Life as a Volunteer

Greetings from Penessoulou! (Or, more precisely, from Bassila, since that’s where I’ll post this message.) I apologize yet again for the tardiness of my update, but as this is only the second time I’ve visited the cybercafé in over a month, I fear that this may be the norm!

I am, at last, a bona fide Peace Corps volunteer. We swore in just over three weeks ago at a grand ceremony at the Palais de Congrès in Cotonou. The fête marked the 40th Anniversary of Peace Corps Benin and thus was attended by numerous state dignitaries, including a former president of Benin and the regional director of Peace Corps in Africa (who was knighted by Beninese government later that evening). All of the inductees wore matching brightly-colored fabric by sector (même tissue signifies family and togetherness), and en masse we were quite a sight to behold. (TEFL volunteers wore a lovely shade of magenta; see photos.) The festivities were recorded for local TV, and, as one of several volunteers selected to read a brief greeting in a local language, I was featured in a bit of the footage! It was pretty hilarious. For days afterward people continued to saluer me in Nagot: E kaaro! She dji daada? Adukpe! (Unfortunately, I have since learned that they do not speak Nagot in Penessoulou—oh well!)

After a few more days of goodbyes and last-minute packing and purchasing in Porto Novo, a fellow volunteer and I crammed all of our worldly possessions into and on top of a rickety taxi and traveled north to post. (As a side note, few months ago I would not have thought it possible to fit three mattresses, two bicycles, four large suitcases, two sizable trunks, four gas bottles, and various other miscellany into a single five-passenger vehicle and still have room for three people to sit (relatively) comfortably, but if there is one thing that my experience in Benin has taught me thus far it is that there is no such thing as a “full” vehicle…more on that later.) Our trip was uneventful and fairly quick – much faster than when I came here by bus! Almost before I knew what had happened, I found myself here in Penessoulou, on my own for the first time since my arrival in Benin, or really, since my arrival in Philadelphia, two months before.

Having read numerous accounts of volunteers’ feelings of panic as the Peace Corps vehicle faded into the distance, I was prepared to feel a little terrified/overwhelmed/isolated upon my arrival. In reality, those first few days were not nearly as alarming as I had anticipated. I unpacked; I cleaned house; I saluer-ed; I explored the village. My next-door neighbors -- a young couple, their two-year-old daughter, two of their sisters, and a girl who helps around the house -- adopted me immediately as their own, welcoming me into their home, sharing their meals, and teaching me, peu á peu, how to live au village in Benin: how to pull water from the well, how to make igname pilée (a local specialty, literally “crushed yams,” pounded to a pulp in an oversized mortar and pestle -- the whole neighborhood laughs when I try to wield the pilon), where to find a carpenter, how to saluer in Anii (the local language of Penessoulou), which bugs to avoid, etc. Little by little, I've met and been welcomed by others as well - my Director, other teachers from the College, the Chef d'Arondissement, the members of the A.P.E. (parents' association), and, most importantly, the neighborhood kids, who fill up my porch every day and make it impossible for me to feel too lonely.

Otherwise, my life at post has been good so far, if a bit slow. School has not yet begun – the rentrée is now scheduled for this Monday, October 6th – so I have a lot of free time at the moment. Nevertheless, somehow I manage to fill each day, and now I’m even beginning to wonder how I’ll ever have time to do all this and teach! As I’ve mentioned before, household tasks take up much more time here than they do in the States, so I’ve been fairly occupied just setting up and maintaining my house and living everyday life. Although my house is quite luxurious by Peace Corps standards – I have electricity (most of the time), a well out front and a water pump nearby, and a private bathroom – it requires a no small amount of upkeep in the form of sweeping, dusting, replenishing water, and the like. (We sweep morning, noon, and night here – the dust is fierce!) Hand-washing laundry, a task which I used to dread but which is now almost enjoyable because I do it while sitting on my porch and listening to the BBC World Service, demands the better part of a morning, and the preparation of Beninese cuisine like pâte or igname pilée (things I only make with my neighbors and have yet to master on my own) is a full-time occupation. Trying to cook American-style food is also an interesting experience given my limited kitchen supplies and cooking skills. When I’m really bored, I try my hand at baking in a Dutch oven (big pot on top of my stove) – so far, I’ve produced a pineapple upside-down cake and banana bread, neither of which were half bad! The rest of my time is spent reading (Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse at present), running (much to the amusement of all the residents of Penessoulou), attempting – mostly unsuccessfully – to learn Anii, playing Uno with the neighborhood kids (they greet me daily with cries of “Skip!” and “Yellow!”), and riding my bike to nearby towns for marché days or to visit other volunteers. (I have become quite ambitious with my bike of late, but I have vowed to scale back slightly after getting caught in a torrential downpour on my way back from Bassila last week! Not fun and a little dangerous on these roads!)

Two weeks ago, I went north to Natitingou to go to the bank and attend a regional meeting at the Peace Corps workstation. I traveled in a taxi with the volunteers from Bassila, and our trip offered an interesting snapshot of life in Benin – we passed by a spot on the Goudrone where bandites had robbed several vehicles the night before (not too far outside Penessoulou, I might add) and a moto accident with no emergency care in sight; our car was approached by a crazy man and another person quite obviously on drugs; and we experienced a taxi strike as we crossed the regional border…it was wild. In Natitingou, I took full advantage of my time in a “big” town: I went to a real grocery store and bought things like cinnamon, brown sugar, and baking powder for more baking experiments and extra-strength cleaning supplies for my bathroom, sent letters at the post office, went out for pizza and a beer, raided the work station’s collection of second-hand books and clothes, stayed up late watching a bootleg copy of Dark Knight (so good!), and generally indulged myself in all things American. It was glorious!

I'm running out of time at the internet, so I'll stop there for now, but more news will follow. Hope all is well in the States, and keep me posted on all of your adventures!