life for the past 6 weeks

August 1, 2010

Well, it’s been quite a month and a half or so, or whenever it was since the last time I posted. I’ve spent it mostly away from home for PSN training, Camp GLOW, another meeting, a celebration of the birth of our great nation and working the first two weeks of training for the newest future Volunteers. Obviously my priorities are a little wonky since my last attempt to write led me only to the subject of cockroaches before I gave up, so let’s recap!

Before I headed south for all of the reasons I just listed, I want to mention that my orphanage garden gave me a disease. It wasn’t serious and it’s treated now, but it was kind of gross. It was something called the “Creeping Eruption,” caused by larvae of hookworm hanging out in soil and sand where dogs and cats do their business. There’s still one dog that lives at the orphanage site so I guess while we were tilling up land that used to be his personal litter box, I was an unlucky recipient. Yuck. So the next time I was in Cotonou, two weeks later, I had the doctor take a look. I took three days of anti-parasitic drugs and it wiped it out. I’m glad because, number one: ew. And number two: it was the most incredibly itchy thing ever. It woke me up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I thought I would wind up scratching my legs and feet clean off the rest of my body. I haven’t had a story like this to share, really, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to contribute to the category of “Ah blech, look what West Africa gave me this time!” … Moving on, now.

PSN training was a constructive two days. We talked mostly about active listening skills, how to not be a conversation-stopper, common concerns during critical periods of service and other relevant items. It was good. I’m sure any more details might just bore you, so I’ll move on to Camp GLOW, which was good, too.
After getting some final supplies, I headed to Porto-Novo for one of the Volunteer-run camps. I had the pleasure of loading the taxi with another Volunteer in the pouring rain, thank you rainy season… and then unloading the taxi… in the rain. We started putting mosquito nets up in all the girls’ room and it was an incredibly annoying task. But it got done. And then all the girls showed up with the rest of the Volunteers and the rest is kind of an exhausting blur.

I am not conditioned to being around fifty adolescent girls, some with a bit too much sassiness for my liking. Nor am I habituated to sixteen-hour days. No, seriously. We were up at seven and in bed no earlier than eleven pm. The schedule was jam-packed with good stuff, but whew. There was a good mix of educational and fun stuff- health sessions and study skills and personal financing and a panel with successful businesswomen. And other stuff I can’t remember right now. We also did crafts: collages, book-making, and jewelry-making. We took field trips, too. On one, we went to a museum. It is the most ridiculous “museum” you have ever seen. I think a more accurate description would be “This particular rich family’s house of garage-sale crap.” We also went to the National Assembly and a place where the girls learned a little about computers and word processing. For most, it was the first time they’d used a computer. We also had a dance party, to which I will devote its own paragraph:

I don’t think I’ve ever danced so much in one go round, oh my goodness. Two hours straight with these girls. I walked around like a seventy-three year old for the next five days. I’m not even kidding. I was saying things like, “Oh, my joints! They ache!” And then after the joints it was the muscles. Clearly I don’t move around enough. My leisurely walking and bicycling are a norm that just doesn’t cut it. But to be fair, they also dance in a very unique way that tends to be a little tougher on the body for us who aren’t used to the style. That’s a bit of a consolation for me.

The point of Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World. Don’t ask me why it’s an English phrase. It’s been that way for years.) is to encourage girls to stay in school and earn their high school diploma. Even though there were things that could’ve gone better, I think it went really well and judging by the girls’ response to the week, I’d say they had a great time. And I hope they stay in school.

Sometime after Camp GLOW, I went to another meeting. This one was VAC, which stands for Volunteer Advisory Council. So, here’s how it works: each pair of regions (Zou-Collines, Atlantique-Littoral, etc.) has a VAC representative. Every quarter, the reps from each pair of regions get together with the staff and administration at the bureau in Cotonou for a “national” meeting. They talk about Volunteer concerns and issues. The VAC reps bring Volunteer opinions to the National VAC meeting from quarterly meetings they’ve had with the Volunteers in their regions. So it’s basically a means of communication between administration and Volunteers and the VAC reps act as liaisons. I wasn’t selected as the VAC rep for my set of regions (Zou-Collines), but I talked to another nearby (Atlantique-Littoral; south of me, and the only thing that comprises the Littoral region is the city of Cotonou) who didn’t have an interested candidate and offered my enthusiastic availability and because I’m closer in proximity to all of those Volunteers than some in my own regions, it worked out. I apologize if that was incredibly boring but it’s a current event so I thought I’d toss it in.

At some point it was also the 4th of July and there was a potluck at an Embassy employee’s house. That was really nice. There was carpet in his house and I think that’s only the second or third time since I’ve been in Benin that I felt carpet under my feet. It was a highlight. Two nights before that, the Ambassador also had a gathering at his home, which was also nice. Everyone got a pin of the Beninese and American flags. And there was free Coke and cake shaped like our flag. It was good.

Two weeks ago, the new Trainees arrived. I trained for the first week and a half and it was both incredibly exhausting and rewarding. I’m really glad I was there at the beginning and I heard from the newbies that they were happy about it, too. I didn’t really want to leave them when it was time!

But it was weird, too, because I felt like I was just in their shoes not that long ago! It’s so strange to experience training again on the other side of things, but then also through their eyes. It wasn’t quite a feeling of déjà-vu, when you feel like something’s happened before but you can’t necessarily place how, but instead these sensations that coursed through me as I remembered doing everything for the first time: riding on a zem going to a training site and remembering my bike route, listening to the doctor’s voice, hearing roosters in the morning. I don’t hear roosters in the same way that I used to. I really loved being there and helping them out. It was at once reassuring and motivating, seeing how far I’ve come and feeling re-energized about the next year. Some of them even wrote me a little “Thank you” note. And someone called me “mom.” Also weird. I could probably go on for awhile about those last two weeks but I’ll just leave it at that- a really awesome time with lots of neat new people.

Before I came home this weekend, I went to another Volunteer’s post to help with a mural at the local high school. We painted on the side of a building about various topics: sleeping under a mosquito net to prevent malaria, the importance of hand-washing, and a product (Orasel) used to treat the dehydration brought about by diarrhea. Three of us worked on the mural for a day and a half before two of us headed back.

And now I am home again, where I will be for the next month before I head back to training. I’ll host some Trainees in two weeks for their Technical visit, so that’ll be a lot of fun and I’m excited to show them around! Today is also Benin’s Independence Day- 50 years! It’s a big one.

So, my apologies for the lack of updates and for this one being poorly narrated. But I figured at this point it was more important to just get it out there and let you know what’s been going on! Hope all is well and summertime has been good to you.
Lots of love!