Not-So-Quick Update

It’s been a really busy quarter with all kinds of things going on.  We’re really reaching an earmark in our service and we have a lot of really exciting things going on.  The biggest thing that has been keeping us really busy is the camp preparations. 

Our camp is in 2 weeks and we’re slowly but surely getting things done and things are coming together.  We had a big hang up when my supervisor told me that the khaki (used for school uniforms) that we were going to give to the girls at the end of the camp was given away at this event that they had for other Beninese kids.  Normally, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but since the cost of that khaki was part of the community contribution that I put in our budget that I have to stick to, it made things really hairy.  According to Sakina, she’s going to find someone to donate it.  We’ll see how that goes.  The other main problem that we ran into is our mayor.  We have the worst mayor in Benin (this claim is backed by all volunteers) and we asked him to help finance the t-shirts for the camp (it can’t be an official event if we don’t all have event-official t-shirts) and money to pay for the bus rides for two girls that we’re taking to another camp in Parakou.  Well, we’ve been asking for this financing since April and he still hasn’t given us anything and he probably won’t.  Sakina is helping me figure out what else we can do.   The other big stressor for me is that I have to give a little speech for the opening and closing ceremonies in French and I don’t know what I’m going to say yet and I was just informed that Sakina is getting all the tv channels and radio stations to come and record it in Bohicon history.  Which did not help my stress levels at all!  Next week, I am headed to Cotonou to get camp manuals printed and bound for the camp.

During the whole circus of this girls’ empowerment camp, Sakina gave me my first validation as a volunteer.  She said that I’m a real volunteer and that when I leave, people will be able to see that I was here and did something in Bohicon.  You can’t imagine how much that made my day.  It also made the headache of everything all worth it.  It was really nice. 

Another random and weird thing that has been happening to us is that we’re constantly getting confused with French people.  I mean, I know we’re white and they’re white, but our French is nowhere near a French person’s French and they don’t like the French here, so that complicates things.  In fact, I was walking home from work one day and a grown ass man called me yovo, so I politely asked him not to call me that and gave him other options for names instead of yovo then after he asked why I care so much, I explained to him that chez moi, it’s racists to call someone, “Hey, white person!”  And his reply was, “Well, when we noires go to chez toi, you’re racists to us, so it’s the same thing”.  So I asked him where he thought chez moi was, and his response was en France.  Well, no, in fact, I’m American and from the United States.  “Oh, that’s different.  You’re right, that would be racists there.  You have Obama.  You aren’t racists to us noires”.  These are conversations that we have on a somewhat regular basis.  No joke.

Our postmate, Katie, had a going-away party in Bohicon the other weekend where she shed a lot of tears and said a lot of goodbyes.  It was really sad and at the same time, very weird.  She’s been in and out of Bohicon for most of the time we’ve been here and I guess in my head, she’s just going away for a bit again and will come back.  But she’s going home to the magical land of America come the beginning of the month.  Our neighbor actually cried when she said goodbye to her, which is huge here since they think that you’re a baby and can’t control your emotions if you cry in public.  When we returned home after going out for a bit, I knocked on her door to see if she was ok and she said that she kept thinking when she was saying goodbye to Katie that she’d have to say goodbye to us in a year and that it’s going to be really hard for her.  That made me realize how fast time is going here and how much I’m going to miss her.  She’s by far my best friend in Bohicon.  I don’t know what I would do without her.  It’s just so sobering to think that I may not ever see her again after we leave Peace Corps. 

More news is that I was chosen for a volunteer-ran organization named PSN (Peer Support Network) which basically exists to help volunteers adjust to life in Benin and help them through any difficulties that they may have while we’re here.  It gets used a lot, especially since most people have a death in the family while in Peace Corps and life is just so different here that there is no way that you can prepare yourself completely before you get here.  I went down to Cotonou last weekend for the training for the group, which was actually really pleasant and helpful.  A big perk for me in being part of PSN is that I get to be there when the new group of volunteers arrive, which is July 2^nd.  When we arrived, everyone was there to welcome us with such enthusiasm and it really made us feel welcomed and like we didn’t just make a huge mistake by just moving to West Africa.  So at the beginning of July, I’m headed down to Cotonou to do the manuals for the camp, go to the Ambassador’s 4^th of July party, and welcome the new volunteers to Benin.  I’m really excited too! 

The day that I got home from PSN training, my PC boss, Christian, asked me to do some site developments with him in Zagnanado (the place where I did my tech visit) which was interesting.  I went with him to meet the work partners and see the house and offer feedback.  Apparently there will be a male volunteer there, one of the only 2 male health volunteers that we’ll have, so I think he’ll be fine, but it was an interesting experience to help out with.  It really showed various cultural differences because his house is next to a primary school and Christian’s reaction to that is that volunteers like to be around kids.  My reaction to that is that he’s going to have hoards of kids screaming the yovo song at him every day.  It’s things like this why he asked me to go with him. 

While I’m down in Cotonou to welcome the new group of volunteers, Craig is going up to Djougou for an annual soccer/American football tournament against the Germans.  There are a lot of German volunteers in Benin on a consistent basis like there are Americans and every year there is mad smack-talking between the two nationalities on who is going to beat whom in soccer and American football.  Since it’s the same weekend that the new group of volunteers arrives, Craig is going alone up there to play with the other volunteers and I’ll be in the opposite end of the country welcoming the new stage.  He’s really excited to play.  It’s supposed to be really fun and next year, I am for sure going to go and watch. 

The following weekend, Craig is going down to Cotonou for a national VAC meeting (quarterly meeting to tell representatives what’s up in Benin that concerns Peace Corps and then they pass it on to the rest of us) and that same weekend, it’s Amanda’s birthday (the little girl that lives next door) so I’m helping Alice make a birthday cake.  She’s pretty excited to have an American cake.  She is basically American and would do really well over there.  Ha!  Right after that weekend, we have our camp and the day after our camp ends, I am hosting 3 health volunteers from the new group of trainees for a “demystification weekend”.  It’s basically to give them a break and let them see a little more of the country while letting them see how a real health volunteer lives.  The following weekend, Craig is hosting 3 business volunteers from the new group for the same thing.  Then he leaves for training and after his week of training, I have a presentation to do on PSN coping methods in Porto-Novo.  So as you can see, it’s going to be an extremely busy summer for us!  We don’t have a free weekend until the end of August.  And we’re hoping to use that weekend to go hiking with a volunteer who’s leaving soon. 

I also recently started a team called, “Amour et Vie”.  Volunteers are encouraged to get about 3 locals between the ages of 18-26 or so, and one of them being an older community leader.  With these people, we go out into the “bush” to teach villagers about HIV and AIDS and other health-related things since most villagers don’t have the money to go into town for educational events like those.  We have our training in October before we can start any actual work, but once that is done and my team is trained, we’re going to start going out into the village once a month or so to teach people about AIDS.  It’s a really good program and at the end of the year, the organization called PSI who is responsible for these teams gives each volunteer about $100 for each of the two younger participants to pay for school fees, technical training, or anything else that can better their lives and help them have a steady income.  So everyone benefits from it.  It’s a really great project. 

On a side note…the other day when we were babysitting our neighbor kid, Emeric, while Alice ran to the marche real quick, he went into our bathroom and just peed on the floor.  We’re not sure why he did that since we have a toilet and their house is exactly like ours, but there he was, peeing on our tiled bathroom floor.  It gave us a little preview of what parenting may bring for us later on in life.  It was funny but I didn’t really know what to do with him since he was probably just too shy to ask about the toilet, so we just cleaned it up and didn’t make a big deal about it.  Another comical thing that happens here I guess!

Our last bit of exciting news is that Brian bought his ticket to come out and visit!  He’s coming out over Thanksgiving and staying for 3 weeks.  We’re really excited and are already putting together a list of activities that we can do with him.  We’ll be spending part of the time he’s here in Ghana since he’s flying in and out of there.  Very exciting!!! 

Special thanks to the Wiricks for our awesome care package!  Thanks guys!!  We love you!  And you make us feel very loved over here. 

Sidenote: We tried to upload pictures to go with this blog but the internet is way too slow here.  Sorry!  They're on facebook though! 

A Perfect Storm?

June 8th...

Chaleur is over. No more sleeping with the fan on full blast. No more sweating through the day and night. No more trudging through the heat down the street to our local bar to sit out on the breezy second story with an ice cold drink (though that’s still a good idea any time, regardless of the weather). La saison, they say, est fini. It has been replaced, though, with la saison des pluies. The rainy season. And it came with a vengeance.


We have actually been saying for weeks now that the long, hot, dry season was coming to a close. The days have cooled off and become a little more humid. Clouds have been dotting the skies. Some rain has come down here and there. But not like today.


We were fortunate and blessed to come here from San Diego, which sees more than 300 days of sunshine each year. Rain was always an enigma to me. Sometimes when it rained in San Diego, I would just curl up on the couch and watch out the window as the rain would be illuminated as it came down through the glow of the streetlight. For part of our honeymoon in Miami we were entranced as South Beach flooded so massively that patio furniture outside the hotel began floating down the street. A lone biker slowly made his way down the street, his feet submerged completely under the water as he cranked the pedal downwards. That was me today.


I went to my girls’ soccer practice at 4pm at our local school, and saw some dark, ominous clouds on the horizon and coming my way, but didn’t think anything of them, even though they brought with them thunder and lightning. In my naivety, I thought it would pass. It didn’t. I decided to call an early end to practice, and as we were on our way out of the school, Heather called.


“Craig, are you coming home soon?”


“Yeah, we’re finishing up and on our way out.”


“It’s going to pour!”


As soon as she hung up, it started pouring at our house, about a mile away to the east. Less than a minute after that it would get to me and I had to ride into the storm. I was just at the front of the school when I was smacked in the face by a blinding, sideways rain. I literally could not see more than 20 yards ahead of me. The dirt road I was riding down was a river a few inches deep and I was pedaling against it. For some strange reason, some people were still outside! I pedaled past men pushing rickshaws full of wood as well as quite a few children whose parents had sent them outside to get water, balancing the full bassines on their heads while waiting for someone to open the door to their concession so they could enter. Our concession was under a few inches of water when I arrived. Our welcome mat was not, in fact, welcoming. Electricity was out (though it came on soon thereafter). Heather was taking a video of our concession as I tramped in, soaking wet.


I watched the video later. I looked like a wet dog. My hair was matted and my clothes stuck to me as I trudged through the concession, high-stepping through a few inches of water with my bike in tow, trying to keep my sandals from sliding off of my feet.


The storm kept up for a solid two hours. By nightfall the storm was on its way out. Over the next few days, we discovered that some trees in a rare pretty shaded area had fallen over, their exposed, gnarled trunks shredded from the high winds; roofs had been ripped off houses; some dirt roads will need to be re-graded from the rivers that ran down them just a few days before.


The rainy season is here, and I learned an important lesson this time: Whenever I go out, in addition to bringing a book, always pack a poncho. At least until chaleur rears its ugly head again.

While you were gone...

While Heather was out gallivanting around Morocco for the past three weeks, eating delicious food and meeting famous people, I was in Bohicon, working on projects and whatnot.  Here are the highlights:

·          

Learned a few new words of Fᴐn

·         Played soccer with my neighbor, Gilles

·         Had training sessions with my girls’ soccer team

·         Received approval for free soccer balls for girls’ soccer team

·         Spoke only French and Fᴐn for three weeks—I don’t know how all the other volunteers do it!

·         Read 5 books

·         Worked on website for my archaeological park

·         Started application for funding for uniforms for girls’ soccer team

·         Cleaned the house

·         Baked a bunch of cakes—then ate them.  By myself.  Delicious!

·         Delivered applications for girls’ camp we are planning in July

·         Hung out a lot with my work partner and best Beninese friend, Arimi

·         Took a lot of pictures of the artisans at the archaeological park for the website

·         Ate a lot of beignets (French doughnuts)

·         Watched all of the Star Wars movies in the order that they were released (I see what the fuss is about, but I don’t get it)

·         Went on a bike ride to Abomey, a big tourist town about 10 km away from Bohicon

It all sounds like a lot, but I spread it out over 23 days, so I had a lot of down time (hence the 5 books that I read).  I feel like I improved my French, and I made a few new friends around town…maybe some new work partners for future projects?  Heather was nice enough to get me some goodies from Morocco: lots of candy, a necktie, a new leather wallet, a leather satchel, anti-perspirent deodorant, and body and face wash; plus she bought lots of fresh olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Moroccan cumin, and other goodies.  She definitely made her 23 days worthwhile!  Projects are coming up soon.  We have a girls’ camp in July (11-15) that we are working on, plus I am trying to get this website up and contact travel agents in Benin, France, and the United States before the next tourist season starts!  We also might have some things coming up soon with the Maison des Jeunes (youth center).  Until next time…

Cheers.

Toto...We're Not in West Africa Anymore...

As a lot of you know, my knee has been bothering me since beginning marathon training back in October.  It was really hurting in December and that is when my doctor and myself have been trying different things to figure out what it is.  We’ve tried resting it for 2 months, we’ve had x-rays done, we have tried knee braces, icing it, anti-inflamatories, and even an ultrasound, all with no diagnosis.  I have had “specialists” in Benin look at it on three different occasions, all saying different things.  Finally, Washington decided to send me to Morocco (as a Medical Evacuee) to have a super expert look at it.

I left for Morocco dark and early on Tuesday morning, the 3^rd.  I basically stayed up all night because I was worried I’d sleep through my alarm that was getting me up at 2:30am if I went to sleep at all.  I was at the airport a little after 3am and waited until 5:30 before I was boarded and on the tarmac.  After 20 minutes of being airborne, we landed.  I had no idea what was going on since a layover wasn’t on my itinerary and was worried that I had somehow got on the wrong flight.  We had landed in Lagos, Nigeria, which did nothing to sooth my worries since we’re not even supposed to go to Nigeria.  Everyone started clapping and getting off the plane.  I stayed on the plane and slyly asked the flight attendant if she thought we’d be landing in Casablanca on time or if she thought we would be running late.  Her answer didn’t exactly help me figure out if I was on the right plane or not since she just told me the local time in Casablanca instead of actually answering my question.  Luckily for me, I was on the right plane (which I figured out hours later!) and eventually landed in Casablanca.

I got my luggage, exchanged my per diem dollars to dirham and went out to look for the Peace Corps driver that was supposed to be picking me up.  It was so strange.  There were no black people, the airport was clean, people weren’t shoving or raising their voices, it was orderly, it smelled nice, and my driver wasn’t black either!  We got in the car and started driving down well-paved streets with speed limit signs and painted lanes (more abnormalities!) and people actually used their turn signals.  Even more amazing, their turn signals were operational on the cars.  It was the cleanest city that I have seen in months and months.  No gutters flowing with who-knows-what, no trash littering the side of the road, no goats or pigs tied to the roofs of other cars.  And the other cars were all nice!  There were American cars, European cars, Japanese cars and they looked new. 

We got into Rabat and not only did it look and feel (climate-wise) like a city in Southern California, but there was even a tram!  A brand new tram, graffiti-free, that glided past us.  We walked into the Peace Corps office and the medical secretary greeted me by name and welcomed me right before introducing me to my Moroccan doctor, who was actually American, Dr. Craig (last name forgotten).  They were super friendly and gave me maps and a cell phone that was charged up with credit along with their personal phone numbers in case I needed anything.  He showed me on the map where the McDonald’s, T.G.I. Fridays, American Club, hotel, and good shopping was, which absolutely blew my mind that those things existed at all in Morocco. 

He took me to my hotel, which had an elevator (!), got me all settled in and introduced me to the two other volunteers who were med-evaced there from Cameroon.  Their names were Amanda and Jared and after their appointments for that day, we all hung out together and they showed me where the good stuff was.  We went to the medina (super large market) and I was blown away.  They have absolutely everything here!  There is any kind of produce you can think of, any kind of herbs or spices you could want, clothing, bags, shoes, breads, lots and lots of olives, hand-made goods, lamps, crystal, souvenirs, etc.  I was completely overwhelmed.  It has taken me nearly a week to get out of West-Africa mode.  For example, when they called me to see where I was and I told them where I was standing, I thought to myself out of instinct that it should be easy to find me since I’m the only white person around and I had to correct myself.  Another time, I saw a bus full of “white” people and thought, “what are all of those white people doing here?”  It took me a while to get out of the habit of thinking that I was the only gringa around.

View from hotel room BALCONY!

Inside the artisan part of the Medina

Herbs and spices galore!

Medina food

The following day, Wednesday, I had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to try again, to figure out what was going on with my knee.  This man was super nice, spoke fluent English (which a lot of people do here in Morocco, which I’m always shocked about), and is a real-life wizard.  He looked at the x-rays that were taken in Benin, which 3 other specialists and numerous doctors all looked at, and could tell right away what was wrong with me.  He did some other quick tests to draw his conclusion. One of these tests included poking around my kneecap, which everyone else did too (with no pain), and he poked in this mysterious spot of my knee that caused a lot of pain.  The appointment took less than half an hour and I had a diagnosis.  Incredible. 

So basically, I have two things wrong with me that cause the pain, neither of which require surgery (phew!).  The first is that I have a very small amount of scoliosis that has caused a 3mm tilt on my right side (which is why it’s my right knee that gives me problems).  They are ordering me insoles for my shoes to correct that problem.  The other problem is patellofemoral tracking disorder.  Basically, my quad is too strong on one side of my leg and not strong enough on the other, so it has pulled my kneecap out of place via the tendons, which causes part of the pain.  Between that and my tilt, my leg bones have been rubbing together and inflaming each other, which causes the other part of the pain.  I have to do physical therapy to strengthen the other part of my quad to get my patella back where it should be after using my insoles for at least a month.  I have to stay in Morocco until my insoles come in, which they’re hoping are here by Friday.  In the meantime, they are trying to get me to see a physical therapist to teach me the exercises to do after the month-long period of using the insoles has passed.  So that’s the medical update.   

After my appointment, Amanda and I went to the shopping mall (!) to browse around.  There was a big store, like a Wal-Mart, that she wanted to get shampoo and stuff from and I wanted to get a new bikini for Greece.  I was so blown away walking into the mall.  It was just like being back in America.  It’s incredible how different West Africa is from North Africa.  It really should be it’s own continent!  It’s so different.  It is more like Europe than Africa.  After much walking around (and playing on the moving sidewalk/escalator things), I found what I went there for and so did Amanda.  We got into a taxi that we didn’t have to argue over the price for because it was metered and went back to the hotel.  She ended up leaving for Cameroon that night but I still had the other med-evac volunteer to keep me company, Jared, so we hung out.   

Amanda and me

mall wonderland

Jared and I both had appointments on Thursday, so we went to the PC office together and hung out most of the day.  I had to have an x-ray done of my torso to determine the size of lifts I need, which I found out yesterday.  Since we didn’t have any appointments the next day or over the weekend, we decided to travel to Fes for the weekend. 

Friday, we left whenever we were ready.  We weren’t in a rush or on a schedule, which is a great way to travel.  As soon as we got on the train to go to Fes, I started feeling dizzy.  The train was moving around a lot and it was hot, which I think is what caused me to feel sick.  I broke out into a cold sweat and rushed to the toilet only to lift up the lid and find it clogged and filled to the brim with things I don’t even want to talk about.  Needless to say, that didn’t help my nausea and before I knew it, I was hanging my head out the door of the train as it was going down the tracks, throwing up my breakfast.  I slept the rest of the way until we got to Fes and by the time we got there, I was feeling pretty good. 

We only ended up spending a day of the weekend in Fes because it was a little pricey (and touristy) and we basically saw everything we wanted to see in the day that we were there.  It was really beautiful there and reminded me a lot of Siena, Italy.  We walked around the medina most of the first day.  I briefly paused at a little shop that sold earrings and got called a “Scaly wag” and a “Hooligan” by a Moroccan guy who was trying to be funny and maybe mistook me for a Brit?  It was unexpected and pretty funny.  That night, we sat at a café trying to guess where all the tourists were from.  This activity made me realize that I have been in West Africa long enough to be really bad at this game.  The only ones I could correctly spot were the Americans.  And even then, I may have mistaken some of them for Europeans. 

The second day, we hired a guide to show us around the medina since we spent a full hour looking for their famous tannery (leather-making/dying) without avail the prior day.  This guy gave us a really good price and spent the entire afternoon showing us around.  We saw the tannery, mosque, school of Islam, along with lots of other things, like a rug-maker, and a perfumery.  It was a good deal.  At the tannery, I got a great deal on a gift for Craig.  The owner said that he wanted to help this pretty Peace Corps volunteer and gave me this gift for less than half of what a Moroccan would pay for it.  I’m not sure how much of it was true, but I was happy for the deal.  I then tracked down freshly-pressed olive oil of high quality and bought 3 liters for less than half of what the low-quality stuff would cost us in Benin.  I’m pretty excited about that.  After the tour, he invited us to his home for tea, which we happily accepted.  After chatting for 45 minutes or so, we left for the train station and got on a train right before it left. 

Towards the end of the train ride, I was napping and when the train stopped, I looked up and asked my new friend, Jared, if we were in Rabat, and he said, “No, we have another hour.”  I accepted this right away at first, but then realized that this stop had an escalator, which I didn’t see at any of the other stops.  When I asked him if he was sure, the woman across from us told us that it was Rabat and we had to rush out of the train with all of our stuff.  It was pretty funny. 

Fes: The Siena of Morocco

the famous tannery

Jared and me in Fes

Yesterday, while I am in Morocco with a toothache, I decided to have it checked out.  I got a same-day appointment with a very good dentist.  He discovered a small hole in an old filling that was causing food/drink to enter, which was causing the toothache.  He decided to drill it out and replace it right then, which I wasn't at all mentally prepared for, so I had dentist anxiety the entire time and Dr. Craig basically stayed to hold my hand.  The dentist left the room for a few minutes and instructed him to give me a "pep talk" even.  Haha!  In the end, he did a really good job; a much better job than my fancy, super expensive dentist in San Diego. 

Other than that, I have just been hanging out and enjoying the Western amenities and abundant options that Rabat has to offer, my favorite being freshly blended smoothies.  They have these avocado, honey, and almond smoothies that I thought would be gross but is actually very good and addicting!  I will probably be here until at least Friday.  Maybe I will fly home on Saturday, but if not, I won’t be flying home until Monday.  If that’s the case, and Jared is also still stuck here, we may try to visit some other part of Morocco again, per diem permitting.  If we do, I will definitely write another update on here!  Until then, enjoy the blog and the pictures!     

In Morocco!

So they sent me to Morocco to have an MRI done on my knee since it has been bothering me a lot.  Depending on what the docs say, we may or may not still be running the marathon.  For those of you who sponsored us, we'll give you your money back, don't worry!  :)  I will update you all very soon on my trip to Morocco!