Happy Thanksgiving

I have very little time because the internet is down at work so now i am at a public internet cafe and as always people are waiting. So everyone, I am alive and well. I hope you all had a wonderful dinner yesterday, I will be getting mine tonight, however instead of a turkey i will be having turkey wings.

A quick note on what I have been up too. I have started working with some girls in my village. The school director wants me to teach them health issues so that is what I am going to try and do. I had my first lesson this week or HIV and how it is transmitted. I hated doing it because my french is so bad, but afterwards I felt a sence of accomplishment that I really havent felt since I have been here.

Word has it that a bunch of people went in and got me a bunch of goodies. i cannot begin to tell you how much i appreciate it. i have always had this belief about myself that out of sight out of mind, and I cannot tell you how good it feels to be proven wrong. I am lucky to have some pretty great people in my life.

I have a lot more to share, but with the internet being down and ppl waiting here I have to keep this short. Just know I miss and love you all.

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.