On the 24th, Craig and I took our two Regional Spelling Bee winners up to Natitingou for the National Spelling Bee. Before we actually even left, we had a lot of hurdles that we had to jump over.
First, our two winners had quit showing up to our English Club, so we had to tell the other kids to send them to our house if they see them. Sure enough, within a week, both of them had shown up at our house and we started practice and study sessions with them. We were only going to do them once a week like we were doing our English Club, but since they had so many words to review and they weren’t comfortable with them yet, upon their request, we started meeting with them twice a week for about two hours each time to review words. This worked great for Yannik, the boy, but the second meeting, Marlyse showed up very late after I called her parents and then she quit showing up at all. I called and they said she was in the hospital in Cotonou. I didn’t quite believe them, so I went to her house after another session, but sure enough, she was sick and in Cotonou. It sounds very serious when it’s phrased like that, but it’s normal for people to go to Cotonou for medical treatment because that’s where all the “good” doctors are.
Our second big roadblock was the parents. Neither set of parents wanted to just let some white people take their kid to the other end of the country for a weekend without meeting us and getting confirmation from the school that we were legit and weren’t going to sell their kids into slavery. First we met Marlyse’s mom and she was supportive of what was going on, but left the decision of whether or not to sign the permission slip to her father, who is always in Cotonou. Then we met Yannik’s mom. She came to our house with him while we weren’t there, but luckily the school’s Censeur (like a Vice Principle) is out neighbor and he assured her that it was ok. The next day, we had success in meeting with her. Shortly afterwards, we learned from Marlyse’s mom that her father wasn’t going to let her go with us. Surely it was because he didn’t know us, so we arranged to go back to their house the next day when he was supposed to be home so we could meet him. We took Gilles, the Censeur, with us to ensure success and at first, they weren’t even home. After waiting around for a while, they finally showed up and the father gave his blessing.
The final road block to all of this was at breakfast the morning of the departure. We invited the kids and their parents over to our house before we had to leave for pancakes. Yannik and his parents showed up on time (for Beninese standards) but Marlyse was no where to be found and everytime we tried calling, the answer we got was that they were coming. The were coming from Cotonou, that is. We weren’t sure if she was going to make it back from Cotonou in time to make our departure time. Within the last 10 minutes before having to leave our house for the bus station, they all showed up. Phew! The families took their kids to the bus gare with us and waited there until we were on our way.
It was a long 6 hour bus ride and it was the first time that either of them had been up north. The furthest north Yannik had been was an hour north of Bohicon and Marlyse had been up north on the other side, but never on the side we were headed to. Once we got there, they got to sign in and meet kids their own age from all over the country and immediately started playing with them. It was nice. I was sitting in a chair watching all the kids play when Marlyse came up to me and said, “It’s really nice”. I assumed she was talking about the place, but she said the place, us, and everything. That we, ourselves, are very nice. All of our efforts to get that girl there paid off right then with that little token of appreciation.
The kids slept at a private school called St. Augustine, which was ran by nuns. The nuns prepared all the meals for all the kids and the volunteers and were super nice. It was like being in camp again. The majority of the volunteers slept at the workstation to save on space, which was fine with us since it also offered peace and quite with wifi.
That first night, the PCVL in Nati took us to this artist’s house where he showed us a ton of his paintings. His name was Joseph and he was from the Gambia and spoke English. His paintings were super good and numerous. I ended up buying two. One of which, I’m selling to another volunteer later on who didn’t have the extra cash to buy it then. Craig and I were both wishy-washy on how we felt about that painting anyway, which as I’ve learned, if you don’t absolutely have to have something, you probably don’t want it on your wall staring at you all day. Joseph was really nice and served us tea, coffee, or sodas while we browsed. He gives volunteers the bare-bone price because we’re “friends” of his. He gets a lot of business from tourists and other people in town, but that’s business; the Peace Corps volunteers are his friends. It was nice not to have to negotiate for something for once.
The next day we had breakfast, a couple ice-breaker games (I played Simon Says with them), and some study time, we had the Spelling Bee. During our study time, Marlyse was really struggling since she didn’t study much since she didn’t think she was going to be allowed to go, but Yannik was killing it. He was getting everything right, helping Marlyse, and just being a superstar. So I was really REALLY disappointed when during the 3rd round of boys, his misheard “white” and spelled “wait”. It was a huge bummer because he totally could have won if he didn’t mishear the word. Surprisingly, the girls were dropping like flies in their round and Marlyse came in 3rd or 4th. She could have won too if she didn’t mishear her word. She was given the word “experience” but heard “experiment”. What’s ironic about that, is that within the prior 24 hours, I must have told her 10 times that no matter if she wins or looses, she has already won because she has gotten to have this experience. Oh well. They had fun and got prizes for participating, which included a French/English dictionary—a rarity in these parts.
The next day, we woke up super early to leave. Craig and another male volunteer went to the bus to talk to the driver about stopping on the side of the road and picking us up so we didn’t have to all find motos and go over there since there was 15 of us total headed south. While they did that, me and two other volunteers headed to the school. We had to walk most of the way (which was kinda far) in the dark because there were no motos out yet. We had told our kids to be up and ready to meet us at the school at 6am to catch our bus, otherwise we’d all have to sleep in the street that night. They were all ready to go when we got there. So we walked to the side of the road with our fish sandwich breakfasts and waited for the bus. Once the bus pulled over and got us, we got on and Craig and I gave our delicious fish sandwich breakfasts to our kids since there was no way we were going to eat that. We told them to wait and not to eat it until half way through the trip so they’re not hungry later and asking us for money like they did on the way up. Since the money their parents gave them quickly ran out, I thought this was a great way to keep their tummies happy and our wallets happier. But sure enough, by the time we got to Dassa (an hour north of Bohicon), they were asking for money for food because they ate their sandwiches too soon and were hungry. This time, since we were so close to Bohicon, we told them that they had to wait until they got home because we’re broke ass volunteers and we were hungry too. They weren’t thrilled, but they accepted the lesson that they learned.
On the bus after Dassa, for the remaining hour of the trip, we had to hear this guy selling traditional medicine on the bus scream about his products. I put in my headphones for the ipod but couldn’t help noticing Marlyse’s hysterical laughter after everything that the guy was saying in local language. I asked her what was so funny and she was just shocked at the “ridiculous” things this guy was saying about his traditional medicine. Then she proceeded to call him a voleur (thief) since he was obviously full of it and selling people leaves and other useless stuff. It was really cute and really funny watching her crack up at that. Once in Bohicon, Marlyse’s parents were there to meet her and Yannik’s dad followed shortly after. Overall, it was a really great weekend that I think will have a lasting impression on our kids.
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| Everyone from the weekend |
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| Yannik spelling a word |
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| Marlyse spelling a word |
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| Our two kids |
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