Ghana, part 1

OMG, Ghana. For as much as I dislike those silly online acronyms, I feel that that is just about the only thing I can say to accurately describe my trip thus far. Here goes:
We left the Peace Corps bureau early Thursday morning, only to get to the taxi station and wait two solid hours for the car to leave. I can't complain, though: the taxi never had more than four passengers, so our ride was comfortable. The Benin/Togo border was relatively painless, though you have to get out of the car and walk across the border, and customs officers are often in hard-to-spot places. The short drive through Togo is beautiful since it hugs the beach the whole way, though Lome, their capital, is a pretty dismal industrial city that remided me a bit of Gary Indiana, yuck. There are also TONS of police checkpoints, way more than in Benin, where the taxi driver has to bribe the policemen. At one particular checkpoint, the police complained that they were thirsty and needed to buy a sachet of water (which costs 25 francs), to which the response of my driver was to coo how sorry he was and give them 500 FRANCS. How ridiculous!
Arrival at the Togo/Ghana border was a crazy whirlwind. You are literally dropped off ON the beach, amidst thousands of people trying to get you to ride in their car, let them be your luggage porter, change money, etc. After getting a bad deal on some currency exchange, we finally found what we thought was a man taking us to a car that was going to Accra, the Ghanaian capital. Turns out he was only a porter, and he had to stand around and wait for us while we went though a fairly thorogh customs process. Walking into the office was shocking: men and women in nice uniforms, sitting behind sleek computers, SPEAKING ENGLISH. (As opposed to the Benin/Togo border, where there were no computers, only a few men sitting in a dusty shack with a pad of paper.) And not the crappy, Nigerian English I am used to... flowery, grammatically correct British English. The women who dealt with John Mark and I were ironically having a discussion about how to say certain things in French, for when non-Ghanaians cross the border.
When we emerged from customs, we were immediately accosted by about 20 men, each trying to take our bags from us/our porter and physically dragging us towards thier cars. We're used to pushy people in Benin, but we've never experienced that level of physical force before. Finally, a Ghanaian police officer saw our predicament came to shoo away the men and directed us to an air conditioned bus that was soon departing for Accra. Before getting on the bus, we reluctantly tipped the porter, but he became enraged at the "small" amount (apparently he doesn't know that we live in Benin and that we know full well that we gave him a MORE than generous tip for the maybe twenty minutes of service he rendered us). Once again, the police officer had to shoo the man away.
The bus ride was beautiful, though very long and slow. Driving through Ghana was pretty incredible; we IMMEDIATELY started noticing the difference from Benin and Togo. First of all, there are no illegal gasoline stands in Ghana, but rather a real, legitimate gas station in almost every village. The roads were all paved and smooth, there were national lottery booths all around, and people were selling things like sliced watermelon and mushrooms everywhere you looked. It was evident when we started approaching Accra: we started seeing tall, modern-looking buildings, highway overpasses and cloverleaf interchanges, a mall/movie theater.
Driving to the bus station in the heart of the city was unbelievable. I kid you not, Accra looks like it could be any medium-large American city, complete with city parks, street signs, public trashcans... you name it. Upon getting off the bus, we realized we were absolutely terrified to ask non- French speakers for directions! How funny. We got into a taxi (nicer than most American taxis); there is no such thing as a zemidjan in Ghana. Indeed, I have seen a grand total of maybe five motos since I have been in Ghana, and all of their drivers have been wearing helmets. And 95% of the cars on the road are nice and less than ten years old! (Whereas your typical Beninese car is from roughly 1970 and is falling apart.) On our way to the hotel, we passed a beautiful public sculpture park, and no less than three artful fountains bubbling on the lawns of buiildings such as the National Theater of Ghana.
Our hostel was nice, on par with any hostel in Europe. We decided to shower and then head out to Monsoon, hailed as the nicest restaurant in Accra. It was a chic place and could have belonged in any city in America. We ordered cocktails, then sushi from the full sushi bar, and finally high-end Japanese dishes. It was DELICIOUS and super expensive for Peace Corps standards, though our total for the meal was $63.
We continued living it up the next day. After an odd English-style breakfast at the hostel (Ghana was formerly a British colony, so instead of the baguettes we are used to in Benin, you have red beans and wonder bread for breakfast) we headed to the mall.
This mall was as nice as any I have come across in America, and loaded with stores like the Apple store, Coach, and tons of high-end boutiques. There was also a movie theater showing current American films, and a food court. It was really good seeing so many Ghanaian people at the mall; in Benin, it is more or less only the expats who patronize high-end (though much less high-end than here in Ghana) stores. The people there were such a hodgepodge of ethnicities, it was really nice to see. We ate lunch at the food court (pizza and ice cream, naturally) and in the afternoon saw Clash of the Titans in a theater that would rival any of the nicest in America. We also walked through a market that day where ot ONE person gave a damn that we were white and left us alone, only talking to us if we approached their stall and had a question.
That night we chose a spotsbar for dinner. It had maybe five flat-screen TVs, broadcasting sporting events from all over the world, and we ordered a pitcher of beer and nachos! As we were finishing up our meal, the young couple that I stayed with the weekend of Kate's memorial walked into the bar!! It was SUCH a weird coincidence. They were in Ghana for a short vacation. They sat down with us and ordered us some more drinks, than paid for the whole tab at the end of the night! It was so nice of them, and really fun talking with them for a few hours. How can this wonderland of civilization be less than 150 miles away from Benin??
The first reminder that we were still in West Africa came that night when we complained to the front desk at our hostel that our air conditioning was barely working. The women simply shrugged and said "It's the fault of the white man who installed it." Yes, she really said that.
On Saturday we left our hostel in the morning and had our first experience on a tro-tro, the mini buses that Ghanaians use instead of bush taxis. And no, they don't pack them full of people, but rather only seat people where a full seat actually exists. For the first 20 minutes of the ride a preacher stood up and gave a sermon (though in local language), and then lead the whole bus in prayer. Of course, John Mark and I didn't relize this until we noticed we were the only ones talking and that everyone else had their heads bowed in prayer. Oops! The ride was beautiful. Not only was the road smooth and orderly, but the landscape turned mountainy and thickly forested. We once again noticed the lack of motos on the road, and also that taxis and tro-tros here don't stack billions of things on top of their cars.
We arrived in Kumasi mid-aternoon, where the PCVL (PC volunteer leader) met us and took us to the Peace Corps workstation here. It is really nice, and HUGE compared to the ones we have in Benin. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and chatting with the Ghana volunteers, who are all really nice. Ironically enough, the one I've been talking to the most went to OSU! It has been funny talking to the Ghana volunteers, both because it is interesting to compare our two countries, and because John Mark and I realized just how many French/Beninese-isms we throw into our conversations!
Yesterday, Easter, was REALLY laid-back. We ate a typical Ghanaian breakfast of red beans and then watched the Godfather, which took up most of our day haha. We couldn't go into town to see any of the sights since it was Easter and everything was closed. For dinner we went to one of the few hotels we found that was open, only to be told that they had almost NOTHING that they listed on their menu, including basic things like soft drinks. Mind you, this was a nice, upscale hotel. We were finally informed that they had all of their pizzas available, so we ordered that and a salad. Our pizzas finally came about 45 minutes later, with no salad. We asked for the salad, the waitress apologized for forgetting, and presumably went to get it. In the mean time, we discovered that our extremely expensive pizzas had no cheese on them, and were so undercooked that most of the dough was still raw. When the waitress walked by again about 10 minutes later, she had STILL forgotten the salad, and when we complained about the cheese, she just said "Yeah, wer're out of cheese." We argued that we shouldn't have to pay so much money for a pizza with no cheese, but she just looked at us, bewildered. She also wrote the wrong amount on the bill, then proceeded to give us incorrect change (incorrect by a LOT). Turns out that our waitress was also doing all of the cooking. Once again, a reminder that we're STILL in Africa. It will be an Easter dinner I will never foget, that's for sure!
Today we're seeing the brass casters that I worked with, which I'm REALLY excited about. We're also going to check out Kumasi a bit, which is supposed to be a nicer version of Cotonou. Tomorrow we head to Cape Coast to see the slave castle there, than it's on to the beach for a few days before heading back to Benin. Overall, I'm having a GREAT time and don't want this vacation to end! More to come :)

Peace Corps Prom

Leaving for Ghana tomorrow! Since I have a bit of time, I thought I'd do a quick blog on our GAD (gender and development) fundraising weekend, with pictures of course! There is a married couple with Beninese flag themed outfits, the four of us in the Mono region spelling it out our pile of helmets, and yes, that is a hamburger that was made in a waffle iron... oh Benin.
The shuttle ride up in the Peace Corps SUV wasn't nearly as awesome as I had hoped: I was in the back row where the air conditioning didn't hit and we were packed in like sardines, with no leg room. By the time we reached Parakou (after 7 hours) my butt was totally numb. We checked into our hotel, where we were told we had made reservations for the wrong night (we hadn't), and that they didn't have a second bed for us, only a matress for the floor. I guess if we were in America/were not Peace Corps volunteers we would have been enraged by this, but a matress is a matress, right? :)
Dinner Friday night was good. It was in a casual, club-like atmosphere. We had a short talent show and date auction, then people started dancing. The date auction is neat, people auction off things like "an all-American" weekend where you eat pizza and play football, or go hiking through a sacred monkey forest, or a full body massage, etc. So, 100% of the profits go to GAD! Unfortunately, I think I ate some not-so-sanitary street meat earlier in the day, so I left pretty early to go chill in our (air conditioned, thank god) hotel room.
On Saturday I was tired and still not feeling so hot, so I decided to take advantage of our air conditing and just hang out for most of the day. Getting ready with a bunch of girls was really fun- so nice getting cleaned up and pretty for once here! The night was really nice, everyone looked gorgeous and the silent auction was full of goodies, though I didn't bid since I wanted to save my money for Ghana! We had a nice pool-side dinner by candlelight, though instead of beef bourgognone on a bed of homemade noodles like they had promised we got beef stew on a bed of white rice :( People danced the rest of the night away, and there was the requisite throwing of everyone into the pool. All in all two good nights of fundraising, raising about $7000 for GAD small projects here in Benin!
Sunday was a pretty miserable day of travel. It started off with the man who worked at the hotel (and barely spoke a WORD of French) telling us that we needed to pay WAY more than I was told on the phone, and when I refused, he asked me if I would just give it to him as a "present". Then, we had paid for a nice air conditioned bus, and instead got an old bus with no AC, no shades to block out the sun, and no cargo hold, so we had to bring ALL of our baggage on the bus, making it super crowded and hot and uncomfortable. (Of course, no price reduction was offered because of these inconveniences...)When we arrived in Bohicon, the zems absolutely refused to give us the right price so we had to stand around in the baking midday sun waiting for some decent zems. When we finally took off, my zem was stopped by some village crazy where he promptly started yelling at me that I was going to marry him, spitting the soy cheese he was eating all over me, and of course my driver just thought it was funny. We once again had mean zems in Azove, topped off with a mean taxi and another long zem ride back to my village, all on a BAKING hot day. Then, as the icing on that cake of a day, there was no power in my village for the next 48 hours. That meant that none of the water pumps worked (let alone a fan), and since it is the end of the dry season, most of the wells were dry... meaning there was NO WATER in Lobogo. None. I'm serious. Even the Beninese people were starting to freak out. I mean, that is so dangerous! Nevermind all of the incredibly smelly people, we couldn't even drink water on a day where the temperature was easily over 105.
Another great Benin story: today there was a taxi that refused to stop at a police checkpoint (where they usually have to pay a bribe), and so the police shot at the car, making the car burst into flames, and many of the people in the car died. I have been in TONS of taxis that haven't stopped at checkpoints, so that's pretty scary. It's sad because it's not the fault of any of the passengers. I'm telling you, I love Benin, but I will be ready to COS when the time comes (only 4 months! Requested a date of early August today).
Now I'm in Cotonou and we leave early in the morning for GHANA! Ghana, the promised land of West Africa, complete with bowling, sushi, air conditioned taxis... amazing! I will take lots of pictures that should be on my next blog! Have a happy Easter everyone!

I'm back!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. The only time I was at a computer since my last post was when I was down in Cotonou for Kate's memorial, and I wasn't much in the mood to spend time on the computer.
That weekend was really nice. Volunteers were housed with expat Americans that live in Cotonou, mostly people who work at the embassy. Myself and two other volunteers were housed with a young couple (and their adorable black lab!) in their beautiful house. Not only did we have a whole house full of airconditioning to ourselves, but we also had internet, satellite TV (read: the Travel channel, CNN, E!, etc.), and free reign over their whole kitchen and pantry, which included any kind of American food you can possibly imagine. They also had a housekeeper contantly making us quiches and other yummy things. So, it was a nice place to go back to and unwind after a few long, emotionally draining days.
The actual service for Kate was quite nice. Several volunteers read excerpts from her blog, and some read a short bio about her. Maria spoke a bit about the memorial that they were holding in Kate's village, and the US ambassador read a message from himself and the current Director of the Peace Corps. A RPCV from Kate's year played some music and our country director read some poems, and the service was capped off by a really nice slideshow. Afterwards, we all wrote in a book to Kate/her parents. Lots of tears were shed, but we laughed a lot too, and overall it was a really good and cathartic experience for all of us. The one picture is of the sort of altar we set up, and the other speaks for itself: things we'd like to say to Kate. (Other pictures are of some of my favorite concession girls, what a roadside boutique looks like, a sign denoting land ownership, how laundry is done here... jealous?, and my colleague in front of his new house.)
Life at post has been going really well. I have actually gotten to spend a decent amount of time at post lately, which has been a nice change of pace for me. School is absolutely flying now that it is second semester- we've already had semester midterms! Speaking of second semester and those midterms, I have been pretty angry with the other English teachers lately. When it came time to submit our proposals for the midterms, we all had to disciss where we were in the curriculum. (Preface to this story: for whatever reason, every class of the same level has to take the same exam, regardless of their teacher.) Now, all of first semester, I was significantly ahead of the other English teachers since I actually showed up to class every day and used time efficiently. Well, Beninese teachers get this syndrome where they panic when second semester hits and decide that it would be best to start covering material RIDICULOUSLY fast, literally cramming four lessons into one, without a care whether the kids are getting the material or not. So, magically, the other teachers are now a decent chunk ahead of me in the curriculum, and were "shocked" that I had "fallen behind". In fact, I was so far behind that I had to write a seperate exam for my students, which the other teachers were NOT happy about. I, on the other hand, was extatic because it meant that I could give my kids a well-written exam based on material that we have thoroughly covered in class. So far I have graded my quatrieme exams, and the kids did wonderfully! While this made me really happy and proud of my kids, the other teachers who saw some of my grades got huffy anf I could tell they thought that meant that my exam was just too easy. I don't care what anyone else says, I am really proud of my kids! They make me so happy this year; it's going to be hard leaving them! (Speaking of my favorite students, I proctored an exam for my favorite class from last year, and they all started cheering when I walked in! They also behaved perfectly during the exam, which was really nice.)
I also typed most of the English exams for this round of testing, and seeing the exams that some of the other teachers submitted was really disheartening. I won't go into details, but the texts were filled with grammatical errors, the questions on the text often barely even related to the texts, and some of the grammar points were so inticate that even I would fail. It's amazing to me that students who can barely greet me in English are asked to write en essay on combatting corruption in modern governments, all in English. When I pointed some of these errors out to my colleagues, they told me that those kind of errors are unavoidable since they don't get proper time to prepare the exams... apparently 2 weeks is not long enough. Hmm. I also noticed that a few nit-picky grammar rules are being taught incorrectly, but when I try to correct them, I am told that "I must not have been taught" that particular rule. No matter I'm a native speaker, right? All that being said, though, there are of course some really bright students and dedicated teachers who don't fall into those categories.
Speaking of those dedicated teachers, I did two neat things with one of my colleagues in the last few weeks. First, we went to his class at a different school and just had an open question and answer session, in English. It was fun answering questions like "Why would you LEAVE America to come live in Benin??" The kids asked some really insightful questions and their English was surprisingly advanced. I also participated in the broadcast of a weekly radio show where they translate a popular and meaningful English song into French, and listeners from all around the region can call in with questions and dedications. It was fun hearing some of my students call in! The songs we dealt with were "War" by Bob Marley and "We are the World".
Other than that, nothing major has gone on. I'm pretty sure both of my cats are pregnant again. Power cuts have still been a problem, but not nearly as bad as before. It has still been very hot, but raining a bit, which has cooled it down a little. I have been really busy with school and also Camp GLOW. I have finally received the money for the camp, so we're now in the process of making down payments and ordering things like the camp tshirts. Once again, thank you SO MUCH for all who donated! We also had a youth camp idea sharing session the weekend of Kate's memorial, where all volunteers who are planning camps came together to brainstorm and share ideas and best practices.
What else... oh! one to make your skin crawl: I visited my colleague's new house, which is quite nice but kind of in the middle of nowhere, so it has lots of bugs. He told me that recently, he was wrapping a towel around himself after a shower and hadn't shaken the towel first, and was promptly stung by a scorpion... on his penis! OUCH! He was able to get some injections though, so he was ok. On a total subject change, there is American woman living in a nearby village for a few months, so it's weird running into her periodically at my market- she's only the second white person I have ever seen in my village!
Anyway, tomorrow I'm heading up north for our huge volunteer fundraising weekend, aka "Peace Corps Prom". We all get dressed up and have a charity dinner and silent auction, all to raise money for gender-related projects here in Benin. We also have a date auction. It should be a really fun time! I will get back to post on Sunday, only to turn around and leave again on Wednesday, since one week from today I'm leaving for Ghana!! It's looking like this vacation is actually going to happen (knock on wood) :) We're also going to be able to meet up with those brasscasters I've mentioned for, and hopefully go to church (in English!) on Easter. We're also going to eat real sushi in Accra, go to a slave castle, and spend a few days at a beach resort. Should be amazing! So, my next post will probably be about my awesome trip! Happy Spring and see you 4-5 months...!

Health update

After heaading back to Lobogo on Saturday, I saw absolutely no improvement in my condition. I'll spare you of the nasty details, but I more or less lived in my latrine over the weekend. I felt so-so other than these semi-frequent stomach cramps, during which I literally curled up in a ball and waited for it to pass. The heat, once again, really didn't help. I slept inside the first night, only getting fitful sleep due to the oven-like nature of my house; this is in spite of a fan running full-blast less than a foot away from my face. The next night they cut the power at 9pm, so all of my neighbors and I decided to sleep outside. Normally it is cool enough outside overnight to sleep quite comfortably, maybe even with a pagne thrown over your shoulders. Well, it has been so hot lately that not only could I barely sleep, but neither could all of my Beninese neighbors! We all were awake for a majority of the night, dripping sweat, fanning ourselves, and lamenting this outrageous heat wave. You KNOW it's bad when it's 3am and even a Beninese person is sweating.
I came back down to the med unit on Monday. After an exam and some more tests (still found no parasites), the doctor prescribed me some heavy-duty antibiotics that seem to be kicking in, thank goodness. I've been able to eat a little more, so that's good. I'm seeing the doctor again tomorrow and if all goes well I should be heading back to post. I'm not thrilled about leaving the air conditioning and toilet fortified bureau, but it's always good to go home. I should be there for about a week before heading down for Kate's memorial.
And great news that I forgot to mention in my last blog- Camp GLOW has been completely funded! So, if you've been looking for it on the website, it is no longer up. We're now waiting on the money and a list of donors from headquareters in DC. Thank you so, so much for all of you who donated and got the word out there. We've now booked the venue and the caterer, and are now working on guest speakers and other aspects of the camp. But the most important things are done! Later this week, we are sending official invitations to the US ambassador and some Beninese government officials to the opening and/or closing ceremonies of the camp, so I'm excited about that. I will keep you informed!

It's unbelievable

that I'm not on vacation right now. After having to cancel the much-anticipated Ghana trip due to the upcoming Togolese presidential elections (that by the way got pushed back so far that it turns out we could have gone to Ghana), I had planned a 5-day trip to see some places in Benin that I hadn't yet. After no Christmas vacation and then canceling Ghana, I really needed this trip. Well, murphy's law, the day before I'm supposed to leave, I come down with a crazy fever, a rash on my arms and legs, and can't keep any food down. The fact that it's hot season (HOT HOT HOT season) and that we had no power so that I could run my fan really didn't help, so I spent the whole day laying miserable underneath my mango tree. After spending a miserable and sleepless night outside (I was still sweating the whole night, even though I was outside, just to give you an idea of how hot it was), I had to head down to the medical unit the next morning. (In addition to this illness, I have a NASTY heat rash on my neck and on my inner elbows. It must be even hotter this year than it was last.)
I had (and still have) a hunch that it is a parasite, but the tests found nothing. The doctors have no idea what I have/had. Since then, the rash has gone away and so has the fever/headache, but I'm still unable to keep down much in the way of food, and my stomach constantly hurts. I'm going to head back to post tomorrow, so I'm hoping it subsides before then.
Since my last post, I've just been hanging out at post. Wrapping up the semester went fine, though I missed a day of school that week due to some stomach issues, possibly a precursor to this yucky illness I have now :( Our power outages continued, although they seem to be cutting the power during the day more, and giving it starting at around 8:30pm, and the last few nights it stayed on until the morning. One night after a particularly scorching day, the power came on around 8pm and was still on when I went to bed, but went off right before 1am. Since I knew it was too late to see if my neighbors wanted to sleep outside, I stripped down to my underwear and laid flat on my cement floor to sleep and sweat the night away.
I went to a huge funural celebration with my neighbors the other night, which was basically just a bunch of free food and beer (warm beer since the power was not on to keep it cold) and music playing way too loud to have a conversation with anybody. At one point in the night, this large mama made me dance with her, prompting EVERYONE to whip out their cell phones and take a picture of it. Great.
In other news, I finally gave away the other kitten. When we tried to put it in a box for transport, it went absolutely crazy and we were unable to keep it in, so we had to put it in a durable bag instead :( It should be happy in it's new house, though, it's out in the middle of the jungle with plany of snacks to hunt for and trees to climb!
That's really about all for now. After heading back to post tomorrow, I should be there until the 11th or 12th when I head back to Cotonou for Kate's memorial service- can you believe it has been one year? We also have our gender and development funraising weekend in March, and if all goes well (and knowing my luck it probably won't) we should be heading to Ghana on March 30. One last cool snippet of information: just found out that an acquaintence of mine from college, Charlie White, and his partner, won a silver medal for the USA in the Olympics for ice dancing! How cool!

No more Ghana, thanks to Togo

Yep, you read it right... vacation #2 that's been canceled! At least the first one was my choice. Here's the story: I heard a rumor that Togo's presidential elections were coming up, and that the border might be closed for a day or two around election time, so I called up Peace Corps to ask about it. After (and ONLY after) this inquiry did they tell us that the 2005 Togolese elections went badly and they fear that the same will happen again this year, possibly resulting in violence or civil unrest... so they are forbidding all travel to Togo from February 22 to March 14. (For those of you who are a bit fuzzy on the geography, Togo is a tiny country smushed in between Ghana and Benin, and one that you have to drive through for a grand total of about one hour in order to get to Ghana from here.) So, after having booked all the hotels and scheduling my visit to meet the brasscasters that I studied in college, I had to turn right back around and cancel it all. I have been feeling a bit claustrophobic in Benin lately and was really looking forward to this vacation, but c'est la vie I suppose. The good news is that we are probably able to reschedule our trip for the April school break, right around Easter. I'm still going to make the best out of this week off of school by going up north to visit Boukoumbe and the tata sombas, these cool multi-story houses that a certain ethnic group builds in the mountains. I'm also going to finally visit the palace of Abomey, which is one of the top ten west African tourist attractions and is less than two hours from my village, but for some reason I haven't visited yet. The palace was the seat of the kings of Dahomey, one of the most powerful kingdoms in west Africa for hundreds of years, and one of the kingdoms that willingly sold it's people into slavery. These kings were known for their brutality, and much of the palace is built out of the bones of people that they killed. Should be interesting!
So last Sunday Brigitte came back to post with me, and chose the striped brownish-greyish kitten to take home with her. The kittens were not at all afraid of her, so that was a good sign. It was sad putting the poor thing in a box, though, as it immediately started freaking out and crying, and it had a long journey ahead of it. I've spoken to her since, and she says that it's doing really well at her post now! I still have the second kitten, which my colleague will take in about a week. Though it's sad to give them away, I think my cats are both already in heat again, so I'm sure I'll have some more kittens before leaving Benin. The kitten that I still have has some intestinal worms (pretty normal for kittens), so I have to take care of that this week.
I guess the biggest news for the week is the continuation of these awful power outages. Sunday night, the power went off just before 7pm and didn't come back on for over 12 hours, so I slept outside with Angele the whole night. I thought that I would not feel at ease and would be uncomfortable sleeping on the cement all night, but it was really fine. Not to mention beautiful under the stars and almost a bit chilly! The same thing happened on Thursday night. The other nights the power would go off from about 7-10, but then would be on for most of the night, so I was able to sleep with a fan. For those of you reading this, don't worry! We lock the gate and my concession has a very high wall, and I feel completely safe doing it. I would never do it alone, either. Another obnoxious thing is that when they cut the electricity, the water pumps stop working too, so water is hard to come by, especially since many of the wells are dry now since it is dry season. It's also difficult to keep my phone and other electronics charged. On top of all of this fun stuff, I found another brown widow spider in my back area, joy. All in all making my life a lot more difficult than it already is and I really hope it ends soon!
Hilarious story about sleeping outside: so Thursday night, I woke up in the middle of the night to feel a warm body pressed up against me, and assumed it was Fifa or Mariam who had moved outside to sleep with us. When I reached out to put my arm around it, I discovered it was a goat! A full grown, hairy goat, literally spooning me. As cute as it was, I'm sure that these goats aren't the cleanest creatures, so I tried to shove it away, and it wouldn't budge! I was literally shaking it with all my might and smacking it hard, and it wouldn't move! I finally got it to move when I hit it over the head with a stick, poor thing. So, wake up and hour later... only to find it is there again, this time with one paw resting on my back! Shoved it away yet again. I woke up two more times during the night and it was STILL there, one time with its face nuzzled right into my shoulder! I finally gave up trying to move it and let it cuddle with me. Now THERE'S a problem that campers in America don't have...
School was fine this week, just gave the kids their grades and put them all in the gradebooks and report cards. Teachers were on strike, so I was one of the only teachers holding class, which I'm sure that my students just loved. I'm also holding class this coming week (the last one of the semester) while most other teachers are just fillng out grade books, so my students must be doubly happy :) We had a small but interesting English department meeting this week, during which the other teachers asked me many questions about American culture, including "How much does a girl cost?" (referring to a dowry), and "Since you are a woman, will you inherit your father's land one day? Surely not?" It was a good discussion, though. After all, that's why I'm here!
As I said, one more week of school, then I'll spend a few days at post before heading off on my mini vacation. Thanks for all the contributions to Camp GLOW, we only need about $1300 still! Good luck surviving the huge dumpings of snow you're getting and pray that my electricity will return to normal!

Waffles and bacon with Mr. Secretary

February! Here's an update on my life for the past week and a half:
Last Friday, the hot season began. You might be saying to yourself, "Hot season?? Isn't the whole year one giant hot season there? You do live in Africa..." Well, you're correct. It's always hot here. Stunningly hot. The kind of hot where you start to worry when there is a five minute period when you are not sweating. However, during the hot season, which lasts roughly February-April, Benin literally lights on fire. I am fairly certain that during this time of year, I live inside an oven. The thermometer inside of my house has not dipped below 90 degrees in the past week or so, and it only drops to 90 in the early morning. In the afternoon, temperatures in my house are in the upper 90s. The icing on the cake is the 100% humidity 100% of the time, making it feel more like a vat of boiling water than an oven.
Anyway, the hot season literally began overnight, and I'm really sad because I know it's not going to start getting any cooler until April when it will rain sporadically for two months. It won't start raining regularly until June, when the constant rain makes it almost cold (cold to us at least... temperatures in the 70s). So every time you're shivering on a bitter walk through the snow, think of me, sweating buckets here in Benin. My taxi ride to Dogbo last Friday was miserable because of the heat. Normally taxi rides aren't too bad because there is a constant wind blowing in your face, but now that the wind is blisteringly hot, it doesn't even really help.
When we got to Dogbo, though, we made probably the best meal I've had here in Benin: homemade veggie soup and sandwiches (with real ham and real cheddar cheese and Hellmans mayonnaise), grilled. And on homemade roasted garlic bread! So good! The next day we tried a new restaurant ("restaurant") in Dogbo for lunch which was awesome, complete with couches, ceiling fans, and burgers and fries, albeit the Beninese version of them, with weird toppings like chopped hot dogs (seriously).
After Dogbo, I stopped at the bank in Lokossa on my way home since I literally had the equivalent of $2 left in my pocket. The bank had already closed for the day since it was a Saturday and, surprise surprise, the ATM wasn't working. When I told the guards that I absolutely needed to get money out, they started telling me that they were calling so-and-so and they were in the process of fixing the problem. To make a long story short, it wasn't until three hours of sitting in the burning heat later that they told me that I was out of luck until Monday. To make matter worse, the whole time I was waiting there I was harassed by one of the guards who right off the bat asked me to marry him, and got pissy with me when I simply said no and refused to joke with him about it. He proceeded to spend the rest of the three hours telling me I was racist and how I clearly don't like Beninese people if I'm leaving the country after only two years. It was really disheartening. I try not to let encounters like that phase me any more, but the fact that I had to sit with it for three hours and it was so hot really didn't help. Anyway, I decided that I had JUST enough money to come back on Monday afternoon after class to get my money.
School was really good overall this week. As I mentioned in my last blog, my quatrieme students did really poorly on the semester's final exams, so we took two days going over the rough spots and on Monday they will take a quiz that is almost identical to the exam to see if they have improved. My sixieme (younger) students did pretty well on their exams, not to mention that the highest grade out of both classes was a perfect score achieved by a girl!
On Wednesday, I had one of those awesome days teaching that will stick with me for the rest of my life. The students in my favorite class of the year, who are really good in English and try hard for it, really got the lesson and I don't think I heard a word of French or local language come out of their mouths the whole time. They were even talking amongst each other and making fun of each other in English! One student came to write on on the board still wearing his backpack, to which the class exclaimed, "Hide your bag! Madam, he need to hide the bag!" They were really attentive to the lesson and still had tons of fun with it. I like that they are mature enough that I can joke with them, but then still pull them back into the lesson. At the end of class, we had about ten free minutes, during which I told them to ask me any questions about America. I was surprised by the intellect of the questions they asked, such as "If it is 12:00 here in Benin now, is it also 12:00 in America?" They also asked about my experience at university and for advice on how they can all make it to university, too. All in all, an awesome, feel-good day with my students.
Unfortunately, my high was brought down a bit on my ride home that day because of the conversation that I had with an English colleague of mine. I will preface this story by saying that aside from my work partner, this is probably the most forward-thinking Beninese man I know, who is getting his doctorate, has only one wife, and treats his two daughters like royalty. They were giving free HIV/AIDS testing to anyone who wanted it at my school (it was awesome, about 2/3 of the students had it done!) so to start a conversation, I asked if he had taken the test. He replied "No, I had it done a few years ago. Besides, I try my best to stay faithful to my wife." When I asked what he meant by trying his best, he replied that his friends have told him that when he travels for more than a week, he will be physically incapable of staying faithful. He quickly reassured me that "Don't worry, when the time comes, I will try and use protection." It was just disheartening to hear this from a colleague and friend who I thought to be so progressive. It just goes to show how deeply rooted that aspect of Beninese culture is.
Another bummer about this week was the major power outages we had, throughout the entire southwest corner of Benin. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the power was out from about 7:30 to 10:30, followed by brief cuts that continued until dawn. Then on Thursday morning, the power was cut at 7am and didn't come back on again all day. At 7pm when it was starting to get quite dark, there was still none, so I lit all my candles. When I asked my neighbors if they knew anything about the cut, they said that they had heard that the power would be cut off for a whole week, possibly up to a month! I honestly don't mind living by candle light, but especially now that it is hot season, I absolutely can not sleep without a fan. I also then have no way or charginf my cell phone or ipod (normally I would name my DVD player too, but that just randomly stopped working this week, so it's joining my computer in the ranks of nice electronics that Benin had managed to destroy.) When the power still wasn't on at 10:00, my neighbors suggested that we lock the gate to our compound and that we all sleep outside together. I thought I would be a bit apprehensive about this after what happened to Kate, but I honestly felt fine about it, and we spread our blankets under the stars to sleep. Just as I was drifting off, however, the power came back, and I was able to bask in the glory of my fan all night. Apparently power cuts become more frequent during the hot season because of a lack of water to run the dams combined with the higher rate of energy consumption. I have also heard rumors that the power cuts have to do with political disagreements in Ghana and the upcoming presidential election in Togo. Who knows... just keep your fingers crossed that they don't continue this badly, so I can get some decent sleep! (Yes, there are volunteers up north who don't have electricity and sleep withut a fan every night... but they're not also dealing with 100% humidity!)
I arrived in Cotonou yesterday morning for a day jam-packed with meetings. Our second Camp GLOW meeting went well, and we have made some progress on getting major things booked such as the venue. When I checked earlier today, we only have about $1600 left to raise for the camp, so THANK YOU so much if you have donated! After a long day of working hard, Michelle and I were craving fruit smoothies for dinner, and after we heard there was a blender in the kitchen, we headed to the supermarket to buy our ingredients. After getting back and putting all the ingredients into the blender... we find out it doesn't work. So sad, especially after having spent the money! I haven't had a fruit smoothie since before joining the Peace Corps. But, waste not want not, we ate the weird, watery concoction anyway.
This morning, I was part of a group selected to have breakfast at the ambassador's residence with the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. It was fantastic! Not only were we the only Peace Corps volunteers on the entire CONTINENT that he met with, we got to eat real bacon and waffles with real butter and maple syrup on bone china plates with the gold-plated state department logo on them! And drink real coffee served to us by waiters wearing all white! It was great chatting with him, and he gave us an impromptu speech at the end that made us feel REALLY good about what we're doing here, saying that "we're the best face of America today." It was a neat opportunity and I'm really glad that I got to participate in it.
Tomorrow I will head back to post with the volunteer who is taking one of my kittens, and she will take it and continue on her way. It's going to be sad to part with the kittens, but they are going to good homes and I obivously can't have four cats in my tiny house. At this point, the cats are totally litter box trained, and eating a fair amount of solid food. They are also SO playful and are starting to climb everything and knock everything in my house over.
Ghana is coming up in less than two weeks now! Many of our reservations are made, and we may even get a ride back from Ghana in a Peace Corps vehicle because of a medical conference in Accra that is taking place at the same time as our trip. (Air conditioned SUV > bush taxi.) One possible hiccup that I just found out about yesterday: Togo, which we have to drive across to get to and from Ghana, is having their presidential election on February 28, a day or two after we are scheduled to pass through Togo on our way back to Benin. Now, all African nations close their borders at election time to prevent corruption, so, depending on how early they decide to close them... we might be stuck in Ghana for a few extra days! I wouldn't complain too much :) Honestly, though... I will be so sad if this messes up my trip somehow. I really need a vacation, especially after my Christmas one was cancelled! Also just happened to hear by word of mouth that you can no longer get Togo visas at the border, which PC wasn't even aware of yet, so now I have to come back down to Cotonou to get that visa. I'm hoping to just come down a day early for my trip and do it then, since I feel like I live in Cotonou lately. It would have really sucked if we got all the way to the border and had to turn back, though. Traveling is so complicated here!
Other than that, school this week should be good, just giving a quiz and then calulating and giving out semester grades, and filling out the official grade books. Other teachers take two full weeks to compute grades with the whole class, whereas I do it at home and invite each individual student to check my math, both to save time and do keep grades more private. (Students knowing each others' grades can cause huge problems... for instance, a girl went home crying from her class the other day. They had gotten their exams back and she had done very well, much better than most of the boys. The boys proceeded to tell her that it was only because she is sleeping with the professor.)
That's all for now. Until next time!