Project Update and skin diseases

So, as America quickly approaches so does my project. I need to get together with the students to practice the skits but the money has not been finalised yet. It will be just bureaucratic paperwork has been standing in the way. I have been looking into starting a girls health club at a school and participating in a sponsorship program that helps to pay the school fees of a girl at the school. I have to form a committee and select a girl and supervise her doing some sort of community service during the year. This can include having her help in the health club that we may be starting so I may kill two birds with one stone.

Other news. I have some kind of exema skin disease that is spreading and may be in my clothes. Its depigmentation on my arms and other places. Prescription: buy and iron and boil my shower sponges or rags and any other cotton stuff and wear sunscreen. They will give me some meds and a soap too, but the pharmacy didnt have it yet. So, its like I have leprosy except no one shuns me like in Bible times. At least no more ecoli! Yay. Toodles.

I heart CIPRO

So I am in Cotonou currently suffering another sickness: bacterial infection. (cipro is an antibiotic). I had a fever and chills and multiple diahrrea instances starting monday at 2am until Tuesday morning, so i called the doctor and she told me to come down. she said i had multiple white blood cells in my poop sample. well as dicaprio would say TIA (this is africa).

anyways sorry for the graphic display of my sicknesses to those who are not interested in that kind of thing. life has been a little slow lately but will be picking up very quickly very soon. i am organizing a radio project for AIDS and we have to practice and record the sketches within the next month. i also have to put together some questions for the doctor to respond to on the radio. i am also busy trying to finalise the grant so i can get money to fund the project. there are only two things left to do and hopefully she will pass it on to be approved. during the month of november i dont think it will be as busy because the radio shows will be running but i think i will devote myself to listening at the times that they should be playing just to know that they are running. please pray for us that the kids have fun and are motivated to do a good job and that everything runs smoothly. then on world aids day (dec 1) we will be hosting a day of screenings, educational sessions and using speakers in a neighboring village. in short i am glad i got being sick out of the way now so i can try not to be sick these next couple months before i come home during december.

i went to two funerals in the past month. on for the vice president of my artisans group and another for a member of one of the groupements that i work with. my vice president was in a motorcycle accident and since most people dont wear helments here broke his clavicle and hit his head so hard he had a stroke. he was doing better for a while but he must have had another stroke or something. the woman in my groupement had breast cancer and since they dont have alot of the technology that we do in the states, and since she did not have alot of money to pay for treatments even if they did have access to it.

other than that life has been pretty simple. trying to conserve money for possible vacations or after service trips. cooking different recipies in the cookbook. a new volunteer arrived recently in my neighboring village and i have enjoyed getting to know her. she inspires me to want to learn more local language. i have loved listening to the sermon tapes recently from back home. although the tidbits of news are months old, i can still find out what was happening. well a little over two months until u see this smiling face again. i miss you all dearly.

Akon in Benin!

So, last night I went to Akon in concert. It said it started at four but like most Beninese events it didn't actually start until about 6pm. When it did start it was a bunch of different Beninese acts which were decent enough but it was kind of disappointing that they were about a football field away. The concert was held in the stadium for the soccer matches and we were at one end of the football field and the stage was at the other end. There was no one actually on the soccer field either. This was good for the performance of African dances that happened later but it was hard to see. It was still really awesome. When Akon finally came out (1am lame) we were allowed out onto the field. Needless to say I haven't slept much but I will probably take a nap. Overall the experience was pretty awesome. The african dances and performances were awesome and really well practiced.

Blog End of August

Thanks for all of you who continue to read my blog. I apologize for not writing for awhile. Earlier this month, my Grandpa Bretveld on my mom's side passed away. It has been especially hard being so far away. I love both of my Grandparents so much, and I will miss my Grandpa always. I have felt very supported from Peace Corps friends and administration, and from letters and phone calls from family and friends back home. Please pray for my Grandpa as she is currently living in a physical therapy center. About a week before my Grandpa passed away she fell down the stairs and broke her pelvis. The pain is a lot better and she is doing better with the physical therapy but there is a long way to go before she can go back home. The nurses who were looking after her and my Granpa are so sweet and they told us they are looking forward to taking care of her back at home. Please continue to pray for myself as well, that I don't get too lonely and that God continues to teach me in the hard times. I deeply miss all of you, but I will be visiting in a little over 3 months!

Currently, I am finishing up training with a group of artisans in accounting, marketing and personal finance. I taught a training session with the new volunteers on the work I do during their 2 months of training. I also hosted 3 of the new volunteers at my post. I showed them some of the things I cook at post and showed them my work around village. I also found out that a volunteer named Bridget will be placed near my post and 2 married couples will be placed an hour north of me. I am looking forward to cooking with them for a Thanksgiving celebration and to visiting Bridget often. It is crazy to think that Thanksgiving is kinda close. The time moves by quickly now.

I have been also writing a grant proposal through the Small Project Assistance program. A community health worker and I from a neighboring village are organizing a World AIDS Day event (Dec 1) as well as radio dramas and an interview with the Medicin Chef on the radio, all focused on AIDS prevention. I will be putting my business trainings on hold until after the New Year when I come back from vacation at home because there is a lot that will need to be done for that event.

We are in the middle of the rainy season. I planted zucchini but the chickens ate mot of the seeds. There are two plants that look sort of promising. I also made seed starters for tomato, basil and zucchini plants that will hopefully be ready to eat before I leave for vacation. I might donate the starter plants to the orphanage after I see how the moringa trees turn out that we planted soon. It is nice as well that the farm school down the road has lots of vegetables now: cabbage, lettuce, beets, and soon carrots and cucumbers. I never ate beets or cabbage alot before but I have tried a couple recipies from our cookbook and they turned out well.

My girls soccer club is on hold as well. I did not realize that all students go to village to work or to Cotonou to study and spend time with their extended families. We will possibly be trying to start again at the beginning of October when they start again with school.

Well I miss and love you all. May God bless you and keep you.

CAMP Glow and Hekame

I apologize if anyone was bothered by my last blog. I know sometimes some of the things I say are sort of on the downer side, but I just want to speak the truth. Everything I said is what actually happens here. It is very difficult for women and girls and I want people to be aware that Africa is not all love and beauty.

On the flipside a couple weeks ago I participated in a camp for girls called Camp GLOW (girls leading our world). There were speakers and volunteers who educated 49 girls on issues such as: AIDS, sexual harrassment, forced marriage, hygeine, good study skills, health and reproduction, healthy eating, as well as making crafts and playing soccer (which they don't usually get to play because they are doing housework or the boys will not include them in their games). We also did not let the girls do any "house work" such as sweeping, which the staff did, and washing dishes and cleaning up, which we did. I think it was good because it gave them more time to think and just interact and laugh with other girls.

Because of allergies I got a bad cold which has mostly cleared now after lots of sleep. I also took a girl to the hospital who had sickle cell anemia (not a bone disease like she told us). She told us that a medicinal healer performed "gregorie" or vodoun ceremonies on her and it has hurt more since then. Really it has probably gotten more painful and had nothing to do with the vodoun. Anyways, they gave her ibueprofin and some other drug at the hospital. I found out that in the states when the pain is really bad like it was for her they give morphine injections. All in all, I am glad I am covered by US healthcare and will be shipped out of country if anything serious were to happen to me. The hospitals here have rats and there are not enough beds for everyone. Also, the latrines are the most disgusting I have seen in Benin. Okay granted this was a public hospital, private healthcenters have to be in better shape because they rely on their clients for money, not the government.

I have also been working with a groupement in Hekame, training the nuns at the healthcenter to run a savings and loan club with their patients. Every two weeks they meet and give money to the caisse and eventually we will start giving loans. I am not going to go frequently to this place because they are not in my commune and it takes a long time to get to the village, but I am going to keep in touch and do check ups to see that things are functioning well.

Emotionally: Recently I have been getting a little homesick. People from the stage before us are looking forward to leaving and the next group of volunteers/trainees are arriving. I don't desire to leave but I look forward someday to being able to date again and hold meaningful conversations/pretty much just having a regular social life where I can hang out with friends and family. I think these feelings come in spurts here and there when I am alone and have time to think and pray for people back home. I have found things and people and opportunities that I love about Benin, but I have realized how American I really am. I also love community living, aka roommates/cooking meals together. This is my first experience living alone; I like the ability to have my space if I need a break from the culture but I miss people. I like to walk around alot here. Anyways. I like my coworkers, my work partners, i love my friends and the kids; I can't wait to get back to village to see my neighbors new baby. I let you see a little bit of my heart but i will try to not to complain much. I am happy and content here and I most of the time at peace. Okay love you all.

Do Justice

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

If any of you have ever wondered about the title of my blog, this is where it comes from. Today I want to address the part about doing justice. I recently listened to a sermon that my mom sent me given by Bethany Dudley at my church back home. She read alot of verses about justice and told us that justice is the second most talked about thing as far as number of verses in the Bible (over 2,000 verses). She told us to think about injustices that make us angry in our lives and to let out a loud cry of frustration. Okay so I didn't let out a cry of frustration because the neighbors might have come knocking but I did later start making a list of the injustices that burn me up inside here in Benin.

In Amos 5 it says "but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream".
Another quote she emphasizes is "it is not that doing justice will help the church, it is that we are not the church until we do justice". I am made in God's image, and I believe that when injustices burn righteous anger in my soul it is the Holy Spirit urging me into action. I think before I have just responded by holding the feelings inward in the form of anger at the state of things, but now I realize that I can do something in my own small way to help.

Injustices:
- Men eat sodabi and drink while their wives and children are hungry and malnourished
- Women are treated and talked about as objects, that can be given or traded. Sex and love and
marriage is a joke to men here
-Teachers and men and even students oppress and force girls and women to have sex (they
force sex for grades or just because they can) It is even depicted in their videos that women
have been raped multiple times but their is no real legal consequence for the men. A
satirical comedy I saw showed a woman confessing to being raped by 5 different men and
the punisher was the chef de village. In the end she had difficulty addmitting that even the
chef had raped her but somehow this was supposed to be the joke. What saddened me was
that as you looked around the bus it was not just the men that were laughing but the women
- There is no school past 3eme or sophomore year equivalent in highschool for the girls in
Toffo and probably many other villages in Benin. They have to go to Houegbo where i live
but many girls either cannot afford it or end up with unwanted pregnancies by teachers or
students
- women are constantly harrassed by men
- girls dont get the same advantages as boys in school
- some children live in fear of their parents and/or teachers because they might be hit for
making simple mistakes
- people over all lack confidence and a positive self image to beleive in themselves that they
can succeed and make a difference. this is not all people, but even when I am trying to do
something people constantly doubt me or are overly suprised when i do something they
didnt think i could do


So response... some of it is in the works and i may not do all of these things but...
- CAMP Glow- empowering girls, a week long camp that I am helping with and bringing two
girls from my commune to participate
- Women's groupements- savings and loans... helping women and their children. by practicing
savings and meeting together we can encourage them to manage their money better
- Possible future mentoring and hangout sessions with informal discussions about issues girls
face at school with girls in Toffo. I am hoping that this can be a new development after
camp Glow
- possible soccer club in Houegbo. there is soccer for boys but not girls
- future life goals.... ambiguous but hopefully as I see now.... maybe I wanted to do these things
already but now i see that God gives me knowledge and skills to help people, but what i
choose to actually do can be much more affective if i partner it with my passions

Visiting Tanagou and Fish weekend (a tribute to my father)

Well I will be talking about fish weekend later but first my Tanagou trip. This was a much needed breath of fresh air to my life in Benin. I took a spiritual wellness weekend and went to visit my friend Jeremy in the vrai north of Benin. He has one of the most beautiful posts in my opinion, being within 10minutes walking distance from the waterfalls. This is where we spent alot of time and where I searched for God in meditation, which for me turns to singing. I am trying to practice just sitting quietly, but I find that when I pray music just starts coming out of my mouth. If I don't sing it I feel like my head will explode unless I let it out. Sometimes it is praise, sometimes other feelings of yearning or pain or frustration. It is amazing how much feeling I can give to God in song prayers and how many songs I actually know. Besides visiting the waterfalls Jeremy showed me his village and introduced me to the women that he works with in the garden. He also pointed out the dam that the community is building and explained how right now there is a meandering river so they are creating a dam that can be eventually moved in the case that the river would again change course. I enjoyed hanging out with the Senegalise guys as well. They gave us tea which they brew with lots of sugar. For muslims in Benin this is their form of sodabi or chuke...(the local alcohol). One of the guys stopped by one night when we were watching episodes of the office on my computer. He enjoyed watching the screen and seeing our expressions when we laughed. I figured it would be more interesting though if I got out some french movies that Sam had given me and so we watched Babylon which was actually in English but with french subtitles.

The last day I was in Tanagou we experienced part of a 3 day fete that only comes every 2-3 years. The whole village as well as many of the surrounding villages go out to the lakes in the hunting zone and fish for three days. Now dad, this is not fishing like we are used to, they use spears and a basket that has a hole at the top. The baskets are designed in that you trap the fish by forcing the basket into the water and then reaching your hand in the top to see if you have caught anything. Now before the fishing could actually commence, people set up camp, searching for firewood and waiting for the fettishers to arrive. The fettish had to make a sacrifice on one side of the lake, wade through the middle of the lake, make a sacrifice on the other side of the lake and wade back. The goal of this ritual is to evict evil spirits and animals that wish to cause harm to the people as they fish. This was important because as the people fish they dont stand on the side of the lake casting in lines, but instead walk directly into the water, right into places where animals and diseases live. Jeremy and I took pictures and attempted to fish with a spear that a guy let us borrow. Oh yes, we were also approached by one of the fettish guys and he was acting his usual crazy self in front of us. Usually you are supposed to give him money but we didnt have little change. Jeremy bought him sodabi which the guy then gave a little back to Jeremy. He said that women cannot drink sodabi but he said he would buy me chuke which is like a fermented rice wine i believe. Well needless to say that after wading through the muck as we "fished" we were both filthy. We were able to get a lift back to village with some German tourists. I packed my things and ran to the waterfalls, rinsing my clothes in the waterfall and changing up there. It was so refreshing.

As I got ready to leave Tanagou I realized that a burden of frustration and anxiety seemed to have been lifted. I am taking it one day at a time, seeking God and it is amazing, because I have found that as I pray it becomes easier to deal with the things that usually aggravate me. I love how God knows how to meet me and when i will listen the best.