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!

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!

Amoebas... gross.

So, I am in Cotonou for that conference. During the first day of the conference, I grew colder and colder throughout the day and eventually had to step out of the conference because my body physically could not stop shaking nor my teeth stop chattering. By late afternoon, I had a high fever and headache and my body ached so much I could not get out of my bed. Even in a room that was 85 degrees with three wool blankets on, I was a block of ice!
My sleep was interrupted all night long because I kept having to go to the bathroom. Between 3am and 7am, I had gone to the bathroom seven times- I knew I needed to see the doctor.
I saw the doctor at 8am, and he examined me, drew blood, and have me give some stool samples (hey folks, this is Peace Corps). The good news is, the blood test showed I didn't have malaria. The bad news is, I have amoebas living in my intestines.
There are two types of amoebas you can get here: the more mild (and more common) form, called Giardia, often comes without symptoms. I got lucky and got the more aggressive and rare form, called (I think) Entomoeba histolytica, which often comes with terrible diarrhea (and consequently dehydration), fevers, and complete loss of appetite.
So, the doctor gave me 54 pills (these amoebas are fighters, man) that I have to take over the course of a week and a half, and I have to come back in about a month to give more stool samples to ensure they are gone.
Well, there is my fun story. I now have to stay in the medical unit until at least Monday- I am going to die of boredom. My neighbors are watching my cats and I told them that I would be back by Saturday at the latest, so I'm bummed I have to put that on them. I am also not able to enjoy Cotonou fully (restaurants, museums, shopping) because I don't feel well enough to leave the medical unit! I was also unable to participate in most of the conference I had been selected for. Oh well, such is life as　ａ　Ｐｅａｃｅ　Ｃｏｐｒｓ　ｖｏｌｕｎｔｅｅｒ．　Ａｔ　ｌｅａｓｔ　Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｄｏｗｎ　ｈｅｒｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｅａｓｙ　ｔｒｅａｔｍｅｎｔ．

2009!

Long time no update! After my wonderful holiday safari, I came back to my village and stayed there for almost a month until I had to leave to come here to Cotonou. I am here as the English teacher representative for a review of training objectives and methods so that they can train the next group of Benin PCVs even better than they trained us. It is weird to have the focus on my year go from the newbies to the experienced ones, helping lead the way for the next group of volunteers. They arrive to Benin on July 24, about three weeks later than we did last year. (I am lucky to be in Cotonou when I am- this afternoon I will find somewhere to go to watch Obama's inauguration, which includes tons of former PCVs along with the military! I can't believe this day is finally here... it's been a long eight years!)
The new PCVs are lucky in that they will be introduced right into the new bureau, which will be opening up next week. We got used to the old bureau and grew to love it, especially the location: close to lots of good and cheap food and bars, mid-range super markets, the beach, and several banks. The hitch (and one of the main reasons the bureau is moving): it is currently located in one of the seediest areas of Cotonou, also the red-light district. Indeed, the few times I have been in the neighborhood after dark, I have encountered tons of barely-dressed women of all shapes and sizes soliciting their “wares.” Us PCVs are a bit bummed by the move, because the new bureau will be in the ritzy ex-pat neighborhood where all of the embassies are. All of the nearby restaurants are fancy and for the most part out of a PCV's price-range, as well as the supermarkets. Read: we will end up spending a lot more money taking zemidjans to cheaper parts of the city to shop and eat. Oh well. The upside is we will now have a place to stay for free when we go to Cotonou, and that place will have a kitchen, beds, a lounge with a TV, a library, and, best of all, wireless internet throughout! Before I go further, here is a list of what you are seeing in the pictures, from top: the cake I made for New Years dinner (most people thought it was too sweet since they don't really do sugar here), me dressed up to go out an celebrate, my adorable cats, one of the streets in my market, empty stalls on a non-market day, where I eat lunch almost every day, market, my carpenter's workshop, path that I pass off to the right on my way to the market, my well and orange tree, the road from my concession to the market, the facade of my concession, my front door, the mango tree/chair I sit on to work/read/write blogs, looking out of the front door of my concession, looking right on the road in front of my house, the front door of my concession, looking left on the road in front of my house, what I see immediately when I enter my concession, the long building in my concession, looking out of my front door, looking into my house from my front door. Hope this helps you figure out the more mundane aspects of my life better! (And at the end is the video I promised of my students singing jingle bells!)
So, I arrived back in Lobogo just in time to celebrate New Years here, and was told it was going to be a ton of fun and a big party. Well, to make a long story short, my neighbors assumed I was sleeping when they left at 11pm on New Year's Eve (even though my front door was open and ALL my lights were on and I was sitting just inside the front door reading...) and so I went to bed at about midnight, whoopee. I guess it was another example of cultural miscommunication, but it bothered me that they wouldn't even come look in my door when they knew that I had every intention of (and had indeed returned to Lobogo specifically for) going out to celebrate with them. I will say that the celebration lasted for several days and I was fed well and served lots of delicious cold beers.
By “ate well,” I mean there was a week long slaughter-fest when lots of goats, chickens, and pigs met their fates. In fact, as a thank-you gift to my neighbors for watching my cats over Christmas, I went to the market and bought them a (live) big, fat rooster and carried it home by it's feet. (We ate it a few days later, it was delicious) I felt bad, though, because I couldn't partake in much of the meat-eating, because they eat EVERY part of the animal. Some of the cuts that turned up on my plate included jaws and teeth, kidneys, intestines, and tongues, which I know they were being generous in giving me. I must say, I do respect the way they use the animal for all it's worth, unlike what we do in the States.
Going back to school went fine, although it seemed pretty boring after all the excitement of the safari. The weeks following my return seemed exceedingly slow and boring, and I heard that almost all volunteers went through a post-holiday slump. One bit of school-related excitement was the visit of my boss. She came to Lobogo to observe me teaching and check out my house and how I'm doing overall here.
I was a bit nervous for her visit, but it went just fine. She observed one of my worst-behaved classes, but of course they acted like perfect angels that day. I taught classroom objects (pen, chalk, book, ruler, etc.) so it wasn't too difficult of a lesson for the kids. At the end of my lesson, Maria (my boss) stood in front of the class and explained to them what exactly I'm doing here. She stressed that I left everything in the states, including friends, family, even my car. The kids just about died when they found out that I don't make one cent from teaching them. She then told the kids that the only thing I want in return is their respect and attention, which was nice. She also stressed the mammoth importance of learning English in the world today. We then had a feedback session with the other two English teachers and my school director, during which she tried to smooth out some of the problems I had mentioned to her, such as our weekly staff meetings starting an hour late and being completely useless. She really stressed that I want to be used for things such as reviewing other teachers' English tests, and that having a native English speaker on staff was quite an advantage for the school. We'll see if things change a bit!
We then went to the market to pick up some lunch and came back to my house to eat it and chat about how everything is going. She had just visited two volunteers in cities, so I think she was a bit taken with the “village-ness” of my village. She did comment on how much Lobogo has grown since she saw it last year. I will say that even since I moved here in September, tons of new buildings have been constructed.
January 10 was the annual voodoo holiday. The birthplace of voodoo and indeed voodoo capital of the world is Benin, and a city about an hour away from me (Ouidah)is the epicenter of the celebration. I thought about going there for the day, but I think I will save that for next year. I instead stayed in my village, where I saw a couple of neat song performances and listened to round-the-clock drumming in the jungle beyond my house for several days. I also found out that the head voodoo priest of Benin (and therefore of the world) is from the village right next to mine! He's like the voodoo pope :)
Last weekend I had Kristin, another English teacher volunteer who lives in a city not far from here come to visit. She wanted to see a village that is not on the highway (there are lots of villages, obviously, in this country, but most of them are still on a main highway, making them still feel a bit urban). We had a lot of fun! We made creamy okra-lentil soup (something I invented and am now addicted to) and a chocolate cake with real Hershey's cocoa I was sent from home (the frosting, on the other hand, failed miserably, but the cake was good enough to eat on its own). We drank lots of rum and coke and stayed up late chatting with the neighbors. We then got up early in the morning and took a REALLY long walk down a road I had not been down before, passing the most stereotypical African villages you can imagine and causing quite a stir being probably the first white people many of these villagers had ever seen. We finished her time here making delicious lentil burgers. We had a good laugh at the end because I remarked with excitement how messy my house was because it would give me a few hours of something to do- cleaning!
Speaking of good food, my parents bought a vacuum sealer thing to put food into to keep fresh for a long time, and I got a loaf of my mom's famous cinnamon bread in a package last week! It was SO good and kept just fine throughout shipping, so I encourage everyone to give baked goods to my parents to vacuum seal and send to me!!
Life in Lobogo has been good since my return. I finally visited the maternity ward at the health center (basically a small room filled with cots, nothing more) and got to see lots of newborn babies, and try and explain to the mothers how on earth I am in my early twenties and have not yet started having children. It also prompted an interesting conversation with Angele in which she told me that, of course, she was planning having more children- she doesn't have a boy yet! She says she will continue to have more children until she has a boy! I also visited the mayor's house, which is connected to the health center. I have been spending a lot of time playing with the kids in my concession who I seem to love more every day. The cats are also doing fine (they finally ate their first lizard the other day!), although Baby has a small growth on her side that the vet seems to think is nothing to worry about. The only frustrating thing that has been going on is that recently I have been border-line harassed by a mentally-ill neighbor who is constantly asking me for money, my phone, my hat, a cat, whatever he can think of. He always wants to be standing near me and just watch me, which finally made me uncomfortable enough to complain to Angele about it, and she has told him to stop bothering me. I feel sad because he is very skinny and quite obviously mentally disturbed, but nonetheless I can't have him making me uncomfortable in my own concession all the time.
Well, the next few weeks are going to be extremely busy. I will return to my village this weekend, proctor final exams next week, and then head to Dogbo on the 30th for a regional Italian dinner complete with lasagna, pasta fazole, bruschetta, salad, tiramisu, and WINE! Then I will be busy calculating semester grades, and then I go back to Cotonou the next weekend for several meetings and to check out the new bureau and volunteer space. I will go to Cotonou yet again the weekend after that to pick up Sandy, my first visitor from the states! She is a family and church friend who is beginning her long trip throughout Africa with a week in Benin with me. We will see Cotonou, stay for two days on the ocean at Grand Popo, and then stay in my village together for several days. As soon as she leaves, I go to Porto Novo for a week of training there. So as you can see, I've got a lot on my plate right now, but that's always a good thing here.
I hear back at home you are getting pounded with snow and freezing temperatures, while it is the hottest and driest time of the year here (still always 100% humidity, but no rain). I really can't wait until two months from now when the rains come back and fruit and vegetables become more available and much less expensive! Keep the calls and packages coming; I'm sure I will be posting again soon. Happy 2009! (I am now exactly halfway between the time I left the States to when I coming home for a visit- crazy!)

Oh. My. Gosh.

I don't even know where to begin. Just got back from the best vacation ever!! The rest of Christmas day was pretty relaxing, just went out to get some cheese and pounded yam and talked to my family on the phone.
Friday, our guide picked us up at 7am and we were on our way. It was SUCH a beautiful drive! There are mountains up here and the lanscape is very rocky and brown. It is extremely rural and the few villages we passed were very small (as in, five to ten mud huts with thatched roofs in a cluster at the foot of the mountain). We arrived at the park at about 10am.
The park is HUGE, so it took us over an hour to drive from the entrance to our hotal which was on the north end of the park, at the border of Burkina Faso. About 15 minutes into the drive, we rounded a bend and nearly ran into a huge elephant smack dab in the middle of the road. Welcome to the sarafi! We were literally about 15 feet from it, which was both amazing and terrifying. We then got to the hotel and had a few hours rest there.
The hotel was really cool. It was in the middle of nowhere, but had a nice open-air restaurant and bar. The rooms were good for being miles and miles from any kind of civilization. There were eight people in our group... and we all shared a room that had two twin beds. So, we pushed the beds together and slept four there, and another four on the floor. (Welcome to the Peace Corps) Most of the other guests at the hotel were white, but I think we were the only non-Europeans. The hotel had a decent pool that we spent both afternoons lounging at and drinking ridiculously overpriced but cold beers. In terms of food, for breakfasts and lunches we brought food with us (ravioli and green beans that we ate cold out of tin cans, tuna fish, hard boiled eggs, bread, peanuts, etc. So luxurious, I know. Once again, welcome to the Peace Corps) and for dinner both nights we splurged and ate at the hotel restaurant, which was insanely overpriced but did serve us a three-course prix-fixe menu. I'm sure the French people were appalled by the fare, but to us it was like eating at a five-star restaurant! We even got wine the second night :) (And once again, I'm sure the French about died: it was served chilled.)
So the first night, we went on an evening safari. We went to a pond and saw tons of hippos and crocodiles in the water, then saw groups of elephants and gazelles. Soon after, a pack of about 100 monkeys ran into the road in front of us! We also drove to the border of the park and crossed into Burkina Faso just so we could say we had been there :) Then, just before we returned to the hotel that night, we saw the best thing EVER: LIONS! It was getting dark, and on the road ahead of us we saw several cars stopped with people standing on the roofs. We climbed up on our roof and saw two lions walking towards us in the grass! It was a male and a female. They walked very slowly towards our cars (which was REALLY scary but such a rush) and then slowly crossed the road right in front of our cars! It was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. We finished the night off with a cucumber/tuna salad, pork and rice in mustard sauce, and chocolate swirl cake three-course dinner :)
The next morning, we did a sunrise safari that started at 6:30! It was freezing cold (for once! So I didn't complain), but it was my half of the group's turn to sit on top of the jeep. When I say on top, I mean ON TOP: just a few small bars to hold on to, and no seats or anything- just sat on the roof of the vehicle. It was quite a rush! It felt like you were flying, but also like you could fly off the car whenever we went over one of the zillion potholes! We saw a ton more elephants that morning. Elephants are incredible. They are generally in groups and are a lot more graceful than you might think. We watched one wrap his trunk around a tree and literally uproot it from the ground! Our guide told us there are about 800 elephants withing the park. We also saw some of the most beautiful birds that were colored sky blue, navy blue, lime green, and bright gold. Apparently West Africa is the best place in the world to go bird watching.
The neatest thing we saw that morning was a huge group of baboons cross the street and then run up into a huge baobab tree and jump from branch to branch. It was spooky how much they looked like humans. (In the picture I posted of the monkey climbing the trunk of the tree, how much does it looks like the creature that lands on the wing of the plane in that episode of The Twilight Zone??) We then went back to the hotel and spent an entire five hours napping by the pool and it was wonderful. There were many european families at the pool with small children and it was so odd to hear children speaking perfect French! That never happens in Benin since French is taught only formally in schools.
We did another evening safari that night. We didn't see quite the plethora of animals that we had seen before, but we DID cross a river in a very rickity dugout canoe into Burkina Faso to a small fishing camp! It was quite scary to cross a deep and fast moving river that was home to hippos and crocodiles in such a rickity boat but it was quite the experience too. Dinner wasn't quite as good that night because it took about two hours to bring us our dessert, but it was worth the wait- chocolate mousse. We also had a mexican salad and chicken and rice.
The last morning we got up quite early again because we had to be checked out of the hotel and in our vehicle by 6:30. We went on a short safari and saw herds of water buffalo and tons more gazelles and antelopes. We then left the park and went to a mountainous area that has waterfalls. We hiked up to the falls which was actually really scary (I fell in the mud and felt like a really hardcore outdoorsy Peace Corps volunteer), but totally worth it. There are three levels of falls, and the top one-which is the highest and coolest- we swam in! It was like a lagoon paradise hidden in the jungle/mountains. And it is in one of my best friends' vilage! The one and only male volunteer who came with us decided to climb the falls and jump from the top, which was really scary but very awesome in the end. On the way out of the village, a man tried to sell us a freshly decapitaed cow's head. Quite the adventures...
So, all in all, it was an amazing, amazing, amazing trip. We all got along really well and saw some of the most incredible animals ever, and in the wild to boot. NOTHING like seeing them in a zoo. I feel like this blog does absolutely no justice to the amazingness of what we saw and did, but hopefully the pictures will help. It was one of those life moments when I just kept saying to myself "I am sitting on top of a jeep on a safari in Africa, looking at an elephant. Holy crap." Most people only dream of going on safari in Africa, but we actually got to do it. It is hard to wrap my head around!
Another amazing thing was feeling much more like a Beninese than like the other caucasian tourists. They all had fancy cars and ate snobby food, whereas we had a crappy old car and ate cold ravioli out of a can and hung out with our driver while he cooked on some charcoal outside of the latrine. It really felt more natural to do that. It was really cool though when I met a Dutch couple who had no idea that the United States had a program like the Peace Corps and being able to explain that to them.
Now I'm back at the workstation in Natitingou and leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to head to Cotonou to do some shopping and check my mail, then going back to village on Tuesday to celebrate New Year's with them. I hope you all had a good Christmas and have a Happy New Year!