Food Stuffs

Well I guess I let the ball drop…haven’t written in a while. I feel I finally have something worthwhile to share with y’all. Recently over the past few weeks I have had some yummy food encounters. I will start with the cooking session I did with my French Tutor’s wife. I found an amazing tutor who has worked closely with the Peace Corps over the past 9 years as a language facilitator. He is married with three adorable sons aged 8, 6, and 3. My tutor Abel and his wife Lucrѐce invited me to learn how to cook Pâte (pronounced pot) rouge which is a staple here in Benin. We picked a marché day to meet and get all the ingredients. Pâte is a mix between pudding and mashed potatoes, it’s hard to exactly describe the consistency but its made with corn flour and boiling water so it is similar to mashed potatoes. It thickens/hardens once it cools a bit and people eat it with different sauces. Pâte rouge is red and made with tomatoes, onions, and other spices not found in regular pâte. Most volunteers think that pâte rouge is the most tasteful, and my tutor Abel also prefers pâte rouge. So we walked around the marche for a while getting ginger, Maggie cubes, tomatoes, onions, bay leaves, piment (peppers) and a chicken for the protein!
In the marché you can buy corn flour or you can buy dried corn and take it to a machine to get processed into flour. Lucrѐce likes to buy corn and get flour made herself. The day before we were supposed to cook we prepped the chicken buy seasoning it and boiling it. One huge difference here is they ѐcraser (or crush ) all their vegetables and seasoning into a fine paste. They make it look super easy too but crushing the vegetables with a stone on another stone is not easy! So the next day we met at 14h and we cooked until 18:45! There was a lot of boiling ecrasing and cleaning things. To make Pâte rouge you ecraser tomatoes and make a basic tomato sauce then add corn flour and other seasonings, then let it boil for a good while then add more flour so it thickens up then add some chopped tomatoes and onions. Then for the sauce we added more crushed tomatoes and onions and seasons. Oh one important thing to add in the pâte is some chicken broth that was left from boiling the chickens.
So we cooked a little less than 5 hours and we ate the delicious meal in about 30 min!! It was definitely a fun experience and I plan on continuing this tradition over the next year. I am going to teach Lucrѐce how to make corn bread because she loves it and it super easy to make! I think I also want to teach her how to make tacos….with some guacamole and if I get more velveeta I could do some queso! Endless possibilities!
There are German volunteers that live in Natitingou as well. The German program is only for a year unlike Peace Corps. There are 2 new volunteers that just arrived in August. They came by and introduced themselves; Ana and Monika. We offered to cook them dinner and we made tacos. They had never eaten tacos before so it was entertaining to see them struggle a little with the tortillas! In return they offered to cook us dinner. Fortunately they speak some English so we manage just fine. It’s interesting to see what other volunteers cook and how they prepare the same dishes but they taste slightly different. We had couscous with green beans and tomatoes, cabbage salad, and wagashi (Fulani cheese that is kinda similar to ricotta cheese) They pan fried the cheese with peanuts and peppers and it was so delicious. I have pan friend the cheese before but never with peanuts and peppers so I was excited to try something I really like in a new way. I know it’s hard to imagine frying cheese without it melting and sticking to the pan but this cheese is not like that. It’s spongy. I’m excited to get to know these two girls, and hopefully have new German friends!
There is a local artist that lives in Natitingou but is originally from The Gambia. He learned English in school and also at one time was a museum curator in West Africa. I’m not exactly sure how he made his way to Benin but he is here. He paints the most amazing pictures. I have already purchased three paintings….he also makes jewelry and sells other things like masks and jewelry boxes. My post mates Jonny and Mary are going over land to Guinea for their COS trip and making their way through Gambia. In honor of them Joseph (the Artist) offered to cook us a traditional Gambian dinner. OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS AMAZING!! I don’t remember any of the names of dishes I just remember they were so delicious. He cooked beans with peppers that tasted so delicious. He also made sweet potato fries, and yam fries. There was a cabbage and green bean salad along with a traditional Gambian dishes that had sausage with onions and peppers . My ultimate favorite dish was this peanut sauce it is some sort of soup but it tastes like amazing peanut sauce for Thai food. Towards the end of the meal I just started pouring it all over my plate and covering everything in it!
Usually when I am on my own I make rice or pasta and add some sort of simple tomato sauce with maybe a few extra veggies in it. I want to continue to learn new Beninese dishes from Lucrѐce and Joseph told me that he would teach me the peanut sauce so I will keep you all updated on my progress! Man now I’m hungry…..

Birthday wishlist

So I haven’t written anything in a while about what I would like people to send me but since my birthday is in a week I figured it couldn’t hurt to list a few things! So if you are considering sending me birthday packages please note the list below (it is just a suggestion you can send whatever you like!)

In no particular order-
Velveeta cheese (small box)
Pop tarts
Candy- twizzlers, skittles, jelly beans
Nail polish/ Nail polish remover
Magazines
Beef Jerky
Tampons
Fun cheap jewelry
New music/movies/shows
Breakfast bars
New planner for 2012
Fun travel games
Sunglasses
Margarita Mix with Tequila
Soup/food packets
Other delicious snack food

I can’t believe that I am turning 25 years old….it seems like just yesterday I was learning how to drive, then turning 18 and going off to college, finally turning 21 and partying with my friends…now I am 25 living in Benin as a Peace Corps volunteer. Life really flies by! I also can’t believe its my second birthday in Benin. There is a big possibility I will spend my 26th bday here but maybe when I come home we can celebrate!! Anyways I hope all of you are doing great and hopefully you can at least get around to sending me a letter/card for my birthday so I can hear how you are doing!!!

I send my love from Benin!

Strictly talking Buses…

Long story short I was sick last week and had to go down to Cotonou to see the Doctors…fortunately its nothing serious like Malaria. Anyways I would like this blog to explain the many strange bus trips I’ve been on too and from Cotonou. Usually I want to blog about them then I find myself distracted by other interesting stories and I choose to forget the bus trips. The bus trip from Nati to Cotonou is a wonderful 8 hours….sometimes it’s around 10 but typically it’s about 8; please keep in mind the distance is about Dallas to Houston. On the way down I was fortunate enough to get a brand new bus, they were nice enough to keep the plastic wrap on all the seats! At first I was excited to have a new bus then about 30 minutes on the bus I realized the strong smell of plastic was going to give me a headache for the entire ride. If you know me I prefer NO CAR SCENT because any scent makes me car sick. I slept for a few hours until the first bus stop then had some difficulty sleeping because the man next to me was freezing (on the older buses the AC doesn’t work) and made me open the window to let in warmer air….of course I thought this was ridiculous but he made me open it. Twenty minutes later the ticket dude who rides along with the bus the whole way came and yelled at me to close the window. We were about 2 hours away from Cotonou when a young man across the aisle started throwing up. Since we couldn’t open the windows because the AC it smelled like plastic with a slight vomit scent. I can’t explain how uncomfortable that made the rest of the voyage.
Now for the return trip: I was worried I wasn’t going to make it because Aug. 1 was Benin Independence day and the celebration was happening in Natitingou so everyone and their mother was headed to Nati. I bought my ticket 2 days in advance and my seat was still all the way in the back of the second bus. I took my seat and mentally prepared myself for the 8-10 hour journey. About 10 minutes after we left I killed a baby spider on my arm. I thought it was strange but was like oh well I’m in Africa. A few minutes later I killed another one on my shoulder. Because I am so freakishly observant I started looking around next to me and behind me…the entire back row was infested with SPIDERS!!! There were spiders literally in my hair! I couldn’t stop killing them. I tried to sit forward so they wouldn’t crawl all over me then I started getting car sick because the back of the bus feels EVERY SINGLE BUMP and especially when the bus is braking. Then I was fighting vomiting and having a nervous freak out because they were a million spiders crawling on me. I almost threw up in my purse then decided it would be worse to vomit than submit myself to the spiders. I finally fell asleep for an hour until the first stop. On our way to the second stop the axel with the two back tires on it snapped in half. There was a former PCV on the bus and he went and looked at the damage and came back and was like yeah we need to leave and find another mode of transportation because this is unfixable…well at least today. I thought I could either stay with the bus and probably wait a long time or…..go with him and find a new way to get to nati. We stepped off the bus and there was a man with a car saying he was going to the next closest town. At that town we got a taxi straight to Nati because there were 5 other people (from our bus) going to Nati. Surprisingly I got to Nati faster than the buses.
On other bus trips the bus driver has left people at the bus stops…one time a lady started hitting the driver while he was driving to get him to stop and wait for her friend. Then the entire bus started fighting about if the driver was right to leave or if they were on the lady’s side. Also on one trip the bus broke down 4 times; that trip took 11 hours. We were just outside of Cotonou the last time the bus broke down and another bus pulled up and let everyone get on their bus for free. I was so thankful! On another trip we stopped and this lady got off to get food for her kids and the bus started to leave without her and I told the guy next to me that she wasn’t on the bus. He then yelled at the driver to wait and fortunately because I SAID SOMETHING the bus stopped and let her on. She was yelling at the driver and the man next to me was like you need to thank the white girl because she was the only one to notice…the lady didn’t even acknowledge me.
It also never fails that they show awful Nigerian films dubbed in French. I’ve seen a Scarface spoof that is horrible. One thing that really brings bus patrons together is this movie where children play adults. The think its absolutely fantastic. Everyone laughs and talks to the screen or each other. Another popular video is this man who marries a French woman and comes back to Benin then decides to leave her for a Beninese woman….I always feel like a bad person after that film.
I guess life would be just too boring if there weren’t issues with transportation, or at least I should look at it that way! I hope you enjoyed these stories and I promise to provide future bus horror stories when they happen.

White cock, black hen, and three eggs

What an interesting last couple of days. I had the proud honor of welcoming the new Peace Corps volunteers to Benin on July 2, 2011. It was awesome to see 54 americans make the big leap to come live and work in a foreign country just like I have. We spent the first week talking, trying on moto helmets, talking, having interviews with APCDs and other PC staff, talking, and mainly talking! I guess I hadn’t realized all that I have gone through in a year but answering question after question about my day to day life here helped me realize I really have grown up a lot. I was sad to leave them later that week on the 7th. They were headed off to Porto-Novo to spend 10 more weeks with their host families learning French and everything else related to their service. It seems unreal that only a year ago I was in their shoes scared shit-less about what lied ahead. Hopefully I will be able to see them again before the last week of stage when they swear-in. It will be cool to see how much they have already changed only after 11 weeks!
After my week of stage I was able to go on the GAD date that myself, Erin, Bailey, Lauren, and Brittany purchased back in April. We bought a date to go hiking in the Collines. The Collines is a small “mountain range” in the middle of Benin. There is an Environment volunteer that lives just outside Dassa in a very small village called Camenté. He works with an organization that does Eco-tourism as well as other farming and cultivating activities. So the plan was to get our fortunes read by a fortune teller in his village then hike the collines in the afternoon he had planned to go up a smaller hill to stay the night.
Sometime around 11am we headed over to the fortune teller. We gathered in a small room in the man’s house. He laid out a mat with his supplies and a small bench in front of him. We each took a turn sitting in front of him on the small bench. We were told to whisper a wish into the money and he would ask the spirits to answer our question. I asked what will happen after my service in the Peace Corps. He started singing some chant and shaking a string with shells tied on it over my money. After a few swings of the string he laid down the string and commented on how the shells laid down. There were 8 shells which allowed for something like only 200+ different combinations of how the shells could fall. I’m not exactly sure of the different combinations because he was speaking local language, but when it was my turn all the shells fell face up so it looked like they were all open. He smiled and said that I came with happiness and my path was open without any blockage. Then he made me hold about 20 different trinkets in my hand. Some were like pebbles or other shells. We had to separate the group in our hands then he would swing the rope then place it down on each side relative to my hands then some how look at the shells and decide which hand I needed to release.
Eventually I got the trinkets down to only 2. A larger black shell and a small light brown pebble. Not really sure what they meant but he told me that I have a lot of enemies and I need to be careful. I need to do a sacrifice to get rid of my enemies so I can live in peace. Also I have a lot of men that want to marry me….here in Benin as well as in America. I thought both of these statements were quite interesting and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I just looked at him then he added if I had any questions. My first question is what kind of sacrifice I must do to get ride of all those enemies. Without hesitation he replied find a white cock, a black hen, and three eggs. We all started laughing because I thought wow that seems easy enough! He then said some story of how I need to kill the chickens and then bring 9 shells and burry them along the road where I do the sacrifice so I can be protected. I then asked if I need to do that in my village here our in America and he told me that I needed to do it right there in his village. I might be returning to Camenté soon to complete the sacrifice so I won’t have anymore enemies! I’ll keep you updated. Oh I almost forgot at the very end he threw in that I need to be friends with twins and have them in my life because they will bring me happiness….random I know!
After the fortune teller we ate lunch at Tony’s house. He made us mac & cheese with Velveeta! (SIDE NOTE: PLEASE SEND ME THE SMALL BLOCKS OF VELVEETA) After that we all took naps and then prepared to hike the Collines. Not gonna lie I am out of shape….so I was happy the collines are only around 900 feet. Around 5:30 we made it up to the area we planned on staying the night. Some of Tony’s friends had set up mattress with mosquito nets. We started the camp fire and got corn cobs cooking. There were storm clouds all around us but not headed in our direction so we just tried to enjoy the scenery. Some time around 6:30-7pm the storm fronts changed and headed straight towards us. We scrambled to move everything under the two random small shacks. In the process of moving things I slipped on the wet rock and banged my knee. Brittany and Bevin also fell….After trying for an hour to restart the wet firewood we finally got a second fire going. We decided the next best thing to do was make smores!!! I WAS IN HEAVEN!! I think around 10pm the rain finally stopped. We had to decide if we were going to try and hike down in the dark or just stay and sleep on wet mattress. We thought it was safer to just stay put and wait it out. I also had high hopes of seeing the sun rise in the morning. After a long wet, cold, sleepless night we awoke to a completely misty fog covered morning. It was a little disappointing but at the same time awesome to say I slept out on the Collines. We packed everything back up and headed down. Of course for the rest of the day it rained on and off.
Overall it was a great 10 days that reminded me why I am happy here and to enjoy myself even when all the elements are trying to ruin it for me!

Planes, bush taxis, zemidjans

After 52 hours of travel, 4 days in London, 3 days in Paris, and 2 weeks in Houston I have finally returned back to Natitingou, Benin. It has been a crazy month since taking vacation. I had so many great visits with family and friends, it was definitely worth it! I can’t believe just this time last year I was preparing for my Peace Corps service in Benin without a clue to what lied ahead! The last 343 days have taught me so much about myself and life. I am so glad that I took this crazy leap and decided to join the PC and live this life. The summer is a weird time of transition when the old volunteers are on their way out while the new volunteers make their way in and all of us in between are realizing we’ve been here a whole year and are now well adjusted and on our way to becoming seasoned veterans. I am so excited to see what is in store for next year but at the same time sad to see my postmates and other volunteers leave and move on to other endeavors.
With school out my duties and activities have slowed down a bit so I think once school starts back up and I settle in I will get my routine back (just like my mother I like routine). Tomorrow is the National Spelling Bee here in Benin. Fortunately it is here in Nati so I do not have to travel far. I’m not sure how many students will be here but I can estimate around 25 from all over Benin. The spelling bee is just like what you would think…except its in English so its challenging for the students. Middle school students competed in their local schools to get a chance to compete for the title of National Spelling Bee Champion! I will do my best to take pictures so you can see how everything went.
I also promise to blog more my next year. I think I did a good job of explaining to everyone some of my activities here so I need to keep up with updating you all. I was chosen to welcome the new stage so next Saturday July 1st I am heading to Cotonou to welcome them at the airport!! Then I will stay with them for a week. After that I will go to Dassa a town in the middle of Benin to go on my GAD date. At the end of April there was a GAD dinner and auction. The volunteer who lives in Dassa auctioned a group date where he would take us hiking, there are mountain/hills in Dassa, and we would camp out on the mountain for the night. Myself and a few other volunteers won the date so we are doing that the weekend of July 9th. It should be interesting! There are also many camps I am helping with this summer so hopefully I will stay nice and busy!
On another note…please please spread the word about my School building project. I appreciate all of your support at my Happy Hour event but unfortunately that money is not going toward this classroom building. The school in Toucountouna desperately needs another set of classrooms for their students. This project will only survive with your determination and effort. If you have a relative, friend, or colleague you think might be interested please take 5 minutes to contact them and tell them about my project. A donation of $20 will help a small African village for many years to come. I know we all have bills and lives to take care of but it would take about 4 years for the school to raise funds to build a new classroom on their own. My organization has 26 students at this school so you are indirectly helping me and my organization. Here is a goal: during your 4th of July parties talk to partygoers about me and my project and explain to them if they could find $20 to help a child’s future in school they would be giving the best gift they could to actually make a difference in an African country. Also the donation is tax-deductible! Another idea: If you had planned on giving me a birthday gift in August I would prefer you find 5 donors who can each donate $20! I’m not asking you personally to donate all of your money just FIND OTHER PEOPLE WHO CAN DONATE THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!  Ok I am done…for now!
Some exciting changes have been going on in Nati, the Fete for Benin Independence Day is going to be Natitingou on August 1st. They are putting street lights on the main road (yes there are no street lights) along with new additions to the sports stadium (astro turf, bleachers, track, and walls surrounding the stadium) They are also doing major construction on the roads, paving 2 new roads (yes paving a road instead of red dirt!! Very classy!) and adding on to a section of the road. The area near the mayor’s office is getting a fountain and gardens which will be very interesting!! A bunch of male students who are now on summer vacation have been hired to do heavy physical labor all time of day….on my way home tonight I saw them working with large spotlights set up just like back in Houston. I guess they only have 38 days to get as much done as possible. I will try and snap a few photos of before and after….so you can maybe understand my excitement! (it’s the little things right??)
Oh funny side story before I head to bed….I finally gave my neighbors their gifts: 5 hot wheels cars for the son, a bouncy red ball for all the kids, a black Barbie doll for the oldest daughter, 2 necklaces for the mama, and a bottle of whisky for the papa. It was like Christmas…the kids were fighting over the cars when I realized the mama had taken the Barbie doll hostage and was playing with it calling it her princess doll. I thought she was just admiring it then realized after 20 minutes she had decided it was clearly meant for her. I sat there and tried to figure out the best way to break the news that it is for her 9 year old daughter. So I slowly started talking about all the gifts and my reasoning for purchasing them then I just laid it on her that I wanted her daughter Caroline to have the Barbie doll because when I was 9 yrs old I had one just like it! Her eyes grew very big and quizzically repeated what I had said…. “Oh when you were 9 you had a doll just like this so you bought this for Caroline?” Then she called Caroline over and said without enthusiasm “Veronica bought this for YOU…..” and handed over the doll. I nodded and winked at Caroline who was grinning ear to ear with joy. I think I am going to have to periodically check who has custody of the doll….
Thanks for reading my blog, have a good night/day and much love!

April Activities

Wow next week is April….I know I say it every time but where does the time go? It seems like when we are teenagers all we wish and hope for is time to jump a head to when we can be adults and be responsible for our own lives and now that time has come and it won’t slow down. I will be 25 in 5 months and I feel like yesterday I was sitting in my freshman English class waiting for school to end so I could go play volleyball then go home watch endless hours of television and stay up way to late procrastinating on my homework….such good times! Well enough reminiscing I am here now in the present to share with you a few things I have been up to these last few months since I posted a blog.

We are doing many things here at BEF, one is a business plan competition. Students in the equivalent to Junior and Senior year and University students have the opportunity to submit business plans and win start up money. It’s a great opportunity for our students to learn about business and share their ideas. So far we held 2 meetings where we discussed business plans and what goes into them and general ideas that the students had for businesses. The students have really great ideas like a pig farm because in Nati there isn’t that much pork because there are many Muslims. The students submitted their short resumes for each idea last Monday so we are going to go through them and tell the best ideas to continue on with the plan. I am excited to see what the students will come up with.

Another one of my responsibilities is to help with different English clubs at the high schools. There are 5 English clubs that I am helping! As you can imagine it keeps me very busy, three clubs are well established with professors who have goals and ideas for their clubs and one heavily relies on me to run activities, and the last one is still in the works of being established. I enjoy it because I like seeing the students learn English. They are so funny, they think they don’t know anything and are so afraid to talk then after the first hour they won’t be quiet! I give much credit to all those teachers out there…one day there was 120 students in attendance for the club….I thought NO WAY! I realized sometimes me being present is more of what I like to call a “yovo parade” for people to gawk at but the students respected me and my time and hopefully learned a few things. Today I was at the school CCA, and I decided for the cultural lesson I would talk about different animals. We talked about the animals that are only in Africa and then some animals that are all over the world. Next time we are going to talk about animals that are only in certain countries other than Africa. $50 they won’t know about dolphins or panda bears!

I am also very proud to say I have painted a HUGE map of Benin in my office. Most of you know I am no artist but I apparently can do MAPS! Another volunteer helped me and we painted a sign that says welcome to the Benin Education Fund , a map of Benin, a smaller map of the Atacora region where we have all our students, and an area for university student profiles. It took about 3 weeks (we didn’t paint every day) and its AWESOME!! I am also planning for my World Malaria Day event…its more like a week of events but I am excited to teach our students about malaria and give them mosquito nets!

Some upcoming events in April are….April 2nd Journee de Jeune fille (Girls Day) there are about 7 female volunteers who all live fairly close to each other that have girls clubs and created a day for them! They are going to perform songs and dances and celebrate being a female! I am super excited to attend the festivities! Week of April 11th I am going to hold my World Malaria Day activities and visit 4 different villages and distribute mosquito nets to the students. Week of April 18th I have another week long training in Parakou for SED. Weekend of April 29th is GAD (Gender and Development) weekend where there is a big formal dinner and auction as well as a volunteer talent show! Apparently it is super fun. I am getting a hotel room with another volunteer and we are going to make it a mini-vacation!

We also find out in April if we get to work stage when the new group of volunteers comes in! If I am selected I will have training for that the week of May 2nd! A few other things I can add is I have been testing a few new mouse trap ideas. A volunteer told me about using an old toilet paper role putting food on one end and getting a turned over bucket and placing it at the edge. Then you get a very large bowl/basin and fill it with water and place it next to the bucket. The mouse will climb up the bucket go into the toilet paper role to eat the food, the weight of the mouse will tip the role over and the mouse will fall in the water and drown!! Super easy clean up…just dump the water and mouse out! The other day I was sitting in my main room when I saw a mouse come in from my back door and I said “oh really…ok well YOU chose to die, I DIDN’T CHOOSE THIS FOR YOU!” He must of heard me because he immediately turned around and went back under the screen door! I keep waiting for him to come back so I have had this bucket/bowl contraption set up in my house for 4 days now….no results! I will keep you updated!

I am also proud to say that the elections have come and gone relatively smoothly. April 4th is the swearing in of President Yayi Boni so hopefully things go ok again. No worries though most of the protests are in the south near the capital and Cotonou.

Oh on a different note it is unbelievably hot…Mary, another volunteer put the thermometer outside in the sun and it went all the way to the top of the thermometer past 125 degrees! After that she set it in her house in the shade and it was 96 degrees. I have to sleep with my fan or I will cry and lay in a pool of sweat. The best way I can explain it is when the hurricane hit and the power was out for 2 weeks and it was hot and sweaty! Also its like when you lay out by the pool and its 100 degrees except ALL THE TIME…even at night when you are sitting relaxing in your house. Oh well I will be comfortable after this living in Houston during the summers! One thing I do miss is preinstalled GAS LINES in houses. I have some sort of problem with my range they gave me, I think it leaks gas. I have already gone through 5 bottles since arriving in country when most volunteers are still on their second bottle! Now immediately after I cook I shut my gas off. Don’t worry this has solved the problem and I eat out a lot more….but don’t worry its actually cheaper like around 300 francs which is less than a dollar.

Think that’s it…need to get to sleep because tomorrow is a busy day. There is a reception to honor students who have done exceptionally well over the last school year and a few BEF students are going to be recognized so I am going to go and take their photos! English club at 11am-1pm. I need to go to the tailor to pick up my 2 new dresses for GAD weekend…SOO STOKED! Then going to meet the parents of one of our students, should be interesting. Also got to post this blog! Anyways hope all of you are doing great and enjoying the nice spring weather! Drink a nice cold glass of water and think of me!! Don’t worry I have convinced a mama who sells ice to save me some and I will pay double! Now that’s a business volunteer for you!!! 
LOVE Y’ALL!

Going on a lion hunt...gonna catch a lion

Parc Pendjari is a wildlife parc located in the Northwest corner of Benin near the Burkina Faso border. There are few wildlife parcs left in West Africa and Benin is the home of two of them. Parc Pendjari is usually considered the poor man’s safari. Places like Kenya and Tanzania have amazing safaris where you can see numerous elephants, lions, cheetahs, zebras, wildebeest, giraffes, hyenas, buffaloes, hippos, monkeys, and many many other animals with beautiful unrealistic landscapes. In Parc Pendjari you can see elephants, monkeys, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes, hyenas, warthogs, and lions. There are apparently 2 cheetahs in the Parc but no one ever sees them! I have to see that my visit to the Parc was really awesome! I visited the Parc December 26-28 with my mother, and 5 other volunteers (It was a girls trip!!)

My postmate Jonny had given me the name of his guide that he used and highly recommended him! I called Bio about 5 times in November and he kept saying he was in Cotonou or Grand Popo or some other village and would call me back when he was free. We finally talked and agreed on a price for the 3 days. I got approval from everyone that the price was fine and they couldn’t wait to see the animals! The morning of December 26th at 5:30am we met our driver and guide who was an extra $60 for the 3 days that Bio did not mention, oh and Bio was not there! He had sent someone “from his team” to take us because he was occupied! I was extremely upset because I had “verified” the price; granted it was over the phone but here in Benin everything goes on your word and I knew that we verbally agreed to the prices. I was also a bit more pissed that he wasn’t there in person to discuss. Fortunately my mother helped me clearly communicate with the driver and guide about the prices. We loaded up our bags, food, water, and spare mattress we were going to sit on top of the van with.

The Parc entrance is about 2 hours from Natitingou, 1 hour is on a paved road and the other hour is on a dirt/gravel road. For some strange reason I was massively car sick. Once we got into the parc and continued on more dirt/gravel/sand roads I tried to close my eyes and breath through the sickness….fortunately I fell asleep. When I awoke we had arrived at a small watering hole with hippos in it! All I could see were 3 large hippo’s heads barely sticking out of the water. Our guide pointed out the 20 crocodiles sun bathing on the opposite side of the pond. There were also antelopes grazing just behind the crocodiles. After that moment I was awake and ready to see more animals. After 10 minutes we decided to head through the parc to our hotel. We climbed up on the roof to gain a better view of the parc’s surroundings. I lost count of how many antelopes we saw….there were big ones with big horns, baby ones running, females jumping, lame ones sitting, stupid ones hiding…

We went out each morning at 6:30am to see the sunrise and see the animals before it got too hot. Then we napped and rested and went back out at 4pm. The first afternoon we saw Elephants out in the distance and some birds. The next morning we saw warthogs, monkeys, and elephants. It wasn’t until the second afternoon in the parc that we saw elephants up close. By up close I mean about 30 yards away. There was a small group of 5 elephants, 2 mamas and 3 babies eating right near the path of the vehicles. There is something surreal about being so close to a wild animal especially a freaking elephant. At first it was awesome taking a million pictures of the pack, then the mama decided to step things up a bit and stomp her feet and flap her ears like she was going to charge us. You never know what animals are capable of and I sure didn’t want to test fate that afternoon. When the mama actually turned and started moving closer to us I got really scared and wanted to go (I mean we had already been there for 8 minutes and taken 100 pictures LETS GO BEFORE WE DIE!!) I said to the driver ok ok lets GO NOW and he assured me it was safer to wait until she turned around and started to leave because if we move the elephant might think that we are coming at her so she will charge us. Apparently elephants have bad depth perception and when they see any movement they can mistake it for movement coming towards them (yeah right but WHATEVER). After another 2 frightening minutes the mama turned around and took a few steps toward her baby, while she did this the driver pushed on the gas to get us out of there. The mama immediately heard this and whipped around and took a few steps in our direction, fortunately we were heading out of sight before she could actually come after us.

After the close encounter with the elephants all I wanted to see was a lion and I would be a happy camper! Later that afternoon we saw……more antelopes our driver tried to tell us one was called antelope cheval meaning horse antelope, pretty sure he made that up! I started thinking how fun it would be to be a guide and totally make up EVERYTHING!! I think that’s something my dad would have done just for kicks! Now that I think about it, I don’t think our guide ever pointed out any animals first. We all notified the group when we saw something and he would be like “oh where? Oh that is a blah blah”.

Our last morning in the parc we wanted so badly to see a lion we told our guide to make it happen! We went out back towards the watering hole we visited the first day. Secretly we were all a little over the hippos and crocodiles but we enthusiastically took more pictures. Out of no where we hear a roar. We all get quite and stare at each other. There were about 4 other groups there and all the guides got together and talked about their next steps. They decided to load in one vehicle (ours by chance) and go look for the lion. The guides returned not even 2 minutes later shouting at us to hurry and get in the van because there was a lion very close by!! As we were running to the van we heard another louder roar!!

A caravan of 5 vehicles went on a lion hunt! After a brief minute of driving the first vehicle stopped and started reversing, we were all searching the bushes to see the lion when all of a sudden a lioness appeared 10 yards away. She was alone and just walking around. Some how in the excitement of going on a lion hunt the settings in my camera has changed and my photos were coming out all white. I scrambled to change the settings in time but she had already moved another 10 yards away. A few times she stopped and looked over at us but eventually continued to a tree where she sat and rested for a while. By this time 2 more vehicles had pulled up and a few had already left. The owners of the new vehicles decided to get out and walk around their car. Our guide was furious and told them they must get back in because there was a lion close by and her husband could be close and headed this way. At first we though “aww what a cute story her husband could be close by but yeah right we won’t get to see him” then we heard a deeper roar coming from the brush behind where the lion was resting. The stupid tourists were slamming car doors and talking loudly. We tried to get them to shut up but unfortunately they carried on long enough to force the lioness to retreat back into the brush. Needless to say our group was thoroughly pissed at the group that made the lioness leave. After the contact with the lion we were all satisfied with our trip to the parc! Our guide took us back to the watering hole then back over where the lion had been just to make sure she didn’t return. A few minutes later we made our way out of the parc.

There are waterfalls near and around Parc Pendjari, we stopped at the falls in Tanagou. A few of the other girls decided to jump….I was not in that group. So we change into our bathing suits in the van trying to hold up panyas (2 meters of fabric that most women wear here as skirts) for coverage. Let me just say its very weird to show anything above my knee in public, I definitely felt so exposed and uncomfortable. It’s going to be interesting going back home, I probably won’t be able to wear and short skirts/dresses/or shorts for a while! Anyways we climbed over a bunch of rocks and through a few smaller falls and got to the big waterfall. It was so beautiful! Of course Annie Swank was the first one in! Everyone got in shortly there after and the girls made their way to the wall to start climbing. I stayed back to take pictures. So four girls and one local guide attempt to climb. It takes them about 10 minutes to climb 9 feet out of the water. Then another 10 minutes for one of them to go a little higher up. Our driver from the safari comes over to me and is repeating very quickly and over and over “it’s not good, they shouldn’t climb, make them stop!!” and when I say over and over I mean at least 7 times he told me this. So I tell my mom to swim over to them and make them stop. Long story short after about 10 minutes discussing what they should do they finally decided to stop and just jump from where they were. After they jumped the guide climbed the rest of the way in under 2 minutes. I have a strong feeling it would have taken the girls at least 1hr to climb the waterfall!!

Overall it was an awesome trip and I am so glad that I got to experience it with my mom and my friends here! We truly had a great time laughing, singing, and eating. I am omitting my experience with the staff at the hotel because I don’t want to be a Debbie downer. Let’s just say they weren’t the friendliest to us (I think because we didn’t order much food because we brought our own food in because the hotel is really expensive) but we joked about most of it anyways. I hope you all enjoy my photos!

The Adventures of Annie Swank

December 20th at 1:30am Annie Swank landed in Cotonou, Benin. Fortunately her flight finally made it out of snow invested Paris 5 ½ hrs late. I had planned for 2 days in Cotonou to visit the Peace Corps Benin main office and Ouidah, the port city where the majority of the slave trade occurred. After not nearly enough sleep we got up had breakfast at our hotel near the Fidjorosee beach and headed to the Peace Corps office. There my mother met my APCD Yves, AO Iffy, and PTO Lauren (Sorry Acronyms exist everywhere in the PC!) After an amazing lunch at the hotel we took a wonderful nap then decided to walk a bit along the beach. Tuesday we went to Ouidah and visited the museum, sacred forest, door of no return, and the beach along the coast. It is such an amazing place with so much history and sadness but the museum and city don’t do it justice. We stumbled upon a beautiful resort just west of the door of no return along the beach. There were many foreigner guests staying at the resort just swimming and eating and drinking! I started to imagine that I could be in Mexico!
After our time in Cotonou and Ouidah we purchased bus tickets and headed up North to the wonderful Natitingou!! I most give my mom props for handling the 9hr bus ride without ear plugs and only taking 3 bathroom breaks! The bus always stops in Prekete, a small village on the togo border. One of my closest friend here Lauren, lives there so I always stop and chat with her. After visiting with Lauren for 10 minutes we boarded the bus and finished the voyage to Nati. I am such a loved girl that my mom carried all the way from Houston, TX to Benin, West Africa 2 giant suitcases each weighing 70lbs. (Both were completely filled with stuff for me ) Since Annie was a little apprehensive about taking a motorcycle taxi I decided that I would make 4 trips to deliver all the luggage to my house, I mean that’s the least I could do right?

During our time in Nati we ate and drank (a lot) with the other volunteers, cooked amazing wagashi lasagna for Christmas, took bucket showers, washed clothes in basins, took motorcycle taxis, met my tailor, talked with BEF students, visited Parc Pendjari, visited numerous banks to find someone to exchange “old” bills, met my Marché mama, and was greeted as “MAMA” by every Beninese person!! I don’t know what it is but Beninese society must greet mothers and fathers. So as you can imagine everyone stopped to say hello to my mother. There is an awesome place by this old cinema that sells AWESOME beans, rice, and wagashi with a really good sauce, my mom and I ate it 3 maybe 4 times. The lady selling the food remembered us “yovos” because we are so nice and friendly; so when my mother and I show up to eat again I tell my mom to go sit down and I will just order the food for her. The lady told me that my mom must go over to her so she can say hello! Of course as you can imagine Annie Swank was a hit with every ONE, BENINESE and AMERICAN. Everyone is still asking me how my mom is and if she made it back safely. I am wondering how long people will ask me how she is doing, rough estimate I would say for the next 2 years!!

I am sure there are so many things I am leaving out but needless to say it was a very full action packed two weeks with plenty of time for many naps. That is one thing the Beninese sure do know how to do…..nap from about 12-3. I am so glad that my mother was able to come and visit and see what life I like here. I am glad that she has an insight to everything I am doing… from washing my clothes all the way to talking with the guards who work at the peace corps workstation. I think one of the guards has a crush on Annie Swank (who doesn’t), every time I’ve seen him lately, about 6 times, he has asked me how my mom is!!! I told him not to worry she is probably coming back for another visit! He sure liked the sound of that!
I wish everyone could come and see what Benin is like; my mom took great pictures and even got some videos everyone must check out to get a better idea. Sometimes it took me by surprise that she was shocked at some things….I guess I really am integrating. This Sunday will be exactly 6 months in Africa. I have never lived this long away from home, family, and friends. I think for the most part the way I live isn’t that different (I mean I have wireless internet at the workstation for Pete’s sake) it’s the surroundings that are EXTREMELY different. I am used to seeing naked children with huge distended belly’s playing with a tire in the road, or a woman about the age of 60 carrying a pile of branches on her head to Marché to sell.

I will try and post a blog about the parc and all the animals that I saw and that whole experience when I get some time. Hopefully this weekend. I have started a new program with my homologue and I found a new tutor to get my French stronger, I have also scheduled office hours for the BEF students so I can spend more time with them and find ways to help them. One student somehow got my number and has been texting me in franglais to meet him and help him, at first it was funny because the words he chose to communicate were pretty interesting then it just got annoying and creepy. I am going to have to regulate that situation! Anyways, I also have training in Porto Novo the last week in January so hopefully I will be pretty busy throughout the next few weeks and even months!
Until the next,
xoxoxoxo