As I sit and listen to
the lulling sound of the rain tapping on my tin roof, and stare out into the
darkness, a peace surrounds me. A peace that was foreign to me in my former
life; a life full of senseless hurry, tedious appointments, and pointless engagements.
At that time they may have had more value. However, now eavesdropping on
nature’s glory, I ponder the importance of such matters. This morning, I awoke
without an alarm, sat in bed and mentally went over my course for the day.
Untucked the mosquito net that surrounds my bed and prepared to take a shower.
My shower, which is adjacent to my house and is without a roof, offers a serene
view of the bright blue sky and birds at play. The sun taps my back, making the
cold shower almost soothing. (I’ll finish this and fix it at a later time, but
figured I would share my thoughts for the moment, the rain is so cool here, its
so loud and so powerful, but when it rains you don’t do anything anyway but sit
where you are and wait for it to be over)
So as I said I have
been thoroughly enjoying my last couple of months here. I like it here and my
life here. Don’t get me wrong I still can’t wait to get home, but I am fine in
the meantime. I actually have also found myself when asked will I be back, replying
“yes.” Months ago I would have told you, “that no one could pay me enough to
ever come back to this country again.” LOL There are so many things that have
been going on, I don’t even know where to start. Let’s see. We just had the
closing forum and dinner gala for Junior Achievement. During this time all of
the Mini-Entreprises programs for all of Benin (I brought two teams from
Lokossa), met in Cotonou, where various business personalities came and spoke
and encouraged the kids. All of the directors of the various entreprises had
been previously interviewed, based on their year-end stockholder reports, to
select the “Best” for each post. The winners were then announced at the dinner
gala. This year was the first year that any kids from my region were selected
and even more so, one of the kids in one of my groups won Best Director of
Production. He was awarded a two month internship in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
(The Ivory Coast), at some hotel who’s name I am unable to recollect at this
moment. Not only that though, but the only expense he is responsible for is his
passport (which is still kind of expensive for him). I don’t know if you can
really comprehend, how cool all of that really is, but…most kids spend their
summer vacations helping their parents if they are small business people (which
may mean just selling stuff in the marché) or just doing nothing. Additionally,
this boy and I recently had a conversation about his future plans, and him
wanting to travel, but not having a way to do so. A lot of these kids barely
know anything outside of the regions they live in and maybe the capital.
Plus, he worked really hard during the year, teaching the other kids how to
make the baskets, they had chosen as their product. This past Friday we had a
get together to again celebrate their success during the year at a local
bar/club. I made brownies and a sponge cake, which I had promised that I would
make for them at the end of the year, and we got some drinks. After all of that
we danced. The kids (I really should stop calling them kids because some of
them are roughly my age or slightly younger, but they are still in “high school”
though and the maturity level is different) thought it was so funny that I know
how to dance to African music, you know with me being American and/or white and
all. The General Director came by my house the next day and was like it so
weird you know how to dance like us. I have to say that, that is one of my big
personal accomplishments, it took many a hour in the mirror to get the Mapouka,
a booty shake type dance from Côte d’Ivoire, down pat. :0)
The newest stage
(pronounced staj-training) is taking place in my town. There are currently 25
(one already ETed- early termination of service) English professor trainees
here right now and they are now in their fourth week of training. There is one
girl who I have been encouraging, that was really having a hard time adjusting,
and reminds me so much of myself. She told me the funniest story about her
first night at her host families house and cockroaches being in the latrine.
She freaked out and ran mid stream first of all, so when she got back to her
room she wasn’t finished. She sees this bucket thing that Peace Corps had given
her, and figures it is a chamber pot and finishes the task at hand. Only to
find out the next day that it was her water filter. As funny as that is she is
still better then me, because I swear I didn’t use the latrine till at least
like the second day, and only after I had one of the kids survey it for me. She
has also shared with me her discouragement over the whole language thing, being
a Yovo and the center of attention, and just adjusting to life in a village in
West Africa. Needless to say if you received any of my first letters home or
heard about them, I was the same way. Funny thing though all of the things that
she is siting as reasons why she doesn’t think she can do this I did as well
and here I am with like four months left to go. And I never thought that I
would actually be COSing-Close of Service-and I wasn’t alone and thinking this.
(I just toasted this with this guy that just COSed because we were are among
the people that everyone thought wouldn’t make it) Plus she was like I’m her
inspiration and I do this a certain way, and am adapted to this, etc. All of that
to say that she had me thinking over this whole experience, and in reading over
some old journal entries, I still am in awe. The obstacles that it took to get
to this point, the adjustments that had to be made, things that had to be
learned and the numerous things one has to put up with and cope with, but I got
through and am finishing soon. This being the toughest job you’ll ever love, is
SO true. This is the hardest thing I ever have done in my life and if someone
would have told me exactly everything that would have been involved in it
before coming, I honestly wouldn’t have come and would have said I can’t do
that. I am so glad though that I have and in the end it has been a great
experience. I just want to point out too though before leaving this subject why
this chick told me that I was weird now and villagegeois (which kind of like
being ghetto) and that I have been here too long and need to go home (Just
cause I greet everyone when I am walking down the street, and yell to get the
zemis, and I hiss to get peoples attention, plus she said when she listens to
our conversations and the things that we think are normal, or how we argue with
people over like a penny, or wait for our food for like an hour and a half and
don’t think anything of it…) And why are the new people making fun of me
because I never ride my bike. One of them lives behind my concession (compound)
and his family asked him how come he has a bike and I don’t. He said I do and
they were like no I don’t because they have never seen me on it and I am always
on zemijhans (taxi motos). Then another one of them came past my house and my
neighbor was washing my bike for me, its the rainy season right now, so it was
muddy. Here she go, why was he washing your bike I thought you don’t ride. I told her he rides and he wants to make sure
its clean, dag. No, but I do ride it, just not all of the time, plus they have
a new rule about wearing bicycle helmets. The motorcycle helmet rule was
already bad enough. Everyone makes fun of us and says that we look like
astronauts, etc. (we are basically the only people in the country that wear
helmets, although motorcycles or motos and one of the major means of
transportation), so I am not wearing the bike helmet so the people and my
friends in town can laugh at me. Additionally, with their being so many Yovos
in town now, wearing the helmet and riding my bike I look too much like a Yovo,
and I stopped feeling like a stranger and thinking about this as my temporary
home awhile ago. Can I tell you to it was so weird getting use to seeing a lot
of white people everyday, they are everywhere now. LOL
Just because I kind of
mentioned it up there, why did we go to the beach on Sunday to wind down the
week. Before we went to lay out, we went to eat at one of the marquis (which
are like the local small restaurants). I ordered shrimp kabobs with french
fries. First of all the food too roughly an hour and a half. I don’t know if
they went to fish for the shrimp themselves or what. Anyway though, when the
food came I had two kabobs of shrimp, and the shrimp here are like at least
four times larger then shrimp at home, still in their shells, with the heads
still on, and some of them even had claws. I had to take a picture of it. I
asked the guy why were they still in the shells, and made the dumb suggestion,
as he is a friend, that it would be easier to eat if they removed the shells
before cooking. I was promptly told that it wouldn’t taste as good if you
removed them and it wouldn’t be good to that way. Go figure.
I have two more quick
things that I wanted to share. I guess if I was better about writing letters, I
wouldn’t have so much to say. I know its long, just read it in parts though.
*wink* First thing, I judged a beauty contest on Saturday. I personally think
this is so cool. It was the Miss Mono pageant. Benin is separated into 14
departments, similar to how the US is divided into states, and the Mono is the
department/region that I live in. The winner of this competition goes on to
compete in the Miss Benin pageant and from there the Miss Universe pageant. The
show unfortunately started two hours late (AF-African folks time) and didn’t
finished till roughly 1:30 in the morning. One reason it dragged on so, was the
deliberations that were involved in tallying up the votes amongst the judges.
And as I said I was involved in that, lucky me right. I will just say there
were some stories told, and talking and going back and forth about the best way
to do it, all and all in my Americaness I had a headache by the end of it.
Still though it was cool experience and I know the girl that won.
Last thing, last week
I went au village to see a groupement (women’s cooperative group) that I work
with in a village that is approximately a half an hour zemi ride from my town.
So its a fairly small village with most of the house being made from mud bricks
and it is “in the bush.” I worked with a health volunteer to get some soy beans
donated to them, to cultivate for their community. They already grew maize,
manioc (cassova), black eyed peas, and produced gari (which is made from manioc
and is a grainy substance that serves as a condiment to beans or is eaten with
water and peanuts). Unfortunately, the rain came late this year (I never
realized the importance of rain, before if it rained or not it didn’t make me
any never mind, now I have a better understanding of the role it plays, plus it
just so much cooler here after it rains) and still isn’t as plentiful as it
usually is, so the soy didn’t grow. We were having a discussion about this, as
to how much was saved, and it was decided that we should just go to the field
so I can see for myself. As I told you I was already in the bush. So to get to
the fields we walked (or should I say hiked another 20 mins almost into the
bush, in the hot African sun, on a literal FOOT trail with grass on either side
of us that was sometimes at least a foot taller then me, and corn fields, etc.
surrounding us. Its all good though, plus if the lady that is accompanying me,
that is seven months pregnant, can brave it--I can. But whatever, so we see the
fields. I am dehydrated by this point and
I think we are going on a path to go back, but actually we have gotten
more into the corn fields. So they start picking up corn and clearing the field
some. My tour guides, whom only one of which speaks French, tell me “I’m coming”
(which means one second). So I am left with nothing but seven foot grass to the
front of me with baobab trees of in the far distance, and a corn field behind
me that’s equally as high. As my associates have disappeared into the fields
and I can only here the noise they are making with their coupe-coupes
(machetes), I listen to the other natural noises that surround me. The thought enters my mind what exactly is
out there. And contrary to what our training director in DC told us before
coming, there are snakes in Benin, very big, dangerous, poisonous ones. And my
mind just wandered from there. Plus, I looked down at my newly painted nails,
scratched my freshly braided hair (done in contemporary American fashion),
scanned my once clean khakis (why would anyone wear light colored pants to walk
out into the bush??? stupid me), and adjusted my sun glasses and shoulder bag
(why would anyone have a shoulder bag to go out to the bush, it makes so much more
sense to carry stuff on your head in a basket, or just leave it behind) and
realized what in the world am I doing here. I felt so American at that point,
and had to laugh at myself. Then I thought, and only for a brief second, how
cool and pretty it was out here, then I heard those noises again and realized
there were ants crawling on the corn leaves that are hanging over my head. So
they come back with their hands full of corn and I loan my shoulder bag to them
to carry the corn back in (so maybe it wasn’t so stupid to have after all) and
we head off. Along the way we encounter a stream of big black ants crossing the
path. And they are like be careful. I have been bitten by the big black ants
before, and I remember the intense burning sensation they cause so I kind of
freaked out, well just yelped. Plus, I only have on some little thong flip flop
sandal things anyway, so I had to jump over that. Before I forget though before
we headed back they noticed that people had been walking through their field
and hence stomping on the crops, so they built traps. When I say traps, I mean
they dug a really deep hole a little bigger then a foot and then put branches
across it and a palm leaf over that and then covered it with dirt. Just like in
TV, I was impressed. LOL. So we are on the path, we get back to the village. I
am so tired my this point (I guess I do need to ride my bike more) and nasty.
They call my zemi driver, who is from this village and was taking a nap at his
house during our meeting, and its time to go. The nicest thing though, why did they
gave me all of the corn that they had picked while we were out there (21 ears),
it was all for me. People in the villages are so nice, and they insisted on
paying my zemi fare. We had a fourth of July cookout on Saturday so I had my
neighbor cook the corn for me (it had ants on it and I really didn’t want to
fool with it) for that and my neighbor and I ate a couple of pieces that night.
Just an example to show you how nice people are here, sometimes, but for the
most part.
Okay so I have rapped
on long enough, I hope you enjoyed, and I will be in touch ou bien see you
soon!
Love and God Bless,
Mei
