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.