Hi Everyone!
Today I met my homologue, my work mentor for my time at post
in Benin. His name is Pali Baron. He seems kind and genial and a little
reserved. He wasn’t overflowing with questions and conversation topics, but was
willing to smile and laugh. He also speaks slowly and clearly (if a little
quietly). He seems to have a lot of patience for words I don’t understand. I
felt like I didn’t do very much bluffing while I tried to figure out what he
was trying to say. He also seems really passionate about educating people to
better the town. We got to talk a bit about educating kids about responsible
waste disposal, and we also talked briefly about the adult literacy classes
that take place in the town. Both of these were very exciting to me.
Incidentally, I did notice that my homologue reads very slowly and carefully.
This could simply indicate that he wanted to make sure that he completely
understood what he was reading, but I think it is likely that reading is not
the daily activity for him that it is for me. This theory is backed up by a
line that I read about my post saying that there are very few people who know
written Bariba (the most common local language at my post). If this is all
true, I think I will be very interested in helping increase literacy in adults
when ever possible. I’m pretty excited to see what the opportunities and
interests in Founougo are.
I also got to talk briefly with Josh’s homologue, Daniel
Odja. Apparently Monsieur Odja is currently the homologue Summer, the volunteer
I will be replacing in Founougo (Josh is posted in a neighboring town 60 km
south of Founougo). I have gotten the impression that Monsieur Odja works in
the Mayor’s office in Banikoara (the larger town in the area). He is very
knowledgeable, but also a little difficult to access. I am glad to have met
him, and excited to work with him, but I am also excited to work with my
Fouougo-based Homologue!
Tomorrow we will have class in Porto Novo with our
homologues like we did today. It was a little bit of a marathon, listening to a
lot of lectures in French. However, it was very reassuring to sit next to our
homologues and listen together as Peace Corps officials talked about the
mission and approach of the peace corps, as well as safety and security, and
specific environmental interests. The homologues certainly proved themselves to
be attentive and passionate about the good work they want to accomplish with
us. I have to say I was inspired by them. My own homologue told me he arrived
in Porto Novo at 2 am last night, and I didn’t see him yawn once.
Sunday we will embark on our journey to post. I believe that
all the volunteers that are going up to Alibori (the arondissment, or state
that Founougo is in) will drive to Parakou and spend the night at the Peace
Corps base there, and then continue to our destinations on Monday.
I don’t expect to be able to update my blog until I return
to Porto Novo on August 18th. I have decided to keep my laptop
locked securely in Porto Novo. I will miss posting to you guys, and I certainly
will be eager to tell you everything then. However, I think it will good for me
to just focus on the people in village, in sort of a ‘be here now’ mindset,
with one eye on the communications for later; instead of spending time and
energy in the two week visit trying to make lots of communication happen. My
hope is that when I return to Porto Novo I will know what provisions to make
before I move to post, in order to be able to communicate consistently. In the
mean time, I will be taking a two-week blogging vacation!
Thank you so much for reading the blog throughout these
three weeks. Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm (even if this is the
first post you are reading!). I really appreciate it. I will talk to you on the
other side of this mini-adventure!
With love,
Lauren
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Benin? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Benin in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hi Emilio,
ReplyDeleteI think that is a really admirable goal, and I will write to you. It is taking me a while to get set up at my post and figure out the mailing situation, but I have written down your address and will be working on sending something to you.
Talk to you soon, I hope!
Lauren