o, Benin!

(Originally written on Tuesday, December 08, 2009)

What a day! That’s not a very unique statement these days, is it? I could probably say that every other day with some story to tell. But that’s life, right? A collection of stories, a tapestry weaved of ordinary and crazy experiences. Works for me!

This morning I had a two hour meeting with my homologue and Margaret, the Volunteer who lives about a thirty-minute bike ride north of me. She’s been here for a year and because of her excellent language abilities and more developed comfort with the “work,” I’m pretty sure my homologue was ready to dump me to get his agenda on a roll. This was an unfortunate discovery, because I thought he and I were on the same page of “Yes, take the first three months like the Peace Corps says to get to know the community, the work, etc. and get comfortable here.” I didn’t realize that heeding this Peace Corps standard would give the impression that I wasn’t truly interested. Water under the bridge as of this morning; miscommunication clarified, it’s all good. It’s also Benin and miscommunication is inevitable, even if my French were better. I guess it’s like that anywhere, but the cultural differences are incredible when it comes to working and communicating and everything, literally. Any language barriers aside, life in general operates so differently here than in America; it can be awfully frustrating because you realize what you take for granted in the States as common sense or logic or a reasonable progression of things because more often than not, it won’t be the way life rolls in Benin. Lessons in patience and flexibility, for sure. They weren’t kidding when they emphasized the necessity of these two details, along with a sense of humor. So, naturally, I was chuckling myself silly during the meeting this morning. No. I was ready to break my pen. But I digress.

In these two hours, I did not break my pen. But we did talk about writing a book… booklet… pamphlet about Moringa, to be distributed/sold/who knows to other ONGs and/or individuals interested in working/utilizing the tree for its many benefits. So Margaret and I will work on that together. Again, I really had to make a point to stick up for myself and stress my competency to be useful in such a task. (Margaret was also helpful in this, which is good.) And then we talked about gardening with the orphans, and apparently a volunteer from France’s equivalent of Peace Corps is headed here in the early part of next year to work solely with the orphanage. Very interesting, I thought; we’ll see if that comes to pass. That would be neat, though! And then we talked about my interest in having a club with the high school students and potentially working with the womens’ groups around the village and potentially another village. Good things.

We’re having another meeting next week to discuss particulars about this book... booklet… pamphlet, whatever it turns out to be. There’s an Association of Moringa something or other that exists in Benin, so we’re first finding out if anything like this exists in the first place. No need to reinvent the wheel. So we’ll see.

As you can imagine, I was exhausted and hungry after this meeting. So Margaret and I rode our bikes and had a lovely lunch of rice and wagasi. It was, in a word, great. You might be surprised at my intake of rice here… and beans, for that matter. Rice and beans, mmm! And I am increasingly tolerant of spicy things. This is a good progression, because there isn’t much of a choice in the matter. So I still walk away with a burning mouth and lips and a runny nose, but I can make it through the meal! I just try to have a tissue or handkerchief on me because the whole runny nose issue gets to be annoying. You see.

Then I went into town and on my way back I chatted with my village neighbors and made some new friends. And then lots of children came running down the road yelling my name, which here sounds like “COT-IEEEEE” (like the word cot). So that, as always, was lots of fun because I love when anyone says my name and knows me instead of hollering “YOVO!” although that’s not so bad anymore, either. And the kids can be so nice and sweet, so it always makes me smile to talk to them. And they’re always smiley, too. It’s just a big smile exchange, more than anything, since our conversations don’t go very far. The words don’t seem to matter that much. Folks also call me Katherine, which I enjoy, too. Adults tend to be more familiar with Katherine than my shorter nickname, so I just tell them they can pick and call me either. Whatever works!

Then I sat around for a few minutes and chatted with the Grandmother of the concession, since she’s been back from Cotonou, and a girl who was doing her hair. Actually, it was mostly me telling them what Fon words and phrases I’ve learned and then them giggling with delight. This is always a fun kind of exchange, too.

Also, this morning I tried to listen to some Christmas music. My iPod is typically on the “Shuffle” mode, so in these past months when I listen to it I just skip past the Christmas songs. But today, I realized that it would be totally acceptable to listen to Christmas music! After all, I’ve been told that radio stations aux etats-unis (the US) started playing such songs BEFORE the customary Thanksgiving start day! Anyway. It didn’t really work out. I didn’t stand a chance at the first Christmas song that came on. It was Bing Crosby. Not only that, but it was “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Three chords in I knew I couldn’t handle it. I pressed on until I found something lighter because, nope, I won’t be home for Christmas! Although, as the song goes… if only in my dreams! That’s right, even though I eat rice and beans and avocadoes and ride on motorcycles without holding on, I’m still a sentimental cry-baby! Hahahaha. It’ll work out just fine, though. And it’s not like I didn’t know I’d be missing holidays at home when I joined the Peace Corps! I’ll be with other Volunteers and it’ll be 300 degrees out- we won’t even know what we’re missing! Just kidding. Well, it will feel like 300 degrees but we’ll have a lovely holiday together and surely a memorable one!

Well, I’ll sign off for now and wish you all a good rest of the week and a bon weekend! Lots of love!