Trip to Cotonou

Warning: I’ve very whiney

I woke up with miniscule little bumps on the edge of my lips on Sunday morning, however, I quickly brushed it aside (probably heat rash or something) and hurriedly got ready for Parakou. I was SO excited to go up to Parakou and to take the bus down to Cotonou. Rather than taking a horrible stop and go, crammed taxi where I’d likely be sharing a seat with the driver, I was taking the bus down here with Jenny!! While a taxi will take me eight to ten hours from my village, our bus (where I had my own seat) took us just seven hours!! My village is closer to Cotonou than Parakou is, by about 1.5 hours. I will never taxi to Cotonou again.

Parakou was really fun; Jenny, Allison and I all hung out at the workstation, made a delicious meal, gossiped, watched movies, skyped my mom and sister (that was mostly me) and just had a fun relaxing evening. The next morning, Monday, my lips seemed a little bit worse, like really really chapped…but I didn’t care, I was going to Cotonou!

We’re in Cotonou for In Service Training. Our counterparts from school are here too (our work partners from school, Beninese English teachers). We started Tuesday morning and are finished Thursday evening. I however am currently waiting for my new medication, because you see, I have mango rash…all over my face. It’s the same exact thing as poison ivy. They warned us during training when we first got here, but I’ve never in my life had an allergic reaction. I’ve been eating mangoes like crazy for probably the past month, 2-5 a day, minimum.

I eat mangoes like I was taught: bite the skin off, spit it out, eat the delicious mango until I have to bite more skin off, repeat. So mango skin (poison ivy) is constantly on my face. I usually rinse them before I eat them. I’m guessing that’s why I just now am suffering from a reaction. Maybe I didn’t rinse one properly on Saturday? The Dr. told me to avoid mangoes now, I will. I dearly love mangoes, but the pain and ugliness I'm experiencing right now is not worth it.

Anyway, I have a rash all over my neck, on one side of my face and on my right eye. IT ITCHES SO BAD and I look like something out of a horror movie, all puffy too. UGH. Apparently it’s going to continue getting worse as well. I’m currently waiting on new medication. It’s not in the office so they’re sending someone to get it. I’m also getting some sort of cream to put on it. Feel sorry for me!! :)

2 Days, 3 Tarantulas....

...in my house.

They're no longer with us. I don't think further explanation is necessary.

RIP Hedgehog

As I was arriving at my family’s house yesterday on my walk home from school, the little kids all raced inside. I sat down and they came out holding an adorable hedgehog!! I love hedgehogs (as I do all pets) and was super excited. I told them I love those (don’t know the word for hedgehog) and asked to hold it…..they seemed confused and plopped it into my lap. It looked sick, so I said, ‘oh, I think it’s sick.’

Barakatou responded, ‘No, it’s dead.’

Ew.

So, later last night….I ate hedgehog. (tastes similar to forest rat – agouti). I feel bad, but I don’t refuse food, especially from my family and especially meat, that’s kind of a big deal.


PS: Never occurred to me that hedgehogs live in the wild. They live in my forest!

So, I'm Buying Blood Right Now

A few days after getting back to post after vacation in February, I was walking home after school with two of my favorite girls.

As we're walking, Adeline asks me, "how much does blood cost?"

"Umm, what? Cow blood?" (I thought maybe they wanted to drink it??)

"You buy cow blood?!" - Ruth (pronounced Root)
(giggles from Adeline)

"What? No! I don't buy cow blood, I don't know how much blood costs, why?"

"But, you buy blood when you leave?" - Adeline

"No....I don't buy blood when I leave, who said that?"

"The village."

"What? Why? No, I don't buy blood, that's not true!"

"They said you have to buy blood because you walk in the sun."

(Sidenote: Apparently I'm the first volunteer that walks to the markets that are in the two neighboring villages, and walk to school every day, even all during the hot season. I often get free rides from professors and other villagers who think I'm insane.)

"I don't understand.? No, I don't need more blood."

"But..you run out, because of your white skin, you need to buy more." (Said something like but your blood is finished because you're colorless, I can't remember, it was funny directly translated into English though)

"No, seriously, I don't buy blood, I don't need blood. The sun makes my skin different, but I don't lose blood." (People here ALWAYS touch my moles, freckles, tan lines, burn lines...quite funny.)

"oh." (totally didn't believe me.)

AND, when I left on Friday, this really old lady who doesn't speak French said something about my health, and did like a drinking motion....oh jeez


Some other funny things my village does/thinks
- Women can't butcher animals, men have to kill them
- Women cannot eat cats, it's intredi
- Men and women don't eat together
- Children and adults don't eat together (Also, in my family at least, youngest to oldest eat. We wait until all the kids have eaten, then we eat)
- People CANNOT whistle at night!! It calls snakes. (I've gotten in trouble for this)
- Lots of people want to eat Harrison, (he's so big!)....so I've been spreading rumors that I put gri gri in his collar (it's a normal American collar), and they totally believe me. People from village just joke about how big he is, but I am a little worried about strangers.
- palm oil gives you better eyesight
- moringa powder cures malaria
- twins are awesome/dangerous/wanted/cool
- alcohol is good for you (like moonshine), people drink all day

I can't think of anymore, there are so many funny things I hear everyday. I'll start writing things down.

Asking for money....for an EXCELLENT cause!! The Future of Benin's Girls!

I'm working at and bringing three girls to a Girl's Empowerment Camp - Camp GLOW, in August! Want to help out? Donate! The girls I'm bringing have never been out of the village, and the camp is in a city, with electricity and showers!! We have several impressive Beninese women speaking and working at the camp (businesswomen, doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.) and awesome activities and fun programs for the girls!

Donate here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=680-200

Things My Students Say PERFECTLY in English.

Just a disclaimer, I’m the only professor that does not beat children. I also don't punish them with other physical punishments, such as forcing them to kneel in the hot sun in gravel, or making them leave class to work in the orchard (missing class!). I also don’t ask the principal or vice principal for help in punishing because they just beat the children. Last week, one of the girls was knocked out by a professor when he punched her on the head when she fell asleep in class. TOTALLY uncalled for…she went to the hospital. I consider myself to be really lenient with late and/or tired students. They have so much work to do at home and a really long walk to school. I have a really easy life here, compared to the Beninese in my village, especially children, and I try to be flexible and understanding as a result.


- Good Morning Teacher!

- How are you today?

- Fine, thanks. And, you?

- You see?

- Copybooks IN your desk!

- WHY are you talking?

- Stop talking.

- Who is talking?

- Shut your mouth!

- Verb to be and all its conjugations (I am, You are, He/She/It is, We are, They are)

- Verb to have and all its conjugations.

...that's about it, oh: dog, boy, some other random nouns

Madame Elyse


Also, I love teaching. I love my students and the challenges the present me, daily. :) I'm seriously considering pursuing teaching when I get back to the states because I love the job so much. We'll see in two years.

VACATION! Burkina Faso, Mali, Dogon Country

A picture is worth a thousand words….

So in this case, it’s basically like I’m writing 300,000 words about my vacation, because I'm providing a link to all the photos I took. Erik did a lot of filming, so I took pictures, there are a lot of him, and a lot of random photos, like trees, because I love trees. Also, after Dogon country, I was so exhausted, I kind of forgot about my camera. Though, I did get an amazing picture of two men on motorcycles, on top of a van on our ride home.

Simple itinerary:
Day 1: Village to Natitingou (PCV Benin Workstation)

Day 2: Natitingou to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (We stayed at Hotel Evangelique something or other, $3 each, and the room had beds with nets, and a bathroom with a TOILET and shower!!

Day 3: Ouagadougou to Bobo, Burkina Faso. (Got a wonderful, nice, air conditioned bus. Stayed at Hotel Royal, $3 each, same business. We also ate delicious chicken and fries and I had 3 beers…bad idea considering my starvation mode for traveling…it’s hard to use the restroom on the side of the rode, so I avoid food water.)

Day 4: Bobo, Burkina Faso to Mopti, Mali. (HELL travel day. We sat on plastic water containers in the aisle of the jankiest bus you’ve ever seen. My container was leaking a mystery liquid all over my butt....so I nicely asked Erik to trade and he obliged (probably because of the huge mamans, he's not THAT nice). I couldn’t even read and was trying to save my ipod for potential worse scenarios. I was sitting between two big mamans and literally could not move the entire EIGHT HOURS. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Our hotel, Hotel No Problem (Hotel Il n'y pas de Problem), was amazing, but $9 each. A little expensive, but worth it. Pool, wonderful, clean beds, towels provided, amazing. Plus a restaurant with great American-y spaghetti.

Day 5: Mopti to Dogon country!!! AMAZING. Most of my pictures are from Dogon country and if they don’t have captions yet, rest assured, they will have captions soon.

Day 6, 7 and 8: DOGON Country and Hiking! We hiked and climbed about 30 miles. It was intense. A Volunteer from Mali and her friend visiting from the United States were with us the first three days and were really fun to hang out with. (Side note: Erik told me to bring my therma rest to sleep on....each village provided us with mattresses. We're still friends though).
- I also must mention that the food was SO good! They fed us rice or cous cous with amazing red, vegetable sauce and chicken. And we had really delicious beans twice too. Plus, mangoes for dessert! Breakfast was bread with laughing cow cheese, jam and/or nutella which our amazing guide brought for us.

Day 8: Dogon country to Mopti. (Hotel No Problem, glorious, found kittens in a basket in the pool veranda area)

Day 9: Mopti to Bobo (Don’t even want to talk about it, worst possible travel experience ever. Got stuck in sketch village, I wont even write what the men said to me when I asked about hotels. We ended up paying ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS to get a taxi to take us to Bobo out of the sketch village that our bus just dropped us off in because the driver decided he didn’t want to go to Bobo anymore. UGH. Had a delicious and ice cold coke at the hotel restaurant though :)

Day 10: Bobo to Ouagadougou. (Easy, same amazing bus, hung out with Burkina Faso volunteers, ate delicious pizza and drank Castel beer on tap at a restaurant they showed us. So much fun!)

Day 11: Ouagadougou to Natitingou. (Stayed at workstation).

Day 12: Stayed the night again, had Boy’s Camp meeting, straightened my hair, plucked my eyebrows, felt American, went out with friends, amazing night.

Day 13: Natitingou to Parakou. Still here. Allison arrived the morning of the 23rd and convinced me to wait for payday (potentially the 1st) before going back to post. I couldn’t resist because I LOVE Allison, she’s the cutest pixie looking, vegan, tarot card reading friend ever. Plus, it's school vacation, I deserve to relax after all that traveling, hiking and sunburning.

Day 14, and 16: Parakou. (Shopped with Allison (found cute pants for $2, American cute, and two dresses for parakou). Made lots of salad and avocado/onion/tomato sandwiches. Drank cold water. Had real (cold) showers.)

Day 16 (Today): BACK TO VILLAGE!! SO EXCITED!! I have to stay for basically all of March because of elections. Our security officer deemed it unsafe for us to leave our village during the heat of elections.

Here is the link to the pictures, enjoy!! (Facebook didn’t work, that’s why they’re on flickr, hopefully you can see them, I have no idea, never used flickr.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59948389@N04/

or as a slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59948389@N04/show/

***********First, you'll be viewing the photos in reverse order of when I took them, Second, flickr wouldn't allow me to upload more than 200 photos....next time i'm with internet, hopefully facebook will work. Sorry. Stupid flickr

PS: Erik wrote an extensive, detailed blog about our trip, you should probably just read that, sorry I posted this at the end haha. http://pawnmower.blogspot.com/