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!
