Showing posts with label cotonou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cotonou. Show all posts

inservice in porto-novo

(written 11jan2011)

Our inservice was just for the health and environmental sectors, which turned out to be awesome. We all got to see old friends that we haven't seen since stage, and it was really cool to hear what people are working on. We all stayed in a hotel together at Songhai, for a whole week. The food was incredible. They catered our lunches and breakfasts, and we had chicken and fries and fish and spaghetti, and tuna salad, and all sorts of magical things. The very last day, we got a “pizza salad”, which is a salad.. topped with mini mushroom pizzas. It was amazing. We also found this new restaurant in Porto-Novo, called le President, which gave me by far the best meal I have had in Benin. I had rabbit and fries. And the rabbit actually had a dry-rub on it. I was delicious in a way I can't even describe. So yay food!

The inservice itself was totally lame. Because it was like stage part 2. Classes about things we'd already learned. And the homologue were there for most of the week. The sessions were geared towards them. And we spent a lot of time sitting and zoning out. I will spare you details.

The last day I was at the inservice, me and my friends Alison and Julia went to see a Christian Celeste visionary. Christian Celeste is a weird offshoot of Christianity that exists here, that I frankly know nothing about. But if you go to one of their temples (there was one around the corner from Songhai) they will do a reading for you for free. You meditate on a topic, and they “see” a vision of you, and then explain it to you. It's pretty cool. Our lady was the nicest as can be. Here's what my vision is (fairly directly translated):

I am standing in the middle of a river, and the wind is blowing the water up around me, and I begin to be afraid. But these two (or maybe it was three) angels come down and take my hand. And they tell me not to be afraid because “this river is your country, and it cannot swallow you.”
Then I'm in this garden. And the garden is beautiful, there are flowers everywhere. I'm standing with my friend, and I'm holding a bunch of roses. My friend is also my fiance. When we are a couple, people will say, “Oh it's not serious”. And I will get discouraged, and it will cause me and my friend to fight. But I have to have patience, these people will go away, and we will be together forever and ever.
Also. I shouldn't be worried about succeeding in my village. It is already written on my palm that I will do good here. I will build a castle for my village. (Chateau can also be translated as a water type building- so it could be translated as a castle, latrine, or pump.)
She also said that if people offer me to smoke, I shouldn't because it's bad for my health. And also that I should not be outside in the deep night (midnight).

So all and all, good news right!

We spent a couple days in Cotonou after the inservice, which meant more good food at expensive restaurants, a trip to Mango (the one normal clothing store in the entire country) financed by my parents, and a trip to a hotel SPA. Which was totally legit. There were four of us who went, a couple people got pedicures and haircuts, but I got my legs waxed! Best decision ever. It was so nice to just have a girl's day out, and pretend we were in Europe for just a day.

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cotonou (continued)!

(written 19jul10)

Still in Cotonou! We've had a lot of free time the last day, and brought my netbook to the Peace Corps office to use their connection. It's not really free time. I should be studying French. But....you know....it's optional....

CONTACT UPDATE
So I'm going to be getting a cell phone at the end of stage (September). If you want to talk to me not on skype, I would recommend getting Pingo or something similar. It's really expensive for me to call the US, so I'll probably like call you and then have you call me back. I do have some phone credits, so I might call from some other volunteer's phone in the next couple weeks. But... that's still kind of a pain- we'll see.

So this is a copy/paste of part of an email I sent- I decided that it was a lot of information and I should just tell everyone:

So I'm leaving Cotonou tomorrow for my host family- I hope I get someone good cause..blech.. Everyone just says that you need to just hang on through stage and just one training after another because post is what everyone really wants to do. I definitely already am looking forward to post announcements, and would rather forget all this learning altogether.

We did another tour of the city yesterday and it was pretty rad, we got to see the ocean at a not nice beach. (We're supposed to be going as a group to a good beach in Porto Novo in a couple weeks.) So the PCVT we were with (PCV Trainer- they are current PCVs that come to help out with stage) was telling us about how he was drunk once and went to go hang out in the ocean (there's a tikki looking bar right on the water that looks exactly like the one in blood diamond). Anyway he looked down by his feet and saw a hypodermic needle. And then he decided not to hang out on the beach anymore. One of the biggest issues in Cotonou (and everywhere) is trash. Your village just makes giant piles and burns it when it's full. But kids are like playing in the trash pile in the meantime and like putting everything in their mouths. So if you have tampons or razors or batteries that can't be burnt you throw it down your latrine, or you dig a giant hole and just bury it. That's nuts.

Anyway, I'm still having fun- although already it's totally hard in moments- I have a really close girlfriend named Shannon- who's from TEXAS- hint hint Mary. I also have a great friend named Veronica, and we trade Sillybands all the time. It's hard because you're always split up by sector (i.e. health, business, agric, tefl) so you get separated from your buds. But really, the people I adore are really too many to mention. This evening I copied 108 movies of my friend Matt's external drive. Um.. yes.. my life just got 80% better. PLEASE SEND ME SILLY BANDS IN THE MAIL. THEY ARE THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!!! AND I WOULD ALSO LIKE OB TAMPONS!

I have like no bug bites at all and poor Shannon is getting eaten alive. I do however have two GIANT bites on my butt that must be from like a raccoon cause they are huge! And it hurts when I have to sit for hours in the hard wooden chairs.

Benin is pretty incredible, and really like an alien planet (as everyone says). I was sitting on my bug bites learning about malnutrition and I looked outside and it was just beige and beautiful and breezy, and everything I've always wanted. Africans say once you go to Africa it will be with you forever. I always had Africa in my head and my heart, and now I know it's part of my soul and my body itself.

I miss you, I love you. TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE DOING! Mel and Grandma- I got your update emails, they were absolutely lovely, thank you! I love you're comments and emails- I'm reading them all, even if I'm not getting my act together to write you back quite so soon!

P.S. I also put some stickers on my zem helmet this afternoon- which pretty much makes me awesome. Everybody loves to take pictures of each other with the helmets because they make our heads look giant, but I couldn't find my camera in my luggage for two days- but now that I got it again I'm hoping to get back on track with that.

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cotonou!

1:39 AM Posted by shell dawg 2 comments

(written 18jul10)

Hey friends! So as you may have gathered, I'm in AFRICA!!! How exciting! So I'm in the town of Cotonou, but by the time you read this I will have probably moved to Porto Novo and gotten my home-stay. We're currently doing a bunch of trainings at a hotel. I'll try to get some pics up of the hotel and friends, cause I do have some on my camera

On that note, I have realized that the reason a lot of PCV's don't have that many pictures of Benin on their blogs, is that it's not entirely culturally appropriate to take pictures of whatever you want, especially since I am a yovo (foreigner). And you have to ask permission everytime you want to photo anything. So I'll do my best to get photos for you guys, but no guarantees.

So what have I been learning? Well... pretty much everything. We've gotten a lot of orientation information, had a lot of discussion about what is and is not reasonable to expect culturally and in your work at post. We haven't particularly gotten into the nitty gritty of training yet. This morning we got to meet the American ambassador to Benin (squeal!) Yesterday we visited the Peace Corps headquarters in Cotonou, which is where all my bosses work, and you can stay if you're sick or just passing through. There's internet and kitchens and the PCV library where you can take whatever you want. There's also this thing called dead yovo, which is a cabinet where exiting PCVs throw things they don't need/want and you can go and pick up whatever you like. There are four main Peace Corps offices like this around the country, and they each have the same sort of amenities, so depending on where you're stationed, it acts as a main hub. Hmmm...what else happened yesterday. We also got our zem helmets (zemidjans are motorcycle taxis, and your main way of getting around), our bikes, our bike helmets, and awesome double sided saddlebags to keep all our bike stuff in. We also had our language interviews (eek!) which was a little bit nerve-wracking because I have apparently forgotten all my verbs. After siesta today we're gonna get our language level placements and start getting into it.

I think that's just about it. It's basically impossible for me to describe what is going on here and what Benin is like. Our staging class has met a lot of the current PCVs who are extremely helpful with orientation, and throughout every part of the organization it really feels like you're with family. After the minute amount of time that I've been here, I feel absolutely comfortable talking with any of the staff about anything. And as far as my stage-mates are concerned, we are pretty much already like glue. I know a little bit about everyone (there's 70 of us), I've got names down pat, and we pretty much love being around each other, and it's frankly a little bizarre how well we get along. I definitely have some good friends already, but I try not to hang out with them toooo much, so that I can get to know every one.
Benin is pretty much like what you'd imagine from every movie about Africa ever. As far as landscape is concerned. Like it's definitely a little dirty, and there's trash everywhere, and manholes in the sidewalk which you can fall into if you're not looking. If you sit in one place and wait long enough, someone will walk buy and sell you exactly what you need from a basket on their head. There are a lot of trees, more than I expected, and little lizards running all over the ground constantly. It hasn't been that hot yet, but we are on the tail end of the rainy season and it will be getting warmer in due time. I went to a “supermarket” yesterday and got an apple and an ice cream bar- SO AMAZING! We haven't had real fruit at all so far, although that's a lie cause there were some oranges at breakfast. But they're not like regular oranges, they're really tough and mostly just for sucking out the juice. It's amazing how quickly you can start craving other foods. I must say that everything I've eaten here has been delicious (and organic)! We have pasta, rice and cous-cous a lot, and there's always a baguette with the meal, so it's super carb heavy. But we've also had fish and beef and some delicious spicy sauces and egg salad-type things. It really is quite good. I'm really looking forward to getting some bush-rat, which will probably be happening once I get to home-stay. Benin is pretty darn cheap. I had a beer last night for 60 cents US. But you know, they don't give us a ton of cash to work off of.

Well siesta is almost done. I'll try to think of other things to say that might give you an idea of how things are- I know reading is not always that helpful. I miss you all very much, but I want you to know I'm doing good, and I'm being taken care of! I love you, and I'll talk with you all soon!

P.S. Lemme know if you have any questions about Benin for me! I'd love to answer!

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