Bisous du Benin!

So I'm already running short on internet time, so I'll try to keep this brief-ish. This last week was the launching of my Amour & Vie team in Penelan. I've talked about Amour & Vie in past posts- it's a national program all about health peer education in village. So the launching (or lancement) is basically a big party for the village to let them know what we're all about and get them ready to have their worlds rocked. It's also an opportunity for the important men in village (like the traditional chief and delegate) to publicly give their support, so the project is more likely to succeed. Representatives from Cotonou Amour & Vie came to see the lancement, check in on us, and make sure things are going smoothly for us so far. This meant fellow volunteer Brigitte (yay!) and Hugues, who is the Beninese guy in charge of Amour & Vie Cotonou. It was really great that they came out and supported us, and it's always really helpful to get somebody else to talk to your team in French, and cover anything that you (I) said, which your team (my team) totally ignored.
So I was trying to get my team to put this thing together for like the two weeks leading up the the event, but most things like this in Benin happen LAST minute. So my efforts to get a jump on it where...not entirely successful. So the lancement was on a Sunday. Which meant that all Saturday and Sunday was last minute running around to get the entire event worked out. Penelan doesn't have electricity so all our cold drinks (a definite requirement) had to be brought in from Penessoulou- which involved me zemming out at 7 in the morning and dragging around coolers with 50 lbs of soda in them. We rented a sound system, which required both a generator and gas to run the generator. But in addition to the sound system there was a traditional band that we hired to get the party started with some dance music. There were speeches to write, a lesson plan for my team to plan. (They gave a sample presentation on family planning just as an introduction to the program.)
Because there are no really restaurant type places in my town,we had to order all the food in advance. And apparently it's rude and exclusive to just hire one woman to do everything. So I had to get Reine to be an intermediary while I bargained with the village's women's association, who were going to do all the cooking the day off! We had yam pilee (mashed yams) and chicken. It was actually really good.
I also wanted my nice neighbor to do the official launching ceremony at the very end. Which is apparently offensive to my supervisor (a non-entity that I've talked to twice at the maximum). Although my supervisor has no idea what this project is even about, he is technically my liason in village. And it would be disrespectful to him (and the village who chose him) if I went over his head. So.... I had to go talk to him and get him to make a speech.
I also had to walk around Saturday morning with my team and make house visits to all the important men in village and personally invite them to the event. This was the fun part- they were all super sweet to me, and talked about how important health was, and how I was such an asset to the village (flattery will get you everywhere). “The first thing you pray for in the morning is health. You are trying to bring health to our village- how could we not support you?” The delegate (basically a kind of political representative) actually had a longish conversation with me about how it's important that traditional voodoo health rituals work together with the health center. It was really interesting, and I learned a lot about how my village views health. And how to plan an event.
I'm gonna cut this off, even though there is so much more I could say. The event went really well- there were about 100 people there (there are pictures on facebook). It was definitely one of my most rewarding experiences in country. Because it was something that everyone in the village could see that I was doing, and I got so much positive feedback. For most of your service, most villagers will not understand at all what you are doing, why you are there, or what your role is. And I feel like I got the opportunity to show them that I'm here, I'm working, and I'm a part of their community. It was a pain in the ass to put together, and I think that's why it was so much fun when it went off without a hitch. I was very proud of my village for being so helpful, and so receptive, and so totally gung-ho. And I was proud of myself! It's this kind of real village experience that volunteers ALL live for. It's few and far between, but it makes it worth it.

A couple weeks ago (...maybe a month? It was whenever kadafi died) my close mates Jared and Heather and I had a nice little pow-wow in Jared's town of Aledjo. They each live like only 10k away from me, but they are both teachers, and somehow our schedules never really line up, so it's very rarely that we're all together! We had the goal of climbing the Aledjo mountain which is in a town right next to Jared's, and it the highest elevation in Benin (although not the tallest mountain I'm sure).
Aledjo is super cute, and actually really huge, especially for being out in the bust and off the main road. It is the main market town for goods coming across the border from Togo, and has the biggest marche in the county (commune) of Bassila. I really should be going to Aledjo for market days, but it's kind of expensive for me to get there ($6 US round trip), because I have to zem on a dirt road for a little ways. Anyway, it's right on the Togo border, so it has a cool mix of cultures!
So the three of us got there on Friday afternoon and hung out chatting for a while at a buvette (bar). We went a got some yummy cheap-ass traditional food (corn pate and goat for less than $0.50 US). And after that we went and hung out at another buvette owned by a friend of Jared's who's really cool. And by then it was getting kinda late, but we walked down to the Togo border to go to Jared's favorite chouck hut. Chouck is homemade millet beer, and it's really popular in the north. It was an awesome hut, in the middle of the forest, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Benin? Or Togo? Who can tell. We spent an hour or two drinking beer, shooting the shit with some of Jared's Beninese friends, and petting an adorable newborn puppy. All in all it was so so much fun. It's great to see how village life is for other volunteers, and get to see a little bit of traditions in other villages.
In the morning we went and hiked the mountain, which was steep!! It's dry season, so there is 5 ft. tall grass overrunning everything. And the last half of the hike, we kept losing and finding the path in the grass. So it was a little bit of a struggle getting up, and then there wasn't much of a view. But it was fun all the same, and some good exercise!
Bottom line: hiking=awesome. buvettes=awesome. village=awesome. good friends=supreme!

A word about my health! Pretty much right after posting that last blog post about having malaria, I got back to Penelan and got malaria AGAIN. I don't think it was as bad as the last time, and I took the medicine pretty quickly and kept it in check. My mom is convinced that I was running myself a little ragged in between bouts and the first case of malaria never really left my body.

I also got food poisoning last week for the first time in my life. It was a pretty inspirational experience. I still can't pinpoint what the culprit was. But it was kind of amusing because my dog and I share a lot of the same food (he usually eats my leftovers). And whatever it was made him barfy too!

I have gotten lots of sweet inquiries as to my health, and I really appreciate it. I want to let you all know that I am totally fine, I'm back to 100%. And I promise, no more malaria!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! (the best holiday ever- besides fourth of July)
Sending all my love and thanks to you for being such good friends to me. I hope you and your families have a great holiday season!!!

Hey I just wanted to send you all a quick update because it's been so long. I just got back from a conference with Amour & Vie, which is a program run by PSI (a groovy international NGO). PSI (Population Services International) is a great NGO, and they do a lot of health work in Benin with malaria, HIV/AIDS, water sanitation and family planning. So the Amour & Vie program was a training for representatives from our villages (there were like 10 volunteers who participated). The program trains them on health issues, and trains them how to give presentations, so they can go back to village and sort of “peer educate” the villagers in local language. So it's pretty cool! It's a lot of work for us right now, me and my reps are trying to set up the program in Penelan and there have been some hiccups and misunderstandings, but in another month we should be up and running, and Penelan will get at minimum two health lectures a month. By villagers, and not me! Yay sustainability! So that's sort of my main project right now.

I've also been setting up post visits for the new kids. I'm going to be visiting six different posts in November of volunteers from the new stage, just to check in on them and make sure everything's going okay. So I've been helping to set up the logistics for that.

What else has happened? I got malaria about two weeks ago, which majorly cramped my style for a little while. Malaria is the worst kids, you should avoid that for reals. I for sure wanted to die.

Last month I also got a Beninese style tattoo in my friend's village. They just make little lines with a razor blade (a new one, no AIDs!), and generally fill it with some kind of ash so the lines stay. A LOT of volunteers get these tattoos, I'd say maybe 75%, because it's pretty iconic, I'd say the same percentage of Beninese people have the scars. The guy doing mine used the ash of bird feathers, which is pretty cool! I had to eat part of the ash before he did it as pat of the ceremony. I got three little lines on my back, it's sort of a general symbol of protection.

I realize this update is horrifically short, but I feel like there is at once so much to say and so little. Now that I've updated you all on what's sort of been going on, I'm hoping next month I can get into some fun stuff! I won't have internet again til Halloween, so I hope you all have a great October!! Lots of love.

P.S. I forgot! My camera broke, so there haven't been pictures in a while, but my mom is sending a new one in the mail, so pictures should be back soon!

(written 16July2011)
My friends! It has been an egregious amount of time since my last blog post. For that, I apologize! I don't really remember what the last thing I told ya'll about was- but I've pretty much been on the road since the end of April doing In-Services for Peace Corps. Which generally means spending a lot of time in the south, and saving up my money so I can afford to go to the one Indian restaurant in the country.

So, as few of you know, I just got back from a trip to America for Mary and David's wedding!!! Happy day!! It was really nice, but quite stressful, because I felt like there wasn't hardly any time for me to do all the things I wanted to. I was running around shopping for things to bring back with me, and eventually managed to compile 120 lbs of luggage, most of it food. And shampoo. I'm definitely already begun fattening up a little. There's no way to really talk about everything it did/ATE (the primary goal of any Peace Corps return-ee), so here's some quick highlights.

Going to bookstore and thrift shop with the fam (my two favorite kinds of stores)
Getting good coffee and eating out at my favorite restaurants
Mel's homemade guac, and other yummy homemade things
Mom's quartet coaching
Seeing an honest to goodness dolorian a while eating breakfast (pictures on f-book!)
Going to the SF MOMA with my family for some super art
Seeing an awesome play by Shady Shakespeare (my favorite company)
Getting Vietnamese sandwiches with the Hauperts
Running errands for the wedding, including Costco!
Dim sum with John in the city, and finally going to Humphrey Slocombe's, the most magical ice cream shop this side of mission st.
Meeting all the relatives at the wedding, seeing old friends who warm the utter cockles of my heart
The WEDDING: every single part!! EVERY SINGLE PART! I love you both so much! It was a really amazing day/night. AMAZING.
Going to night slides (water park!) at katie rose's house
Katie's momma making delicious home-cooked dinner for us, and a visit from Carol!
Bbq with the volleyball kids in Sacramento
Catching up with friends and fillin my life full to the brim with love

Big apologies to everyone I was not able to see when I was back, my schedule was out-of-control-tight, and there were I lot of things I wanted to do, but was unable. (My dad ate a lamb chop I was thawing in the fridge, so we went and bought me more so that I could have a lamb chop experience. It was sitting in the fridge, but I totally ran out of time- and meals-and forgot all about the poor lamb chop. And now the memory of it's grass-fed glory haunts me.)
Please let me know what has been going on in your lives, I cannot wait to come back for realsies and catch up! I love you, and I miss you so much.

(written 14July2011)
The new stage (AKA the new group of peace corps volunteers) arrived July 2, so we've been busy gettin them trained! They will be in Porto-Novo til September (like I was). At the end of August I'm going down there to run the sex-ed week for the health sector. Fun, fun!

I was there with some other PSN (Peer Support Network) members to welcome them in Cotonou when they flew in, and it was neat to be there on their very first day! It's nice to have the opportunity to see all of them and meet my new future friends. Admittedly, they kind of freak me out. They are all so glassy-eyed and vaguely lost. And they make me feel vaguely lost. Ahh to imagine that was once me!

(written 14July2011)
So there have been a LOT of changes in Penelan! My homologue, Reine, DID have the mysterious baby! It was born the day after I left for America. Her name is Gracia (or Grace). She's adorable. Reine has like this swanky legit crib that she got in Cotonou for the baby. I don't know how she brought it up to village... so many things I'll never get.

Other big news. The little dirt road that runs from Penessoulou to Penelan used to be about ten feet wide (maybe?). Now it's like a football field! It's at least quadrupled. I think they are gonna go all the way and actually pave the sucker. Apparently this road is going to continue to the town over (Aledjo) and on to Togo so trucks can get through more efficiently and everyone can get their trade on. So they just tore down a bunch of trees to make room for the road. And they even widened it past the marche in my village, which means they took down some peoples' houses to make room for it. And now when travel the road, not only is it kind of difficult to tell where you all because all the regular landmarks have disappeared, but there are literally halves of houses lining the road that goes into village. They look like mini sitcom sets, because you can see into what used to be a room. I'll get a picture for you. I find it rather amusing. There is talk about whether or not this project is a precursor to electricity? Hmm? I give it five more years.

More news! My neighbors- the mean school director and his daughter, the slave girl- have moved! Things had gotten pretty bad with them the last couple months. He was like getting drunk and beating her all the time (she's like 9). And then she would come hang out at my house to get away, or try to get me to help her (despite there being nothing at all I can do). And it was MAJORLY stressing me out. I tried to talk to a couple people in village about it. I found out that nobody liked him (he's from Cotonou or the south somewhere) but there wasn't really anything they could do about it because he was posted there by the government. And he was buddies with the man in charge of postings so nobody could report him. Hurrah mild corruption! His wife and other kids already left him earlier in the year, because he's an asshole, but they left poor slave girl behind because she's his daughter by another wife. Anyway, I guess he decided to move a couple towns down to live on a farm he's been working on. YAY! And the best news is that slave girl has moved to be with other family in the south somewhere! So not only am I rid of him, but more importantly, she is too! Happy day! The bottom line here, is that slave girl is no longer lurking outside my door trying to get in every ten minutes, and the director isn't trying to have drunken philosophical conversations about discipline and the school environment today (which are not fun talks to get roped into). SO- I can hang out in my front yard stress free! I can play my ukulele and nobody will bother me! I can play fetch with Atticus in the yard. I can sit and read on my stoop. I don't have to hear his radio going 24 hours a day, so I can sleep at night! And I can sleep in in the mornings if I want! I can play my music loud, and have dance parties! Pretty much everything got awesome.

Last bit o' news! Me and my nice neighbor have been talking about getting me a garden for a while, and when I was in America, he and his kids built a beautiful fence for me! It's about as high as I am, and there's a jolly little gate! And I know he hoed the inside of the garden to make it more plant-able. He wants to dig out some raised beds before we get started. The rainy season has come a little late this year, and is sort of beginning to start now. I'd say we should have the seeds in beginning of August, and then we'll see what grows! I'm excited to work on it with him, and I'm looking forward to us hanging out and talking shop. Maybe I can get him to eat some vegetables for once.