little piece of america

so i am lounging on a couch, drinking wine, eating tarts and crab pasta with marinara sauce, talking on ethernet internet. where could you find all this wonderful goodness? an expat house in Cotonou where I am spending the night at the house of an employee of the embassy. the house is something that i would love to have even in the states. there are so many ammenities, comfy couches, and the couple who is housing us is giving us the works in cooking us meals and providing whatever we need. they were once peace corps volunteers too so i think they understand. it is beautiful to bask in the comforts of the could be's that rest at home in america. i haven't slept that well in some time; i haven't spent a night in air conditioning i quite sometime. i passed out immediately.

so why am i here? there is a big event at peace corps, the memorial of kate puzey, a peace corps volunteer who died last march here in Benin. they don't have enough room to house all the volunteers who are coming down to honor kate. I did not know her but everyone who did speaks fondly of her. i want to show my respect for her and help support the other volunteers who knew her so well. Her memory is well preserved here through her friends and those who loved her at peace corps.

It is interesting that my diseases feel like the roadblocks I used to come up against when playing the Oregon Trail on the computer. Dysentery, ghiardia, diarrhea, and well, asthma attack but I guess that’s expected. I even have some kind of skin fungus, I know, very attractive, on my arm which looks normal except that I have dots on my shoulders where I am loosing pigment. I am getting rid of it with selsun blue which surprisingly has more usefulness than just relieving dandruff. I am pretty sure my body hates me.

Well, we experienced something like the plague of bugs in Egypt last night for the second time this year. There was a 5 hour rainstorm 2 nights ago which I now know brings all the bugs out from hiding. There were hundreds of bugs which besides being incredibly annoying didn’t do much to hurt you. Since I was cooking I had to keep running outside to my kitchen but would go hide back inside for safety when things were boiling. I followed suit to the neighbors after a little while in turning the lights of the house off and just using a flashlight since the bugs were attracted to the light.

It is interesting how differently your body adapts to the changes in temperature. When the rains were over the morning air was not the normal hot and humid but definitely just felt like a summer breeze from back home. Nonetheless people had brought out their long sleeves and pants and I saw considerably fewer naked babies running around. The infants from next door ever were wearing crocheted hats that I would think of putting on a baby in the dead of winter while wrapping it in a thick blanket. I on the other hand was up eating my breakfast and wearing shorts and a t-shirt as I sat on my porch step.

I think African children help me appreciate life and the simplicity of it. Children are so happy with the littlest gifts. They love the notepads and pens that people sent from home and the little dinasour figures. All the candy that people send definitely isn't going to waste either. I realize that when I was at home and we would take trips, we would always stop and buy a drink for everyone in the car at the gas station before taking off, sometimes even if it was a short trip. I felt a guilty twang when a couple of the neighbor children spotted my empty can of fanta on the floor and tried to shake the last remaining drops from it. I also am saddened by the lack of quality school books, and the non existence of toys. Children really do play with trash if anyone ever had that thought, and so I have to watch out for what I put out in the trash pile, which is really just the field across the street. I keep crayons and coloring books in my house for the neighbor kids to use and eventually I want to get them interested in frizbee.

Well its getting harder to keep my eyes open. I love u all, and thank everyone who care to read this and hope I can write more soon. Starting to think about Christmas, it is a ways off but I am looking forward to seeing everyone and time will pass quickly until then.

sickness strikes again

i went to nikki this past week. there is a very big festival that is based around these kings from history. there is one king and alot of princes and they all ride in on horses. i helped in designing banners for a tourism booth in which we were promoting alot of the tourist sites in benin that people who came to the festival could visit. i was not able to see the main activities because i was passed out on my friends couch or running to the latrine for the entire day saturday. it is suprising how comfortable peace corps volunteers become in talking about diarhea and other sicknesses that i may have felt embarressed about in the past. i wont go into the other details but i am on some pretty strong antibiotics and taking oral rehydration salts. i feel better already but still get exhausted really easy. i cant wait to get back to post and sleep.

tomorrow i have my first meeting with a groupment in Toffo. we are talking about starting a savings and loans club. i love the nuns there that i work with. they are very compassionate and always have their hands d0ing something for the people who come to the center. we may be adding a health aspect to the group in which my friend, another peace corp volunteer, and/or her homologue would help in giving seminars on basic health or teaching the women about moringa. moringa is a plant that has alot of nutritional benefits that when used in food can help older people fight diseases and rehabilitate children who are malnutritioned.

in a couple weeks we are having a memorial for a volunteer from the previous group named kate who was killed at her post. i actually found out about this before leaving for benin. it is very sad and although i did not know kate i can tell she was loved by the way the volunteers and the staff hold her in memory.

at the end of the month i will be going to the GAD dinner. there will be a talent show, where i possibly may be swing dancing with a friend, the dinner, and a date auction. i am excited about that and may be getting a special dress made. it is interesting how cheap it is for people to tailor clothes here as compared in the states. anyways, until the next time friends, hopefully soon.