A few more photos...

Amdiath, Suruma, Maldiath, and Moulika...my little buddies.

Matt, former Djougou volunteer, came back to visit and introduced me to his work partners, Nady and Dean. They run a scholarship program for underprivileged, at-risk girls and are in the process of building a dormitory to house the girls in Djougou.

A bird's eye view of a Djougou CEG.

Yes, that is a twig holding the power lines apart.

The Germans have a pet monkey!

Dismembered snake

Melissa, Serpent Slayer!

Bébé au dos

Maldiath seems a bit alarmed that I'm trying to put her on my back...

... but we got the hang of it!


Jessica's a pro

Benin in pictures, Part II

Maldiath, my favorite little munchkin, and her caterpillar from Mom!

An ominous sky as rain descends on Penessoulou

Planting mango trees on Arbor Day -- as Jessica said, we're real Peace Corps Volunteers now! We were some of the last to arrive, so we got prime planting spots -- a trash heap and the grave of an unsuccessful sapling from last year's planting. Let's hope our trees fare better...

Benin in pictures

It's been a while since I've posted any photos, so here's a smattering from the last few months...


On Easter Sunday, Jessica, Melissa and I introduced my Director and his family to the tradition of Easter egg hunts. The kids -- and the adults! -- got really into it.

Our finished products...ils sont jolis, non?

While the kids play, mom makes Easter dinner... goat! Mmm...

My Director's family at Joyce's baptism

Jessica and Lydie at the baptism

My little neighbors in their palm-leaf fort. I must admit, I was pretty impressed by their workmanship!

Jessica and Amdiath play "King of the Mountain," or "Mouton," in my front yard

It’s been so long since my last post that I don’t even know where to begin. I stopped writing after Kate’s death because I didn’t know what to say, and though I still don’t know what to say about it – what can one say about such senseless, terrible tragedy? – I don’t think I can keep using it as an excuse not to post here. What I will say about Kate is that she was a warm, wonderful person, an exemplary Peace Corps volunteer, and she is missed very much. We still don’t know enough about what happened to her or why, but I think we have learned enough to know that no explanation or justification will satisfy. Sometimes horrible things happen to good people, and Kate was one of the best.

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My first school year in Benin ended last week – not officially, of course, but the national examinations have begun and grades have been calculated, so consequently all students have stopped coming to school. Although I’m certainly glad to have a break from lesson plans and grading and telling kids to be quiet, I’m sad that I won’t see my students for four months. They’ve been trying my patience lately as the vacation approached, but I usually have a lot of fun with them. Plus, I don’t know what I’m going to do with all my free time now that I’m not teaching!

Actually, that’s not entirely true – although I’ll certainly have more downtime this summer than I do when school is in session, I do have a lot planned for the next few months. Our regional girls’ camp is coming up in a few weeks, which will require quite a bit of preparation. We’ve invited 60 of the best and brightest girls from 15 schools in the Donga to a week-long camp in Djougou to talk about health, family planning, and career and life goals, play sports, and do crafts and other activities. We’ll also take a field trip up to Natitingou to visit a cyber café and a women’s bracelet-making cooperative. It will be the first time many of these girls have seen either of these “big” cities, so even the journey will be exciting – the rest of the program will be icing on the cake!

After the camp, I’m traveling with a group of PCVs to Ghana for some sight-seeing and beach-lounging. We’ll get back just in time to greet the newly-arrived Stagiaires and to celebrate my birthday (24! I’m old!) in Cotonou. My sister Jessie arrives for a two-week visit on the 27th, and after her departure I’m hoping to be joined by a few more visitors somewhere on the continent, details TBD. I’ll be working Stage the first few weeks in September, and by then it will be time to head back up north to get ready for school again…phew! See – my summer’s gone by already!
In addition to my travels and visits, I have several other work and personal goals for the summer. First on my list: learn more Anii! I was really working hard at it when I first got to Penessoulou – saluer-ing people as I passed, talking with Mamas in the marché, asking people to translate what they were saying – but as time has passed I’ve slipped more and more back into French and have become lazier about asking questions.

Then, I am determined to have my law school applications ready before Thanksgiving, which (again, considering my schedule) means I need to start writing personal statements and editing my C.V. as soon as possible. To facilitate this process, I’m looking into getting internet on my computer through my mobile phone – it’s expensive, but it might be worth it if it means I don’t have to spend weeks on end in the capital glued to the LSDAS website. Don’t get too excited – I don’t know if it will work – but it might soon be a lot easier (and cheaper!) for you to contact me! Stay tuned.

I also want to get to work on a few of the secondary projects I’m hoping to get started next year. I’m looking into helping my school set up a computer lab (they have the computers, but they need some additional equipment and assistance), and if it works out, Jessica (my post-mate in Bassila) and I might be able to teach some sort of computer literacy course in the fall. We’re also hoping to do some kind of sex education/health sensibilizations, either in the form of a weekly class or a few programs. (There is no sex education in Beninese schools, and as a result kids (and adults) are often woefully misinformed about the mechanics of reproduction and disease transmission. Being here gives me a new perspective on hot-button U.S. debates like abstinence-only sex education and school busing. Though I still have strong opinions on both topics, now I’m simply thankful that we can have those debates -- thankful that we have sex ed and school buses to fight about!) I’m also hoping to get a jump start on my English club by meeting with some students over the summer. So far I’ve only got three students sitting on my porch on Friday afternoons, but it’s a start!

Additionally, last weekend I was elected Scholarship Girls Coordinator by the Gender and Development Committee, which means that next year I’ll be in charge of administering and hopefully revitalizing Peace Corps Benin’s scholarship program for girls. Currently, the Scholarship Girls program sponsors about twenty high achieving, financially-needy girls in secondary school. Once a girl is selected for the program, her scholarship follows her through graduation, provided that she meets a few minimal academic requirements (when I say minimal, I mean minimal – i.e., you can only repeat a grade once). The program stopped taking on new students in 2005, in part due to a lack of renewed funding (I’m not exactly sure yet where the original funding came from). There were also problems with the program’s administration and monitoring (it’s difficult to track girls across the country, especially if there is no PCV in her school) and its structure. I’m hoping that we can deal with some of those problems this year and get the program re-funded so we can take on new girls in the future. It will take some work – probably more than I realize! – but I think that putting girls through school is one of the most (and maybe only) effective way to empower girls in this country, and Peace Corps volunteers are well-positioned to identify and support strong female students deserving of assistance. So, I really must get to work now on figuring out how to make this program work!

And, to procrastinate this lengthy to-do list, I’ve been watching copious amounts of West Wing (I’m already in the third season) and reading good books (rather, re-reading, at the moment – Anna Karenina). To be fair, I did have the excuse of being laid up at home for the past few days with what resembled amebiasis or giardia…I’m not sure which, but whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant. It seems to be resolving itself, fortunately, so hopefully I’ll be back on track with my summer work soon!

I know I always say this, but I do hope to update this a bit more regularly in the future as well. These lengthy updates are all well and good, but I know I miss so much of the small stuff that really shapes my experience here when I’m writing about several months at once. For example, I might forget to describe how my neighbor kids rush outside ecstatically shouting “Avion! Avion! Avion!” whenever a plane flies overhead, or say that killing a chicken is a lot harder than it looks, or mention that my next-door neighbors’ baby (Maldiath, my favorite little munchkin) is starting to crawl and has her first tooth poking through! So for now, à toute à l'heure -- more to come!

I'm the worst blogger ever

Hello All!
Here is an entry that I wrote back in February but haven't had a chance to post since...sorry! I'll post something more recent soon!
Lots of Love,
Naima



16 February 2009
The fabled harmattan has come and gone, and once again the breeze floating across my porch at night is a warm one. It is 11 p.m., and the thermometer on my alarm clock now reads just over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I must admit that this New Englander was rather underwhelmed by the promised fraicheur of the Beninese dry season. A few mornings where I am comfortable wearing a fleece jacket is not exactly what I call winter. Plus, the cooler weather lasted less than a month. It’s February -- shouldn’t there be a few inches of snow on the ground right now?
I must apologize yet again for the length of time between entries. Much has happened since I last wrote (which is part of the reason it has been so long since I last wrote): Christmas and New Year’s, Mom’s visit, the second devoirs and end of the first semester of school, President Obama’s Inauguration, a birth, a baptism, and a wedding.
I spent the holidays with Jessica and Melissa in Bassila. We had stockings (I sewed mine myself from a scrap of my Peace Corps bedsheet! I could scarcely believe my own resourcefulness haha), shortbread cookies, and even a miniature Christmas tree. On Christmas day, we feasted with the German linguists living in Bassila and sang Christmas carols ‘til late in the evening. I certainly missed spending Christmas at home with my family, but like my Beninese Thanksgiving, my Beninese Christmas was both so pleasant and so dissimilar from the Christmas I am used to that I could hardly be homesick or depressed. It was a unique but very Merry Christmas!
Shortly thereafter I made my way south to meet Mom in Cotonou. I was elated to see her, as well as so proud of her for making it here all by herself (and with four giant suitcases, no less!). We spent just one day in Cotonou, where we purchased a big mattress and mom rode her first zemi-jahn, before making our way north. We celebrated New Year’s Eve in Natitingou with a nice dinner and a visit to the PC workstation, where mom got to meet a bunch of my fellow PCVs and distribute the gifts she obligingly carted from other Peace Corps parents to their sons and daughters, and where I stayed out far too late fete-ing with other volunteers.
On New Year’s Day we headed to Park Pendjari for a three-day safari. The safari was wild and a lot of fun, if a bit exhausting. We only saw one lion (we got a great photo so it counts!), but we saw tons of hippos, several varieties of deer/antelope, crocodiles, monkeys, buffalo, and, best of all, elephants. In one rather comical (at least in hindsight) incident, Mom and I were seated atop the roof of the 4x4 when an elephant began advancing toward the car. Mom and I were ecstatic – what a photo opportunity! – but became annoyed as our guide quickly started up the engine and continued driving forward. We banged on the roof signaling him to stop, but to our dismay he kept going. At that moment, we realized that the elephant was not just coming to say hello, but was instead charging our vehicle! We had gotten a little too close to her and her baby, and we were lucky our guide was more animal-savvy than his camera-toting tourists. On our way back from the safari, we made stops to swim at the Tanagou waterfalls and to tour the Tata Sombas in Boukoumbe – both very worthwhile sights. We emerged from the safari tired and coated in reddish dust, but satisfied.
The next day mom and I returned to my village. It was wonderful to be able to show her what my life is like here. She was a trooper: she pulled water, did laundry by hand, learned how to ecraser tomatoes and piler yams, and even made me curtains while I did schoolwork. I took her to the market, introduced her to my friends in village, and fed her all of my favorite Beninese food. Best of all, she came to class with me a few days to watch me teach. She helped me demonstrate Simon Says with classroom commands and prepositions of place for my younger students, helped me make musical instrument flashcards, and took photos of all my classes. It was fun!
We rounded off the trip with a few days at the luxurious Hotel du Lac in Cotonou, home to a large pool, air-conditioning, and free wireless internet. We also visited my host family in Porto Novo, who were incredibly welcoming and excited to meet my mother. They had even commissioned a ceremonial Boubou to send home to my Dad – I can’t wait to see photos of him wearing it!
After Mom’s departure, I had to hustle back up north for school. The few weeks that followed were a whirlwind of classes and make-up classes due to the impending Devoirs (finals). My classes were still a bit behind due to my prolonged absence in November, so we had a lot of work to do. I started an after-school English club and our basketball team finally started practices, so my usually free Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings are now totally booked, and I spent a few weekends working on a Peace Corps Partnership Proposal with my post-mates in Bassila and Djougou for a girls’ camp this summer. It felt good to get so much accomplished, but it’s been a bit exhausting!
It’s also been an exciting few months for my friends in Penessoulou. My director and his wife had their third daughter, Joyce Nina, in January, and my closest neighbors were married and baptized their baby, Maldiath, in February. The Congres de Penessoulou begins next week when all of the sons and daughters of Penessoulou will return to visit and feter.
I, on the other hand, have had several near disasters this month, most of which were my fault: I nearly burned down my house a few weeks ago (the wind blew the curtain in my kitchen window into my stove…I’m really lucky that my house is made of cement!); my dog chewed through some supplies in my medical kit (he hasn’t eaten anything else, just dangerous poisons!); I found mice entering my house through my shower drain (I have since closed it and caught two of them in traps, but I’m sure there are more lurking somewhere); and I had my second bout of mild food poisoning (I think as a result of drinking juice au village). One thing’s for sure: life in Benin is never dull!
February vacation begins tomorrow, so I will travel to Sirarou to visit my friend Katie for a few days before we head down to Porto Novo for our TEFL In-Service Training. I’m excited to see the other TEFL volunteers and to experience the delightful conveniences and luxuries of the south (ice cream! air conditioning! pineapples!), but I’m very much not looking forward to traveling. It’s such a hassle here!

a very thankful thanksgiving

Yesterday was one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had (no disrespect to my family at home-I miss you tons!). All of the TEFL volunteers from my stage were together in Parakou for a week-long teacher training so we had a huge feast: turkey on the grill, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, corn bread, stuffing with gravy, bread, salad, and fruit...it was heavenly. Keeping with tradition, I ate far too much and as a result I don't think I'll be hungry for a week. (However, this will not stop me from celebrating Thanksgiving a second time in Natitingou on Saturday.) But though the food was delicious, the best part of our dinner was definitely the company. We spent nearly four hours sitting around the table telling stories about home, our families and friends, college, work, post, and all the things we are most grateful for. We laughed, we cried, and we appreciated the chance to be together for the holiday. It was, I think, the most thankful Thanksgiving I've ever experienced. I love my fellow volunteers, and I feel so fortunate to be serving here in Benin with them!

Happy Turkey Day to everyone at home and across the globe! I love you and miss you!