22.02.2008

Hope you are all doing fine. Just a short update. I took my first real vacation - a week in the north of Benin. Was great to get away and try to relax before my construction of the orphanage begins. I had a great time, seeing friends and having some nice down time to myself-- watching movies at the workstation and hanging out with my host family and little Nadya whom I hadn't seen since 2006. It was so great to be able to fully communicate in French this time around with them. I had forgotten how beautiful the north is, and just how intense the sun can be! I visited 3 different friends at their posts as well, so I also got the experience of true ‘bush taxis’ on dirt roads. One of those rides I was one of the four people in the front seat crammed together and I had the honor of straddling the clutch; luckily the car was so old and packed with so many people that we maintained a slow speed so that the driver wasn’t shifting every 10 seconds.

Thanks so much again for all your generosity in donating to my orphanage project, which is I believe fully funded (website is behind a few days) and that’s after I amended it to add an extra $3,000 for supplies after construction. Truly amazing how much we raised in three months. I will be posting updates here with photos when we get underway, hopefully in a few short weeks.

You may have heard that President Bush was in Cotonou last Saturday. He stopped at the airport on his tour of five countries and meet some of my friends that are volunteers in the city who were invited. They took photos, dressed in traditional clothing, and greeted him in local language. He had a one-minute conversation with one of my good friends, saying to him, “Now, you must be a PC volunteer, huh?” And then, “You must love it hear, huh? Thanks for your commitment to your wonderful work.”

Have a nice day y’all!