We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. It was a little weird for us, celebrating it without our families back home, but we did celebrate it with a couple members of our new Peace Corps family. At the last minute our friends Carlos and Andrea, who live about 2 hours northwest of us decided to come down and celebrate with us. We all went out to dinner the night before Thanksgiving for some cheap food (rice, sauce, and wagasi cheese—400CFA/.90 cents) and caught up.
We don’t have access to your typical Thanksgiving foods (except yams and potatoes) and since we’re all from regions with heavy Latin culture, we decided to make Mexican food. Carlos, Craig, and I all went to a garden that is run by handicaped people to buy our produce. Unfortunately, they sold us avocados that weren’t ripe yet so we couldn’t have any guacamole and the papayas that we had for our beverages weren’t all the way ripe either so it was a little chunky. Regardless, we had a nice spread. Home-made tortillas and tortilla chips, salsa, refried beans, Spanish rice, Tapatio potatoes, and the dessert—arroz con leche, or rice pudding while drinking frozen fruit daiquiris made with papaya, pineapple, and bisap syrup-made from hibiscus flowers. Sister Madeline (from a previous post) was in town and stopped by with a bottle of white wine for us to celebrate the holidays with and we had our neighbors over for the actual dinner part.
We ate all day long to make sure that something that day felt like Thanksgiving since we were without our normal company and it was extremely hot like usual. But while surrounded by new family, friends, and neighbors, it was the closest to a “normal” Thanksgiving that we would get to and it was really nice.
gutting the papayas for the daiquiris
the Thanksgiving gang
cooking away!
the finished product...or what would fit in the screen
We have been living in Benin for less than six months, and it is interesting to reflect back and see how we have already changed—and what we have to be thankful for.
It was not until we arrived here that we realized just how well we live back in the States. It’s easy to take for granted the little things, like free public education and a civil service and law enforcement that isn’t rife with endemic corruption. Kids in Benin regularly wake up at 5:00am on a school day to do homework then housework before going off to school, then come home and cook and clean before going to bed at 11:00 at night. School costs money, and if Moms does not make enough money selling rice and beans outside the front door and Pops is a degenerate drunken Zem driver with a second family somewhere else, kids sometimes have to pick up a job cleaning houses or working at the marché to pay their school fees, which are something like $20 a year; or even worse, having to work as an apprentice for free because you cannot afford school fees, like the 10-year old apprentice to the 14-year old man-boy barber who cuts my hair for sixty cents (ages are approximate). Corrupt police set up checkpoints along the only major road in the country to force taxi drivers into supplementing their income, usually right in front of a roadside stand that peddles pilfered Nigerian gasoline at a discounted rate.
There are great things here, though. It’s great to wake up early before it gets really hot and walk down the dirt road and salue the Mama’s setting up their makeshift food stands (or walking around with various assorted goods on their heads), to see the joy and surprise on their faces when the Yovo greets them with a cheerful “A fon gonji a!” or greeting our neighbors with a quick “bonjour” and “bonne journée” as they walk their motos out the gate to leave for work. Little things are fulfilling, like when my work partner treats me to a satisfactory “Voila!” as I begin to slowly figure out what is going on around me. Making those personal connections is one of the most important parts of this experience.
Thanksgiving is about being appreciative of the little things, but also of the big things, like family and friends. We left behind family and friends in Arizona, California, and Texas to come on this little journey and we couldn’t be more thankful for their love, wisdom, and support, and we are thankful for our new extended family here, from our host family in Porto-Novo, Embassy staff, our Beninese neighbors, and, of course, our fellow PCVs.
To our family, here’s to you on this Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for.
Work has started slowly here, but is quickly picking up. Our first (almost) two months at post was spent getting accustomed to the area, meeting people, figuring out the marché schedule, reading a lot of books, magazines, and online articles, and preparing for the work that would inevitably come our way.
That time is hurtling toward us with reckless abandon. Our schedule is starting to get packed with Fongbe lessons, meetings, excursions, baby-weighings, sensibilizations, and trips to the Cyber to research and post marketing materials. It seems like every day this week we have something on our schedules. To wit: Monday we had a meeting at the local CEG to present an English Spelling Bee project (that PC Benin is putting on--the finals are in Nattitangou in June or at the end of the school year, whichever comes first); Tuesday and Friday we have Fongbe (Fon) lessons; Wednesday we have another meeting at the CEG, this time with an English professor who may become our contact person for the spelling bee as well as a soccer game (we might be starting not only an English club, which would coincide with the spelling bee, but also a girls’ soccer club at the school, with help from our neighbor); Thursday Heather has her APCD (her PC boss) visit; Friday we have a sensibilization on Moringa in Abomey and the aforementioned Fongbe lessons but I also need to research the histoire of the parc and write up information to post on travel websites and meet with my homologue to discuss ideas that I have for the parc (and how to present them to the mayor so we can actually get some reinvestment there). Saturday we have off but Sunday I have my APCD visit and next week is Thanksgiving.
So everything is picking up now. No more whining about having nothing to do. We’re also trying to coordinate “work trips” with other volunteers to visit other parts of Benin, all the while studying for the FSOT, building up mileage before we start marathon training, and trying to avoid explosive diarrhea.
Fun times.
Heather and I went to Parakou over Halloween weekend for a pair of meetings and a Halloween party (as John McCain and Sarah Palin). We tried to "come home" to Bohicon on Sunday but we had bus problems--meaning that we paid for our tickets, but the bus never showed--so we got our money back, returned back to the workstation, and left on Monday morning with a different bus line that would actually transport us.
Heather started feeling ill on Monday, and I started feeling sick on Tuesday morning. We had our first Fon tutoring session and we returned home and Heather was still not feeling particularly well, and I also began feeling ill. I began losing fluids at about 1:00pm was tired, achey, had a headache, and nausea. We called the Peace Corps doctors and they told us to drink fluids and try to stay hydrated. At about 7:30pm I threw up for the first time, and started to drink ORS, the Oral Hydration Fluid that we have in our medical kit.
At about 8 or 8:30pm, I was feeling nauseas and tried to stand up and walk 8 feet to the bathroom, when I fainted from severe dehydration. Heather saw me stumble and tried to catch me as I apparently (I don't remember, it was like a dream) ran into the wall, then fell onto the floor. She said that I passed out for about 10 seconds. When I came to, I asked her what was wrong. I had no idea what just happened. She helped me to the bathroom, then I broke out into a sweat--dripping puddles onto the tile floor--and Heather called the doctor, then rousted up our neighbor, Gilles, to help. The doctor instructed us to go to the nearest hospital to get me an IV. I got on the back of Gilles' moto while our other neighbor Gilles volunteered to take Heather. About 10 minutes later, we were at the (private, not public--everything that the government is in charge of here falls apart) hospital to check in. Two bottles of IV solution later, and I was discharged (it cost us 12,200CFA, about $25). Our Peace Corps doctor was in constant contact with the hospital doctors the entire time and they took really good care of me.
Our PC doc asked us to come down to Cotonou on Wednesday for an exam, more fluids (not intravenous), and blood work. The good news is that I don't have malaria and I may have had bacterial diarrhea. When the lab analyzes my "sample" they will let me know. We thought that we would only be here for a day or two but the doctor discovered that I have an abnormally low heart rate for someone who is not a world-class athlete (anymore). The long and short of it is the doctors want to make sure that I don't have an underlying problem that the sickness has exacerbated and illuminated.
In the meantime, we are feeling better and have been running errands around Cotonou: going to the bank, buying necessities, raiding the workstation library for books, eating ice cream and chwarma, etc.
On Saturday, we went to the Ambassador's house and went swimming. He opens his pool every Saturday for Peace Corps Volunteers and it is amazing! We didn't get to hang out with him but did walk across the street and saw some embassy staffers playing softball and hung out with them a little bit. At their invitation, we had brunch with them on Sunday at the house of one of the FSOs. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and seeing what life is like to be Foreign Service Officers. Some are former PCVs and we were able to ask them about the Foreign Service Officer Exam, which we are both studying for and planning to take at least once before we leave Benin. We plan on getting in touch with them whenever we're in Cotonou.
We should be leaving on Tuesday to go home, and we both have a feeling that we need to make up for lost time at post since we have basically been away for almost 2 weeks.
A while ago, a fellow volunteer asked me if I had ever tried Bikram Yoga back in the States. I hadn’t, but another volunteer said, “No, but I’ve done yoga in Benin and it’s practically the same thing.” That got me thinking…it IS basically the same thing. Week after week, as we do our marathon training sessions, we arrive back at the house drenched in sweat. You probably think that it would be normal to be like that after an intense work out, but I have done intense work outs many times at home, both in the gym and outside, and never have I ever been so completely soaking wet. I am talking; someone just dumped a bucket of water over us, drenched. Craig actually wrings out his shirt several times afterwards and can water our garden with what comes out (but he doesn’t). I get salt in my eyes when I lay down to do crunches afterwards WITH a hat on (that is also completely drenched) and after a good 20 minutes of cool-down. All of our fingers and hands get wrinkly like we just got out of a bath, and we drink enough water to fuel a caravan of camels. Part of this is because we aren’t early birds, so we do these workouts in the late morning. The other part of it is the intense humidity and heat. And it’s the “cool season” right now.
After one of our training sessions, Craig and I got to talking about how the next two years of our lives will probably be the healthiest that we have ever, and will ever, live. Sure the lack of regulations for cars/motos and their exhaust may cut this down a little, but it’s no biggie. And this is not just because we’re less stressed, happier, have more time, are doing something we enjoy, have fulfilling jobs, getting the liberty of creativity and entrepreneurship in our tasks, or ride our bikes everywhere. It’s also because the foods that are available to us, are largely, all organic and fresh with no chemicals, preservatives, pesticides, or anything else unnatural. We cook most of our own meals, cutting out the chance of what we intake being dowsed in palm oil, but instead, cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We are boiling our water, filtering it, and then drinking it, making it probably better quality than anything we can find in the States, in addition to having a half-glass of wine every other night or so with dinner.
But the biggest thing that links all of those others together is the time that we make for exercise and how it makes us feel afterwards. Craig and I spent quite a bit of time, money, energy, and effort back home making sure that our food was completely organic and trying out different detoxes to rid our bodies from any toxins to remain as healthy as possible. They were difficult, expensive, time consuming, and torture (for us), for the most part. By living in Benin, we sweat so much here (and therefore, drink so much water) and eat healthy things that there is no possible way that there are any toxins left hiding around our fat cells that haven’t been flushed out by our new lifestyle. After a 5-mile run down a beautiful dirt road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush green fields, we not only feel calm in our mind and spirit, but our body feels rejuvenated. Bikram yoga? It’s got nothing on living as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin.
Last Saturday night, we had the highest of ups and the highest of downs, all in one evening. It all started when another volunteer, Ivy, that lives about half and hour away called us because she was in town and wanted to hang out. After our internet café session, we went back home with her and ate dinner. After dinner, due to the stifling heat in our house, we went 100 yards down the road to the bar by our house that has a second story with a nice breeze. Over some cheap Beninoise (local beer) and conversation, we heard a faint meow coming from somewhere. It sounded like a kitten trapped somewhere. Since my American cat, Jewels, always got caught in some cupboard, my senses are especially tuned to listen for pleading meows. I began looking around for where this kitten was and when I looked down from the second story, I found it.
One the other side of the wall of the bar down below, there was a small wired cage the size of a normal bird cage at best, with 4 kittens and 3 puppies all crammed together. The animal rights activist in me immediately got the attention of the guy down there and told him that he should let them out. He just laughed at me, like they all do. So I went down there to persuade him. Big mistake…Once I got down there, I realized that not only were these 7 little animals cooped up together in this small cage, but there were 4 pairs of chickens laying about, tied together by their feet. A pair here, a pair there, all trying to free themselves and get away. I was heartbroken. After the guy went around the corner, I started to untie the cage when one of the puppies licked my finger. This may seem normal, but in Benin, dogs are treated so badly here that you’re much more likely to get bitten than licked. Stifling back tears, I went back upstairs to try to convince Craig that we should take one kitten and one puppy. We had already agreed long ago that we wouldn’t have any pets because it would be too hard to leave them in two years. I couldn’t help it though. He of course said no, but I knew if I could get him down there to see how cute they were that maybe he would change his mind. Eventually, my plan worked and he was soon inspecting the animals in the cage and he gave in. He asked me to call Katie, our postmate, to see if she’d watch them when we travel.
I called her, and after she said, “I thought you guys didn’t want to adopt any animals?” I lost it and broke down crying, describing these awful conditions that they were in and that I felt that I had to do something. Katie, a former PETA member before joining Peace Cops, reiterated that we couldn’t be a shelter for animals and that we’d have to face the same thing throughout our two years here and if we had already agreed that we shouldn’t adopt, then we should stick to that, or at least give it some time to rethink it. I knew she was right. At that time, I realized that the next day was marché day and all these animals would probably be sold in the marché. It was extremely hard, but I had to walk away from them and while walking out to leave, I hoped that they would have good homes by the same time the next day.
Moments later, Ivy’s boyfriend, Guyam, showed up, a Beninese national, and a very friendly and charismatic guy whom I had already met when I went on tech visit with Ivy. We were getting ready to leave and talking about where we were going to go next when I noticed that he was holding Craig’s hand. When men hold hands here, like in India, it’s a sign of friendship. You don’t see a man and woman holding hands ever, but occasionally you’ll see women holding hands, and often you see men holding hands. I began to giggle inside. This was Craig’s first experience with a HCN (host country national) holding his hand. And he seems incredibly uncomfortable and awkward. Seeing that cheered me up from my traumatic animal experience. I asked him later, when we were at a lounge/bar/club type place how he felt, and he said, “I was so freaked out! I didn’t know what to do and I broke out into a sweat!”
At the lounge bar, Ivy was teaching me how to “African dance” while Guyam was teaching Craig how to “African dance” (it’s different for the men and the women). It was pretty amusing. I kinda already knew how to do it, but Craig was doing all kinds of things I had never seen before, including shaking his foot out like he was trying to shake a spider from the top of his shoe. They also are huge on salsa here, so they played a lot of salsa music and I got to salsa dance a little. The music was even in Spanish! So far, I had only heard French versions of the salsa music here. I had to remind myself that I was in Benin and not back in San Diego when that happened. Not like it was very difficult to remember. It was a really fun night, despite the earlier breakdown, and the first night that we were able to go out and have fun in our new town. They say that you really shouldn’t stay out very late because all of the zem drivers that nicely taxi you around in the daytime may mug you once it’s late. Luckily, Guyam had a car, so he took us out and took us home later that night. It was super fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera, so none of the night was documented on film. Next time…
Thank you Mama Wirick for our package of my chacos and GRE Prep book (and taco seasoning mix and American flag bandanna that will come in handy for our Halloween costumes)! Thanks a bunch!
We got here on the 20th of September and have almost been at post a month now. We have gotten a lot done in this month. We have started two gardens, gotten our house set up, met some amazing people who we hope to work with, and are 1/3 the way through our report that is due at the end of our 3-month integration period. We both have been going into work and while Craig is mainly focusing on doing research on the park and jotting down ideas and notes to help him further the success of the park, my main focus has been on making contacts and meeting potential and future work partners. My CPS works with many ONGs that help the community in some way, and I have been working on meeting them. This week, we met a man who works for UNICEF as well as a man who runs an orphanage. We also went to the health center in town to talk with the doctors/nurses that we met when we were on post visit and the head doctor made an appointment with us for next week to discuss possible collaborations that we can do. I know that they do vaccinations once a week, which would be a good time to talk to any mothers with malnourished children, for example. We are excited about that meeting. Since Craig’s work is a little slow, he’s planning on picking up some secondary work in the health field doing something together with me.
Katie’s (our post mate) homologue is farming Moringa, which is a plant that is nutrient/vitamin rich in every nutrient/vitamin imaginable and he has been trying to sell them at a very low price (the mentality is that if people pay for it, they’re more likely to use it) and he needs help with the marketing of it, which is right up my health alley and my marketing alley. So I am definitely going to help him out with that. They also garden every Saturday and once that gets going, we’re going to collaborate on a project that fights malnourishment. Malaria is the biggest problem here, but since we are leaving the rainy season, it won’t be such an issue until the rain picks up again next April/May, so I want to focus on malnourishment, which is always a problem.
This week, we’ve stepped up our training for the marathon. We run 20-something minutes out, then 20-something minutes back with a little break half way through. It’s a really pretty run and very good training. We’re going to bring our camera next time we run out there. I really wish we had some way of knowing how far we were actually running though. It’s a good stress reliever and I am still amazed that after (probably) 5 miles or so that we ran today, my hip still doesn’t hurt! And it use to hurt after 2 ½ or 3 miles every single time. Incredible!
Last week, we went to visit some volunteers who were at a training here in Bohicon and on our way back, we got caught in a flash flood on our bikes! It was incredible! There were literally rivers of red mud water flowing past us on both sides of the road and if it were cold, I am convinced that it would have been hailing. It was raining really hard and by the time we got back home, I opened the gate to our concession, and water started gushing out like we were in the Beninese version of Titanic. It actually whipped off my sandal! It was quite an adventure!
Another fun little adventure that we had was when we woke up and went outside to the kitchen and found a little lizard friend right there in the doorway. It ran away from us under our sink and by the time we finished breakfast, it was gone. The next day, we got home from going to work and there was another lizard sitting on our toilet seat. I have no idea how he got inside, but when I put my gardening gloves on to pick him up and put him outside, he got really scared and ran away and I ended up having to chase the poor little guy all over the bedroom. Needless to say, he was traumatized.
We planted a bunch of seeds at our house a little over 3 weeks ago and they are growing nicely! We also planted a larger-scale garden at Craig’s work that has also started growing very nicely. It’s very exciting! I cannot wait to have basil and cilantro! Among the many other things we planted. This week, we also got hair cuts in some form or another. Craig went to a barber shop and had them shave his head. It took a while to explain what he wanted because the kid that was cutting his hair wanted to just use scissors, and once he got him to use the clippers, he was going the wrong way with them. It was pretty hilarious to watch. I gave myself a little trim, but only with the bangs. There really isn’t any place for women to get their hair cut, especially white women who have different hair. The only places that I have heard of are the ones in hotels in Cotonou that charge a hefty price (for Benin at least) so I trimmed my bangs myself and I will find the most skilled volunteer to trim the rest at some point. I am definitely not as good as my dear friend and hair stylist, Stephanie, but since we live in Benin, I don’t’ have to be.
Right around the corner from our house, we have a “mama” that has a stand right outside of her house where she sells stuff. She is super duper helpful for us and just all around amazing! We are coming to cherish our mama. She is always super friendly to us and never jacks up the price. The price that I use to have to haggle hard to get in the marche, she just gives to me without any haggling, which is like a breath of fresh air in a city full of smog. She also has two dogs that are always at her side along with her kids and grandkids. One of her grandkids just may be the cutest kid I have ever seen in my life. She is super polite and has that cute little 3 year-old voice. In our first week here, we asked her where we could find honey and she got on the phone and called her friend at the marche to have her bring some back to her house after she left, and a little boy delivered our honey that night at about 8pm. I don’t even know how he knew where we live, but I’m sure it wasn’t hard. This week, we asked her where we could find the much-covetted peanut butter that volunteers long for and she got on the phone and worked her magic again. It took her 2 days this time, but when we went to get our eggs and onions today to make dinner, she had a jar of very good quality peanut butter waiting for us, along with a bag of pineapples that we also asked about. It’s much nicer for us this way because not only do we get to skip a trip into town for these things, but when she gets them for us, she knows the right price and gets it every time and doesn’t jack it up for us.
We are going to take a night away from our post for Halloween because up in Parakou, we have a meeting to attend, followed by a Halloween party, which we are excited about. We decided to go as John McCain and Sarah Palin. It’s going to be a little challenging getting Craig’s hair white, but we’ll figure something out I’m sure. I hope it’s as funny as we want it to be, and beside that, it’s the only thing that we may be able to pull off without getting costumes made. We’re really looking forward to that, especially since we haven’t been to Parakou yet, so we get to see something new, as well as see some of our friends that we haven’t seen in a month and a half. It should be fun! We’ll post pictures when we have them. Those are all the updates for now. Enjoy the pictures! A Bientot!
Working on our garden right outside our front door
Nigerian bread that is sweet and tastes like shortcake
