Bisous du Benin!

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 from 25July to 6August)


So we've gone on two field trips to two different villages. Yesterday we went a visited a rural health clinic (a lot like or maybe totally unlike where we may or may not be working). We interviewed the director and got info on what kind of stuff the center focuses on- primarily malaria, immunizations for 0-5 year olds, birthing and prenatal care. The center also has agents in villages that are too far for the villagers to walk over for treatment, and this agents have government supplied medicines, and they call in to the center on a case by case basis and get permission to distribute it. That's pretty cool. The center we went to has a special maternity wing with 60 births a month.


Today we went to a different village to do a getting to know you type session. A lot of health classes so far are about learning books-worth of techniques about how to organize your village and best determine what they need help with. So this was sort of a practice run of one of those sessions. My group presented (in French) to a group of women in the village, and we created a map of the village, using pictures that we drew out in advance to represent different elements of the village: wells, schools, traditional healers, the village chief, fields, markets, blah blah blah. It was really interesting in both these instances to be in village and just get a taste of what it's gonna be like: aka every little thing takes forever (especially if you need to translate your french into local language), and everybody has an opinion, and they are generally thrilled to see you even if you kinda suck.


We've also been working a lot on language (duh), cross-cultural (basically a lot of help at marche, and figuring out men's and women's roles, that kind of stuff), and bike training. We've been doing a lot of field trips this week, and next week we get OUR POSTS as well as go to another village for some baby weighting practice. Basically, I am doing stuff all the freaking time, and have not really had a chance to get my letter groove going, so I apologize for lack of communication on my part. I finally got my hand on some envelopes to mail letters, but I haven't figured out the postal system yet, and the internet situation has been super shady. If you ready this that means I was able to find a cafe that didn't suck to bad. Success!!
We have class from 8-4ish, depending on the day. (I wake up at 6, eat at 7, leave at 7:30) After that there's usually tutoring, visiting friends, football games, and circle des amis (which is basically a mandatory time when we all go to a bar and speak french with eachother). These weeks have flown by, because I'm just constantly occupied.


The French has been going okay- I think. My friend Dave equates our situation to putting a gun to your poor little brain and just demanding that it adapt. Which is what it feels like up there. I'm already forgetting how to spell some English words, and I still don't really know a whole ton of French, so it feels like I don't speak any languages at all. I was watching Fear Factor Algeria with my dad, and about ten minutes passes before either of us realized the other had no idea what was going on, and neither of us spoke Arabic. I have read a couple books in English during boring moments, and it was like going on a brain vacation. My poor head didn't have to work at all, and it felt great.