J'adore ton blog! La petite Nadya est tres mignonne. J'ai mis sa photo dans mon folder de "My pictures." J'adore les enfants africains.
Je suis contente qu'il apparait que tout va plus ou moins bien pour toi en ce moment. Je suppose que tu peux toujours passer des jours ou des semaines de "homesickness" ou "culture shock" mais je sais que tu peux les supporter. Je suis toujours si jalouse de ta bonne chance de passer du temps en afrique de l'ouest, surtout dans un pais francophone! Tu vas parler francais tres biens apres deux ans la ba. Je trouve que le premiere annee dans une endroit nouveau est la plus difficile. Il faut qu'on adapte a toutes les choses nouvelles, a un vie un bizarre. Mais cela vaut la peine. J'ai trouve que mes ans en afrique a change completement ma vie, mes pensees, ce qui me parait important. Je crois que la plus importante chose, ce sont les gens qu'on encontre. Tu ne va jamais les oublier.
La fille de Suzanne van der Valk (tu te r'appelle d'elle? Elle etait a la reunion avec Monsieur Truc de Nigeria. Comme je disais, sa fille de 29 ou 30 ans, un etudiant de journalism a l'universite d'Oregon, vient de rentrer aux etats unis du Ghana. Elle a passe six semaines la travaillant comme journaliste - c'etait un "internship". Je lui ai donne le nom et adresse de mon ami Ghanaian, Christian, lui aussi journalist. Ils se sont encontres! C'est incroyable. Cela a fait une connection pour moi de ma ville de 1976 and ma vie de 2006. Trente ans.
Je vois que mon francais devient plus en plus pire. Allors, je vais terminer ice.
Wow, I remember the good old days of trying to learn a language (just to learn they speak a whole different one at my site!), trying to figure out all the cultural things like "what are all these people doing dancing down the street with powder on their faces and what the HELL are they drinking?!?" all the while dancing with them but not knowing why or where you are going.
Then there's the information.... WAAAAAAY too much infomation!!! Ahh, the hurried busyness of PST. But relax...if it's on paper (which I'm sure it is because EVERYTHING in training is on paper) then you don't have to commit it to your brain quite yet...that will come after you've built up relationships at site.
It's so fun to hear about your new life in Benin! From what I've read, your training is pretty similar to the one I had. We stayed with homestays too and the food really is so much better in other countries than it is in the US!!! Fresh and balanced...what a relief!
So exciting to hear that you had your site placement interview!!! I really lucked out with the site I have...I'm gonna go ahead and say it's the best one in the country, even if I am a little partial=)
I thought that i'd be doing alot of business training too but it turns out that with my age and gender, what I know is much more effective in my community if it comes from someone else. SO... alot of what I do is information sharing and then the actual trainings are done through the higherups in the community. I don't mind it though, it's much more sustainable. I'd rather have that over self monuments any day! (I'm sure they'll talk to you about that too...very important!!) Anyway, this is way too long already. I just want you to know that I hear ya sista and although it's hard, try to savor every moment of what you are experiencing!!! You are making wonderful memories every moment you are there! AND you'll laugh at all the shitty stuff some day too...trust me. I've got many many stories about language mess ups... turns out almost everything in the wrong tone has something to do with sex in this language...once I asked the mayor how many balls he had instead of how many kids he had. He looked at me funny and said two....and then he said one was a girl and one was a boy. Funny, no? I'm sure you have some too... Take care and have fun!! I'll try to get something in the mail very soon. I don't know how the hell it'll go over at the post office, but we'll see!
This is so interesting and blogging cretaes a whole new way of communicating! Of course it is always a challenge to live and work abroad (even I have problems when I go back to my home town Cali, Colombia). But, when you complete a project or a stay and succeed it feels soooo good!
Me parece muy bueno tu blog! Como otras personas estan escribiendo en Frances you voy a "bloggear" en Espanol! LOL
Esto es una oportunidad para mi de aprender mucho sobre Africa (especialmente Benin) porque yo no se mucho de este continente tan interesante!
Espero que todo va bien! Yo he visitado Dakar cuando era muy joven, con mi mama y papa en un viaje de Colombia a Europa. El avion de Air France paso por Africa para recibir gasolina (?) y para recibir pasajeros de Africa en su viaje a Paris.
5 Comments:
Chere Sara,
J'adore ton blog! La petite Nadya est tres mignonne. J'ai mis sa photo dans mon folder de "My pictures." J'adore les enfants africains.
Je suis contente qu'il apparait que tout va plus ou moins bien pour toi en ce moment. Je suppose que tu peux toujours passer des jours ou des semaines de "homesickness" ou "culture shock" mais je sais que tu peux les supporter. Je suis toujours si jalouse de ta bonne chance de passer du temps en afrique de l'ouest, surtout dans un pais francophone! Tu vas parler francais tres biens apres deux ans la ba. Je trouve que le premiere annee dans une endroit nouveau est la plus difficile. Il faut qu'on adapte a toutes les choses nouvelles, a un vie un bizarre. Mais cela vaut la peine. J'ai trouve que mes ans en afrique a change completement ma vie, mes pensees, ce qui me parait important. Je crois que la plus importante chose, ce sont les gens qu'on encontre. Tu ne va jamais les oublier.
La fille de Suzanne van der Valk (tu te r'appelle d'elle? Elle etait a la reunion avec Monsieur Truc de Nigeria. Comme je disais, sa fille de 29 ou 30 ans, un etudiant de journalism a l'universite d'Oregon, vient de rentrer aux etats unis du Ghana. Elle a passe six semaines la travaillant comme journaliste - c'etait un "internship". Je lui ai donne le nom et adresse de mon ami Ghanaian, Christian, lui aussi journalist. Ils se sont encontres! C'est incroyable. Cela a fait une connection pour moi de ma ville de 1976 and ma vie de 2006. Trente ans.
Je vois que mon francais devient plus en plus pire. Allors, je vais terminer ice.
Ecrive beaucoup de blog pages, s'il te plait!
Grosses bises,
Mary
Sawat dii kha!!!
Wow, I remember the good old days of trying to learn a language (just to learn they speak a whole different one at my site!), trying to figure out all the cultural things like "what are all these people doing dancing down the street with powder on their faces and what the HELL are they drinking?!?" all the while dancing with them but not knowing why or where you are going.
Then there's the information....
WAAAAAAY too much infomation!!! Ahh, the hurried busyness of PST. But relax...if it's on paper (which I'm sure it is because EVERYTHING in training is on paper) then you don't have to commit it to your brain quite yet...that will come after you've built up relationships at site.
It's so fun to hear about your new life in Benin! From what I've read, your training is pretty similar to the one I had. We stayed with homestays too and the food really is so much better in other countries than it is in the US!!! Fresh and balanced...what a relief!
So exciting to hear that you had your site placement interview!!! I really lucked out with the site I have...I'm gonna go ahead and say it's the best one in the country, even if I am a little partial=)
I thought that i'd be doing alot of business training too but it turns out that with my age and gender, what I know is much more effective in my community if it comes from someone else. SO... alot of what I do is information sharing and then the actual trainings are done through the higherups in the community. I don't mind it though, it's much more sustainable. I'd rather have that over self monuments any day! (I'm sure they'll talk to you about that too...very important!!) Anyway, this is way too long already. I just want you to know that I hear ya sista and although it's hard, try to savor every moment of what you are experiencing!!! You are making wonderful memories every moment you are there! AND you'll laugh at all the shitty stuff some day too...trust me. I've got many many stories about language mess ups... turns out almost everything in the wrong tone has something to do with sex in this language...once I asked the mayor how many balls he had instead of how many kids he had. He looked at me funny and said two....and then he said one was a girl and one was a boy. Funny, no? I'm sure you have some too... Take care and have fun!! I'll try to get something in the mail very soon. I don't know how the hell it'll go over at the post office, but we'll see!
This is so interesting and blogging cretaes a whole new way of communicating! Of course it is always a challenge to live and work abroad (even I have problems when I go back to my home town Cali, Colombia). But, when you complete a project or a stay and succeed it feels soooo good!
el Flaco
this baby is just tooo CUTE! :)
Sara:
Me parece muy bueno tu blog! Como otras personas estan escribiendo en Frances you voy a "bloggear" en Espanol! LOL
Esto es una oportunidad para mi de aprender mucho sobre Africa (especialmente Benin) porque yo no se mucho de este continente tan interesante!
Espero que todo va bien! Yo he visitado Dakar cuando era muy joven, con mi mama y papa en un viaje de Colombia a Europa. El avion de Air France paso por Africa para recibir gasolina (?) y para recibir pasajeros de Africa en su viaje a Paris.
This is just like French nest pas!?
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