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!