June 2nd

** I wrote this post on Monday, June 2nd**

Hi everyone,

I am starting my first full week with the host family! I do hope that internet capacity will improve in the near future, but I wonder if my need to blog is going to stay as strong now that I am starting to settle into a pattern of life. If you email me your questions, when I get them I will try to answer them in the blog if possible.

Today I had French class all day with Heidi, my fellow Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) and Aurliene (Oh–RELL-ee-ehn), our Beninese facilitator.  Today we actually had class at my host families house. I haven’t gotten a full tour of the house exactly, but I think the structure has two or three houses joined together and in the center is a garage area with chalkboards, a desk and good lighting. I guess there are kids that have classes there, but I didn’t really get to ask. Before lunch, we took a break from work in the classroom and walked around the neighborhood a little. It’s mostly residential, with dirt roads and walls encasing the houses (lots of plants on the sides of the road though!). We got to talk pretty extensively with one student in the area who was grabbing some late breakfast at a roadside restaurant. It turned out that she is the host sister of another PCT Sarah! We talked for a while about Beninese and American culture. She was very kind to be so interested. I felt rude interrupting her meal, but she didn’t seem to mind. It was really nice to get out and walk around the neighborhood a little, especially with the insight of Aurelian. That was another example of the Peace Corps gradually introducing us to our work environment. (I know not all volunteers have had such a nice gradual introduction. Some had to find a motorcycle taxi and bargain a price after the first day of French class. All I can say is, for me it’s been smooth so far, and I ain’t complaining!)

We had an hour lunch break and I got to help my host mama prepare lunch by cutting tomatoes. It was really nice to be helpful and get to do a tiny bit of cooking. Lunch was sort of a potato salad, with boiled potatoes, hard boiled egg, raw onion and tomato all chopped and stirred in with a mixture of hard boiled egg yolk and water. I really enjoyed it.

Afternoon class was good but afterwards I was sure I wanted to rest for a while. Normally I really try to be out in the living room with the kids. I was told that in Beninese culture privacy can come off as rude. However, I knew that the family had been trained that Americans like privacy, and they have been really respectful of my space. I put on some American music (the Weepies, given to me by a fellow PCT) and rested and journaled for a while.

After that I tried to do a little exercise. All this sitting in class and eating white grains is not conducive to an atheletic farmer physique. When that got too hot, I hung out for the kids for while. Dinner was pate rouge, a dish composed of cornflower, tomatoes, and spicy piments. After dinner I sat in the living room with everyone watching TV and doing some knitting. It was fun to talk with my host parents about knitting and sewing a little bit. It turns out that my host mama actually has a sewing machine, but it has fallen into disuse. I think there is some potential for fun there, but everything doesn’t have to happen in one day.

I think that’s all for right now. I’m pretty tired, so I’m going to call it a night.

Sweet Dreams America!

With love,

Lauren