Christmas/New Year's

I apologize in advance for the incredibly short post.

Christmas was great. We went to Grand-Popo with a few friends and hung out on the beach for a few days, soaking up the sun. Just like at home! We had a great time and had pizza and red wine for Christmas dinner.

On the 26th, we went back to Cotonou for the night and made the long haul (11 hours in a bus) up to Tanguieta to visit some friends and check out some things for work. We are in Natitingou right now and early tomorrow morning (5:30am) we begin our 3-day safari to end the year on a high! We're excited to see some lions and elephants.

Stay tuned for pictures and we will see you next year!

Cheers!

IST Adventures

I left almost two weeks ago to go to my IST (In-Service Training) to learn about stuff that we didn’t cover (for the most part) in our 9 weeks of training like grant writing and funding for projects and all that good stuff. It was also the first time that I had seen a lot of my fellow volunteers in 3 months, so it was really nice to see them again. I had to leave Craig in Bohicon though, and he has been keeping busy entertaining himself and watching football (as you can see from the previous post). I miss him a lot!
Peace Corps really took care of us this week! It was like a mini vacation (until the end when we were tired of having a full schedule again). When we first got into country, we stayed at Codiam, which is probably one of the worst hotels in Benin, in my opinion. The hotel that they put us in was at a place called “Songhai” in Porto-Novo, which is an eco-conservation place where they do all kinds of environment things and it’s really pretty. Our hotel room was great! It was roomy with tile floor, AC (although ours didn’t work), a TV that showed CNN in English (what is going on in the world?!?!), a flushing toilet, a ceiling fan, shower with good pressure, toilet paper, soap, and the best part…a weak, but free wifi connection. Our breakfasts and lunches were provided to us. Breakfasts usually included omelet sandwiches and coffee or tea. Our lunches started with an appetizer salad, then a plate of massive proportions! Usually chicken or fish with some sort of starch like rice or couscous, a mélange of vegetables in a sauce, and sometimes fries, followed by dessert of usually yogurt, fruit, or a crepe. We got a snack before lunch and after lunch, which was cookies with a soda, soy milk, or some sort of freshly squeezed juice in a bottle. My favorite was the mango juice. I only ate dinner twice the whole 9 days of training because they fed us so well! It was great! Craig is definitely going to gain some of his lost weight back when he goes to his IST.
Since Soghai is such an environment-friendly place, there are a lot of bugs buzzing around and something bit me on my butt 4 times on one cheek! The more I scratched the bites, the bigger and harder they got until finally they looked and felt like golf balls under my skin. I decided that enough was enough and on Thursday, I called the doc in Cotonou and he had one of the Peace Corps chauffeurs take me to Cotonou for a consultation. There are two doctors on staff here in Peace Corps Benin and my normal doctor, Dr. Lomo (a wonderful woman from Ghana), was out giving flu vaccinations or something, so I saw the male doctor, Dr. Ruffin (also great). Since he was a male, and the bites were on my butt, the medical secretary had to also come into the room while he examined me. This is where I would claim that you have to have no shame to be a Peace Corps Volunteer! I felt like Ross from Friends (with his mole on his butt) having all these people crowded around me looking at my butt. He didn’t know what it was that bit me, but he seemed convinced that it wasn’t deadly nor flesh-eating; just an allergic reaction of some sort. Phew! He gave me some cream and sent me back to Porto-Novo with the instructions of coming back to Cotonou after IST until the bites cleared up.
Every night after training, we all hung out together. One night, while we were on the roof (it was cool up there) watching a movie, my dear friend Michelle wanted someone to play with her, so we all started playing “kick the can” which is a mix of tag and hide-in-go-seek. It was pretty fun and a good form of exercise. My knee had started bothering me during that game though. It has been bothering me off and on since I started training for the marathon and sometimes it would be incredibly painful and other times it would be fine. The next night, while we were dancing on the roof, I heard a little “pop” come from my knee. It started bothering me more after that. It wasn’t extremely painful or anything, so I figured it would go away. The next day, Saturday (the last day of training), it hurt a LOT. Since I was going to Cotonou that day, I’d have the doctor check it out on Monday. Once we got to Cotonou, we all went swimming at the Ambassador’s house (he lets us swim there every Saturday) and my knee was bothering me enough to where I couldn’t do my favorite underwater frog-swim.
On Monday, I was supposed to take the PC shuttle up to Bohicon (a free ride) but since the doc wanted me to stay there until my bites cleared up and my knee was bothering me anyway, I didn’t take it. By Monday, Dr. Lomo was back and she looked at my bites and my knee. I explained to her what was going on and she said that a surgeon was coming for someone else and he would look at my knee. This morning, he looked at my knee and thinks that my problem has something to do with my meniscus and wanted me to get it x-rayed, which I did and it showed nothing (like we thought would happen, since you can't see the meniscus on an x-ray). So now that THAT is out of the way, the next step is an MRI, but the MRI that they do here is "invasive" and I am waiting on the doc to ask Washington what to do with me. It's possible that they'll do the invasive procedure anyway, send me somewhere near-by that uses a more modern technique (like South Africa or London), or send me to DC to get it done. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and doesn’t impede my running and training for the marathon. I haven’t run in like 2 or 3 weeks now because of these knee issues and I’m getting antsy. My knee doesn't hurt most of the time, it just comes in spurts of pain, so I can't imagine that it would be serious enough for surgery or anything like that. Anyone who has been through this before have any ideas? Since I’m down here, Craig is taking the PC shuttle down on Thursday and on Friday morning we’re headed to Grand Popo for Christmas. That’s the plan anyway. I’ll keep you all posted and will have pictures posted soon.
I miss you all and hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas! And thank you, Brian, for the care package!

Manchester United 1 - 0 Arsenal

For the first time in months, I’ve been able to watch an entire EPL game, and tonight didn’t disappoint. I finally found out where I could watch a game here in Bohicon, and there just happens to be a place down the street from the Grand Mosque that shows the games and it only costs 200 cfa to get a seat on the bench. I sat 7 rows back in the room, which was more like a lean-to, built from mud brick with an aluminum sheeting roof. The screen wasn’t huge, and sometimes I lost track of the ball because I was constantly straining to see the TV. There were lots of Arsenal supporters and a few United supporters in the room. All around me people were talking smack to each other and causing a ruckus. It was an amazing atmosphere to watch a game in. The only thing I was missing was a few pints, and maybe mon jumeau to fight with. In true yovo fashion, I got plenty of stares and everyone wanted to know which team I was rooting for. The Mighty Reds, of course! Comme normal here, I was in the minority. What follows is my analysis of the match and a look forward to Sunday’s contest:

Rooney is not yet on form. Surprisingly, he was most effective when sitting on the last defender’s shoulder and barging through Arsenal’s defense, rather than dropping back into space to play it to the wingers Park and Nani and then moving forward. Speaking of Nani, he ran wild tonight like he did in last season’s final encounter between the two sides and, with the help of an unfortunate deflection, served Park for the winner. As far as Park was concerned, this was a normal game for him. He worked hard, sprinted box-to-box for the full 90+ minutes, and wasn’t terribly effective save for the goal (how far did he run to get to that spot?), which he has a knack for in the important games. The goal was a bit fortunate at best; in fact, it was a classic “Craigy goal”: the result of a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. Rooney ultimately created the space in the middle for Park to run into while Nani held up play for long enough for Park to get inside the 18. United looked very dangerous on the counter-attacks through Evra and Rafael, who played better offensively than defensively tonight. Back to Rooney, I thought that he would have been more effective. He generally seems to do well against Arsenal, and anyone could tell that he isn’t yet in form. I can’t help but wonder if Chicharito would have been more effective? His penalty was nothing less than embarrassing, trying to do a Ruud van Nistelrooy-versus-Arsenal circa 2003 (when he smacked the ball so hard against the crossbar with his penalty that it nearly flew to midfield). What was he thinking? “I make £200,000 per week now, gotta put a hole in the net every time?” If it weren’t for a good save later on, his cheeky little chip would have just about redeemed him.

Arsenal, for their part, were a bit awkward and seemed to quickly run out of ideas. Nasri has been in brilliant form lately, bagging a double in their last match, but he wasn’t able to quite get on track tonight. He started on the right, but when Rafael exposed his flank while launching counter-attacks, Nasri switched over to the left, which I thought was a good move, as Evra is less prone to making mistakes than is Rafael. Arsenal had a lot of trouble getting service to Chamakh. After a frustrating opening 25 minutes or so, he started dropping far back into the defensive half to get the ball (notice where he was on the pitch when he fouled Nani when he got his yellow card). The introduction of Fabregas and Van Persie was a positive move, especially since Rosicky and Wilshire had all but disappeared from the game and Van Persie could fill that hole up top that Chamakh left when he dropped deep to receive the ball. Arsenal were ultimately let down by their wingers, who couldn’t service a decent ball in, and their central midfielders, who often left Chamakh to attack the wingers’ crosses by himself. Their introduction maybe should have been made at half-time. Arsenal came out strong in the second half but Rosicky and Wilshire were so far out of the game by then that Chamakh was still left attacking the United goal basically by himself with wide support and service from Nasri and Arshavin.

Overall, United had more quality chances and did better tactically to counter-attack versus Arsenal’s possession game, though possession seemed to be fairly even. It was always going to be a tight game and it had to come down to who could better capitalize on the other’s mistakes. Nani by far wins Man of the Match in my eyes.

Definitely worth my 200 cfa. Now on to Stamford Bridge on Sunday which will be just as tricky, since Chelsea have not won in over a month and are bound to break out of their slump. Let’s hope they wait at least another week before then. (Note: Since this entire continent supports Chelsea, I will be lacking fellow Reds to cheer with.) Look for Fergie to pack the center of the midfield against the Blues, who should see Lampard back in the starting line-up. It’s too bad that Ballack has moved on, as he and Evra had some great bouts of handbags the past few seasons. Speaking of Evra, come Sunday, someone restrain the groundskeepers!

Cheers!

Minibuses, Bats, and Collines--Oh My!

   The Colline region of Benin is the very middle of the country where there are rolling green hills.  Some say it is one of the prettiest parts of Benin.  I would have to agree.  When we were first told that we’d be living in Bohicon and we found out how close it was to the Collines, we knew that we wanted to go hiking a lot.  This last weekend was the first chance that we have gotten to take advantage of the nearby scenery and dust off our hiking boots.  We left on Friday from the bus gare.  It was definitely the worst ride anywhere of our lives.  We had to wait around for almost 4 hours in the heat for the bus to leave, while everyone kept telling us that the bus was coming any second.  We ended up trying to get on a different bus whenever a bus would come into the gare, but they were all full.  In the midst of trying to talk to one of the guys with whom we’ve had success with before in finding a bus, a huge guy came up to me with his hand out for a handshake calling me “yovo”.  I don’t have the patience for adults calling me yovo, so I simply told him that my name wasn’t yovo and that he could call me “Madame”.  He said, “but you are a yovo”, and then put his hand on my arm.  I moved my arm and told him sternly not to touch me and then walked away.  (It’s a big taboo for a guy to touch a girl here that he doesn’t know).  He followed me and kept bothering me.  I left and went back to Craig where he was guarding our luggage, and asked him to take over in our transport search.  Long story short, we got in a minivan that was supposed to leave at 10:30 and it didn’t end up leaving until after noon and made frequent and long stops along the way.  What should have taken us 2 hour, took us almost 4. 

    Once we got to Savalou, the small town where our friends, Carlos and Andrea live who celebrated Thanksgiving with us, we got out of the van and went to get our bag and the van started to drive away.  I yelled at the van to stop, which it did.  Then it started intentionally driving just fast enough for us to have to chase it, meanwhile, the entire van that was crammed full of people (19 to be exact) was laughing at the white people chasing the van.  It was one of the most frustrating days in my Peace Corps life to date. 

    After we got to Andrea’s house, we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of our weekend.  Andrea was telling us how she was having bat problems since moving into this new house because the people left the windows open the whole time it was empty.  We looked everywhere, high and low, and couldn’t find any bats.  As soon as night hit, there were two bats flying around.  We got one of them to go out the window and the other one disappeared again.  As soon as we started to go to sleep, I opened my eyes and saw it flying around above us, so I shouted for Cara to open the window again.  The bat would not go out the window so Andrea thought she would try to hit it with a broom to get it out the window.  Well she hit the bat directly at Craig and I, so I started freaking out even more (I don’t do rodents) and it eventually went out the window.  We thought that was all, but the next night, the 3^rd one appeared and we got that one out too.  Now, Andrea’s house should be bat-free!

    On Saturday, we got up very early (to beat the sun/heat) and took a 20-minute zem ride to a little village higher up in the collines where we started our hike.  Before starting, we ate some bouille for breakfast, which is the Beninese equivalent of cream of wheat but not as good.  It was cool, misty, cloudy, and nice until about 11am when the sun started to come out.  Needless to say, it was a very nice hike.  There was a palm tree with 7 trunks (they said it is the only one in the world, but who knows) along with a lot of other pretty things.  It was just nice to get away from post for the weekend and do some outdoor activity.  The company that took us out said that it was the hardest hike that they did, but we didn’t find it too hard.  We were very dirty afterwards though and when we got back to Andrea’s house, the water was out so we had to walk to Carlos’ house with our shower stuff to take a shower.  We left to come home on Sunday, and the ride home was much nicer than the ride there!  Enjoy the pictures!

P.S. A huge thanks to Noelle and Mama/Papa Wirick for the care packages!  You guys are awesome! 

Carlos, Cara, Satin, and Andrea

Craig and I with the kids in the start village

All of us in front of the palm tree with 7 trunks

the start of the trail

at the top of the first peak

This bat pretended to be dead and when Craig threw him off the roof with the dust pan, he flew away!

World AIDS Day

   December 1^st is globally known as World AIDS Day.  I knew about it before leaving the States, but I wasn’t too sure how well-known it was here.  Our event started about a month ago when I was at my first baby weighing and I asked my supervisor, Sakina, if we could do something for World AIDS Day.  Being the supportive supervisor she is, she said, “of course”.  I told her that I’d like to organize a sesibilization about HIV/AIDS and then do voluntary testing afterwards.  She elaborated on my ideas and got a video to play, organized with a school director of a local school that has a high rate of infection, and amazingly, got someone to agree to do the testing.  We chose a school because here, kids start having sex at 8-10 years old, which is unconceivable in the States, and because it is not unheard of that a young girls have these relations with older men (teachers, family friends, etc), there is a much higher rate of infection.  Another reason for this is because in the culture here, they believe that if you don’t have sex a lot, then you’re not healthy and you’ll get sick with all kinds of horrible things.  Which I guess there is some truth to that keeping you healthy, but they put a lot more emphasis on “being healthy” in that aspect then they really need to.  I asked Peace Corps if we could use our connections and resources to get someone to do the testing, but the only resources that are available through Peace Corps have to be booked months in advance.  Luckily, there is a local organization that does testing whom she’s worked with before and they were happy to help. 

     December first came around and Craig and I met Sakina at the school.  She pulled up with a vehicle full of stuff (including free female and male condoms to give out at the end) and walked up to meet us with a box on her head and a smile on her face.  The turn out was much larger than I had expected since we did the presentation right after exams.  We had two rooms full of kids.  One room had older adolescents and the other room had the kiddies.  The organization that came did a really good sensibilization on HIV and AIDS that was very informative for the kids as well as inclusive.  The video that we showed was so graphic that if THAT doesn’t stop them from having unprotected sex, I have no idea what will.  Craig couldn’t even watch it because it was so illustrative.  And of course every time there was a penis or vagina, all the kids started yelling and getting all excited.  

    After the video, we did a condom demonstration with both the female and male condoms while they started the rapid testing.  One of our colleagues who was leading the demonstration said to make sure the penis was hard and not floppy before putting on the condom and all hell broke loose with kids screaming and laughing and jumping around.  After the kids got their results, they gave us the little paper that the technicians gave to them when they got their results and they turned it in to us for a package of free condoms. that we got to give out  Sadly, there were many cases of HIV positive students.  They didn’t tell them that they were positive there, but told them to go to their headquarters for more testing so that they could counsel them in a private place.  Hopefully, we made some sort of impact on them to live healthier lifestyles.  As our first official event that we have done in the Peace Corps, I feel that it went incredibly well.  Enjoy the pictures!         

My fearless leader, Sakina, with a box of donated condoms on her head

The class with all the older kids

Doing the rapid testing

Ready to give out condoms!