me over $1000 in airfare. I would be going to France the first week and a half in August and then heading directly home, to head back to Benin on September 8 or so. I am just waiting to make sure this is alright with Cam and Sarah who are meeting me in France. I am not thrilled about the idea of leaving here for over a month, but I can't turn down that much savings since I have no money saved up to begin with and am not making any now. As far as the France trip goes, we are now thinking a few days in Paris, 5 or so days in Grenoble with my host family, and then instead of time in Nice, we will spend a day or two doing wine tours :) Since the three of us are wine fiends, that should be the highlight of our trip!
One more exciting factoid: I found out I have yet another fruit tree in my front yard that is just starting to blossom: guava! I had never seen what a guava looked like, they look a bit like limes. You eat them skin an all. It was delicious! I am SO going to miss all the fresh fruit when I get home.
Guess that's all for now- I have to get ready to head to the airport! I will have internet access a lot next week as I will be at a hotel in Porto Novo for training (more air conditioning!!!), so don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions about donating to my projects! I thank you in advance! Oh, and happy Valentine's day! I will spend mine sipping cocktails on the beach :) I gave my students those cheesy candy hearts and tried to explain to them what they were and what Valentine's day is. I think they could have cared less- they were just grateful for the treats!
The rest of my weekend in Cotonou last week was actually fabulous. We went to a Thai restaurant called Bangkok Terrace for dinner and it was phenomenal, both for the food and for the setting. It is in the ritzy area of Cotonou, and is all outdoors with paper lanterns and colonial Thai decorations, complete with a mill with a working water wheel and fountains. It was adorable! The food was fabulous (I really, really miss Ann Arbor's ethnic food scene) and I even had a big glass of red wine with my dinner :)
The meeting to plan the GAD dinner went well, and we are planning a Cinqo de Mayo themed dinner for expatriates in Cotonou on May 2, to raise money for Peace Corps Benin's Gender and Development Fund. We are serving Mexican food and even have a salsa band coming to play so people can dance. We even have use of a margarita machine for the evening! The money we will raise is used 100% for volunteers doing projects like girl's clubs, family planning sessions, HIV/AIDS events, etc. I may even use some of the money for my library project!
Here is some preliminary info about that: my cousins Dan and Corene have tons of books from a library that has donated them to my school in Lobogo, which is wonderful! I am even toying with the idea of taking on the large secondary project of building a larger library at my school, since now it is one VERY small room overcrowded with books, but I will let you know about that when the time comes. For now, the problem is the cost of shipping all of those books to Benin. If you have any interest in helping, or have any questions, shoot myself or my father (darylhurst@comcast.net) an email.
I am also looking to raise money to buy my next door neighbor, Fifa, two pairs of eyeglasses. Fifa is albino, and therefore has very light eyes that are overly sensitive to light. She literally has to hold things 2 inches in front of her face in order to read them, and she is doing a year over in school now because of difficulties related to her deteriorating vision. Her family can not afford to buy her glasses, let alone take her to see an eye doctor, when the nearest one is three hours away. I have arranged with an NGO in Cotonou to get her a free eye exam, and will then be looking to buy her two pairs of glasses, perhaps when I come home over the summer. If you have any interest in donating any money for this, please let me know! There are some pictures of Fifa in earlier blog posts. I will also try and post some pictures of my current school library soon.
The other reason the weekend was great was that I got four packages! It was like Christmas! They contained such wonders as Kraft Parmesan cheese, febreeze, and maple syrup. That maple syrup, however, opened up during transit and spilled all over everything in that package, which was an absolute nightmare to clean. I managed to salvage half the bottle of maple syrup though!!
School this week went well but was extremely busy, as I had to finish grading exams and then calculate each of my students semester average, which is quite a long and complicated process. Glad to be done now, though! Unfortunately, the next round of exams is at the end of March, so I don't have much of a respite from the madness of grading exams. It's amazing how fast the school year is going. I found out today that end of the year exams are finished before the end of May! This week I taught my younger classes how to tell time in English, and with my older classes wee did a massive verb review, as their exams made it clear to me that they forgot everything they learned about conjugating verbs last year. Honestly, that was kind of fun to teach because we are never formally taught how to conjugate English verbs, so it was nice to have it logically laid out.
One obnoxious thing that happened this week was some man came to the school selling an elixir that "cures everything", so an impromptu staff meeting was held so all the teachers could hear about it. Not only did it cut out of class time, but people were actually buying this stuff, to cure "everything from cancer to infertility!" I was appalled. These were teachers buying into it, too. Ugh. It is things like this that remind me sometimes that I'm living in an animist and highly superstitious society.
For my travels this summer, I am now hoping to connect my France and USA trips, as that will save me over $1000 in airfare. I would be going to France the first week and a half in August and then heading directly home, to head back to Benin on September 8 or so. I am just waiting to make sure this is alright with Cam and Sarah who are meeting me in France. I am not thrilled about the idea of leaving here for over a month, but I can't turn down that much savings since I have no money saved up to begin with and am not making any now. As far as the France trip goes, we are now thinking a few days in Paris, 5 or so days in Grenoble with my host family, and then instead of time in Nice, we will spend a day or two doing wine tours :) Since the three of us are wine fiends, that should be the highlight of our trip!
One more exciting factoid: I found out I have yet another fruit tree in my front yard that is just starting to blossom: guava! I had never seen what a guava looked like, they look a bit like limes. You eat them skin an all. It was delicious! I am SO going to miss all the fresh fruit when I get home.
Guess that's all for now- I have to get ready to head to the airport! I will have internet access a lot next week as I will be at a hotel in Porto Novo for training (more air conditioning!!!), so don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions about donating to my projects! I thank you in advance! Oh, and happy Valentine's day! I will spend mine sipping cocktails on the beach :) I gave my students those cheesy candy hearts and tried to explain to them what they were and what Valentine's day is. I think they could have cared less- they were just grateful for the treats!
Friday, February 6, 2009
I got Lizard Guts on my Face
I'm in Cotonou for several meetings today, so thought I'd do a quick update. I'm here for our quarterly VAC meeting (Volunteer Advisory Counsel), a GAD meeting (Gender and Development- talking about a fund raising dinner and auction for wealthy ex-pats in May), and a meeting about Camp GLOW, the girls camp this summer. (Can you tell Peace Corps loves acronyms?) I am excited because apparently the camp is getting pushed back to June, which means that the school year should be over by the beginning of June, yay! The national exams are in mid/late June, which means that school needs to be wrapped up several weeks before that. I am starting to think up girls that I will bring to the camp with me. I already know one for sure, but I might bring one or two more girls. I am really excited for that week- like a 6-day sleepover for the girls and showing them that they can do more than cook, clean, and have babies for the rest of their lives.
In terms of school getting wrapped up by early June, we will keep our fingers crossed. There is talk of a strike next week, which may or may not happen. If the teachers decide to strike, us volunteers are supposed to continue having classes, but it is difficult with kids not showing up and other teachers being angry as it seems you are not supporting their cause. The first semester is now officially over, and I am wrapping up grading final exams. Grading exams takes more time than I ever imagined it could, especially since I have just over 200 to grade. I also then have to calculate their semester English grades, which is a fairly complex process of averaging various scores with the class average, or something. No one is in a hurry to explain it to me, which is frustrating. It is expected that you will read every student's semester grade in front of the whole class and in some cases the whole school, but I refuse to participate in that. How mortifying- NOT motivating- to have your grade read in front of everyone, in a culture where it is not impolite to brag and laugh at others. (In fact, just the other day I heard kids at school laughing at my neighbor because her father is in the hospital, saying “Your dad's gonna die!! hahahaha” I was horrified.)
Classes have been going so-so, as I have had big discipline problems with my two older classes. They are so impolite and just talk over each other and over me in class, and their grades show it. I finally brought the discipliner into class and he gave them four hours of hard labor, which I felt a bit bad about but if it will help be a deterrent, then so be it. I tried rewarding my best class with a day of playing games, but they get so riled up over games and shout over each other so much that we had to stop, which was too bad. Controlling kids here is a whole different ball park than what we are used to at home.
I have been feeling fine since my stint in the med unit, and am hoping to stay that way! I finished my medication several days ago and have to go back to see the doctors in a few weeks to see if they were successful in removing the amoebas.
Last weekend was our big Italian dinner in Dogbo, and it was a big success! My job was to make a huge vat of sauce for the lasagna. We even had honest to goodness beef and vegetables to put in! We also made bruschetta, a big salad, corn bread and roasted garlic and fried onion bread, and chocolate cake for dessert. Mind you, all of this was homemade, down to the noodles for the lasagna! It is amazing how accomplished it makes you feel to make all of that from scratch, especially when it is so delicious! The only bad part about the dinner was that I could not have a glass of red wine with it because of my medication! The next morning I single-handedly whipped up a cinnamon coffee cake for us, and it was so good that I came home and made it for my neighbors the next day. The damage? About $4 per person, including drinks, a meal you would pay at least $25 for in the U.S., with the added benefit of it being healthy and made from scratch!
It is funny, I was talking to Leah on the phone last week and she asked me what I usually eat here, and I said “rice, beans, TVP, and soy cheese” to which she replied “so basically, you are a vegan.” I had never thought about that, but it is almost true. Although, I do eat a fair amount of eggs. Because I am so concerned about getting enough protein here, I actually think I eat more of it here than in the States. I have had not dramatic shift in weight- lost about 10 pounds- but I sure feel healthy.
Last story for this blog: I was sitting on my couch grading papers the other day when Baby snatched a lizard off the wall. Of course, being a cat, she had to play with and torture the poor thing for a good twenty minutes before eating it, so she batted it around the room, injured but not dead. Well, one of the times she batted it obviously had been caught in her claw, because as she flung her arm to try and free it, it flew across the room and smacked me RIGHT on the nose, causing a bit of lizard blood to splatter on my face. Well, I just screamed bloody murder until I washed it off my face with bleach water, and then had to sit down and just laugh, as that it probably the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. Honestly, who could have ever thought that up?
Sandy comes one week from today! I am really looking forward to my first in-person contact with someone from home. I am meeting her at the airport on Friday night, and she was kind enough to pack a few valuables for several volunteers. Benin is the first leg of her long journey in Africa, and I am glad I get to ease her into this crazy continent! We are staying the night at a very nice hotel in Cotonou (as much for my benefit as for hers- like a vacation!) and then spending the weekend at the beach in Grand Popo, staying at a nice resort owned by a Frenchman who happened to go to school at Oakland University, so that is neat. I am really looking forward to this little luxurious weekend! She is then coming to my village for a few days and watching me teach and seeing what my life is like here, which I am excited to share with someone. She will get to take bucket showers and use a latrine just like me! We are also going to get outfits made out of matching material while she is here, since that is all the rage here in Benin. After her visit I will go directly to my week of training in Porto-Novo, during which I will get to see my fellow TEFL volunteers and my host family, who I have not seen in over 5 months! Needless to say, I will have a lot of internet access in the coming weeks.
Pictures in this blog: my adorable Baby, and my friend Nathaniel in Michigan State material he got sent from home. I must say I have some U of M fabric on the way that I will make a sun dress out of to wear to football games, how cool is that??
By the way, it is the hot season here now (seems like that would be an oxymoron, huh?), and it is SO hot. When I wake up at 6:15, it is already 83 degrees in my room, and by the afternoon it is in the low nineties. I can't WAIT for the rains to come back in March, although there have been fewer bugs which is nice. The bugs must know the rains are coming soon though, because TONS of baby bugs- especially spiders- have been seen around my house, gross. So, while you may be miserable with your snow and cold back at home, know that I am equally, if not more miserable here, without the benefit of artificial climate control!
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