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

The special today is Python

At the request of a certain cousin-in-law that shall remain nameless I will do my best to increase my blog output! As surprising as it might be I have been extremely busy in the last 5 months and have been faced with the issue of sharing everything I experience over here or choosing a handful of events to write about. I guess in this instance its better to give more information!! Well I do have one interesting story to explain in detail…..eating python snake for dinner.

It all started back in October when my post mate Jonny informed myself and our other post mate, Clay that he had asked Daniel to find python and cook it for us. Daniel is the cook and owner of La Souvenir restaurant in Nati that we usually visit at least once a week if not more. Daniel is a great chef. He cooks good chicken, fries, rice, and couscous with this awesome sauce. Jonny helped Daniel improve his restaurant and also made it popular among many volunteers. Jonny has also become good friends with Daniel and I plan on working with him regarding some savings and marketing things after the holidays. So Jonny and Daniel had a conversation about eating/preparing python and Jonny decided that we were all going to try snake!

I am one for experimenting with new things and being adventurous every now and then (I mean I moved to West Africa  ) but every time I thought about eating snake I just envisioned a huge chunk of snake like the one from that movie with Jennifer Lopez, Anaconda, laying on the plate…my mouth didn’t exactly start watering when I thought about eating snake….but you can believe that I sure wasn’t going to not at least take a bite. A few weeks ago Jonny mentioned that Daniel was having trouble finding snake so it might be a while before we could try it….not gonna lie I was a bit relieved. I figured I had gained hopefully 2 months to mental prepare myself for eating python.

Yesterday Saturday December 11, I went with 4 other volunteers to Materi, Benin to attend the official inauguration of a school building with 3 classrooms that the volunteer who lives their built. Jamie is an English teacher at the CEG (Collège D'Enseignement Général, the same as high schools) in Materi and she raised funds to have 3 new classrooms built. It was awesome to see the work that she has done and the joy that she has brought to her village. Brittany, the English teacher volunteer in Toucountouna (a neighboring village to Natitingou) and I are going to also try and raise money to build three new classrooms at her CEG. More information to come on this project!! Anyways the previous 2 nights I hadn’t slept well or gotten enough sleep so I was extremely tired. In the car on the way to Materi I received a text message from Jonny saying “We are eating PYTHON at Daniel’s tonight”. I was completely surprised and worried! I wasn’t prepared to eat snake!

After spending a wonderful day seeing Materi and the work Jamie had done we headed back to Nati. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to relax and nap before dinner so I was really tired when we headed to Daniel’s. Also since I didn’t know what to expect I decided that I was going to eat least take a bite…that was unless they served someone the face of the snake, then I wasn’t exactly sure what my reaction was going to be. (You know when you are in the situation where you have no idea what to expect so you always picture the worst case scenario, well that sure was me) Ok I will skip to when the plates came out. Fortunately at Daniel’s you eat outside under a straw rough and the lighting is pretty poor. There were 5 other volunteers and myself at Daniel’s. We all received a plate with two pieces of snake about 5 inches long the circumference of a steering wheel and rice. At first it wasn’t bad. We all just looked at the plate and decided how to eat it…some went right in and ate it like a chicken wing while I decided to knife and fork it! All I can say is it actually taste good, like chicken only sweeter. It’s just really difficult to get past the skin and spine. The spine moves just like a snake moves (I know that is a stupid explanation but I can’t think of any other way to describe how weird it was). There were surprisingly a lot of bones coming off the spine. Also there were a lot of organs….I’ll just leave it at that.

All in all python essentially tastes good but you have to be mentally prepared to deal with the thoughts of eating a snake. I am proud to say that I have eaten python, don’t tell anyone I didn’t finish it all though!!

Christmas Wish List 2010

Christmas wish list 2010

Hello everyone…so I thought that I would write a Christmas wish list incase anyone wanted to send me a little something something for Christmas (yeah I am completely selfish!)…its ok if it comes after I will of course STILL LOVE THE GESTURE and GIFTS!!!! Like I always say anything and everything is welcomed and appreciated!

Peanut butter
Crackers (cheese-its)
Honey nut cheerios
Honey
CD’s (you can burn me a mix!!)
TV show series
Trail mix
Cake/brownie/cookie mixes
Candy

Or you can just make a donation to the NGO, The Benin Education Fund, which I work with. Here is a link to their website. As much as I would love you to send a package with random food products that I will devour in 10 minutes; I also would love you to use your money wisely and send a Beninese student to school for a semester or year and help them grow and have an opportunity for a bright future. I have seen first hand work that BEF has done for the students in Benin. I know that a little bit can go along way. Instead of getting your nails done or ordering that appetizer and dessert donate $20!

www.benineducationfund.org

Through BEF, over 550 students have stayed in school since 1998. BEF provides scholarships and educational support to needy but promising students from rural Benin. Only primary school is free in Benin. Basic high school expenses exceed $150/year in a country where the average annual income is less than $700. About 50% of students drop out after primary school.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT: Sample giving levels:$150: a high school student’s tuition and fees for one year
$300: a high school student’s tuition, fees, and basic expenses for one year
(includes books, uniform and school supplies)
$1000: a college student’s tuition and basic expenses for one year
$1500: a medical school student’s tuition and basic expenses for one year
$2000: a primary school teacher’s salary for one year

Every dollar helps! As we receive more donations, we increase support per student and add students to the program. Read more on Our Work and in Newsletters.
To give by check: Make check payable to “Benin Education Fund” and mail to:
Benin Education Fund
4110 Bennett Drive
Annandale, VA 22003

Why donate? Only primary education is free in Benin, so most students drop out in 5th or 6th grade. Fees, uniforms and books can cost $150 or more in a country where the average annual income is less than $700. BEF is a US-based 501(c)3 organization so all donations are tax deductible. Your contribution will go directly to our programs. We are run almost entirely by volunteers, which keeps administrative expenses extremely low.

I hope that everyone has an awesome Christmas and New Year! I will be spending much needed time with my mother! Showing her my house, my work, my town and everything else!!!! I will definitely post some blogs on that experience and pictures!!

The week of FÊTES

(Typed back during the week of 11/15-11/21)

So this week has literally been the week of Fetes (parties) there was the Muslim holiday of Tabaski which is about killing and eating goats or something like it. Tabaski is schedule by the placement of the moon so apparently it was time to celebrate it on Tuesday November 16th. Banks, Schools and pretty much every other person in Benin had off. I had just come back from Cotonou so it was perfect timing to have a day of rest and relaxation. That night my postmate Jonny told me that his landlord (who also owns a bar we all visit QG) was having a Reggae concert at his bouvette. So after dinner we went to the bar and waited for the concert. All I can say is how ridiculous it was…everyone was lip-singing and the audience was EATING IT ALL UP! So unbelievable but it was actually pretty funny!

During the concert I learned that apparently one day off is not enough, Yayi Boni the current president of Benin came on TV earlier that day and announced that he was extending Tabaski to Wednesday so everyone had off again!!! It was the strangest thing, you know how when you were younger and you wished that someone would decide school was cancelled again because the holiday just continued another day…well this has always been a dream of mine…its ridiculous I had to come all the way to Benin to have it fulfilled!!! Unbelievable! Wednesday was an encore day of fetes and celebration. I was able to hang at the workstation with my postmate Clay and watch brand new (yes I said BRAND NEW) episodes of GLEE!!! For some reason Glee is the only thing that I can watch right now. It gives me unbelievable joy and takes me away from Benin for a few hours! Anyways we had fun and relaxed.

Today Thursday I met the Mayor of Natitingou, with my other postmate Jonny. We are putting on a World Aid’s day event and we needed to let the Mayor know of our plans. Fortunately Jonny works with the Mayor’s office so he knows everyone and he did all the talking. Little did I know the Mayor’s office was planning a Fete de la Beire (Beer Party like Ocktoberfest) for this evening. There was a legit Reggae band that played pretty good music 5 other volunteers and myself sat drank beer and listened to the band…we also got to watch Beninese people dance and act like fools! I ‘m not sure whats in store for tomorrow or this weekend but I hope the Fetes continue!! I guess if anything next week is Thanksgiving so that will sure be one good fete!

Sorry to jump all the way to Thanksgiving but here is the post I started from Thanksgiving!

My first big holiday in Benin was actually a great success! I was surprised that all the food was prepared before 4pm! I must say that the turkey (Earl…yes we named him) was AMAZING! My soon to be postmate Mary killed him this morning at 5am with the help of the workstation guard. Then my postmate Jonny cooked him all morning and he was ready to eat by 1:30pm!! We also had about 10lbs of mashed potatoes, our version of green bean casserole, stuffing and a TON of gravy. Mary and Jen baked 2 apple pies, 2 pumpkin pies (made of fresh home grown pumpkins) sweet potato pie, and pecan pie…and I contributed with carrot cake. Still not sure why I wasn’t ever a fan of carrot cake before but its so amazing! I hate to say it but my favorite thing we ate was the pumpkin pie!!! It was so much better than store bought! So at about 2pm we (myself and 20 other volunteers) stuffed ourselves silly with all the turkey, potatoes, and pies! Don’t worry before we ate we all went around and said what we were Thankful for! (I of course am thankful for all the opportunities I have been given to see the world and live this amazing life while still having the love and support of my family and friends!!)

Nothing felt too different besides the fact that I feed the turkey apple pieces the day before I ate him!! Oh and Grandma you would be proud I made brownies that could never be as good as yours but sure did come close! Everyone told me they were amazing so I know they would have made you proud!! I was able to spend time with some friends I haven’t seen in over a month so overall great weekend with good food and good friends! Nothing beats holidays like that! I hope that everyone back home had a great day also!!! I was definitely thinking about everyone!! I never realized how much I love Thanksgiving until coming to Benin.

Update as of December 1st:
I just realized that I haven’t posted in almost over a month…I truly apologize but things have just seemed to fly by! I can’t believe that my mom will be here in 17 days! I have fortunately booked the hotel and driver for her visit and am in the process of booking the room at the Parc and the guide! I have also helped my NGO The Benin Education Fund (BEF) aid flood victims this last weekend! It was awesome to go and visit small villages and distribute food to people who have lost their crops due to flooding. I also have the World Aid’s day event that my postmate is planning coming up this weekend Sunday Dec. 5th! There really is so much to do!!

I also just realized that it’s been just about 5 months since I was back home in the states with everyone! Some nights I have dreams about being in Houston and when I wake up I don’t know where I am for a second then I realize “ohhh yeah I joined the Peace Corps and was accepted and was placed in Natitingou, Benin for 2 years”…what a crazy life I live! It’s been interesting to be able to skype with my mom, and best friends Kristen and Tina….it’s weird that even though I don’t have running water in my house I can use satellite internet technology to see their faces and communicate in real time!


I hate to cut it short but I need to get some sleep, the seasons are changing and the Harmattan is here and people have begun to burn their fields so I have had some minor allergies with itchy/water eyes and stuffed up/runny nose! Not fun! I will blog about the World Aids Day event and post pics on facebook! Until then Happy December!!

I send my love to everyone!

Halloween weekend actually was scary

I’ve drank at least 6 liters of water and got about 9 hours of sleep so I feel like I can sit and talk about what happened Monday November 1, 2010. I was fortunate enough to go to Parkaou list past weekend. I went with my postmate Jonny, and 4 other volunteers in my region, all of which are in the stage before me so they have already been in country for one year (Mary, Jennifer, Brandon, and Doug) On the way to Parakou, which is about a 4-5 hour journey our taxi was flying down the terre rouge (red dirt road); everything was fine we were all just chatting it up trying to distract from the heat and layer of red dirt that was slowly covering our skin when we saw in the distance something in the middle of the road. It’s very typical for animals to be crossing the road (please refer to my previous post where my homologue hit the cow) sometimes even people are crossing the road. As we got closer we realized it was a small adolescent goat. We all silently hoped that soon the goat would realize it was not in the optimal resting place and would run across the road like all the previous animals we’d seen. Unfortunately the goat turned toward the side of the road our vehicle was driving on and our drive didn’t slow down…at all. I felt the bump of driving over the goat under my feet in the car. It was not a very pleasant feeling, Jonny was the only one to look back and see the damage.

I like Parakou it’s not what I imagined but then again everything I have pictured is not quite correct. The work station there really reminds me of the different fraternity houses I have seen. It was really great to see the people from my stage I haven’t seen since September. It was a really good weekend with great conversations and good food. I actually was able to eat STEAK!!!!!! It was expensive but totally worth it! Oh and a mini keg of Heineken was purchased!! Seriously random but funny!

The same group minus Brandon left Monday morning around 10am to return back to Nati. We arrived at the Taxi gare and surprisingly found a taxi ready to take us that was a pretty (not actually pretty just less ugly than the other cars) light blue that seemed decent enough. We left shortly thereafter and started for Nati. At 11:30 we had a pee stop and when the car got back on the road there was a strange noise and shaking coming from the rear right tire. We all looked at each other and said “Uh yeah that doesn’t sound/feel good” The driver said the next town was only about 10K away so he would stop there. After about 15 more seconds of driving he pulled over to check it out. The bolt holding the tire on had fallen off because it was so stripped and rusted. There was only 2 bolts left holding it on and they were together near the top not spread out to distribute evenly. He flagged down a moto and said he was going to the next town to get a mechanic to come and fix it. At noon he returned with a mechanic. They tried for 40 min to remove the other two bolts to put new ones on; they were unsuccessful and ruined their tools in the process. So the mechanic jumped in a passing taxi. Our driver said he was going to take a 100 steps and the mechanic was going to return with something to fix it. We waited on the side of the road for 3 hours during the hottest part of the day. When it reached 2:30pm Jonny brought up the idea of leaving and searching for another taxi because at the rate we were going we would be headed back to Nati when the sun was going which is dangerous because of Bandits who rob people. We all sorta agreed or at least didn’t disagree and got our stuff and started to walk toward the next town. Two hours earlier we had eaten cookies, bread, beef jerky and drank all our water. I actually was worried; I didn’t know how far I could make it walking during the hottest part of the day without water.

There was a sign that the next town was only 1K away so I knew I could make it at least there. Right when we cleared the curve and I saw the next town Jonny stopped a truck that fortunately was able to take us all the way to Nati. They were a group of guys who were doing some financial work in Nati and were so nice to take us with them! I’m not sure how things would have turned out if they hadn’t passed by at that moment.

I can’t believe that such craziness happened during the journey but then again I am in Africa and crazy things happen.

Well Christmas came early literally, I went to the post office today and I had three packages waiting for me!!! I had a huge package from my aunt Linda in Anderson, Indiana, a package from my other aunt Nancy and Grandma in Conroe, TX, and a package from my little Liz in Houston. I got some amazing things I feel so lucky and happy I started crying out of joy! My aunt Linda sent me a freaking Christmas tree with decorations along with tons of other stuff!! My Aunt Nancy sent me sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie and enough smores to feed a small army!! My little sent me a beautiful necklace I can’t wait to wear and an absolutely beautiful bible I can’t wait to read! Seriously it was a magical event! The children that know my name saw me with three packages and started chasing after me…I had to politely tell them to BACK OFF the presents were ALL MINE!

I promised my post mates that I would back cookies with all the m&ms I had sent and we are going to taste test which cookie is better, regular, peanut, or pretzel…yeah I know we are so adventurous!

Oh also another volunteer Mary brought me paint and promised to help me paint my house (the inside) this weekend so that is the next adventure on the list!

Also just FYI I am hardcore now I can kill bugs (baby roaches, spiders, and crickets) with my bare hands and I can also kill giant black flying/jumping crickets just by throwing my shoe I have that good of an aim….there are two baby salamanders I am trying to muster up the courage to kill.

Until the next adventure…