Hope this finds everyone well!
There are more photos on my flickr site of what I have been up to, but here is a rundown. I have really gotten involved with about twenty apprentices at a photo/video shop. I am teaching a basic marketing course and “survival English” two mornings a week. I really love it and the students are great. Since I’m not an English teacher, I am just doing really basic stuff that they can use since we are on the border with Nigeria. Both courses will be useful as they start to venture off into the working world.

I am planning a handball tournament that my predecessor had done in each of her two years here. Therefore, I am going around meeting all of the 8 schools who will be involved. Tuesday I visited the secondary school in Ifangni which is about 20 minutes away. I met the director and all the staff, had a nice tour, greeted students in packed classrooms, and talked with an English teacher for possibly planning an English club the next year. After the tour, its kind of tradition to take the guest out for a drink. We had a coke and a nice meal of fish and rice. I was with the school director and the sports professor from Avrankou who lives down the road from me and who took me. While at the outdoor restaurant, the king of the village came in, and everyone in there was bowing on the floor. It was interesting because today the kings are so modern and all, but still to see that was so bizarre. Not every village has one. They told me he probably has about 5 wives. In the past, more like 30. Then it rained, and I was so happy to feel the cooler air for once. The Beninese were cold, but I was loving it. They MADE me take a coat from the director’s office afterwards for the journey back to Avrankou. I said I would be fine and I like this weather. They didn’t listen. They assumed I would be cold on the motorcycle at those speeds, and gave me a hunting jacket type thing, pretty thick. True, I would have been a little chilly w/o, but I wanted that. Yet, I can’t complain when people want to take care of me. Take it all in.

It was cloudy but warmed up again that afternoon. I biked 30 minutes the other direction to Sado for my class with the rural women’s group. My translator was late, so I sat with the women in a hut and skinned cassava (like peeling large potatoes with large knives). They were definitely astonished to have me sitting in there working with them. We couldn’t communicate because they speak no French. I just motioned that I could help, sat down, and we peeled a huge pile together that later they will process and sell at market. I really bonded further with the women in my class that day. And the stranger thing was that it was seemingly normal. I have reached that point. ;-)
Then when Augustin (my translator who is the main man in the village who speaks decent French) arrived, we had a brief accounting session, and afterwards I gave the women’s children some balloons. Everyone got into it, and we were playing and running around. One kid who was timid at first with me began to really warm up. It was so great. We were all kids having fun that day, everyone in that little cluster of huts. Then I explained what I want to do with moringa-- the nutritious plant we are going to grow and harvest. I will give a class on how to market it and should be a great project. We are so excited. I walked out with Augustin into their field--a 10 minute walk though beautiful terrain. This was about 6pm and the sun was starting to fade. I have never seen such beauty. True jungle – but don’t worry, there are little trails to walk on and anyway there aren’t any dangerous animals that would attack me! I will take photos one day. I took some notes on spacing and general layout. He stayed to work the fields and I left him down there and biked back to Avrankou.

I am still trying to get this proposal together for the orphanage. It’s a lot of work meeting with people, fixing budgets, and writing, but its getting there. I will let you know when it’s online as I know some of you are wanting to donate.

In my spare time I’ve been playing a lot with neighborhood kids, and am getting a lot of enjoyment out of that. We do soccer in the yard, play with bouncy balls and tic-tac-toe in the sand with a big stick, and dance together. It is never dull. And I have almost all the kids trained to call me Tata (aunt) Sara, and never YOVO (white person)! But when they do slip, I just give them a look of disappointment and they correct themselves! It’s so cute really, assuming I am in a decent mood J

Love from over here.

A primary school in Tchaada that I visited this past Friday

Tanté’s fantastic dish

It is actually Ivorian, but very close to Beninese cuisine - rice or couscous with a spicy pepper paste, tomato, onion, and of course fish.

In general, this is my diet: Beans and gari (manioc), rice, grilled corn, yams, pate (white clump of corn meal) and spicy tomato sauce, some fish, spicy noodles with eggs, soybean omelets, oatmeal, stuff like malt-o-meal with lots of sugar, couscous with onion and tomato, bread, pineapples, coconut, bananas, papaya, oranges, sometimes salad but hard to find enough vegetables AND AT THE MOMENT it is mango season so they are EVERYWHERE!

Hi everyone,
I hope all is well!

Check out the following website:

www.projectbokonon.org

Includes information on our Camp Glow and other interesting stuff- my friend in Pobé is associated with this NGO.

I will write soon I hope. Have a good one.

Thanks, Sara