My road leading out of town

FYI: Il y a une bonne bean lady down the road a little further
Comme tu veut

My house is the third one down

Chez moi c'est ici

My living room
Do you love the colors half as much as me?
It's so nice and way too big!

Where the house is located- feels very rural and I like it. The forest is so beautiful, as you can see here, and my walk to the office is a pleasure. The weather is always humid but usually stays in the 80’s or low 90’s, so bearable. The afternoons can get pretty uncomfortable with the hot sun but you can usually avoid it. The evenings are most beautiful with amazing sunsets and starry skies.

Welcome to the jungle

I did finally make it into my house one week ago today. And I just love it so far. I live in a gated compound with another single lady and a middle class family with kids my age. So it’s different now without thirty little screaming kids around; although you walk outside the gate and they are all over you. This of course can be good or bad, depending on your mood that day. Anyway, I have two bedrooms and a living room. Off my back patio I have an outdoor kitchen and bathroom that includes a shower and even bath tub; I am a bit ashamed to admit this! I have electricity that is more dependable than Eastern Europe, and the running water out back is almost always on. Many volunteers end up hiring a kid to do household chores for a small amount of money or provided meals. At first when I thought about hiring a kid I felt guilty, but then again this is Africa - not only is it weird for a white person not to have ten servants, but also I am helping a kid out, as some desperately need the money. Therefore, I eventually will take someone on, but for now I do my own laundry, and let me just say I have a much greater appreciation for washing machines back home.

Here is what I have been eating: beans, beans, and more beans! It’s a good thing I like them, because this is the main street food in Avrankou. Usually you take beans with rice and sauce, and this costs about 20 cents USD for a plate – normal for us, and really great for my future guests! I sometimes also chew on some sugar cane. There is also fish everywhere and eggs, so I do get my protein. As suggested, I will try next time to post a photo of a typical Beninese meal. There is also a lot of pate, which is basically thick cream of wheat with hardly any nutritional value, served with spicy spinach sauce and fish and onions if requested. I cook a lot of pasta at home. My first dinner at the house was noodles with peanut butter and curry I brought from home. It wasn’t my favorite Thai dish, but similar characteristics at least. Haha

Today I am in Cotonou shopping with my professor André (best to have Beninese friends with you until you know the correct market prices on most things). I am buying a better bed, tables, chairs, and most kitchen necessities. Africans are amazing and so efficient– example of this: the last time we went to Cotonou’s largest outdoor market, André managed to bargain for me in three different languages with three different people for three entirely different things at one time, always winning a great price and all while keeping a watchful eye on me and his engine. Then we carefully ride off through the sea of people –it is a chaotic art form the way Africans can drive; all while making sure my bags are secure between us and I am on tight. It’s all really impressive.

I now have my first real work….I am helping set up Andrè’s friend with a business plan for his new project, and can work on that from Avrankou amongst other future projects. I continue to improve my French and have been attending more events at my NGO to get a feel for things. I now have an office with my own desk as well. My main tasks for the first few months are integrating into the community, French and local language (Gun), and getting my house in order. Everyday I make progress with all three. I am making friends and am extremely well taken care of by the community already.

I’ve found here there is a fine line between too much independence and none at all. It’s sometimes so hard to do things on your own here when you are new, yet when you ask for a little help, its never anything less than, “I will take you and do everything for you” type of thing. That is just the nature of people here. When my friends try to wait on me, I just want to say “I’m not better than you; I don’t deserve to be treated like a queen!” But it doesn’t work that way. Yet, on the other hand there are things that set it straight: when I see white people in their fancy cars with air conditioning and here I am crammed into a bush taxi with 10 loud people, (usually on average I would say the breakdown is one American, two Nigerians, and the rest “market mamas”), sacks of vegetables and live chickens- while carefully dodging goats and potholes- I would say I’m getting the true experience!

But the crazy times are actually on the taxi motos in Cotonou ;-)

Hope everyone is doing great. Much love from these parts. Sara.

My other host brother In’tisor

Here he is writing out my nightly French lesson in my room by candlelight. He is quite disciplined in his teaching; even better at bargaining at the market. He did his thing for almost an hour to get me a good price on a SW radio, not taking any crap from anyone! I was so proud of him standing tough for me with the big vendors!
His father is a traditional healer and very respected in the community. They are animists and one time I was allowed to view their fetish - was that ever interesting!
FYI: Voodoo originated here, and I plan on hitting many voodoo festivals in the following years

Halick and Salim

My youngest host brothers in Avrankou

I am officially a [homeless] volunteer!

First thing- Yes, I am remaining healthy besides my daily intake of exhaust ;-)
Things are interesting for me at the moment one could say. I am well but have a little problem- I am without a house. I:m going to leave you hanging for a moment and back up since the last blog. Our swear-in
ceremony was our graduation after finishing training, and included the new US ambassador and other important speakers. Everything went very nicely. We took our oath and then partied all day.
Two days later I am at post but my house was not and is still not today ready because of complications with the city government. So for two weeks I stayed with a host family I had already known. Things were fine but PC decided, and I, that it is getting ridiculous and I need my privacy. They are working really swiftly to get this resolved asap and since yesterday I am staying in a hotel in Cotonou. Those first two weeks in Avrankou were good though - I studied lots of French with my host brothers, met people in the community, did a few things with my NGO, and ate really well.
Now here in Cotonou I am hanging out with other volunteers (here for various reasons), running errands, meeting new people, and buying small things for the future house. I have also been spending time also with my facilitators André and Emilie, and have seen where they teach here in the city.

While in Avrankou, I will be coaching basketball and handball teams additionally. So that is exciting news for me. I am replacing a volunteer who finished three months ago and am receiving some of her projects- which is great of course. I love my NGO and the staff, as well as some volunteers from Japan whom I met recently. Had a great conversation with office on polygamy that produced a few laughs. Everyone is really pretty open-minded and enjoy hearing my crazy ideas and opinions in my French. You cannot imagine how funny it is, and I just laugh at myself along with them and it makes for a good time.

I have already spoken in French at a ceremony for young graduates of a class that eventually I may be teaching. I introduced myself, congratulated the students, and then ended up (just about) MCing the rest of the ceremony in French in front of 50-60 parents
and guests - if that isnt good practice, what is? I also met with a women,s groupement in a small, nearby village whom I will do some work with and hopefully gain some additional grant money for them as my predecessor did. I will try to write again soon. Hope everything is great! Love, Sara

ça c,est pour les personnes qui connais français

Une Chanson Bizarre
Un homme entre dans un bar ; il salue le barman et il commande une bière. Le barman met un verre de bière devant l’homme ; mais, soudainement, un singe saute sur le bar. Il court jusqu’au verre et il pisse dans la bière.
Le client jette sa bière par terre et demande une autre. Le barman donne une deuxième bière au client. Mais, tout de suite le même singe singe saute sur le bar et pisse dans la deuxième bière aussi.
Cette fois, le client se fâche. Il demande au barman : ‘C’est votre singe qui gâte ma bière chaque fois ?’
Le barman répond : ‘Non, ce n’est pas mon singe ; je crois que c’est le singe du pianiste.’ Le barman indique un homme qui joue du piano de l’autre cote de la salle. Le client traverse la salle. Il arrive près du piano et il crie : ‘Hey, Pianiste ! Votre singe pisse dans ma bière ! ‘
Le pianiste répond : ‘Je ne connais pas cette chanson ; sifflez-la… je voudrais l’apprendre.’

Headed south to post

After swear-in celebration

Amanda, moi, Maria

And who sent me this shirt representing the greatest city on earth? MERCI you

My host family in Natitingou