Internet Sunday

** I wrote this post on Sunday, July 8th**

Hey Everyone!

Look who is on the internet! Basically (and I know I say this often, but I am often thankful) my host family is so great. My host papa basically loaned me the internet key he has, and helped me get credit on it! Yay! I am so glad to share my posts with you, I hope they are at least a little edifying and entertaining.

Today was an eventful day! I didn’t have class at all, so in the morning I took the time to make some American coffee for myself and my host parents. Tragically I must inform you that they don’t care for it. We had a good laugh about that though. I think they are kind of afraid of coffee, thinking it’s this substance-heavy American addiction (are they wrong?) My papa said that coffee is toxic like alcohol! Well, I enjoyed my coffee anyway… we certainly had fun with the whole thing.

After that my mama and I decided to go to church. The service was a little hard to follow, even though it was a catholic mass, because the language kept switching between French and the local language Gune. It was an interesting experience since on one hand the service was long and hard to follow; on the other hand I was loving it. It made me really happy that the mass was happening in people’s local language, right on the personal application level. Plus it made me really happy to think that even though a lot of this was new and foreign for me, that God was just loving it. I tried to picture all the different worship services I am familiar with, and how each one is perfectly fitted for God. It’s the kind of thing that can see you through a whole homily in Gune.

After church and lunch I finally got the clothes waching lesson I have been hoping for. Washing clothes is pretty work intensive here. On the other hand, it’s very thorough and specific. My host mama was great at showing and explaining what to do, and also at letting me try it. I hope all of my clothes dry out ok!

When laundry was done I ventured forth for the local cyber café. Naturally, it was closed on Sundays. I did at least get a little phone credit while I was out. It was when I returned from that failied venture that my host papa and I started with the idea of the intenet key.

However, before I got to try to use the internet, I was invited out for a ‘promenade’ or walk, to the host family’s uncle’s house with the kids. The walked turned out to be much longer than I thought, and I got nervous about how we would get home, but tried to trust that someone else must have thought of a plan. Sure enough, the uncle drove us home after a visit. On the walk there a bunch of people called out ‘Yovo!’ or ‘Bonsoir Yovo’ meaning good evening white person. Generally that doesn’t bother me too much because I understand that there isn’t a negative cultural history with the phrase, and people are just calling out to someone new. I’ve heard that in Benin people are often addressed by their titles, like Mama for one, but also carpenter or hair stylist. So being called out to didn’t bother me too much, but it did surprise my host siblings that I was walking with. It was nice to share that awkward experience with someone else.  I joked with Cella, the 9 year ols, that so many people were starng at her, and I couldn’t think of why.

After that is was a delicious dinner of couscous with meat and mixed vegetables.

There is always more to say, but I am falling asleep on my keyboard.

Thanks for reading,

Lauren