samedi 4 août 2007

Sorry for the long absence. I have been fighting off some minor illnesses, but am all better now. Made it one year, without malaria! Knock on wood. Won’t mention the side effects of the anti malarial though. My good friend Tanté has been taking care of me, and makes sure I check in with our medical unit in Cotonou now and then. It feels good to have a “family” here to watch after me. I have been talking to most of you who are still with me on here, but here’s an update. I have been doing computer training with my artisans at my NGO. It is twice a week; really simple, start-up stuff. Took them a while to learn the basics- keyboard, mouse, etc. But now have moved on to Microsoft Word and Excel. This group was granted a computer by a Swiss NGO, so I am helping them learn the basics to enable them to perform simple bookkeeping and letter writing. I am still working on getting my orphanage project online, but taking a while as I am working with a lot of different people and to get the budget together takes a while, amongst my other work. Still doing the usual stuff – English with the apprentices, working on processing and marketing of Moringa plant with my rural women’s group, and planning some stuff for the coming school year. The new volunteers arrived a few weeks ago, and we were there to receive them. There were a couple of Iowans, so will be fun to talk to them. I will be working their training this coming week. I will be teaching them how to give sessions on savings and credit to Beninese groups, in addition to helping with general questions, translating, and logistical stuff with one other volunteer. Can’t believe it has been a year for me! One more to go.

In preparation for my parents visit in one month, my counterpart took me to a sacred voodoo site in the jungle near his house. We stepped in a sacred pond and gave coins to the fetish; afterwards a very old lady said in local language that the fetish had accepted my offering and I will go on my way under good spirits. Was very interesting, and will be cool to take them and do a full program there. Speaking of that, the fields near my house have different articles of voodoo in them. There are fetishes all around me, and sticks with random stuff tied on them in the crops to prevent theft. Kind of like we have scarecrows. I guess it works really well, as the majority of people believe (on some level) the Voodoo around us. And speaking of crops, I planted a few seeds that were sent to me with my women’s groups-- some varieties of green beans, cabbage, and peanuts. We will see if these take off, and I will help them market them. If they don’t work, well at least I had fun planting them. It felt so good to do some gardening. And since it is finally the rainy season, there isn’t much sun so I’m loving being outside! I also planted some sugarcane in my yard, with the help of some eager neighborhood kids. That should be fun! I have so much fun with the kids, as always. They just can’t get over the fact that I enjoy playing with them and acting silly. We chase chickens together, I help set up their peanut stands, help shell the peanuts for them when they are having a snack, and we eat local food together with our hands. Its fun bonding experiences, and just like another volunteer said, “I couldn’t’ make it here two years without my kids.” So true. They really make it fun and give you needed strength. My little Masim spent a Saturday with me, splitting banana tree leaves, and cooking snails on my porch. Never got a good fire going, and so the snails were prob. still alive when he pulled them apart and left all the guts on my terrace. Hehe. I didn’t even care; I love that something different happens every single day. I was happy to be around him, and as always, was interesting seeing how kids view things here. My cell phone has been cut for four weeks now. The provider is fighting with the government over taxes due or something, so that’s a little frustrating. Even in Africa, I managed to become addicted to cell service. Just can’t escape it.

Everyone have a great day! Love from Africa. Sara