Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! It's a drag that Halloween isn't a holiday here. I was telling another of the volunteers about how into halloween our family is. she was greatly amused. We are having or at least suppose to be having a halloween party today in Kandi which is why I'm even here online. Because as I have been told repeatedly, I am not suppose to leave post until the end of December. However, because today is a holiday we have been given the okay to come and spend the night here. It's already after 6:30 so i'm not really sure what kind of "party" we are going to have, but it's nice to get out of my house and see others. Especially others that I can easily talk to. I think my french is getting better, but it's still a struggle. Actually I'm not even sure if my french has gotten much better or i'm just slowing down and taking my time to think out what I want to say. either way i've been able to talk to the people i work with much more than i had been able to. i am hoping to find a french tutor soon.

There is not a lot else to report on. I live in a concrete house in a corn field. I have no electricity and no running water. I spend my morning at the health center working (I got to see my second baby being born) and then afternoons/evening are spent reading, cross stitching and listening to the bbc. I really do like my village. It's growing on me. I had a meeting Thursday with one of my Peace Corps supervisors and I basically told him that each week is better than the previous one. He seemed happy with how things were going for me and what I was doing in the village. I think he wants me to try an intergrate more into my community. This is something I want to work on as well. Part of it is my own fault, I'm so damn shy that it's hard to go and talk randomly (especially when you don't speak/understand the language well) to people you don't know, but also my supervisor here hasn't introduced me to any of the people he is suppose to have. I've mentioned it to him several times but nothing has been done. Hopefully now that someone from PC has done it it will be done. The reason that this is important is that my village is so tiny (about the size of Athens people) that certain people carry a lot of weight and without their blessings on projects getting things done could be difficult. Also the more people you know the easier it is to live here. But I'm getting better. I'm learning to greet people in the local language instead of just french which the people just love.

In other news I was told today that another person has decided to leave Benin. This is the 9th person out of a group of 59 originally. I'm really sad to see them all go. Most of them have been friends and their being gone has definetly left a hole. For those who worry that this might be my fate, don't. I'm doing really well. Sometimes I get homesick, and lonely, but I'm content here. I have yet to ever really feel like going home. Keep your fingers crossed that this feeling continues 23 months.

More Pictures

Why are three reasonably inteligent people wearing sunglasses at night? I'm not really sure, but I believe beer was involved. That's Sunny, Matt and Me by the way.

Part of our training was to go out into the villages and do different educational things as well as practice some of the hands on things that we would be doing at our posts. Prior to this baby weighing we had been in groups and gave various talks and malaria and diareha i believe.

Jacci, Me, Mel out on the town in Dogbo.
One of the streets I would often walk in Dogbo.

Another view of Dogbo

Music

So I mentioned in another post that I would like some cds. That has led some of my wonderful friends and family to ask what kinds I would like. That has got me to think, here are some of my favorites, but in all honesty I'd be happy with just about anything.

U2
David Bowie
Robbie Williams
David Gray
Elton John
Billy Joel
Rusted Roots
Coldplay
REM

I guess that's it for right now. But anything will do.

More Pictures

Another picture from village life. You'll notice the black marks on the girl's face. Scarification is a very common practice here.
Typical village view. Women carry everything and anything on their heads here.

Me at the Python Temple in Ouidah.

They brought in traditional dancers for us to watch and even join in on.
These dancers are amazing to say the least.

This picture is from the door way of my house looking on to the front yardish area. The lady in the picture is my mama.

Another picture of my front yardish area.

Me and my helmet, though I have a different one now. I wish I had a picture with me and my current helmet because it's blue and awesome. PC policy is that I have to wear this helmet every time I'm on a moto so rest assured everyone, I am safe.

Village Life! This isn't the village that I lived in, but for trainings we use to come here to practice on these people. Dancing and singing is a huge part of the culture in the south part of this country. Where I live now is mostly Muslim and there is really no music or dancing and I must say I really miss it.

Another picture of village life

Still Alive and Kicking

So I am in Kandi for a meeting. Since this is one of the rare chances to use the internet i thought I'd better grab it and update as much as i can. I've already been on the computer an hour and i'm starting to feel bad about hogging. i wanted to put pictures up but for somereason i can't get my hard drive to connect, hopefully in the near future I will be able to show you guys what things here look like.

Okay, well I had to leave the room for a girl to get a private call so now I'm back. But since I've been on here forever I need to sign off for now so that others can use wonderful modern technology.

More to come later.

Quick Note

For those of you who've asked, the only mailed I've recieved has been some letters and a package from my gram and a package from Amanda. That's it. I would love and can't wait to hear from all of you. My mp3 player died on me, so if you would mind sending CD's I'd love it love it love it. Also, if anyone wants to send food, i'd love peanut butter (i need protein in the worst way), and powdered drink mix stuff.

I am alive!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted anything. So yes I'm still here alive and kicking in Benin West Africa, though where I am doing the kicking has changed since I last posted. I have moved from the house of my host family into the house that is going to be my home for the next two years. Yes that's right folks I'm at my post now. If you're looking at a map of Benin and want a general idea of where I"m at look in the north east area and locate the city of Kandi, I'm about 25k north of that. It's a tiny Muslim community that is probably about the size of Akron, if not smaller. I live kind on the outskirts of town, in the middle of...get this...corn! Those who know me know I've longed for adventure outside the streets of Akron and Rochester and get away from all the blasted corn fields, yet this is where I find myself for the next two year. Ironic isn't it. I live in a concrete building with three rooms, well actually it's a fairly big building but I live in the front half of it and another person lives in the back half. You'd think living this closely we'd see each other all the time, nope, I saw him for the first time in two weeks today. And then in my front yard off to the side is my latrine. As latrines go it's a fairly nice one, I've definetly had to use worse since I've been here. Lizards are everywhere here, but especially around my house and grounds. I also have a mouse or mice in my house which i hate, but this is Africa and not a whole lot I can do about it I guess. I don't know if it would bother me as much if i wasn't sleeping on a mattress on the floor. So I go to the health center twice a week to help out, which let me tell you is saving my sanity. The PC has this policy that volunteers are not suppose to work during their first three months at post, neither are we suppose to leave our posts either (except for things like market, post office things of that nature). We are suppose to use this time to get to know our community and so forth. Well I'm having a slow start of it I guess. I'm trying to get out there and talk to people, but I find it really difficult, and I know everyone else does to, which helps. But it's hard not to be bored and lonely. I just don't know what to do with myself all the time. Thankfully the people I work with are super nice and helpful, well sort of. My supervisor is a nice guy, but getting him to follow through with things is a bit difficult. The women I work with though are amazing. Women in general in this country are amazing. They work their asses off for little if any respect or gratitude.

I know there is much more to write about, and if I have time at some point I'll try and put some picture up. Until then...